JA #14 (Spoilers!!!)

I'm sure I'll love it, Darth Pipes. I'm trying to finish Cloak of Deception first though... I haven't started it, but perhaps if I just quickly read The Ties That Bind, I could finish CoD this weekend, so I'll be ready for Rebirth on Tuesday....

~*~Bria

 

Top!

 

(Boy, did I fall behind!)

I thought the planet was very much like Iron Curtain countries after WWII, or maybe East Germany just before the wall came down. The Absolutes I thought of as the Stasi, who should all be in hiding. So how the HECK could Tahl not only infiltrate a group that is trying to avoid being captured & tried for crimes against, uh, humanity, BUT ALSO pass herself off as a high-ranking leader IN JUST THREE WEEKS? I think Jude wrote a huge plot hole there...

Oh, yeah... and the Absolutes, these top secret professional police, bind Obi-Wan's & Qui-Gon's hands... but leave their lightsabers on their belts? Even though they KNOW they're JEDI???!! I definitely had a problem with that.

From a reading of some of these things, they do seem to "interfere" in politics. Sometimes it is by request, but sometimes it isn't... Phindar, Telos, and let's not even get into Melida/Daan. I am surprised the Council hasn't cracked down on them a bit more; I can't imagine they could interfere so blithely without some sort of official reprimand.

Bria, have you come up for air yet?

 

Did you like it, M_R?

Tahl's good and she is a Jedi. She knows how to do things such as that. Don't forget, the Absolutes were gaining power and conducting raids. Perhaps Tahl waited for one of these and used it to her advantage to infiltrate them.

I do have to agree with you on the lightsaber bit. Why the hell did they allow Qui/Obi to keep their lightsabers? They were just looking to be killed.

 

No time to breathe!!!! So much to read and not enough time to do so!!!

I haven't finished CoD yet, but I did start TTTB tonight.

~*~Bria

 

Cool!

 

I've read through Ch.11

Wow... wouldn't want to meet those malia in a dark alley!

I missed at the end of Ch.9 that Qui-Gong recognized the first voice that spoke when they were taken into custody. I don't know how I did, but I didn't realize Tahl was there until two pages later.

~*~Bria

 

I did like it, by and large, except that I don't like she went from Obi-Wan age 14 to Obi-Wan age 16. And the plot holes (Jude, you know better, you're supposed to be a PRO!)

Interesting premise. We'll see how this works out...

 

I didn't mind the two year thing. I'm glad it's not the way it used to be were the next book took place immediately after the last mission.

 

I have to say, this book defiantly goes in my "fantastic" Jedi Apprentice book category . Of course the only other Jedi Apprentice book category I have is "okay", but hey...

This was a great book! I think Qui-Gon's choice to go after Tahl, and his subsequent declaration of love towards her is what puts him out of favor with the Council. He was always a bit of a maverick, but I think this explains the Council's attitudes in CoD and TPM. I notice that some of you thought that Qui-Gon neglected Obi-Wan in this book, and I think we'll be seeing more of that in this story arc. It would help to explain the tension between them in TPM. Obi-Wan risks his already strained reputation with the Council to help his Master, and gets ignored by him in favor of Tahl for three books. I'm sure that Qui-Gon more then makes it up to him afterwards, but I think that, (subconscienly) Obi-Wan holds a bit of a grudge towards him, and those feelings resurface in TPM when Qui-Gon seems to ignore him in favor of Anakin. I liked Watson's decion to have Qui-Gon, not Obi-Wan, be the one with a love interest. It would be far too easy to have Obi-Wan and Siri, or Obi-Wan and Bant (eww!) fall in love. This is not your average YA series! It was also a good idea to have the love interest be someone that was introduced in the series. It heightens the tension, and it's far more believable then pulling an old flame out of a hat, or having him fall in love with some person he's only just met. The romance bit itself was well handled. It was sweet, and beautiful, and not a bit corny. The bad part is: the cliffhanger. I'm pretty sure Tahl is going to die, but what I want to know what's going to happen to Bant! Does she die too? Will she get put in the Agricultural Corps? Transferred to another master? What? And I was really looking forward to Jedi Quest, but now I'll just be wishing for JA15. Sigh. I liked the contrast between JA and EP1A in this book, though. In JA14, Obi-Wan rushes to help Qui-Gon, but in EP1A1 Qui-Gon has to trick Obi-Wan into coming with him.

Regarding release dates, so far most of the JA series have appeared in stores a month earlier then their official release dates. The one exception was JA:SE. It was scheduled for release in June, (thus it should have appeared in May) but it was held back until early July. I think the reason for the hold-up was that Watson was busy with the details of Jedi Quest. It's twice the length of a normal JA book, and she would have had to coordinate it with the JQ comic team, do SW research, and possibly read the EP2 script. (And get started on the junior novelazation and the Journals?) I think that we'll see the next one in September, as usual.

And I think Tahl is near-human, you know, like Tionne.

The reason, I think, for using Dave Wolverton to write the first book was to draw SW veterans to the series. The adults will remember him for CoPL, and younger reader will recognize him from the SW Missions series. Plus, he's a respected and well known author in his own right, and that brings the non-SW in readers as well.

I'd hate to think of what JA would be like under Whitman, or the GoDV people... "Neither the passengers aboard the Drunken Miner, nor the Jedi on Coruscant had any way of knowing that, at that very moment, a large pirate spaceship was orbiting the planet Bandomeer. It was the Pirateship, the official space vehicle of the Togorain Pirates - large kitty-cats with a bad attitude. The Togorain Pirates were holding a secret conference - a Piraterence."


TC

 

What's "EP1A"?

 

Episode One Adventures.

TC

 

What is that? I've never heard of it.

 

It's a series of mail-order club kids books. Each month you get two books. One is a novelized version of a story, and the other one is a "choose your own adventure" RPG type version of the same story. Four novels makes a story arc. They are set one month before TPM, or thereabouts. The first four are about Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, and Yoda. The next four are about Anakin, the four after that, Jar Jar. The series concludes with a three part junior novelization of TPM (not the same as the Pat Werde(SP?) one).

TC

 

Don't worry about Bant. Shadow Hunter states that she is a padawan and Deceptions states she is a Jedi Knight.

 

I was glad TF.N gave this story a four. Well-deserved, I think.

 

I finished it.

Qui-Gon's going to lose his love, Tahl, I just know he is!

I didn't like two year jump much, too sudden, but it wasn't a huge deal.

~*~Bria

 

Wait, Shadow Hunter says Bant is a padawan (this I know), but Cloak of Deception calls her a knight? CoD happens BEFORE Shadow Hunter! What, did she get demoted?

 

Now just hold your Banthas, folks. SH simply states that Bant was at one time a Padawan, and CoD dosen't say anything about her. She's not safe.

TC

 

LucasBooks was stupid for allowing two books to come out so close together with such similar titles. I misread the post; Cloak of DECEPTION and Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: DECEPTIONS aren't the same book.

EDIT: JASE- Deceptions, Page 85, "Obi-Wan's friends from his classes - Garen, Reeft, and Bant - were now roaming the galaxy.

So she is safe.

 

I've read all the JA books, got this one and read it immediately, of course

Although it is a very good story from QG's point of view, I also wonder why the author is moving away from that point of view to focus on the adult characters in the series. (I think a lot of this is the pang I get whenever I read anything about Qui-Gon, knowing the fate that's in store for him <g>)

And yes, indeed, I have to assume that Tahl is just like that guy in the red uniform on every Star Trek episode -- she is going to go away from us very soon, I'm afraid. (Amazon has basically given away the plot of #15, so there ya go.)

If Jude Watson jumps Obi-Wan two years in age every book, we don't have a long time to go before this series must end...hopefully she'll slow down soon. I could read these for a very, very long time....

 

I don't mind Watson doing it for one book. It's a nice change of pace. I agree though that this shouldn't be done a lot in the long term. I expect Obi-Wan to get much more attention in The Death of Hope. I wonder how he'll react to the discovery of Qui-Gon and Tahl pledging their lives to each other.

It's funny. In an interview on the offical site, Jude Watson said Tahl started out as a token Jedi that Qui/Obi rescue in JA #5 but then just blossemed into the character we see now.

 

You know, there's probably a a good reason for the two year jump: marketing. Jedi Apprentice has become very successful with a demographic higher than its original target market. It's a kids' series, but I only know of adults who read it. Gamer is not a kids magazine, but in it you see adds for Jedi Apprentice. Then you have the spin-off Jedi Quest, and the comics tie-in. Again, kids are not the target market for the comics. It's late teens, early 20s males. Same as Obi-Wan.

Intead of 13 year olds, JA is being read by an audience more interested in the life of a young man.

 

I don't know about that; they may just be doing that because even 12 year olds like reading about kids slightly older than themselves. I remember when I was in junior high my favorite books were normally about 15, 16, 17 year olds. I remember one called "Stranger with My Face" by some woman named Lois Duncan or something like that--the heroine was about 16 years old.

But anyway, I do know of alot of kids in the targeted demographic who have read JA and if you look at the reviews on Amazon and B&N most of them are from 12 to 15 year olds, with some of us older readers thrown in here and there for good measure.

That said, I don't really mind them making Obi-Wan a little older. They are just showing his development over the years.

 

You're right, Cat. I'll have to tell my sister. She'll be so relived.

I think the series will run a good long time. My sister figured out that if JA has as many books as the Animorphs do (Animorphs is another Scholastic series, it ended recently), it'll run until May, 2005. That's right, the same month EP3 is released. Makes sense.

TC