Lit Books Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith Novel by Adam Christopher

we don't need Lor to watch Rey we already have the Sitter

 

I hope we get both sequel and prequel to this book. Futher adventures with Luke and Lor San Tekka, more of Luke's acedemy. A story of when Lando lost everything and kidnapping of children happenned. I also love a book about Luke and Leia training together as she almost becomes a jedi.

 

There are no freakish accidents in the Star Wars universe. Lor with the map, the Falcon with Unkar, and Rey on Jakku.... it's all the will of the Force.

 

It was a scepter, and it didn't have a crystal in it afaik... you may be thinking of Marvel?

 

Finished this last night. I really enjoyed it and would certainly like to see more. I enjoyed Komat and her droid - would like to see more of them.

 

Been a while since I played either of those games. I was thinking of the Artusian crystals that Desaan used in Jedi Outcast.

 

Finished the book last night. In my top three of Nu-Canon novels, with Jason Fry's TLJ novelization and Ken Liu's Legends of Luke Skywalker. It ain't Mindor, but Christopher truly gets the farm boy-turned-Jedi master, and Lando too is on target. The book works on the grand scale of lore and on the small scale of EU Easter eggs (hot chocolate! Lahsbane!). Really hoping this expands to become the first of a trilogy. With SOTS set 7 years before the formation of the Resistance (Bloodline) and the fall of Ben Solo to the dark side (Rise of Kylo Ren), and 13 years before TFA, there's plenty of room to flesh out/reframe what happened leading up to the ST.

Spoiler

- While not certain, it sounds like Nu-Canon is going for Jedi on Ach-to>Tython>Ossus>Coruscant, though OneCanon can probably still keep Je'daii on Tython as earlier than them all.
- Nice continuity with the Charles Soule Lando and Vader comics (Sith relics and masks), the Greg Pak Vader comics (Ochi of Bestoon; Exegol), Wendig's Aftermath trilogy (Acolytes of the Beyond), Cavan Scott's Adventures in Wild Space and SW Adventures comics (Lina Graf and the Star Herald), the Ahsoka novel (healing bled kyber crystals), The Mandalorian (Tython seeing-stone), and the TROS Visual Guide (Luke's quest; Exegol). Christopher did his homework, approaching Luceno-levels of connectivity.
- Helpfully clears up why Rey sees Ochi of Bestoon's ship flying away from Jakku in her memories/visions in TFA/TROS, and suggests when the inscription on the dagger came to be.
- Glad the Nine ring-wraiths put in an appearance. Filoni and Ahsoka the White must be proud.
- Assuming the appearance of Anakin was inspired by Cavan Scott's Ghosts of Vader's Castle. Nice touch, though, to work-in the Sebastian Shaw version of Anakin from the original/older editions of ROTJ.
- Enric Pryde working with CSA Espos in his Ewok-fur long-coat was a delightful level of EU-callback meets Posh Nosh cartoon villainy.
- Rest well, Dathan and Miramir. The Force is with you; may we see you again.
- Surely Jannah has to be Kadara, right?
- Loved the tip of the hat to Stover at the beginning and in the acknowledgments.
- While no doubt Christopher's Mando novel would have been great, very glad we got this instead.

Questions for the future:

- When does Palpatine find Exegol? After ROTS? It sounds like Dathan was created there, so by 12 BBY.
- Did Palpatine ever really lose track of Dathan? Was he hoping Dathan would have a Forceful child the whole time? Or if not, when did he find out about Rey's existence?
- When do Ben and Luke first encounter Snoke? When does Snoke take over the emerging First Order?
- Why does Komat belive that Kiza killed Yupe Tashu? Is Tashu like Snoke, with a bunch of clones running around?
- When does Luke learn specifically that Palpatine is back, that he is the threat on Exegol? When he probes Ben's mind right before his fall? Or sooner? Or not until he himself Force-ghosts in TLJ?
- Is Palpatine waging etheric war against Luke Skywalker? Is Force-ghost Anakin as Chosen One keeping him contained?
- How long has the Church of the Force had a settlement on Jakku? Surely someone was using them to keep tabs on Rey. The Force ghosts? Komat?
- After Ben's fall, does Luke go after him and try to bring him back ("never give up"), and meet up with Han and Leia, before heading for Ach-to?
- Does Luke go to Ach-to looking for a way to find Exegol before deciding the Jedi in general and he specifically have failed and need to stop meddling with the Force?
- Who is Lando's wife/mother of his child? What happened to her? When do Lando and Jannah learn that she is Kadara?
- Aside from porgs, are there ducks on Ach-to? Does Luke ever learn what they are? It seems he's learned to swim.
- What is a Duros? Is Cad Bane one, and does he contradict the EU?

 

Still love this book, but the ST's theme of kidnapping, killing or turning the children and next generation dark to fight their own parents still has a bitter taste to me. I mean, it is storytelling wise sound and works, has historic and actual paralells and all that. The generation is even, partially, redeemed and helping the older ones to turn the tide. But overall, the trilogy and era needs the next generation.

It needs the kidnapped children turned adults fighting their parent generation to rebell like Finn and Jannah's stormtrooper rebellion.
It needs some freed or reunited with their parents trying to overcome ptsd and guilt attempting redemption and atonement.
It needs closure for all those kidnapped children that never could or would return to their parents due to death in evil duty.
All those kids that became corrupted by artifacts of the Sith thx to Yupe Tashu and the Acolytes of the Beyond that joined the Sith Eternal, did anybody of those ever get redemption or turn it down?

Broomboy's generation is not strong enough yet to shine. Rey's generation has some who never went dark, who like Force Collector and others will rebuild the Jedi with her and others who fought along the Resistance along with the elders. But the majority of a generation was wasted as First Order canon fodder.

Palpatine/Snoke/Sith truly were stealing the NR's and Heros children like the Pied Piper.

And using modern day analogies, there is something truly evil to it. Companies focusing on obtaining the young and new generations instead of catering to the older ones for there is always new meat to milk for money. Governments, ideologies, militaries enthralling the young who do not remember the past that is about to be repeated in another senseless war, another agenda or movement that intends to rise to power. Children willing to rebel against adults as is normal for teenage years, secretly fueled by those abusing their natural drives for their purposes.

Canto Bight's capitalist moneymilkers, Sith Eternal's faschists, religious gurus of the Dark Side pretending offer power and enlightment handing out totems and charms, all strike at the young as their parent generation was too busy to care for their kids, too busy to notice, because they wanted to make the future bright for them, clean up the mess of the Empire and forgot to live in the present while placing their focus on the future they intended. Qui Gon warned Obi Wan about this. Do not get lost in the past or future but stay in the here and now.
Some lost their kids due to forceful kidnapping, others lost them because they had no time and put all effort in a future they lost by forgetting the present, yet others lost their kids for being unable to let go of the past, of fighting, seeing conspiracies, of being fearful, overbearing and warning because of what they experienced.


What can the NR do different to prevent such loss in the future?

Lando is such a strong character. Even if he never gave up hope, the loss and growing certainty that his kid is either dead or will never be found would tear people apart but he remains strong, even if sometimes distracting himself with gambling and alcohol, he never gives up or looses himself to the booze. He rather grew and became a hope for ALL kidnapped children, instead of a business man, he became a savior and probably rescued plenty others even if he couldn't his own kid. So many false leads that lead to something but not her, but maybe to others.
No wonder then that years later, when Lando called... so many joined the People Fleet. He saved many kids even if not his own. The least they could do is repay it and come to help him and the galaxy. Leia's broadcast he spread along with his reputation and name both sold the call for reinforcements.

Thus, if Jannah is only symbolically his daughter and not actually, that is, as tragic it is for his real kid, it's fine. He became a surrogate father to many other kids he saved.

At least, if they went that route, I'd love that.

PS:

I still need a Lando book trilogy... incouding Lobot, including the Wing Guards and his friends among them helping him galaxywide. Kinda like the Padmé books with Handmaidens, one about Lando and the boys in blue. He was famous, rich, a galactic player. And he spent it all to look for his kid, for all missing kids. That'd be worth a book series, no?
The Sith thought they broke him, but they only made him more dangerous to them. His network, his allies, him always on their trail and too close to find the truth, costing them alot without him even knowing it while he did good, even if not reaching his main goal. But giving so many other parents hope.

 

As I read this I try to imagine how you could turn this into an N64 game.

the speeder bike chase in the gorge checks out

 

One little thing I liked:

Spoiler

Luke using the line: "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. "

 

I dunno - nothing will ever quite beat the disorientation of Obi Wan saying 'Astromech droids are a dime a dozen' for me...

 

Thanks for clarification. I tend to see the First Order, if such it is named, as entirely confined to the Unknown Regions by this stage, and only going public a few years later. No doubt they established contacts with the visible Remnant, CSA and other potential allies - plus sympathetic senators, over time, like Apollin.

It's like the First Order is the secret inner cult, and the Remnant is a public face - the outer surface, of say, Cruise's Scientology (if I dare make such a comparison) to Miscavige's inner circle?

 

We really could use a book that focuses on Luke creating his Jedi Order, we still barely know anything about it or its members.

 

I think the fact that Luke's Jedi Order gets purged kind of pre-emptively knocks the wind out of the sails of any stories about them. Either any story will have this subtext of "and then they all died tragically" underneath it or we get a bunch of asterisks of "actually this person and that person and these people miraculously survived and it was actually a bunch of randos that died." Not to say there aren't good stories to be told or that I wouldn't get over it if it turned out in actuality most of them survived (and conveniently were drawn off screen for the entirety of the ST). I just think its more challenging to come up with those stories.

In retrospect, I probably would have preferred if Luke had only gone on exploration missions finding out about who the Jedi were and how they failed and how he could be better with only Ben as his Padawan. Like, Luke had never gotten to the point where he could start building a full academy.

 

Personally, they should go full Jedi survivors, Ghost Luke and Rey.

That their enemies wished to take them out makes sense, but undercut their win massively.

 

Order 66 had potentially 100-200 Survivors that the jedi purge lasted until ANH.

 

Or go all "there was a secret, second school". Have Luke learn from the fall of the old order.

 

A second school is no good, Luke needs a plausible reason to think he was the only Jedi left. I wouldn’t necessarily mind a series of books about, I dunno, Rey tracking down the remnants of the Jedi order, maybe she finds a survivor or two Luke didn’t know about, but that requires you to advance the timeline (something they seem hellbent on not allowing until the films get there first), so…

 

Ahsoka and Ezra could have small schools and Luke was sipmly the biggest school. Like Luke might have had 30 students while Ahsoka and Ezra have fewer. Luke may not have known about Ezra's and Ahsoka's secret students.

 

Plenty of ways to fudge it. Ahsoka and Ezra establish their schools at Luke's behest and at locations unknown to him.

If the point of Luke in TLJ is that he is in crisis, then he is not going to be thinking particularly rationally while he is it. RoS Luke is Luke out of that state.

 

I think the purge is a big downer on Jedi Academy stories, but one could still tell good stories. Like we had plenty good stories despite Order 66 coming.

Sure, some will die in the purge. Others will die before the purge on missions, yet others may not be around during the purge but otherwise believed to be dead, aka MIA maybe so they can return.

Are the YJK stories any less because now we know their fate in the NJO was a meat grinder for most of their generation?
Are Alderaan or Bail Organa tales moot because of A New Hope? Or stories about the Tantive IV crew? Any Tales of stories about folks that died later on Hoth?

There is no need for alternate schools by some random characters like Ahsoka or Ezra who rather are their own Force beings and not part of any own or others orders. Let those rest. We wanted more about them years ago. Now? Meh... too late. Give us something new. Not warmed up childhood heroes.

F.e. we always only ever saw Lukes students concurrent with Kylo at the academy. What if he trained someone one on one before the academy to full knighthood that is roaming the galaxy like he did and only occasionally visited to guest teach when Luke went off on a quest with San Tekka? What if an entire class graduated before the ones Kylo trained with?

What if Ezra BRIDGER, as a Guardian of the WBW, opened a portal and saved some students from the purge via it for post TROS or a later Jedi Academy? He should not be a regular Jedi.. but something more befitting his role and name if used again in relation to the academy or purge. He and Ahsoka are more like Legends Old Vima and other rare guests and visitors that aided the Jedi but are their own thing on their own quests more than anything by then. Wayseekers kinda.

What if Kylo/Ben in TROS, when thrown down the Exegol chasm towards an archeological dig for a WBW portal by the Sith Eternal, actually fell through it thx to Ezra letting him in. Ben could learn from him in the WBW before returning to Rey's side. And Ben could maybe even save people from certain death... aka some Jedi students via WBW from the blast at the academy, but not those her personally killed in the past.

 

Star Wars has never shied away from telling stories about characters whose fates we already know. The examples are so replete as to be beyond listing. The bigger challenge, I would think, is giving Luke's Jedi Order something interesting to do in an era where there's... well, there's not a lot for a Jedi Order to actually do. It's certainly possible - Claudia Gray managed it in Master and Apprentice - but after a few low-stakes stories you'll have to deal with the pendulum swinging back to fans complaining about those stories having nothing "of consequence" going on. With two perfectly good eras already open for telling Jedi-related stories, Luke's Order may simply be better off serving as background material than a primary story element.

 

I think the problem arises from that one decision in TFA. PT Jedi have to die? I think that's an easier sell by far.

This one? Far harder to sell and harder to distract attention away from. It's "yeah, Luke did pass on what he learned, did revive the Jedi but they all got killed off-screen". It's not a good move, which is why I think undermining it is the best thing they can do.

The immediate solution is have some survivors in the post-RoS era, plus some carefully timed used of Ghost Luke, which this book shows how it could be done well. Add in very creepy Sith artifacts and you're pretty much set.

 

Sadly, not only for a Jedi Order.

With Corran's possible return and Grogu's current state I think that there is a chance that Rey will gather the ones who no longer consider themselves Jedi and maybe parted ways with the Order before the massacre.

 

What we need post TROS is more and more Force Ghosts appearing. To teach, to take the grief of those that lost them, to help. An age of wonder where magick is back and the veil between life and death is less strict. That'd keep them dead but enable them to return to teach and help.

In Hogwarts a ghost was teacher for history of magic. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn constulted the ghosts of the past and united them to fight with him one more time.

There could be a Jedi Council member that is a Ghost even. Now that the Dark Side is weakened and back in balance with the Light, there is no more need for a dogmatic Jedi Order to fight, nor for the dark side shrouding the Force and separating life and death.

A new dawn, a new galaxy emerging. Not just another turn of the wheel of history with merely a new government. An entirely new belief in the Force returning to the people. The Church of the Force probably getting heavy influx and expansion. Kinda a spiritual awakening and the general populace being not left out of a reclusive order but integrated regardless of midichlorian counts. Even weak talents having their place and time and use.

Kinda like Avatar Legend of Korra reunited and healed the spirit world with the physical plane.

A time where the WBW can be safely accessed and opened again maybe once people begin to trust and overcome their fears, their longing and their losses and start to grow, build and explore rather than hide, amass and arm themselves just in case to be ready.