Books Journey to TFA: Weapon of a Jedi by Jason Fry

Holy Sith, it really is by Nestle.

 

Nice. I really like that artwork. BTW: Is that a female Stormtrooper on the left at around 00:12?

 

Is this a good book to read for someone who doesn't give a toss about Luke but wants to change his opinion on the character?

 

Jason Fry said it made him appreciate Luke more. Hopefully it does the same for you.

 

I finished this last night and liked it. Haven't read the other two in the set yet though.

 

Just finished this one, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Far better than Heir to the Jedi. For a junior novel I'd probably give this an 8/10. Was a fun read and felt like a massive tease for what's to come (which I liked).

This book has a serious Splinter of the Mind's Eye vibe to me. Luke ending up on a jungle planet (I guess it was more of a swamp in Splinter, but still) and heading deep into the jungle to find an ancient temple where he ultimately has a final showdown with the villain. Both stories take place in between ANH and ESB. Maybe that's why I liked it so much! It felt almost nostalgic. Plus, even the book is the same size and shape as my hardcover copy of Splinter. Haha.

On that train of thought, was Threepio's line "One time we were on a diplomatic mission to Circarpous" a nod to Splinter?

Though in Splinter Luke could swim, and in this book Luke specifically says he can't swim.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this one. Glad I did!

 

The idea of Luke being able to swim in SOTME was always patently ridiculous to me since he grew up on a desert planet. And it was contradicted multiple times in the EU, anyway, so it's not a big deal. It makes a lot of sense that someone who's barely ever seen water certainly can't swim in it.

 

My memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't think he even swam in SotME. He said he could, but I don't remember him ever doing it. I may be wrong though. Maybe he was lying to comfort Leia. I'd have to go back and read it to really remember.

Anyway I wasn't trying to say that WoaJ and SotME are connected, but I definitely felt like they had similar vibes. I kept thinking of SotME while I was reading this, which made me happy.

Has it been established where exactly this falls in the chronology by an official source yet? I know we've been speculating about the order of this, Heir to the Jedi, and the comic series. But has there been an official word yet?

 

I recall there being a certain amount of underwater work by him - and his lightsaber functioning underwater as well.

In the Marvel comics - he couldn't swim initially - but after a bit of help by Leia, he learned fast.

 

Would that be the Organa method of leading him to the edge of the deep end of the pool and then shoving him in and telling him to swim? No time to waste on baby steps and all that....

 

Tosche station should have had at least a kiddie pool

 

I feel like this one would've been a lot better if it showed Luke's training after Empire. Moving Targets even has a part where Luke mentions going on a mission with 3PO plus we already know Luke isn't gonna make any significant headway in his training in the year leading up to ROTJ. That's also the time Luke kind of starts (finally) getting interesting and its a shame they went with boring, pre-dad reveal Luke instead.

 

In Luke's vision of the Jedi swimming up to the temple did anyone else think Luke was dreaming of Kit Fisto? I don't have the book with me but I seem to recall it saying something about him being green with tentacles or something coming off his head. Am I remembering that correctly?

 

A Nautolan, but more likely this guy, as it was the same temple. Though the older Jedi greeting him was a human, not a Roonan, so it's hard to be sure.

 

Whoa. I had no idea that was the same place. Cool! I'll have to watch that episode again.

 

Yep, it's Knox.

 

Awesome! Couldn't ask for clarification from a better source!

 

Finished reading this a few days ago, and wow, an amazing read! I hope Devaron is where Luke's temple is. They did say they returned there afterwards. Sarco Plank was a really unique character. Loved how he wielded an electrostaff. It made me wanna get his figure even more, which I did the day after reading. The writing of Luke's training was spot on, and I felt like I was feeling his pain and tiredness from his lightsaber training. And seeing more of Devaron was great, especially the temple. Loved the location in The Clone Wars for the brief moments we saw it.

 

Since we don't have review threads for these books, I'll just post here. I wrote up a review for this book on my blog. This book has definitely been one of my favorite things in the new canon so far. Probably in my top three canon books! I really liked it. Feel free to check out my review if you're interested. Unlike on these forums where I feel like I can freely talk about story points in detail, I tried to keep my review very spoiler free. I mentioned it earlier, but I give this book an 8/10. Definitely glad I read it! (Especially since I wasn't planning on reading anything but the adult novels at first.)

 

Glad you liked it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The nod to Splinter is definitely deliberate; there are a couple of other Legends nods as well. (Even one to the Holiday Special.) The end of the battle goes a step further, with actions that mirror things that happen in Splinter and Marvel #33, where Luke duels Baron Tagge. Those were the "first Luke duels" I read about a million times as a Star Wars-mad kid, and I wanted to pay homage to those stories.

In terms of referencing stuff, it's definitely more self-conscious an approach than I'd take now; Weapon of a Jedi was written in the fall of '14, when navigating new canon and Legends was new to me and everybody else. But I'm glad I got to salute some stories I loved while telling a new tale.

 

The end of the battle was definitely one of the main things that reminded me of Splinter, and I loved that!

Didn't catch the nod to the Holiday Special. But it's been so long since I've watched that I'm not surprised that I missed the reference.

Thanks for always being willing to respond to comments on here!

 

Mr. Fry, you spent a lot of time showing Luke training specifically to deflect blaster bolts. And he does this to great effect against the Stormies. But did you consider that he doesn't do this when he encounters Boba Fett on Bespin? Not really a continuity error but it seems a little grating that Luke would forget to use that skill.