Fortunately for Fett's fans, the bounty hunter extraordinaire is the focus of Slave Ship, a new novel by acclaimed science fiction author K.W. Jeter. In this second volume of the engrossing Bounty Hunter Wars series, Boba Fett fights to stay one step ahead of a vast conspiracy of enemies in a treacherous war for control of the galaxy's underworld.
A Ready for Action Kind of Guy
The dangerous and determined Boba Fett has become one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars trilogy. Recently Star Wars Insider readers voted him their 2nd favorite Star Wars character of all time. Boba Fett action figures and a replica of Fett's helmet are among the preferred Star Wars collectibles. Slave Ship weighed in at the number eight spot on the New York Times best-seller list, and climbed to number six in its second week of publication. Other books about Boba Fett, including Kevin Anderson's Tales of the Bounty Hunters, have had similar runaway success.
What is it about the silent and enigmatic Fett that sparks such a loyal and curious following? Is it because he's a bounty hunter with a near-perfect history of acquiring his quarry? That he eludes capture with such ease? That he flies one of the most intriguing-looking ships in the galaxy, and wears a suit of armor that is as functional as it is funky?
Perhaps Fett's is such a striking character because we get so few glimpses of him in the movies. When we do see him he has the remote appeal of Clint Eastwood's character in the famed Man with No Name spaghetti western films. Coincidentally, Eastwood plays a bounty hunter in the 2nd film of the trilogy, For a Few Dollars More. Jeter believes that Boba Fett has become such an iconic figure because he's a "negative version of some of the great silent, restrained and violent actors - like Eastwood." Even when Boba Fett is not doing anything active, when he is "just waiting - silent and watchful," Jeter maintains that there is a tremendous impression of capability and ruthlessness in him.
Another part of Fett's allure is that he walks around with one of the great hardware collections in film history. "A lot of the fun of Star Wars is the toys," says Jeter, "all the hardware and all the neat weapons. And this is a guy who walks around with a whole bunch of them. Fett is armored from his head to his toes, and all the way out to his fingertips. He's a ready-for-action kind of guy."
Jeter's Take on Boba Fett
In writing the Bounty Hunter trilogy Jeter needed to make sure that he had an intricate, interlinked plot that wouldn't have all of its mystery cleared up until the last page of the very last book. To pull that off, Jeter needed to create some new characters. Readers new to the expanded Star Wars universe will meet sensual and treacherous Falleen Prince Xizor, publicly the Emperor's pawn and secretly head of the Black Sun crime syndicate, and Kud'ar Mub'at, a scheming arachnid whose web is at the center of the Bounty Hunter Guild's problems. Jeter also needed to tweak some of the existing characters and relationships. Readers will notice that his Boba Fett is a bit more communicative than the Boba Fett you see in the trilogy.
"I felt that it was consistent to make him talk a little bit more," explains Jeter. "It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to make the plot line work out unless he had an ability to convince people as well as kill them."
He'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse
While the overriding influence on any book written about the Star Wars universe is naturally the Star Wars movies, Jeter admits that another movie trilogy influenced the tone of his Bounty Hunter novels: Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather saga.
The main historical influence on the Bounty Hunter series is that of 20th Century criminal element conspiring against each other. Before Jeter began to write the book his initial direction from Lucasfilm's publishing department was to "think Godfather." This made perfect sense to Jeter. "The Godfather films," he remarks, "are a trilogy about people who are either criminals or semi-criminals -- like bounty hunters." Following the model presented by Coppola's movie forced Jeter to create a novel that followed the lines of an epic struggle between individuals and forces in a criminal environment.
What interests Jeter about the Bounty Hunters is that when they get themselves into tense and dangerous situations, they're totally dependent upon themselves to work things out. "The characters in The Godfather can't just dial 911 to solve their problems," says Jeter. "And neither can Boba Fett."
Victory or Redemption for Boba Fett?
Jeter is in the process of wrapping up the trilogy with the novel, Hard Merchandise, due out in July of 1999. For a moment as enigmatic as Boba Fett, K.W. Jeter muses on the fate of his protagonist. "Boba Fett wins and he doesn't win," says Jeter. "He's such a dark character that you can't actually say that there'll be a happy ending for him. But you can say he will have a very consistent wrap-up in the last book of the trilogy."
