I have fallen to the nerd side and want to read all I can about Obi-wan from childhood to padawan to his ultimate death to Vader. I have googled Obi-Wan books, but I don't know where to start. The quality of the work is important to me. I also prefer to read in chronological order and have been known to read books multiple time (I've read Harry Potter at least 10 times) if the book is good. Do you have any suggestions on where to start? Inanna
The earliest Obi-Wan stories are the Jedi Apprentice series - which begins with him being about 13 or so - and on the brink of being "too old to be taken as a Padawan".
Yup - they're short books but fairly entertaining. First full-length novels after them are Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Cloak of Deception - although Obi-Wan's role in the Darth Maul book is pretty minor.
I'm not sure I'd try to read absolutely everything chronologically since he cameos in so many stories that are otherwise not worth your time. I'd start with the highlights and branch out from there at your leisure. Are you interested in the comics as well, or just books? As a rule of thumb the comics cover him more during his Qui-Gon apprenticeship and in his Clone Wars exploits with Anakin. The Jedi Apprentice/Jedi Quest/Last of the Jedi sub-universe is a bit uneven but definitely worth reading as our primary look into his youth. Legacy of the Jedi is a must-read as it compares/contrasts the four major apprentice pairings and is one of very, very few glimpses into Dooku's time as a Padawan and as Qui-Gon's master. Rogue Planet and The Approaching Storm take place respectively three years after Episode I and immediately before Episode II. Both are Obi-Wan/Anakin apprentice adventures. Honestly, reviews are mixed but I enjoy them both quite a bit. Published in 2000, Rogue Planet was our first substantive look into the timeline a few years after TPM (Dark Horse's comics up to that point had been set in the immediate aftermath of the film and dealt largely with original characters) and thus will always hold a special place for me. The plot places our heroes in a truly alien setting unlike much else in the EU. It's a small-scale story, not a galaxy-spanning epic, which emphasizes the focus on a modest number of new but compelling characters and on an Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship that is handled better here than in most parts of the films, frankly. The Approaching Storm is another single-setting story that covers the "border dispute on Ansion" Windu references in AOTC. It was published in early 2002. It's not as good as RP, being mostly an episodic collection of incidents as Obi-Wan and Anakin travel cross-country with Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee and encounter bizarre animals, wacky locals, the neighborhood Hutt, etc. But I enjoyed the inventiveness of the new creatures and it's an important glimpse into the duo's exploits immediately prior to AOTC, contrasting their relationship with the other master/Padawan team. Outbound Flight takes place between the two, at the midpoint of the ten years between TPM and AOTC. You should read it but I don't have many strong feelings about this one so someone else will have to tell you about it. Then there's the Clone Wars era which is Obi-Wan/Anakin about 60% of the time, particularly in material spun off directly from the show. There are excellent stories here, as well as many terrible ones. The highlights I would recommend are The Cestus Deception and Labyrinth of Evil--unless, again, you want to dig into the comics. The three Karen Miller novels I would avoid at all costs even though they're Obi-Wan-heavy. Yes, Wild Space is the only story pairing him with Bail Organa for any length of time but it's just awful and will only sully whatever shared history of badassitude you imagined after seeing ANH. Then you have Kenobi which doesn't have much screen time for the titular character but deals with how the other citizens of Tatooine view him and (rarely) interact with him in the early days of his exile, as the personas of the "wizard" and "crazy hermit" develop. It's a Western set on Tatooine, with Sand People standing in for Native Americans, offworld settlers encroaching on their territory, Obi-Wan as the stranger from out of town, etc. tl;dr: Do read Legacy of the Jedi, Rogue Planet, The Approaching Storm, Labyrinth of Evil, and Kenobi. Outbound Flight and Cestus Deception are worthwhile but on a slightly lower tier. Do not read the Karen Miller Clone Wars books--they are traps. And you should also read some comics, but that's a whole different post.
I personally found Wild Space an enjoyable read - not quite so much the other two. The Life & Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi is a good one for showing what Obi-Wan's thinking during various events - the movies and in between them.
Thank you so very much for the suggestions. I have almost finished the Jedi Apprentice Series (I have 6 more to read) and am 1/2 done with Kanobi. Everything I have read so far has been awesome. I read the two Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Dark Horse comic book series too. I have also been reading the current Star Wars and Obi-Wan & Anakin Marvel comic books. I have to say, I won't take my husband to the comic book store again..he was not happy with the number of books I bought tonight. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I needed to buy 8 more to get current with the series. I was able to find most of the books you mentioned in the iBooks store so mI can read them on my iPad. Thank you again for your help, Inanna
I just want to add a little more info about rogue planet in that it ties into the njo series of books that take place a few decades after return of the jedi in the old eu.
If you are very interested in Obi-Wan Kenobi, I will reiterate what Valin__Kenobi said and recommend Kenobi by John Jackson Miller to you. It does have a slow start, but seeing Kenobi's mindset of helping the settlers and his frustrations after what happened in Revenge of the Sith are extremely well-written. I will warn you that it is one of the longer Star Wars novels (the paperback edition is 464 pages - according to Barnes and Noble), but it is still a must-read if you really enjoy Obi-Wan.
Kenobi is probably my favourite Star Wars novel of all-time. It's slow but so so engrossing and does a lot without actually doing much of anything if that makes sense. It also makes the character of Obi-Wan so much more interesting than he already is. Can't recommend highly enough It's actually probably the reason I'm most hesitant about an Obi-Wan anthology movie because I doubt it could ever live up to the book.
