Just started reading I, Jedi and was shocked to see that it's in first person. Have read all SW novels leading up to this one and have yet to find one written in first person. Why the anomaly? Are there any others? Any particular reason? Obviously going to continue reading but not too sure I like the style. I understand it focuses on Corran Horn so fairly easy to tell the story from his point of view, however many other books have followed one person's journey and made it work in third person. Just wondering if anyone else noticed and liked/disliked it, or had an explanation.
I always felt it was a bit awkward considering virtually every novel I've ever read has been in 3rd person omniscient. The story itself isn't bad, but the book does have a bit of a comfort-curve with the way it's written.
Seems like there was a group that did a re-read on this fairly recently in this forum. I haven't read it and I don't know of any other novels written in first person but I recently came back to the EU after a long hiatus and am not nearly as well-read as other people here.
Believe it or not, at least one (and I want to say two but I'm drawing a blank at the moment) of the "Tales of..." anthology stories were written in FP. One was Ephant Mon's Tale, who was doing some sort of film-noir-esque dub of his adventures IIRC. I'm almost positive there was at least one more (Dannik Jerriko's 2 stories maybe?). Also, a fair amount of Shatterpoint was Mace's FP perspective. EDIT: I don't have an explanation as to why it hasn't been continued, other than the authors often try to mimic the movies with lots of parallel adventures in one larger story, and that's hard to do with FP.
It's the only full-length novel written entirely in first person, although there are several sections of Shatterpoint that are narrated in first person by Mace Windu. I think most if not all of Karen Traviss's novels begin with a short first-person prologue, and a number of passages in the ROTS novelization are written in second person. The six young adult books in the Star Wars Journal and Episode I Journal series--The Fight for Justice, Captive to Evil, Hero for Hire, Anakin Skywalker, Queen Amidala, and Darth Maul--are also entirely first person but they just retell events from the movies. There are also a few short stories written entirely in first person, including "Empire Blues: The Devaronian's Tale," "Shaara and the Sarlacc: The Skiff Guard's Tale," "Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale," "The Clone Wars: Out Foxed," and "Equipment."
Being written in first person is one of the reasons it's as good as it is, and it's one of the best Star Wars novels out there. I don't think it's ever actually been explained why this one was written in first person. It's an interesting question to consider, the though processes behind that decision.
the pov in I, Jedi is actually pretty cool since it makes it one of the few novels we have for which we can guess at both the original source and its author, and also to some extent when it was written. which has a bunch of interesting implications if you're inclined toward using source criticism on star wars which i mean, why wouldn't you be
Not my fav, to put is mildly. But yeah, as anakinfansince1983 said, it's been discussed recently in 181'st: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...-jedi-again-5th-anniversary-special.50011207/ I'd check that out if I were you.
I always thought the reason it was in FP was because it was shoe-horned into an existing trilogy. Being that we already got most of the story(Jedi Acadamy Trilogy), it was really just telling Corran's story during that time.
Yeah, it is telling Corran's point of view of many of the events of the Jedi Academy stories. But I really like it, because first person is not an often-used POV for any novel. It's kind of refreshing once in a while to not have 3rd Person Omniscient. It's nice to hear Corran's thoughts on becoming a Jedi directly. The variations of 3rd Person storytelling are fairly standard in all genres. Second Person is rarely used, because it's kind of awkward. And First Person doesn't work with just any character or author - you really do need to get inside the character's head. This is a lot easier, say, when you are Michael Stackpole getting inside his original character's (Corran's) head, than when you are someone trying to get inside a really well-known established character like Luke's head. It's also limiting in that nothing can happen in the story unless the character knows about it (For example, the movie of The Hunger Games is in 3rd Person Limited: we see President Snow, the game makers, the revolt in District 11, etc (though we can't hear their thoughts, which would be 3rd Person Omniscient). The book however is 1st Person, inside Katniss's head and from her POV as a tribute. The District 11 revolt is not in the first book; it is outside Katniss's experience and knowledge at the time.)
yeah i enjoyed the differnt perspective and viewpoints of it for sure. loved the end when Corran relaized how great Luke was after defeating the pirates
The 1st Person does take a little getting use to. People who hate it often point to Corran beating Luke in a duel. I think Corran even remarks that Luke was distracted and stress and not at his best at that moment. To mean it shows a "what could have been" if Stackpole or some other competent author had written the Jedi Academy Trilogy. I thought it was great and slightly film noir-esque.
I never got the sense that Corran really beat Luke. He got his shots in, as his style at the time was an unorthodox lightsaber brawl rather than a lightsaber duel, but Corran knew going in that if he couldn't get Luke focused, Corran faced serious injury, and they stopped before anything resembling an official end to a duel.
I haven't read the novel in years, but i'm very sure that some mention is made of the fact Luke was distracted, and if there are any doubts its made more clear (The gap in skill between Corran and Luke) when Luke later saves Corran in the alleyway. So I never understand why people get pissed over it.
I, Jedi is interesting in the sense that as a stand alone it really doesn't work all that well because a lot of the information in the first half at Yavin IV is missed because it's in the Jedi Academy Trilogy. Likewise, there are events in the Jedi Academy Trilogy that are offscreen because they're in I,Jedi. The first half, to me, is just Corran picking on and laughing and getting mad at Luke which came off as weird because I read I, Jedi first. But after I read JAT, I realized I really couldn't blame Corran. Luke really did handle the situation poorly in JAT.
Yeah but i saw this coming once i had heard of Dark Empire. Luke was fresh from that experience and then tries to recreate the Jedi Order. He was not ready.
Because Corran Horn, like Mara Jade, represents a different part of the EU and EU fandom. He's often portrayed as a Gary Stu, even though he'll never be the Uber-Jedi of the Kyp Durron variety.
Still doesn't explain why people would get pissed over an instance of him defeating Luke where (And again I haven't read the novel in years, but this is how I remember it) it seemed clear that Luke was off his game, and it's later made clear who's superior.
Because people want to hate Corran Horn for all the times fans of the X-Wing novels say how good they are. And I, Jedi is set in the post-Dark Empire Uber-Jedi era. No one like Horn should ever be able to beat a fully fledged Uber-Jedi. Ever. They just want to hate Corran Horn. Why do Corran Horn, Mara Jade, etc get such hatred and characters like Kyp Durron get off free? I don't get it.
