Time and time again, non-canon figures and attitudes came blasting their way out of the page, so I could only read a chapter or so at a time before throwing the book down and walking away for a while. Some examples? Sure, how about a LAAT/i with a rear ramp! Clone troopers suffering injuries that could only have been inflicted if they were wearing ST pyjamas! Oh, and a single proton torpedo destoying the Separatist flagship! In a Delta-7 Aethersprite armed with 'blasters', no less?
Oh, yeah, that was a common fuckup all through the book. Confusing blasters, laser cannon, turbolasers and freaking ion cannon! Capships arming their 'blaster cannon' to attack other Capships. Saying that Anakin's Delta-7 had 'aerofoils', which it apparently needed when flying below 20,000m. Days spent in hyperspace travelling between Coruscent and Praesitlyn (the latter a 'vital' Republic comms centre that, apparently, was in a galaxy next door).
Sherman and Cragg are supposedly US military vets, according to the only other post I've seen here discussing their work. Well, from what I read, one or the other of them could be a Gunner, given the details expounded on concerning the extraordinarily complex fires an artillery unit could be asked to set up. Unfortunately, I suspect that a lot of that could as easily been cribbed straight out of the relevant manuals, since an actual understanding of even so basic a fire mission as a 'Time on Target' stomp was never shown. Their use of AFVs was ludicrous, being blatantly wasted and regularly confusing who was actually using what vehicles, and they clearly have no fucking idea how to employ infantry. I'm a freaking Sailor, yet was wincing several times in this book before attacks had even begun because even I could see how badly they were fucking up. If Sherman and Cragg were once US soldiers, and had any kind of responsibility for men under their command, why, oh, why were they never fragged by their own people?
When I started reading this wankfest, I figured the authors were rabid trekkies either out to make a point, or not really aware of the differences between the universes. But over time, I came to realise that it was more than simple incompetence as authors. The only way I can explain how 'Starfist: Jedi Trial' was written, is if you posulate the existence of a committee. A committee of thoroughly bitter US Vietnam Vets, who blamed all of their experiences on the invisible higher-ups, and now wanted to get some of their own back by making them look like idiotic Col Blimps. Hell, their writing style works fine when its limited to a handfull of men, preferrably betrayed, cut off from support and already declared expendable (see where I'm going with this>), but NOT in a galaxy-wide conflict of such enormous proportions. Not quite as bad as the Travissty's, perhaps, but you could really tell that these guys were out of their depth when dealing with any unit larger than a squad. Oh, and you can tell when the manuals they've been copying out of weren't immediately available.
Fuck it. That book is going in the bin.
Fuck you Sherman and Cragg, and fuck off back to your own lame, under-developed, weak-arsed, Vietnam-reanactment universe until you can actually follow the canon-rules for someone elses.
Remove the speeders and there is clearly more than enough room for the troops to rush out in a body. More, in fact, than many AIFVs in common service today. Ah, well, one less bitch about this bloody book, then.
