Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: FORCE COLLECTOR (spoilers)

Also as part of The Journey to The Rise of Skywalker, we have this young adult novel:

Force Collector by Kevin Shinick

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The galaxy is unfathomably huge. As such, there are many places where the big stories of the Jedi, the Rebellion, and the famous people that shaped history are not very well known. Things are either forgotten or misreported over the years, to the point where some young people cannot necessarily trust the information they’re told. Such is the case with Karr Nuq Sin, a young man trying to make his way through school, while also dealing with a unique problem. He has headaches caused by touching certain objects, and because he lives on such an out of the way planet and in a time far removed from the days of the Old Republic, he has little clue that he is really Force sensitive, and he has a connection to the fabled Jedi of old.

The story begins when Karr meets a precocious new student named Maize, who encourages him to get out into the galaxy to try to discover the true meaning behind his headaches. Going off of nothing but the stories his grandmother told him of the Jedi, Karr begins his adventure following up on leads from the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, since in the few visions he’s had he’s determined that Jedi were present in both conflicts. He visits a bunch of familiar worlds, from Utapau to Jakku, and meets a couple of people who truly remember the Jedi, including Maz Kanata, who really helps Karr hone his connection to the Force, and she leads him on the path to discovering his own purpose, and the truth about his family that his parents kept from him, namely that his great grandfather was a Jedi who left the Order and started a family. Karr and Maize even discover his lost hiding place, and are amazed to discover him still living there. Having been invigorated by his cross-galactic journey, Karr decides he will endeavor to keep taking a deep dive into discovering the history of the Jedi, and he will continue to preserve their legacy, so that they can be a little less forgotten in the galaxy.

It’s a fun little adventure. There’s no big action or major stakes, but it’s a nice little picture of both the benefits and drawbacks of a peaceful yet complacent galaxy. In fact though the First Order is mentioned and a few of its officers provide a little bit of conflict for Karr, they’re portrayed in a relatively mundane way, and there’s little mention of the New Republic at all. Despite mounting tensions elsewhere, most of the galaxy is just going about its business. I liked that Maize’s father was portrayed pretty benignly, despite working for the First Order; it’s never fun when everybody who has to do with the big evil organization is just flatly evil. I liked Karr’s interactions with the various people who either remember the Jedi or have their artifacts, especially when he meets Dok-Ondar and Maz. And his visions are portrayed really well, especially as we see them develop more clearly. The little conflict of the book that revolves around Karr seemingly see himself in a vision where he kills a Jedi did well of adding some stakes to the story, and subtly led to the resolution where he meets his great grandfather, from whom he gets his looks.

I give Force Collector an 8.7 out of 10 for a fun little adventurous jaunt throughout the galaxy, letting us see the influence of the Jedi throughout history while also gaining some new perspective on some familiar locales.

 

The Force plot and history of the Jedi was the strongest part of the book for me, though I would've preferred more original story there and less taken from the PT and the OT films with which the readers are already presumably familiar. The ending was overall pretty strong and moving. Not a bad effort but not a great one either. It had a neat premise that I'm not sure was explored to its full potential.

7/10.

 

Average Score: 33.2/4 = 8.3