The Books of Karen Miller

A sequel to Karen Traviss' novelisation of 'The Clone Wars' movie and a tie-in to it's associated animated series; both of which gave me strong reservations about this book. However, it was lauded by Star Wars writer Abel G. Pena and therefore I decided to give it a look. The story focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi and Senator Bail Organa (Princess Leia's adoptive dad) as they are forced to travel into the untamed regions of Wild Space to a planet permeated with the power of the Sith. Obi-Wan has long been a favourite of mine and not only was it was nice to see him taking centre stage rather than the deeply irritating Anakin, but it was also interesting to see how he and Bail become the trusted friends seen in 'Revenge Of The Sith'. The book begins in the immediate aftermath of 'Attack Of The Clones' and I really enjoyed reading how all the characters involved are coping with the emotional fallout of that story's ending. It's interesting to note that in those first few chapters Obi-Wan's voice in my head as I read his dialogue was very much Ewan McGregor but as the story transitioned into tieing-in to the animated series the voice became the much crapper version seen there. Even now I'm not sure if this was because Miller was acknowledging the shift in tone between the movies and the cartoon, or simply a subconscious affectation on my part. The tie-ins to the cartoon provide all this book's worst bits, all of them involving the aforementioned irritating Skywalker and his apprentice Ahsoka, who is remarkably even more irritating. Also the book does drag slightly, and perhaps intentionally, during Obi-Wan and Bail's long space voyage into Wild Space. So, by the last third of the book I was a little dispirited overall. However, once Obi-Wan began facing the dark side assaults on the Sith planet Zigoola I really began to enjoy the book and it redeemed all of it's flaws. The simple truth is that I love reading about the eternal struggle between the Jedi and the Sith and it is in this era, when there aren't the legions of Sith which seem to be popping up in all other Star Wars media at the moment, that the struggle is it's most intense and personal. So, overall, I felt this book whilst flawed in places was more than worth my time.