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Hero of Cartao Episode II: Hero's Rise

Author: Timothy Zahn
Artist: Douglas Chaffee
Publisher: Star Wars Insider (#69)
Publication Date: June 2003

Reviewed by Andrew Liptak

Summary: The second installment of the Hero of Cartao trilogy, taking place shortly after the first installment, "Hero's Call." The Republic forces have been driven out of the Spaari Plant, and have resorted to guerilla warfare for the time being, until reinforcements arrive. Binalie and Jedi Master Torles talk about their courses of action and Doriana is up to his usual double crossing.

The Niemodians break into Binalie's home and order him to tell them how to re-tool the plants, something that he can't do. They then take Binalie's son Corf hostage to convince the lord and Torles tags along, taking the role of a teacher. He later springs the child free and gets away. The Niemodians get away, but not after the clones take out a large part of their honor guard. Reinforcements soon arrive for both sides and Torles and Roshton mount an assault on the plant. The Republic reinforcements take out the droid control ship and deactivate the droids. Roshton and his soldiers make it inside, but are trapped after the Trade Federation reactivates their droids from a secondary control matrix and kill nearly half of the Republic forces outside.

What Worked: This second installment rocked. There was plenty of action to go around here, from Jafer Torles slicing up droids, clones taking out STAPs and droids and the mention of some space battles. If you're looking for action, this is a good story to read.

The action is not mindless however. There's a good portion of tactics and strategy used by the Republic forces, and there's the ever-present political side of things, although it is not really prevalent in the story.

We get to see Jafer Torles in action several times, and each time, I was impressed. He jumps around, runs pretty fast and takes out a good share of droids before he's done. I was also pretty impressed with Doriana, who's still holding up his double role as Republic advisor and Sith information relayer. He's devious, but interesting nonetheless.

What Didn't Work: Nothing much for this issue, although it does end on a sour note. A large portion of the Republic reinforcements are killed in the assault and more are trapped in the plant. They are hopelessly overwhelmed, but are still fighting on. The cover, while improved, was still a little lacking, although it shows Jafer Torles for the first time. Other than that, nothing much was wrong with this issue.

Overall: A great read, for everyone. Just make sure that you read the first installment. If you haven't gotten this issue of Star Wars Insider, it's well worth getting, not only for the story, but just the fact that the issue's theme is the Clone Wars and has a pretty cool cover.

Rating: 9/10

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