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Topic:
The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Bly
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
5/1 12:26pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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SuperWatto posted:
To me, this is the definitive account of How It Is To Be A Jedi.
That's why the title of the book is very fitting.
You pretty much beat me to it, SuperWatto. I Jedi served to show me what it was like to become a Jedi far better than the JAT did. The first-person perspective no doubt helped, but Stackpole crafted an extremely good novel given that all he had to work with was KJA's work. 
However, for me, my favorite part was Corran's rise with the Invids. The pilots of Rock Squadron seemed to me to be just as sympathetic as the Rogues. Caet and Timmser, along with Jacob Nive, were the characters that I was rooting for during Corran's rampage on Corkrus.
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Honored recepient of Thrawn McEwok's Bronze Thranta™  A Liberal and proud of it "Politics is simply the continuation of war by other means." --Mandalore the Ultimate Formerly known as Commander5052
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dark_jedi666
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
5/1 12:35pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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I, Jedi is one of my 3 favorite SW novels I have read. It is the novel that made Corran into my favorite EU created character.
- The 1st person POV was interesting, a nice change from the normal Star Wars novel. Being inside Corran's head, getting his reaction to the situation was refreshing.
- I, Jedi fleshing out the JAT is also a good area of the book. I now dont even re-read the JAT as I know I can get the gist of it from I, Jedi, and enjoy it more.
- Elegos, Kam, Tionne, and Streen all get more page time, and are fleshed out more in this novel than in the rest of the EU. Learning more about these background characters is one of the things I love most about the EU. I, Jedi really does well in this, as it fleshes out characters that you just get mentioned in other books.
-----signature-----
Favorite Book: I, Jedi (Stackpole)
Currently Reading: X-Wing: Isard's Revenge
Up Next: I, Jedi
Favorite Movie : Empire Strikes Back
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Jedi Vince
Registered:
Aug '99
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Date Posted:
5/1 12:55pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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I posted the following in the original thread:
Having first read the book back in '99, I was pleased at how much I enjoyed my second run through it.
This time, however, I found the Jedi Academy Trilogy stuff to be a bit of a drag. Although I loved the parts with Corran and Exar, I found it a bit tiresome to see Corran come in just as some galaxy-shaking event from Kevin J. Anderson's trilogy came to an end. To me this damages the book's ability to be a true standalone story, even if that was never the goal.
That's not to say Michael Stackpole didn't do a good job with this assignment -- he did. I just think the book forged its own identity in the second half, where Stackpole's ability to weave adventure and intrigue were really on display.
If I may add: One thing I love about the book is that it shows just how hard it is for Luke to reestablish the Jedi Order. To start an enterprise that lasted thousands of generations would be ardous to say the least. Know-it-alls like Corran are inevitable, but his points presented to Luke were valid.
Great book. I'd love to see a sequel: I, Jedi Master would be great.
-----signature-----
John McCain in '08 Before voting in November, read the series "The Audacity of Socialism" written by Investor's Business Daily. If you still want to vote for the Obamassiah, you have problems.
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Reemsworld
Registered:
Mar '06
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Date Posted:
5/1 1:28pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Jedi Vince posted:
Great book. I'd love to see a sequel: I, Jedi Master would be great.
Great Idea!!!! They could make it a series feature a different Master every book.
I, Jedi great book, getting to read a characters' personal journey where they discover the intricacy of their past while setting themselves up for how they will be defined in the future, was awesome especially from the 1st person perspective.
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Monosyllabic
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
5/1 3:03pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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I read the book for the first time just a few weeks ago. Having previously read the Jedi Academy trilogy which I loved, I found the middle section to be particularly satisfying. I loved everything about the academy portion how it fleshed out some characters personalities, which ones didn't like Corran, his arguments with Luke, all of it. Overall I liked the first person perspective it kept the perspective nice and consistent making the book flow more smoothly in my opinion. Instead of having the perspective shift around all the time you just got to see from a fixed perspective the entire time.
I felt like the last scene could have been longer personally. Even though the book was already nearly 600 pages I felt like it could have used more near the end. But regardless this is one of my favorite books so far. I think it's a shame that the LotF books don't use these characters more.
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Jedi Ben
Registered:
Jul '99
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Date Posted:
5/1 3:06pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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There were many syllables in that post Monosyllabic, are you not betraying your name?
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Howe: Why?
Castle: So they can't walk away. So they can't
profit from the pain they've caused.....
Howe: And no second chances...
Castle: I don't do redemption.
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SuperWatto
Registered:
Sep '00
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Date Posted:
5/1 3:16pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Couldn't read it this time around.
Going through the basement, I suddenly remembered I lent the book to someone who's a tai-chi teacher... Because the tai-chi stuff I'd read and I, Jedi seemed very similar.
So that's eight years ago. 'Bout time I asked him to give it back, huh.
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Trandoshan flatcakes!
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beccatoria
Title: 181st Imperial Discussion Group host
Registered:
Dec '06
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Date Posted:
5/1 3:40pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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It's great to see such positive nostalgia for this book. As I mentioned, it captured my attention far more fully than I was expecting. I think one of the most interesting parts of this project will be seeing how much of that carries over to other novels - BFC for instance. Bantam takes a lot of flack, but it's easy to forget that it was what got a lot of us into the EU and still has a load of fan-favourites like this one.
Patch - re: canon, truthfully it's not a make-or-break issue for me. As you say, we can hardly blame Stackpole for not being prescient! But I do love me a good retcon. Like keeping my favourite ever Boba Fett story in canon despite being written about a man named Jaster Mereel! Man that retcon was a thing of beauty. So I figured I'd open up the floor to any brave young soul who wanted to tackle this and come up with a (preferably flow-walking free!) mind-twisting crazy conspiracy theory oriented explaination.
But I definitely agree it's not worth sweating over. It's an opportunity for fun fan-theories but I think that "bad data and bad memories" is the best we'll come up with at the moment.
And thank you for showing up! Hosting this is absolutely my pleasure. 
Hav - I'm totally with you on the teaching sections. I remember even at the time reading JAT for the first time when I was about 13, being disappointed that it didn't tell me how they were becoming Jedi. Simultaneously validating that feeling by having Corran feeling similarly frustrating while also giving us a certain amount of information about the way they taught sword-fighting and various Force powers was just awesome. The Tionne-arm-stone sequence was especially good, but to be honest, I think I mostly enjoyed the information on the various guards when they were sparring. It was something that I hadn't seen, well, anywhere else in the post-ROTJ EU and it was great to see it introduced.
Vince - it's really interesting that you feel the JAT sequence was less satisfying because it was secondary to the more epic events of KJA's trilogy. That doesn't seem to be the general feeling here, but you do make me wonder if perhaps I'd feel differently had I read the book immediately after the JAT? Even the first time through, I read I, Jedi a long time after I read JAT so my experience of it was as a fun re-visit, not an anticlimactic mid-way "boss fight"? 
Still, in general I was surprised by how tense the fight with Kun was despite my knowing how it would end. I think perhaps because even though we knew Kun would be physically beaten and Corran would physically survive (with it only being the middle of the book) it was the psychological fight that was truly crippling?
Watto - Eight years?! Good luck getting that book back! 
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REMEMBER: YOUNG JEDI KNIGHTS 1 - 3 DISCUSSION STARTS IN OCTOBER!
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SuperWatto
Registered:
Sep '00
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Date Posted:
5/1 3:46pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Ah but I remember it vividly.
This look into the mind of a Jedi.
When this came out, I'd read everything that had gone before, and finally we got the real deal. I'd read X-Wing novels but was bored. I'd read the Luke novels and saw him doing the same thing over and over again. But this was Becoming A Jedi, instead of Being Luke Skywalker.
Now, as it came out just before the prequels, I thought it was fitting: the low-down on the Jedi, before you're introduced to the machinations of... the Sith. It was the last clean Jedi book. The shroud of the Dark Side fell, and as such, I see an arc that started after I, Jedi to ROTS and SWDBPODANOTORSOMETHING - when we finally got into the head of a Sith.
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JediAlly
Registered:
Oct '00
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Date Posted:
5/1 4:53pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
- Date Edited:
5/1 4:54pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
JediAlly
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I also liked the book. It fleshes out the events of the JAT that happened on Yavin IV and provides a view of the events of JAT from a different perspective. I also liked Corran's portrayal of being a Jedi. His portrayal is that of a Jedi with a more realistic view of the galaxy and who knows that the fight against the dark side occurs on a personal/day-to-day level as much as it does on a galactic scale.
His portrayal was also one of a Jedi who remembered he was still human, but unlike Anakin, Corran was able to find the balance between being a Jedi and being a sentient individual with feelings. That was something the post-Ruusan Jedi forgot, and they were therefore unable to give Anakin the guidance he deserved, rather than the guidance they thought he needed.
Corran's discussion with Luke before leaving and his remarks about Luke's teaching methods expanded upon what Mara said to Luke in Vision of the Future about what he had done since The Last Command. Both Mara and Corran had a structured education, and contained within their education was a solid foundation of responsibility, right and wrong, and the fact that there would be consequences for doing wrong. Luke never had any of that from Yoda and Obi-Wan, though he did learn about responsibility and consequences from Owen and Beru. However, Luke didn't provide any of that when he first began because he had no knowledge of the specifics of being a Jedi Master, and he was still dealing with his time under the Emperor. I think by the time Young Jedi Knights came around, he managed to provide some structured education, but in light of what had transpired in the Legacy of the Force so far, I'm left wondering about the responsibility and consequences angle. Just how much of it did Luke implement? However much he did implement, it might not have been enough.
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Master_Keralys
Title: Manager:
-Lit
-EUC
Registered:
Oct '03
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Date Posted:
5/1 5:02pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Becca - yes, I do intend to make a few more comparisons to Shatterpoint. First, however, I need to get a copy of the book, and I have no idea when that's going to happen.
- Keralys
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God made man. Man rejected God. God became the man Jesus Christ, died and rose again to life, saving man from himself.
The craziest story ever told.
The truest.
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Flowerlady
Registered:
Dec '05
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Date Posted:
5/1 6:47pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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I, Jedi is probably my favorite SW books and the only one I've read twice. Funny, considering when I started reading the books back in May 2005 after RotS was out, I almost didn't read it. I started out reading the books in order according to their place on the timeline--starting with the pre-Clone Wars, but by the time I got to the last of the books before NJO, I was anxious to start the NJO and almost didn't read it.
I'm so glad that I did.
One of the things that I loved most about this book was how it showed us what it was like to learn to use the Force, something no other book has. And oddly, since I'm a Kyp Durron fan, I never read the JAT... I've started book one, but after reading I, Jedi, I found it lacking.
And as others have said, seeing Corran take what he learned and use it while he was with the pirates was fun to read and was interesting to see how Corran balanced what he did as a cop with being a Jedi--and how they sometimes don't go hand-in-hand.
As for the 1st POV, I think that was what made the book so darn facinating. Corran has become one of my favorite characters because of this book, just as the book has become one of my favorites.
FL 
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I used to dream of Kyp or Jag, now it's Edward Cullen...I blame Cyn and Saber.. Master to DanaeMariSkywalker, JediMasterArmada and PHGS_Weyr
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Reemsworld
Registered:
Mar '06
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Date Posted:
5/1 7:08pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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Another testament to the greatness of the book is that it does for Horn what the OT movies do for the Big 3 & other on-screen characters. I can't help when reading about the Big 3 thinking about certain scenes, I get the same way about Corran and this book especially when I read the Dark Tide Duology.
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AdmiralNick22
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
5/1 7:09pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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The little details in the book are what make it so awesome. From seeing General Wedge Antilles as leading the reconstruction of Coruscant (nicely tying in with what he was doing in JAT) to the inclusion of Home One, Stackpole did one hell of a job. That opening battle with pirates is fun because it shows just how damned good the Rogues were.
--Adm. Nick
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"A peaceful Galactic Alliance is the strongest pillar of a peaceful galaxy." - Luke Skywalker
"I will surrender, Admiral, when I can no longer fight!" - Admiral Gar Stazi
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Charlemagne19
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
5/1 7:13pm
Subject:
RE: The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi!
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I, Jedi for me is Michael Stackpole's definitive work and frankly something that I wish we could have more of for Luke Skywalker. I initially thought the book was going to star Luke Skywalker because well, who ELSE is the "I, Jedi."? I imagine that was probably the original selling point behind the title anyway even if it was always going to be about Corran Horn.
Overall, I think what works so well for Corran Horn is the fact that he does take time to comment on the absurdities of "Jedi Academy" but also to take a step back and realize that Luke Skywalker is probably making the most of the situation as is. Also, it's nice to have someone comment about the obvious question 'Just having bad thoughts is not going to corrupt you.'
I did like that Michael Stackpole seemed to have Corran fail to realize a fundamental truth.
Jedi are not soldiers
He seemed to be assuming they were and utterly lacked the realization that Jedi scholars and healers would also be produced here. But yes, Booster Terrick's words took on a fun new meaning post AOTC.
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