Chen, Mike
About the Author:
Mike Chen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. He has previously worked as a sports journalist, a DJ, a musician and an aerospace engineer.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
4 out of 5
(1 book)
Star Wars: Brotherhood
22 BBY. Early in the Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker has just been promoted to Jedi Knight and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi has been elevated to the Jedi Council. A devastating terrorist attack on the planet Cato Neimoidia threatens to escalate the conflict and push the possibility of peace beyond reach, prompting Obi-Wan to travel there as an investigator, alone and without support. When Obi-Wan's mission goes awry, Anakin will disobey the Council to rescue his former Master but both Jedi are soon faced with a deadly new foe; Count Dooku's emissary Asajj Ventress.
First off, on a purely personal level, this book deserves Five Stars and Ten-out-of-Ten for having a brief cameo appearance by Jedi Knight Olana Chion. Why is that so important? Well, it's because I named that character and wrote (some of) her backstory. When (evil) Disney rebooted the Star Wars canon, I was particularly aggrieved that my small contributions to it had been erased but here, finally, one of them is returned to canonical status. Thanks Mike Chen, you've no idea what it means to me!
As for the book itself, this is exactly the kind of Star Wars novel I want to see and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After all these years and intervening media, it's easy to forget that in Episode II Anakin and Obi-Wan barely seem to like each other and yet by the time of The Clone Wars TV series, set just a few months later, they've settled into the affectionate bantering we see at the beginning of Episode III (the banter becomes somewhat less affectionate after the whole 'high ground' incident). This book then serves to tell the story of how they go from their fractious relationship as Master and Padawan to the brotherhood of the title.
As well as showing us how Obi-Wan and Anakin's dynamic developed, this book also gives us a look at how those characters are dealing with other major changes in their lives. For Anakin we get a glimpse of how his adolescent infatuation with Padme has grown into the reciprocated affection of a loving marriage, albeit one that must be kept secret. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, is forced to adapt to a galaxy engulfed by conflict, where negotiation has far less weight than it once did and reason is all too often overshadowed by passion and prejudice. One other nice touch was seeing Obi-Wan puzzle-out some of Anakin and Padme's secret but choose not to confront them after reflecting on how his own youthful romance with Satine Kryze played out.
Simply put, this is just good Star Wars and any fan of Anakin, Obi-Wan and the Prequel era in general should find lots to like here. And especially fans of Olana Chion.
4 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - From A Certain Point Of View (here)
Read more...
Star Wars (here)