The Living Force: A Prequel to the Prequels.

I have always been a big Star Wars fan. I've become a fan of a lot of things over the years, I like to say the only things I've never gotten into that everyone else has are Doctor Who, Dungeons & Dragons, and Manga, but Star Wars holds a special place in my heart. As such, and while there are exceptions, I remember a time when the various Star Wars comic books and novels weren't all that good. I'm sure some of it had to do with the fact that those early writers and artists had only one to three movies to go off of, the idea of canon was about as nonexistent as midichlorians, and there was not an exhaustive body of work to draw from. Now, it is people my age (and younger) who are writing these novels and developing these comic books, people who've likely been fans of Star Wars their entire lives, and as such, the quality of these materials has gone way up.

At times too long, at times kind of goofy and perhaps even boring, Star Wars: The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, is an unnecessary addition to the canon that misfires on many levels but that is still full of familiar characters and "Easter Eggs" to whet the diehard fan's appetite while waiting for Andor Season 2 or The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Taking place in the immediate period prior to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (how immediate is never made clear), the novel smartly starts right off the bat with familiar characters as Qui-Gon Jinn and Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, returning from a mission shuttering a Jedi temple, foil a robbery on a passenger vessel, causing the compassionate if not often rebellious Jedi Master to perceive the lawlessness and poor economic condition of the region, which ties into the rapidly declining state of the Republic (which forms the backbone of the plot), and to the larger picture of an over-taxed and perhaps out of touch Jedi Order, as it has grown increasingly preoccupied with the business of the Republic as opposed to serving it. Learning of the impending closure of an ancient and once important Jedi outpost on the planet Kwenn, Qui-Gon implores the twelve members of the Jedi Council to visit Kwenn, to show they are still in service to the galaxy, preserve the Jedi temple there, and help those in need. The Council, eager to get off-world and reconnect with their solemn purpose, agrees.

What follows is one part typical Star Wars story with some familiar tropes, namely pirates, thieves, and scoundrels as villains, and a lot of platitudes and good deeds from the twelve members of the Jedi Council, who, outside of Mace Windu, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Waddle, and Yoda, all had names I did not recognize, necessitating some serious Googling until I got them all down. Their main antagonist, outside of poverty, neglect, and the growing decay of the Republic, is a gang leader named Zilestra, who is hellbent on two things: murdering Jedi and taking control of crime in the Ootmian Pabol, the region of the galaxy where Kwenn is. Miller gives her some good motivation for being a villain, but it could have used some more exploration and many of her lines rewritten, as she sounds like a prototypical cartoonish villain when making threats or not getting her way.

The central ideas of the book, that of a Republic in decline and a Jedi Order out of touch with the galaxy, events that led directly to the subsequent fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire, are worth more exploration and are largely glossed over. Miller can't exactly be blamed for that, since the political machinations of the plot of Phantom Menace gave fans years worth of grumbling, but there are aspects of the story Miller could have gone into that would have been more interesting than a planet largely unknown to fans. As is the problem with any Star Wars story that takes place prior to Episode III (and this is something that is problematic of the prequel phenomenon in Hollywood in general), is that it is hard to end on an optimistic note when we know what's about to happen to ALL of these characters.

Another problem is the Jedi Council itself: they're just not all that interesting. Miller does a decent job giving each of them unique characterizations, a lot of which he had to make up, as some of the council members were given little to no screen time even in the animated shows, but let's face it, some of the recent Star Wars stories have illustrated an unavoidable truth: most Jedi aren't very compelling characters. Many of them are boring Space Monks who were taken as children and raised in a dogmatic Order that had grown too powerful for its own good. They can do cool tricks, but rarely use them to help others unless directed to by the Republic, which as established, the Republic is pretty full of itself too. Damn ... as I type all this out, I start to think, maybe Palpatine was right... just kidding.

There are some cool fan moments in the book. It is fun to hear Samuel L. Jackson, Liam Neeson, and Frank Oz's voice in your head as you read dialogue from their famous characters, and while not enough, you do get some cool Jedi action toward the end of the novel. But like many of these adaptations, Miller gives far less time on the page to familiar characters like Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Mace Wendu, but to other lesser characters or ones he invented. I don't know why the authors of these books do this, perhaps it is a mandate from Disney.

If you're looking for a quick fix of Star Wars (not too quick, mind you ... it is kind of a slow burn), The Living Force might be up your alley, but it's not going to launch a new set of prequels to the prequels.