Lit Sword of the Jedi by Christie Golden

I did not read FOTJ.

Are the Imperial Knights around by now?

Dear Del Rey
If Leia and Luke take apprentices please don't make them one of the 12 Jedi we already know that are still alive as of Apocalypse.
kthxbye

Well, he hasn't had an actual apprentice since he formally refounded the Jedi; before he had the Academy, any training naturally had to be one-on-one. But since the Praxeum was founded, we've had Luke teaching pupils en masse, with a bunch of people who were "his students" at one time, but no one who was distinctly his apprentice, even after he instituted formal apprenticeship (at least by 14 ABY, per JK:JA). He continued to give Leia some private tutoring, and he continued to help train classes of Jedi, but no apprentice until he took on his nephews, unless you maybe want to count giving his wife private lessons. And then, never again, except for Ben's pseudo-apprenticeship, which is, you know, his son, so it doesn't even matter. Mara took her niece as apprentice, then . . . never again. Leia's been a Jedi Knight for nearly a decade now, and no apprentice. Jacen took his cousin as his apprentice, then he died. Jaina's been a Jedi Knight for over fifteen years. No apprentice, ever. Now she's a Master. Never had an apprentice.

Luke's been a Jedi Master presiding over a Jedi Order for a third of a century. He's taken apprentices once, because they were his nephews. He hasn't even had a close training relationship, the way he had with his first classes of students, outside his family in thirty years. It's ridiculous. Don't even get me started on the absence of apprentices among NJO Masters generally. It's pathetic.

I would love to see Luke, Leia and Jaina take on apprentices not related to them. A great opportunity to bring in and develop new younger characters while keeping the older guys around. And Ben and Allana could start developing friendships with people their own ages. I just feel if all this was going to happen then it would have probably started happening before now. I just don't have much faith in the current authors/editorial team. And since two of the authors and pretty much the same editorial team who made a mess of the Jacen era are now working on the new books, what will change (except no more long, drawn out series)? This is why the post Jacen/Denning era is in desperate need of new blood. I imagine Denning and Golden will pick up where they left off with the FotJ series. I would love to be wrong.

Allana's bossiness comes, not from her heritage, but from the fact that all the adults in her life are constantly telling her how special she is. She is the Queen of Destiny and the peace of the galaxy rests on her shoulders. Yeah, I'd probably be a bossy little brat as well.

If Golden uses Tahiri well, that could just be the follow-up trilogy... though I'd settle for a standalone novel.
Actually that's what I want most for SotJ: to develop and set up the secondary characters in a way that makes follow-ups focusing on them conceivable and marketable. And I really wouldn't mind a YJK-esque Jedi Academy series featuring Allana and a ton of new / underused tertiary characters.

I wish. I really really wish.

Calling it now: Allana is channeling Ta'a Chume.

Be afraid, Galaxy. Be very afraid.

Yeah, Tahiri would make a great master for Allana, actually. Also a great sign of trust and reintegration to the Order.

I could forgive Luke not taking on another apprentice if he's effectively taking on the Yoda-like role of retiring to be the general teacher of the younger students. But Leia needs one like, yesterday. Even if it's just casually mentioned in the background, "Oh yes, and there's Leia Solo's apprentice, Little Timmy. Moving on..."

Something just occurred to me. Y'know how Allana's cover was a war orphan adopted by the Solo's? Why don't they actually DO that? Like, Leia or Luke, or Jaina needs an apprentice that isn't their bratty son or granddaughter. Well there's some force sensitive kid who's house just got trashed. Hey you wanna become a Jedi?

I'm wondering about this because I can't really remember the last time somebody did something nice and charitable without it being in the course of duty of solving the current crisis or directed at a family member. There was Luke and the punks cleaning up after a force storm on Nam Chorios. But that was in an Allston book, and I get the feeling the poor guy has no say in the direction of the story whatsoever.

I mean, once in a Marvel comic book Captain America jumped on a fighter jet, had the pilot land the plane, and took the guy out for a burger. Whens the last time we saw something like that in one of these books?

Tahiri could actually work. I'd be ok with that. Has potential.

@Darth-Ghost - definitely, though I feel I should note it was Hav's idea a page ago.

The only way they could make Allana interesting is to age her three or four years while the other characters stay their current age. And I have to say I don't want to see Tahiri having to train a 9 year old. How boring would that be? I could take fourteen year old Ben and fourteen year old Tahiri and Anakin Solo but nine is too young to be of use to a story that I'll want to read. Plus again, Allana wouldn't be meeting children her own age. She really needs to hang out with kids.

It's fine, 9 is the perfect age for Jaina to start training her as an ace pilot. She can learn about spinning. That's a good trick.

We've already got Kam and Tionne in that role, though, and kids aren't really Luke's area. What I'd really love is for him to just grab two or three apprentices in their late teens and run around the galaxy, and Leia to take on some apprentice and teach him or her all about diplomacy.* That's exactly the kind of story you can use the big three in -- they're in the story, you can slap their name and picture all over it, but they're mentoring new characters who are really the main characters of your story.

*NO BARABELS ALLOWED.

And do we know when exactly SOTJ is set? I don't think so. If it's when she's nine, sure, that's too young to do more than be on the sidelines of the story. But if it's three years down the road, then she's twelve, and that's old enough to play a Padawan role.

What Havac said! Also, maybe have some non-Jedi relationships, to prevent the kind of isolation on FotJ!

My guess is 45 ABY.

Didn't Anakin become Obi-Wan's Padawan at the age of 9?

Jaina did apprentice to Kyp briefly.

But my hades, GET RID OF ALANNA for a bit. I can't stand her. She's an annoying, spoiled brat who could use a massive amount of boot camp to fix her entitlement issues. I ended up skipping any sections of the books that had her, because she did nothing but make me want to kick puppies.

So the cover hasn't been shown yet?

Yes, there is clearly nothing more awful than a nine-year-old child who does not act like Gandhi. What a horrible human being. I hope Han and Leia beat her regularly until she can live up to adult standards.

I think she could just use a long time away from Denning

But Denning's the fun uncle. Sure, he spoils her, but she has such a good time with him.

Given their parenting abilities in FOTJ, I'd hardly be surprised if they did beat her.

Bad thoughts, bad thoughts.

I swear I wasn't thinking that, but now I have the overwhelming urge to listen to The Who's Tommy...

yeah i would have no prob with leaving Allana out of the next few stories and then catching up with her when she is like 16. Hopefully someone can make her an interesting character,