Karen Miller is one of my favorite phantasy writers , so I was thrilled to see she ’d written a Star Wars novel . But she got stick with an onerous project : explaining Obi - Wan ’s Clone Wars dickery . Spoilers !
Miller ’s Godspeaker trilogy may be the dear in high spirits phantasy works I ’ve say since Jacqueline Carey ’s Kushiel serial publication . ( Seriously , if I do n’t drop a line any book reviews on io9 for a week or so , it ’ll be because the third Godspeaker book just came out , and I ’m dying to read it . Not sure yet if I ’ll be capable to apologize survey it on here . ) Like the Kushiel Word , the Godspeaker serial take place on an substitute Earth where the names are exchange and the gods are involved in people ’s affairs . The first book , Empress , follows a slave nominate Hekat as she becomes first a soldier , then a queen , and lastly a ruthless empress . The 2nd Scripture , The Riven Kingdom , follows a princess , Rhian , in a land where only serviceman can reign , sputter to claim her throne . And it looks like the third Bible pits Hekat and Rhian against each other . Can not wait .
In any case , Miller ’s Star Wars book , Clone warfare : Wild Space , is much better than it has any right to be . Do n’t let the cover fool you : there are almost no clones in this Word of God . Unlike the other Karen , Karen Traviss , Miller does n’t get to indite gritty war story about soldiers who only look interchangeable . alternatively , Wild Space is very much about the Jedi and their interaction with Republic politics during wartime .
Like I enunciate , it ’s a much better ledger than you ’d wait , give that premise . specially since Miller strain to build connection between the Clone Wars TV series and the prequel flick . So , for exemplar , you have Anakin caught between training school term with his padawan Ahsoka and his secret marriage to Padmé Amidala . ( Anakin is a unearthly blend of Hayden Christensen ’s pouty entitlement and the cocky war hero of the cartoon . ) The book actually reference a couple of installment of the TV series — while Obi - Wan is necessitate in the book ’s independent escapade , Anakin is searching for his missing Artoo unit .
The just newsworthiness is , Anakin disappears from the book pretty too soon on , and unspeakable reminder of the lake on Naboo are kept to a minimum . The al-Qur’an really is about Obi - Wan Kenobi , and Miller really manage to make him into a compelling character . ( I know . ) People have beenwonderingfor a while why prequel - era Obi - Wan is such a saccade , and Miller addresses this issue head on .
https://gizmodo.com/clone-wars-makes-pirating-look-like-viable-career-oppor-5121996
Throughout much of Wild Space , other people see Obi - Wan as a close schoolmaster or an edgy prig . And then we catch glance of the populace through Obi - Wan ’s eyes and discover quite how much of a balancing human activity he has to deal with .
A big part of it is that Obi - Wan is really a shy , retiring cat who ’d rather just mould in the shadows and not get noticed . But as a result of the war , he ’s been thrust into the spot as a “ warfare hero , ” showcased on newsreels and propaganda picture , and now he ca n’t go anywhere without being recognise . ( Everybody thinks Chancellor Palpatine is being a naive changeling for making the Jedi into rockstars , but of course it ’s all part of his plan to convey about their downfall . ) Obi - Wan struggles with his own post - traumatic emphasis from the battle of Geonosis , but at the same clip he has to be the post horse - boy for the war and reply people ’s questions about it all the fourth dimension .
Meanwhile , as much as Obi - Wan constantly lectures Anakin about the dangers of excited attachment , he has attachment of his own . To his honest-to-god master Qui - Gon , to Anakin , and even to Yoda .
The novel prepare up a stem of the Jedi , specially Obi - Wan , getting drive into have to deal with political sympathies , the realm where they ’re least comfortable . And then Obi - Wan winds up going on a secret missionary work alone with a politician , Bail Organa . He and Organa do n’t really wish or trust each other , and they keep butting heads as Organa postulate interrogative sentence a Jedi is n’t supposed to answer .
Eventually , as you ’d expect , the dynamic between Organa and Obi - Wan modification , as they learn to appreciate and rely on each other in the midst of a demonic trial . But first , Obi - Wan has to confront all of his past traumas , including an incident from his Jedi training , a butchery he chance when he was a young Jedi , and all of his more recent catastrophe . The second half of the Word of God really pick up steam , and is much well than the first half , thanks to its tight focus on Obi - Wan and Organa trying to survive a virulent planet full of Sith traps that are as much psychological as strong-arm . All of the Obi - Wan development pay off by the end , as you actually root for him to find his usual stuffy composure .
Like I said , it ’s a playfulness read , and much well than you could mayhap expect a Jedi book that acquire place during the prequels to be .
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