Luke: “What’s the first thing you learned in training to be a Jedi?”
Ben: “Don’t cut off your own head with your lightsaber.”
Luke: “After that.”
Ben: “Your eyes can deceive you. Be mindful of your feelings. Girls are fun but dangerous. Lando has extra cards up his sleeve.”
Luke: “Well, the truth is in there somewhere…”
It is time for the fallout of Jacen’s fall to hit the fan. People are not liking the Jedi right now, since it was one of them that fell to the Dark Side and took the galaxy into a second civil war in 50 years. It was also their actions that led to a lot of battles and deaths. Also, Daala is not a big fan of Jedi and is fanning the anti-Jedi sentiment with an investigation into Luke. Her intent is to exile Luke from the Jedi Order, thus making it easier for her to attempt to control them.
Luke realizes this and exiles himself on the condition that if he can figure out what caused Jacen to fall, he gets to come back and resume his duties as Grand Master. Ben, being a trained investigator, Jedi knight and Lukes son/Padawan, comes along. The scenes between father and son are the funniest in the book, as my favorite quote above demonstrates. There’s another where Ben wins an argument with four one-word sentences. Luke complains that he doesn’t like that Ben can win arguments without verbs.
Also, in the “not helping the Jedi cause” side of things, Jedi knights are starting to randomly go crazy. It starts with Seff Hellin (which from what I gather started in the book Millenium Falcon). The first one in this book however is Valin Horn, one of my favorite characters. Daala’s solution? Freeze the afflicted Jedi in carbonite.
Here’s the breakdown.
Characters
The interactions between Luke and Ben were my favorites in this book. Everyone else seemed a bit flat in my opinion.
Story
As the set up for the entire Fate of the Jedi series, this is a good book. It sets up quite a few story arcs that will be interesting to read over the next few books. There is the Force Psychosis, Jedi Order vs. Daala, Luke and Ben’s journey and Han and Leia’s journey with Allana. I am excited to see where they will all lead.
It’s a great start to the series, even if it’s a bit short. From what I’ve read of the next two books, things start taking a very dark turn for everyone.
