Star Wars: I, Jedi was written by bestselling author, Michael A. Stackpole. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, 11 ABY (11 years after the Battle of Yavin).
SUMMARY
The dangerous Invid Pirates causing havoc throughout the space ways and manage to evade New Republic forces! Rogue Squadron hero Corran Horn learns that his wife, Mirax, is taken by the network of bandits. He’s denied intel by General Cracken; if Corran Horn goes off on his own to be a hero, it could put many other lives in danger.
After speaking with Luke Skywalker, Corran Horn decides to chase after his Jedi roots and become Keiran Halcyon. He trains at the Jedi Praxium on Yavin, the Jedi Academy. He unlocks force powers within and learns to tame them. Once he saves Luke Skywalker from the evil on Yavin, he has a minor personality crisis. He sheds the Halcyon alians and is reborn once again as Corran Horn, with force powers.
Now, with his new found powers and previous CorSec (Corellian Security Force) experience, he infiltrates the pirates in an attempt to rescue his wife, Mirax.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Before I dive too deep here, I’ve got to say something that I really did enjoy about this book, was the ties to the Jedi Academy trilogy and the time spent at the Jedi Praxium on Yavin. While some of the events are elaborated and expounded upon to push Corran Horn up the “hot shot” ranks, sine if it was decent. I enjoyed getting more knowledge of Kip Durron when he began his fall to the dark side. What I didn’t like, was that Horn was able to best Luke Skywalker in a lightsaber sparring match. The excuse used was that Luke had too much on his mind, with Exar Kun lingering about.
I can’t help it, I’ve gotta say it. I hate the first person writing style for Star Wars. I believe this style is fine in other genres, but it doesn’t belong in Star Wars. To me it feeds into the ego that is Corran Horn and Michael A. Stackpole.
I can’t help but feel that there is a special bias toward this character by the author. Like this guy can do no wrong, he has to be better than everyone, he has to know how to do – everything. Even if he messes up, it only exposes something new that no one else has discovered yet. This character has a few self reflection moments, and I can’t stand that it seems to happen after he gains all the knowledge he needs first, in order to be better than someone else. For example – Corran takes on the alias Halcyon, a family name from his “Jedi lineage.” He gets all the training he needs before he has a personality crisis – he’s Corran Horn, not a Halcyon. I don’t know why it’s so annoying to me.
I think this book has too many coincidences and some characters are given too much knowledge about things they shouldn’t. Somehow Corran knows the way a duel went down invloving his grandfather, like the fighting style that was used.
Do I recommend you read this book? No, it’s a story about a character who seems to be better than everyone else. It gets old.
RATING
I give Star Wars: I, Jedi a C-.