Lit The 181st Imperial Story Group: Junior Jedi Knights!

At least Jacen's killing spree was targeted at what they were supposed to be killing.

 

You people really don't make me more interested in reading NJO

 

Waves hand 'You will read the NJO series'

 

See, I own all fourteen YJK books and have read them multiple times through. When I was a kid, these were my favorite books to collect. When I found out that there were also JJK books, I attempted collecting them as well and managed to get my hands on copies of 1, 2, and 5 for fairly cheap. Unfortunately, nowadays these are some of the most expensive out-of-print Star Wars books out there, and I still haven't read the other three books in the series. Any ideas on where or how I can get the others in the series without breaking the bank?

Btw, I also own all the Jedi Prince novels...

 

I got my complete set in the late nineties in a comic book shop I visited about once a year. They had a blowout of all kinds of non-sellable english language sf/fantasy books, and I was in for overkill. I think some if not most or even all GoF books come from there, too, and the final five YJK books. I probably got all six JJK books for the price of one. I know that's not really helpful, but I love telling these stories. But yeah, I think a yard sale or a time machine might be good options. Maybe all those people who'll angrily sell their stuff if Ep7 renders everything non-canon. But you said the books are worth a lot these days? Interesting...

Just checked, and if you really want the books, getting them isn't all that expensive on ebay. #2 seems to be the cheapest of the lot, though.

 

No, I won’t. You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I am a myke. We are to strong in the Force for that
.


Also in RL I have the Lando-trilogy, the Marvel-omnibus and Legacy-omnibus in my possession I want to finish them before I even try the NJO

 

Waves hand 'The NJO series is better than all of them combined, read it'

 

Your mind tricks don't work on one who has the blood of true sith in his veins


and I don't think NJO is as fun as Lando and Marvel

 

Aaron Allston books say otherwise.

 

And how big part of NJO did he write?

 

Couple books but point still stands

 

So, I hope I'll finally get everyone, including Rachel and Thomas, to sleep with our story's end...

Kenobi's Blade

Anakin, Tahiri and Ikrit have an afternoon together. While Ikrit's in a sunny spot on the windowsill (he really method acts the hell out of the pet cover identity), Anakin's busy building a hologram of his family out of several single holgrams he has - one of those puzzle-solving/technology-understanding feats he pulls. His inspiration for this comes from Vader having Luke's holo on his nightstand (awwwwwww). Tahiri muses that she's like a holo of her family, too, but has to settle for the thumbprint necklace. Anyway, Tionne's about to open the holocron with the children as spectators, so let's collect Uldir and... find out about holocrons! As we all know, Uldir started dressing like a miniature Jedi to be more successful (a measure straight out of a motivational business book, I suppose); but he's also been pretty quiet ever since their adventure in Vader's fortress. He's pretty interested in the Holocron, though - and as it turnd out, the holocron is of one Master Asli Krimsan who specialized in training junior Jedi. As soon as the keeper mentions the words "Jedi libraries", Tionne is all ears. But the library referred to is the one on Exis Station, where Tionne already plundered researched once but finding no remains (that's actually when Luke found her on his search for recruits). Uldir chimes in that Exis is where Orloc the Mage said he lived. The meeting ends without anything of substance since Tionne and Ikrit want Luke to be the first to actually delve into the holocron's lessons. Uldir protests, eager to learn more, but since he's surrounded by relaxed hippies, there's nothing he can do.

Or is there? That night, he breaks into Luke's quarters where Kenobi's lightsaber and the holocron are stored. is plan is to bring both items to Orloc on Exis Station and let the mage train him. Traditional Jedi training doesn't get a single Force reaction out of Uldir, so why not try ways that some would consider... unnatural? To make good use of every single item in this series, Uldir steals the Sunrider (isn't it cool that Ikrit has one of those legendary cars?) and departs.

The next morning, Tahiri is looking for Uldir all over the place, finally not just knocking on Uldir's door but entering his room since he might be sick. When Anakin and Ikrit come back from their morning walk (why not train them both together more? Male bias, Ikrit?), which confuses Tahiri since she thought they'd taken the Sunrider for a short flight, and Tionne comes in confused wondering whether Ikrit borrowed the holocron without telling, Anakin puzzles it all together and sets them on the trail to Exis Station.

Where Uldir lands through use of an ancient emergency beacon. He's paralyzed by a band of Ranat scavengers quickly, though, and brought to Orloc. The mage somewhat reluctantly believes Uldir's story is not a trap; getting the items plays into his greed just all too well. The holocron doesn't work, though, obviously, since there's no Force user around. He starts training Uldir by making him think of turning the lightpanels on - and the lightpanels go on! Same goes for lifting a platform and for correctly guessing Orloc's thoughts. Quick commercial break:

[other cars available, for example Sunriders]

In the meantime, our heroes arrive. They leave Artoo behind at a ladder (remember when he didn't have rocket boosters?); Tahiri climbs up and exhausts herself, mostly because her feet hurt so much from the metal. Moesta really forces Tahiri into boots, if you ask me; I don't know what Richardson's idea behind this was, but Moesta has a "I should wear boots" moment in every book. Anyway, luckily once she's conscious again, someone says there's a toilet (you know, 'refresher') nearby and everything is wonderful. Glad we're stressing the existence of toilets and glad we didn't show the scene when the kids had to go to the loo in the Dagobah swamp.

The gang gets attacked by Orloc's assassin droids. Ikrit uses his black fur not for being sad, but for stealth; in the meantime, Tahiri almost dies from blaster bolts because her hair gets stuck in a floor grating she falls on. Tionne gives her a lightsaber-style haircut (one side is now chin length to regular shoulder length, which might have been an interesting design to keep in the NJO) and luckily we're out of mortal danger. At one point, Anakin and Tahiri witness Uldir, under Orloc's tutelage, threatening Artoo with a thunderstorm, which is immediately identified by them as sounds, fire sprinklers, and lamps. I wonder what Artoo thought in that moment; he should have been even more adept at picking up technological tricks.

Well, all of this culminates in a huge battle in Orloc's Room of Wonders behind the proverbial curtain; Uldir is confused since he likes his friends better, but has more success with Orloc, and the other kids telling him he's still not doing any Force stuff is just mean, isn't it. We get Tionne a bit electrocuted on a ladder/walkway; Ikrit rushing into lightsaber combat again with Tionne's saber and Artoo as his steed (!); Uldir shot in the shoulder as he wants to help; Uldir thinking for once in his life by throwing the holocron to Tahiri who can activate it with the Force, and Uldir has a great line with "Tell us about lies", which prompts a good battle line for Anakin to move through all illusions (including miniature holographic TIE fighters on an attack run - now there's something to make you afraid of Orloc's might). Ikrit bashes Kenobi's saber out of Orloc's hands, then goes to protect Tionne from the droids. Anakin takes the saber, and like any reader who's picked up on Orloc's habit of fingering the silver spangles on his robe's sleeves, he solves the puzzle and destroys them with a quick swipe, robbing the mage of the control mechanism to his gadgets (all hands intact in case you're wondering). Funnily enough, even though Uldir's afraid that Anakin intends to strike the mage down, there's not a single piece of Anakin feeling too much weight from holding a lethal weapon in his hands and "becoming Vader" by potentially killing a man. That's not part of this book at all; he's just using the saber as a tool to destroy the mechanism, no harm intended whatsoever. So he really is over the Vader stuff by now.

Orloc has one trick left up his sleeve and disappears. The gang let him go and bring Tionne back to the Academy so she can get healed. Ikrit's ship has been plundered, though, but luckily they have one expert pilot left: Uldir can pilot the Lore Seeker, even with his wounded shoulder, to bring his friends to safety.

So, in the end, everyone is happy, Ikrit builds himself a new lightsaber because there's so much good he can do with it (I guess he'll enter the astromech knight's tournament circuit), and Uldir departs to follow a new career. He finally accepts that he's not Jedi material, and he finally learns not to be a rude idiot about it; Luke has suggested to him to become a pilot after all, but not a boring cargo like his parents. As a refugee/disaster relief pilot he can do a Jedi's work with his own abilities. So I guess there's a good lesson for kids who'd love to be a Jedi hero like Anakin and Tahiri but can't even start their daddy's car with the Force. Too bad we had to have such a bad rude rolemodel to learn the lesson.

So, Rachel, Thomas, that was the story of Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila. Now, if you're good kids, I'll tell you what Anakin and Tahiri did when an evil extragalactic invasion force occupied Yavin and destroyed the Academy! And... yes, Rachel, Ikrit will... be in there, too... and living happily ever after... we'll see about that. And yes, I agree, Thomas, it would be great if Uldir reappeared as a pilot helping with some evacuation stuff. But that'll have to wait until April, when we read Edge of Victory: Conquest.

 

Hmm. Your description of this book makes me think it's almost Jedi Prince levels of ridiculous. Maybe I should skip the first five and just read this one. One thing I love about Keyes' books is that he must've really done his research, because we get Anakin, Tahiri, Ikrit, and Tionne all on Yavin IV at the same time, and Uldir appears in the prologue, too!

((Don't ask me why, but when I read Uldir in EOV, I get a mental image of a teenaged Michael J. Fox.))

 

To be fair, JJK's a pretty narrow field to research.
And Uldir could have had a much better role in that book; him being involved in a Yavin relief effort would have been an obvious choice if you wanted to have "the cast" together again, especially since he's the non-Jedi Han Solo guy of the group. And Michael J. Fox... if you read JJK, you'll get the mental image of Biff first.

About the ridiculousness - for starters, Orloc is a really weird villain in that the Jedi know right from the start that he's a somewhat incompetent con man; a supposed mage who's dealing with people who know all (and especially better) about the metaphysical plane. So he gets no credit to begin with, but can still be quite a threat (due to sudden competent use of gadgetery) if the plot needs to create more tension.

And that's the second ridiculous thing: By book six, we're dealing with a very different threat to the kid's lives. In the first three books, it's all forces of nature and animals that threaten the kids (plus the Sith globe, but that's so far out there and obviously the very huge plot thing that we'll let that one slide). While this can be gruesome and kind of ridiculous - like the Krayt Dragon carrying Anakin away instead of killing him on the spot - it's still an adventure story that doesn't have to think about the nature of evil. "Evil nature" is just the regular dangerous wild nature. Now, evil people is something else entirely. So, Moesta's trilogy starts with the Dagobah adventure which is on the same page: dangerous swamp snakes (or whatever), dangerous spiders, dangerous cobwebs. But coinciding with Anakin's final answer to the question whether he's going to be evil like Vader because of his name, we suddenly get different threats. The kids suddenly are sent not for a camping trip going wrong, but into a boobytrapped castle that once belonged to the second dangerous man of the galaxy. With lots of lasers and other traps - man-made threats. Finally, we meet the first true villain in Orloc. Now, book six suddenly has evil scavengers and assassin droids shooting at the kids, Tahiri almost dying when pinned to the ground, Tionne coming close to death, and Uldir taking a shot to the shoulder for good measure. The first book is the best in that the kids stumble into something where very natural threats occur; after that, it gets more and more ridiculous in where these kids are allowed to go, and where they are sent on missions (okay, Dagobah was comparatively tame until the cobwebs, which apparently allow for no defense except heightened Force senses).

Fully digesting this series, especially in light of what's going to come for the characters (I read these back before I started the NJO), I don't find it so outrageous anymore that these kids would go on a suicide mission into Vong territory. From a very early age on, they are put into superhero-style adventures that should be way over their heads. Only for OOU reasons, if you ask me, because action adventures need some kind of action, and mortal dangers is all the authors can throw at them in the SW universe. It's a bit like Harry Potter entering the dangerous wizarding world at age 11 or whatever and having life-threatening adventures from the start, culminating in a kind of war. The difference being that the Jedi Academy teachers at least give a minimum of support to the kids (until the Myrkr mission, where Anakin and the gang act comparably to HP books 5 to 7, which include the "suicide mission" into the vault where they hide the prophecy and the final war mission efforts).

 

Well, KJA never really managed to write the Jedi Academy properly. His learners barely started any studies before getting loose. Or was it just that Luke was such a bad teacher? The difference with Harry Potter is that there we are actually reading about Potter's studying before having life-threatening encounters by the end of the year. I guess that despite the fact that Rowling manages to write school as something you want to read about, you can't become a hero by just passing the exams.

What I like most about JJK is that it works quite well as a prequel for Anakin's appearances in NJO. His characterization is consistent, his person is someone we become interested in (making allowances for him being eleven). Anakin-Tahiri relationship is something that should've been much more, but I guess we should be happy we got EoV at least.

I don't think that JJK sets up Anakin as a philosopher instead of Jacen. Making him think about Vader's legacy is I guess something that had to be included given his name. Otherwise, he has a practical and calculating mind, and is focused on achieving his goals - which is similar to his portrayal in NJO. It doesn't help that YJK sets us Jacen as nothing but idiot, so we have nothing to compare him with.

Uldir's character is too generic, and repeated in almost exact same way with Raynar in YJK, but at least it's a nice precedent of someone failing to become a Jedi, but having a future afterwards.

And if you want more Uldir's adventures, definitely read Emissary of the Void story - it's awesome (although as far as I understand, there's a problem with obtaining some of the parts nowadays, which is a shame).

 

I tend to bring up the Potter comparison for fun, but you obviously can't compare these books. Potter was written with the expectation to create "lasting literature", which it became, so there's a different standard than when it comes to franchise fluff. The setting has to make more sense, and the pages didn't need to be put out with a business-mentality deadline in a business-mentality form (the 100 page threshold). That being said, there's tendencies in JJK to show or mention regular classes, or to at least have masters assigned that can part their wisdom (which is much more in line with the teaching models the OT set up instead of the Jedi school KJA first created). Richardson was better at that, I think; lessons like "rock levitation" read just like Potter alchemy lessons, just with less hooks to reality in regard to what you can do since it's all in the mind. And the lessons are introduced only to feed back into the plot, to teach the kids that one thing they have to do late in the book to win the prize.

I disagree. Anakin is the quiet guy who sits around, solving puzzles in his mind. This lines up with sources like the Chewbacca comic in which Han tells Anakin that he needs to do more than just sit around. Nobody would have questoned him sitting around, slowly solving the Vong (or Sith, as it was in the original outline) puzzle, while his 'idiot' brother (who was more a "hands on lightsabers in Luke's quarters" kind of guy) ran head first into a wall. It works the way it is now, too - Anakin resolves his doubts, Jacen runs into a few walls (cutting off Tenel Ka's arm, nearly dying on Ryloth), years pass, kids grow. But the original idea was, like having Jacen as the animal guy and Jaina as the starfighter girl, to have Anakin as the quiet thinker and Jacen as the headstrong action guy.