Boba wakes up in the citadel of Wat Tambor, about to be thrown into the incinerator. For some reason, even though Tambor is escaping, he has spent time instructing his droids to dispose of Boba, so the Republic troops don't find him. Why? It makes absolutely no sense. Regardless, Boba manages to escape and get back to Slave I, so he can follow Tambor's ship into space.

One of the things I like about Boba Fett in this book and the last is how he shoots clone troopers and droids indiscriminately. He hates the Republic because the Jedi killed his father. But he has no love for the Separatists, either, especially since his job is to kill one of its leaders.

He can't be a great bounty hunter if he doesn't think Tambor's ship will have countermeasures, which, of course, it does. Boba has a very thick head. He just doesn't learn anything in these books. He made the same overconfident mistake in the citadel in A New Threat.

Grievous doesn't appear in this novel, but there is a small cameo by Asajj Ventress, about whom I had completely forgotten, as she knocks out power to Slave I, and distracts Boba enough to let Wat Tambor get away. Anakin chases after Ventress, but she gets away again. At least he saved Boba.

Anakin actually takes time out from the chase and the battle to fix Boba's ship, complementing him on his lousy battle strategy. All Boba does is shine his armor. There was a moment when I thought Anakin and Boba would come to a hand-to-hand fight, but fortunately it didn't happen, as that would have required incompetence from Anakin to make it even worthwhile. Boba gets out of being a prisoner by saying he has important information that has to be relayed to the Supreme Chancellor himself.

So he abandons the chase for Wat Tambor, effectively ruining his carefully built reputation (because in the last book, every bounty hunter wanted that assignment, but Jabba saved it for Boba).

The story takes an abrupt turn here, as Boba is housed at the Jedi Temple itself! Of course, he plan is to kill Mace Windu. He takes off to find weapons before his meeting with Palpatine, bullying his way into obtaining them and even not paying for them. I suppose he left his honor behind, even though he claims to always have honor. And once he returns to Jabba's palace without his bounty, Jabba will not likely look favorably onto Boba using his name like that on Coruscant.

Boba smashes into Mace's room, weapons ready, but Mace had already left for the Senate building for an urgent meeting. Apparently Mace doesn't use a password to access his email, because Boba learns the location of the meeting easily. Boba smashes Windu's window and jets to the Senate building. He easily defeats the Supreme Chancellor's alarm system and enters the antechamber when the Chancellor will be meeting with Windu.

The battle between Mace Windu and Boba Fett went a little better than I had expected. Windu was caught off guard, but managed to move out of the way of the flechette pistol discharges, until one finally caught him. At least with the saber dart, he stopped the thing dead with the Force. About to kill Boba, Mace is stopped by Palpatine, who enters at that time. So much for the "urgent meeting", as Palpatine dismisses the Jedi and Mace doesn't even protest.

When Fett tells the Chancellor his information, that Tyrannus and Count Dooku are the same person, Palpatine effectively tells him that it was his plan all along, and that the Jedi were about to get a big pounding. Boba takes this information with a smile, taking the warning that he had better not tell anybody... or else! This entire section was unrealistic. Of course, Boba couldn't defeat Windu, but there had to be a better way to give us closure. It's as if the author was suddenly told this would be the last book, and had to rush into finishing the storyline about Boba's "information" and avenging his father.

In the end, Boba has failed once again. I think this is a unique set of books. In Crossfire, he underestimates Dooku and everybody else, even getting his ship stolen. He lost his fortune in Maze of Deception, again underestimating everybody. In Hunted, luck gets him out of his incompetent assessment of the Nemoidian. Finally, he fails to get either of his targets in A New Threat and Pursuit.

To give us some closure, I expected at least one job that wasn't botched, and that we could see in full, from assignment to payment. That is not the case. These books were reasonably well written, but the stories could have used more preparation. I don't know what the author was planning, but we didn't see the development of Boba Fett from a scared and lonely young boy to the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. In fact, we missed that part altogether, in the years between books 4 and 5. I would like to know what the intended audience, actual young readers, felt about these stories.