Khurram's Reviews > Kenobi

I read the acknowledgments and J J Miller said he was challenged to write Star Wars in a western setting. It was not till he was offered this project with Tatooine as the perfect setting. Mission accomplished. I think this is one of the best books JJM has written. He even manages to give a shout out to a couple of his own characters from other novels.

The story Obi Wan arrives on Tatooine to deliver baby Luke to the Lars. However his first interaction with the locals results in an attention grabbing lightsaber battle with local gangsters. Luckily most people are too drunk to know what they had seen. He has a ritual of describing his daily event so Qui Gun Jinn but has not yet received and answer through the force. Now Obi Wand does not appear in the book again for a good 70 pages. Giving time to build up the side characters and main protagonists of the story.

The farmers or Tatooine are still attacked by the Sand people, led by a brilliant straightest named Pug Eye to the settlers and A'Yark to the Tuskens. The defenders of this part and unofficial mayor (always smiling) Orrin. Apart from his own farm land and properties his main source of income comes from what he calls the Settlers Call fund. Basically a siren (that sounds like a Krayt Dragon call) to alert others that a farm has been attacked, gathering a poise of the local community to help the neighbours. His only match is the tough as nails Annileen, their two families have been supporting each other for years, sometimes grudgingly, but all this is shaken up when Ben/Obi Wan dramatically arrives in their lives. Nothing can be the same and old secrets will come out. This is the strongest thing about this book the character development/revelations.

I like the way the mysterious Ben trying to avoid attention is the local sex symbol, and how uncomfortable this make the mighty Jedi. In fairness to Ben he does manage to do a couple of stealth rescues. I do like the way that Ben is completely out of the loop, I am not even sure he realises that Anakin is alive as Vader during the book. The Guilt does play on him having to kill the closest person he has to a brother. There are clues he finds for Anakin's decent started in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, and things that might happen in the Star Wars: Legacy series set 100 year after Luke's death. I really enjoyed this book after the slow 70 pages, it is worth sticking with.