Star Wars: Jedi Trial

Star Wars: A Clone Wars Novel #6

by David Sherman, Dan Cragg

“Within twenty-four standard hours we will sit firmly astride the communications link that connects the worlds of the Republic. . . . Our control will be a dagger thrust directly at Coruscant. This is the move that will win the war for us.”

With these ominous words, Pors Tonith, ruthless minion of Count Dooku, declares the fate of the Republic sealed. Commanding a Separatist invasion force more than one million strong, the cunning financier-turned-warrior lays siege to the planet Praesitlyn, home of the strategic intergalactic communications center that is key to the Republic’s survival in the Clone Wars. Left unchallenged, this decisive strike could indeed pave the way for the toppling of more Republic worlds . . . and ultimate victory for the Separatists. Retaliation must be swift and certain.

But engaging the enemy throughout the galaxy has already stretched Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s armies to the limit. There is no choice but to move against the surging waves of invading battle-droids on Praesitlyn with only a small contingent of clone soldiers. Commanding them will be Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon–hand-picked by the Council for the do-or-die mission. And at his side, skilled young starfighter pilot Anakin Skywalker, a promising young Jedi Padawan eager to be freed of the bonds of apprenticeship–and to be awarded the title of Jedi Knight.

Shoulder to shoulder with a rogue Republic army officer and his battle-hardened crew, a hulking Rondian mercenary with an insatiable taste for combat, and a duo of ready-for-anything soldiers, the Jedi generals take to the skies and the punishing desert terrain of occupied Praesitlyn–to bring the battle to the Separatist forces. Already outnumbered and outgunned, when confronted with an enemy ultimatum that could lead to the massacre of innocents, they may also be out of options. Unless Anakin Skywalker can strike a crucial balance between the wisdom born of the Force . . . and the instincts of a born warrior.



From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Adventure, War

337 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 26, 2004

About the author

David Sherman was the author or co-author of some three dozen books, most of which are about Marines in combat.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.

Reviews

[CS · Rating 1 out of 5]

Separatist Admiral Pors Tonith has attacked Praesitlyn, home of the communications hub of the Republic. Palpatine sends Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan, and Nejaa Halcyon, a shamed Jedi Master (he lost a ship to Zozrider Slayke, who coincidentally, happens to be defending Praesitlyn), to regain control of Praesitlyn and restore communications to the Outer Rim worlds.

NOTE: Based on novel and audiobook.

When I first reviewed this book several years ago, I said it was the worst Star Wars book. Of course, that was when I liked "The Crystal Star". So, I decided to go back and "reread" to see if it is as bad as I feared.

It is.

I had probably listened to barely a minute of the audiobook, when I made my first note, which was "Wow, the writing style is worse than Jude Watson, who purposefully writes for children". From there it went downhill.

For its credit, "Jedi Trial" does a few things okay. There are some continuity nods, most notably using the communications center on Praesitlyn, which was first established in "Heir to the Empire", Armand Isard, and Nejaa Halcyon. Also, it's obvious that the authors are well aware of how the military functions.

If you can't already tell, I am really grasping at straws, trying desperately to find any sort of "good aspects" to this book. This book is positively dreadful, a pain to read. I found I could only listen to a few minutes at a time; it was as if the book was giving me real, physical damage.

What's wrong with "Jedi Trial"? Let's detail it in an infamous list!

1. Characters. From established movie characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan to Expanded Universe ones like Nejaa and Asajj to original characters like Odie and Reija, the characters are dreadful. They are one cliché built on top of another, barely characterized beyond one or two words.
a. Anakin feels blank and under-developed. If it weren't for the fact his name is "Anakin", I would never have known that this is the man who becomes Darth Vader - or even the whiny teenager in "Attack of the Clones". He inexplicably becomes instantly attached to Reija, a transparent and blatant "Shmi" insert, so that he can become enraged when she is harmed in a cheap ploy for "drama". The whole thing feels out of character; Anakin has never seemed like the kind of person to become so quickly and indiscriminately attached to people.
b. Nejaa Halcyon, Corellian Jedi with a wife and child of his own, could have been "Anyone Jedi" for all his character development. He spends one moment even thinking about his family; most of his other scenes are him planning, yelling, or doing a bad job commanding. It's particularly sad because this is Corran Horn's grandfather, and I had been so looking forward to this ever since Corran hit the scene.
c. Asajj Ventress, big and splashy on the cover, plays a cameo role, in which she does nothing but growl at Pors Tonith for no reason. (There must be a rule book where all people on the "bad guy" side must growl and yell at their underlings.) Oddly enough, Count Dooku appears more in this book than Asajj. So why is she on the cover? Did someone mix up this cover with the one for "The Cestus Deception"?
d. Pors Tonith is a classic Cackling Villain. Most of his scenes center around him chuckling about how smart he is, how clever his plans are, and how he drinks dianoga tea that stains his teeth. It's a bad sign when one of the highlight characteristics of your villains is the color his teeth have been stained.
e. Reija Momen was painted as this wonderful, perfect "everyone's mother" (so called by an alien, of all beings) that came off so clichéd and over done. It was completely obvious how he authors were attempting to set up the "conflict" within Anakin.
f. Odie Subu not only has a horrible name (be honest - you thought of Garfield as soon as you read that name!) but she is the most boring, bland, uninspiring, stupid woman ever. The authors tell us that she supposedly is the best recon pilot, but we never get to actually see her doing anything intelligent. Instead, Odie does what any good traditional woman should and lets her man, Erk, make all the decisions.
g. Erk Harmond is a horribly clichéd fighter pilot. Take Han Solo, Dash Rendar, and Corran Horn, remove away any characteristics that aren't related to piloting, exaggerate all the over-confident, arrogant mannerisms, have him laugh at the most inopportune times and give him the personality of a doorknob and you have Erk.
h. What is with everyone worshiping Zozrider Slayke? The guy drove me bonkers, and if I had to listen to another of his "motivational speeches", I will strangle myself.

2. "Show, don't tell". The authors must have skipped this lesson in Writing Fiction 101, because the novel is basically one long "telling scenes" and interspersed with a couple of "showing scenes". When Nejaa is first mentioned, Anakin talks about how Nejaa is great. Well, that's nice, but can't we see how Nejaa is such a good Master and swords-being? When Reija enters, we are told she's a good administrator and that she's kind, but we never see her being kind to her employees. Ditto for her being "everyone's mother". And one of the highlights of the book, one of the biggest reasons I had to read this book, to read how Nejaa and Anakin, both married men, relate to each other when this is one of the biggest no-no's of the Jedi Order, is so hastily, sloppily, and pathetically done, it's embarrassing. Anyone, literally anyone, could have written a better scene where Nejaa and Anakin reveal their marital status and make it more stirring and impactful. The scene literally goes "Nejaa told Anakin about his wife and son...Anakin told Nejaa about Padme"!

3. Vagueness. Time and again, a scene is written as if it is a summary. When Anakin and Nejaa spar, their session is described in the barest of terms and lasts maybe three paragraphs. I have no clue what half the characters look like, besides vague descriptions such as "short, brown hair" (as for Odie) or "everyone's mother" (for Reija, and no, I'm never going to let that go). About the only time the authors aren't vague is when they are going into excruciating, mind-numbing detail about the tactics that will be used to fight the war (but, Force Forbid, never for the actual battle).

4. Bad writing. Hold it, that should be "God-awful bad writing". Seriously, I've not listened to and read such bad writing in forever. From questionable sentences like "Lan Moore was perspiring faintly" (he was close to fainting?) to "Someone cursed foully" (isn't all cursing technically foul?) to the grammatically incorrect list including "highly trained, highly motivated and equipped with armored vehicles", the pages are rife with writing that wouldn't pass in a fourth grade English class. I honestly don't know how the authors could have submitted this work. I would have been embarrassed. I was embarrassed as I listened to this.

5. Bad Dialogue. Characters talk all the same, without any distinction between Outer Rim and Inner Rim, Jedi and soldier, alien and human, male and female. They also tend to spout off clichéd sayings such as "Surrender is not an option", "It has been a pleasure to fight along side you", and "Attack, attack, attack" (which, apparently is not uncommon for pacifistic Alderaanians say).

6. Romance. Hang me up by the ears right now! I've railed against many an author who has written a bad romantic pairing, but none has come to the sheer awfulness that "Jedi Trial" has. Odie and Erk are barely one-dimensional characters. Throwing them together in a rough environment, inserting dopey dialogue, and having them "bond" ("Be my wingmate!" "Sure!") over the course of a few days does not a romance make. Callista and Luke's romance is better than this. Anakin and Padme's romance in "Attack of the Clones" is better than this. Edward and Bella's romance is better than this. I thank the Maker that whoever edited the audiobook excluded Anakin officiating their wedding. I've already abused myself enough over this book; I think hearing that would have taken me to the funny farm.

7. Laughing. I am so glad that people in this book can laugh at the drop of a hat. Odie and Erk meet and two minutes later, they are laughing with each other. Anakin and Nejaa spar...and then share a laugh. Erk is in the middle of a combat zone...and laughs. Slayke makes a joke about not having a plan, and then everyone of his team bursts into gales of laughter. Does any of this sound, oh, I don't know, awkward to you? I don't know about you, but I just don't think people would be laughing and joking as much as they do in this book. Well, perhaps if the jokes or situations were actually humorous instead of cringe.

8. Too much focus on battle plans. Yes, this is a Clone Wars novel. Yes, I expect a big, huge Clone Wars. No, I don't want to read the intricate, detailed plan of such an attack. I don't want to read about how much food they must supply, I don't want to read about where they are going to move this artillery and I certainly don't want to know what sort of retreat they have in plan. I want to read about the actual battle, the clones on the battlefield, the Jedi leading the way, spaceships flying and maneuvering.

9. Too little Star Wars. Minus character names and some technology, this book could have been set in Earth's future (or "Any Planet's" future). Artillery, military rankings, and the gushing over how much an officer is loved by his men for getting his hands dirty feels out of place in the galaxy far, far away. Meanwhile, I still don't know how a Star Wars ship could be boarded without one of the bridge officers noting the drop in the shields. Other ignorance of Star Wars technology makes the book frustrating.

When I first read this book, I hated it with a vengeance, like I've never despised a Star Wars novel before and since. And when I reread it, I found my opinion hadn't changed. This book is absolutely the worst novel in Star Wars Expanded Universe, worse than "The Crystal Star", the entire Jedi Academy Trilogy, and the Black Fleet Crisis combined. While I am a bit perturbed at how the new Clone Wars TV series has changed continuity of this era, I will gladly accept it if it means that it totally retcons and throws this piece of bantha excrement from Star Wars EU. I have one thing to say: Avoid at all costs, unless you take enjoyment out of picking on novels MST3K style.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Quickie Review

Many Star Wars Expanded Universe novels are loved by legions of fans, such as Timothy Zahn's Thrawn books.  Others are almost unanimously despised, such as The Crystal Star by Vonda M. McIntyre.  Jedi Trial is right in the middle; not amazing, but not terrible either.  I wouldn't suggest it for anyone who is new to Star Wars books, but those who are veteran SW readers might mildly enjoy it.



Score: 3/5

[Dexcell · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't the worst Star Wars book ever, but man this was incredibly forgettable. I could barely stay interested in the plot. I liked Neiaa Halcyon and how he and Anakin both shared a secret marriage, and obviously because his son Valin because an incredibly important character later on in the Post-ROTJ EU.

But man, I just didn't care about literally anything that happened. Which is saying a lot as I usually enjoy military focused stories. Oh well. On to the next one.

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, this book really worked for me!

The EU Clone Wars books that I've read just haven't resonated with me, even the ones with really high accolades like "Shatterpoint" and "Yoda: Dark Rendezvous", which everyone I knew lauded. So when everyone set low expectations for this book, I was actually dreading it.

But I'm so glad I read it, because it was really entertaining.

This reads like a great military science fiction novel set in Star Wars. It of course has the touchstones of Star Wars in it, but at its heart is a classic Mil-Sci-Fi book.

Surprisingly, my favorite characters were the original characters Odie and Erk. They had a great dynamic and served as not only a great 'couple', but also a good soldier perspective. Their story through the book is very stressful and I was interested every time they were present on the page.

The action in the book was well explaine and I was able to generally understand the tactics involved. That's fairly rare for a Star Wars book for me, so my hat's off to David Sherman and Dan Cragg for this.

They also have a ton of EU references. I was actually shocked by how many EU characters are referenced and how many EU easter eggs are name dropped. That made the book extra special to me.

I do have a few criticisms. My main problem is that Anakin is not utilized enough in the first 150 pages, and should have been much more prominent and involved, especially as he is billed as the main character of the book.

Also, there is some really bad dialogue in the book, particularly early on. I mean, it seems to give George Lucas and Attack of the Clones a run for its money.

One problem that all of the Clone Wars era books I've read (except for Travis' Commando books) is that they don't feature the clones. Like all the other books, the Clones seem to be not important, other than canon fodder, and instead the characterization went to other people. Perhaps it is the Clone Wars (2008) series that has gotten me used to the Clones having the center stage, but I wish that some of the characters in the book were swapped out for Clones instead and given some characterization.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the book. This actually is a clone wars novel that tells a battle of the clone wars, and focuses on some intersting themes about attachment and maturity and strategy. I loved seeing the dynamic between Nejaa Halcyon and Zozridor Slayke (also a great character).

Overall, really liked the book. Not top tier by any means, but really enjoyable nonetheless. I'll give it an 8 out of 10.

[Kat V · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot was difficult to get into. I had to restart it after a few months of not touching it. Casual sexism, great. Two people wrote this book and neither one of them was like “hey this is hot garbage.” Future self: Do not reread. The writing is bad, the characters are bad, the plot is bad, and the dialogue is bad. I would rather have diarrhea than reread this book. 0.6 stars rounded to 1.

[Iset · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite being a long-time, multiple re-reading Expanded Universe fan, there are a handful of books which managed to slip through the net and which I’ve never picked up. Mainly these are the ones that came out in the final years of the EU, when my free time was severely curtailed by the fact that I went off to university, applied for jobs, and other adult time sinks. So I had never actually read Jedi Trial until now. And now I wish I hadn’t.

Jedi Trial has got to be a strong contender for worst book in the Expanded Universe. Within the first two pages I found myself thinking; “Oh dear,” when I came across this example of dialogue:

“Anakin –”
“I’ve barely begun to unpack – I can meet you at the spaceport in an hour.”
“Anakin!” Obi-Wan tried again. “Anakin!”
Anakin didn’t turn around. “Where should I meet you?”
“ANAKIN!”
Obi-Wan’s shout finally caught Anakin’s attention and he spun about, taken aback by the unusually harsh tone. “Master?”

The reason I cringed was because this exchange sounded exactly like something you might read in fan fiction. I should add the qualifier that not all fan fiction is bad, of course, but a decent portion of it is written by young writers attempting to find their feet and lacking experience, often resulting in awkward, clunky dialogue between characters that doesn’t sound like anything people in real life would say. That’s what this exchange reminded me of. Scenes where a kooky, dreamy character implausibly cannot hear someone yelling in their face – despite the fact that this would be pretty hard to miss in real life – and issuing redundant dialogue. In retrospect, this poor quality of writing on the second page should’ve served as a warning, but I can imagine very few books that I’d give up on after just two pages, and so I pressed ahead.

Our familiar touchstone for this book is Anakin, but there’s two problems with this. First, for an established character who’s meant to draw the reader in to this book, Anakin feels like he’s barely in it. Second, when he does appear, we get Whiny Anakin, constantly complaining about how a jealous Obi-Wan is holding him back and pestering people to allow him to take his trial to become a Jedi Knight. Most of the other protagonists are original characters. The Expanded Universe has created some deeply fascinating and beloved original characters over the years – Mara Jade, Corran Horn, Mitth’raw’nuruodo. These are not among them. Mainly because they are written as shallow stock tropes, there’s far too much telling rather than showing going on, and they seemingly have no personality at all. The authors rely far too much on picking out one single bit of trivia about a character and repeating it ad nauseam. Imagine if every other sentence Han’s lopsided smile was mentioned, but none of his witty comebacks, stubbornness, or grudgingly revealed heart of gold. He’d just be a weird guy who smiles an inappropriate amount. I had trouble remembering or distinguishing people here, and a lot of them seemed like faceless redshirts. Several of them have plotlines that make no impact on the story whatsoever. The villain is an awful stereotype of arrogant cackling and overconfidence – no, I’m not talking about Asajj Ventress; she only has a cameo despite being prominently and rather deceptively showcased on the book’s cover.

So, on the one hand I have a set of thinly sketched characters who I’ve never met before and don’t care about at all, and on the other hand I have Anakin, who I care about but only because he’s such an important part of the Star Wars universe and not because he’s actually likable, entertaining, or empathetic in any way. Tell a lie, there is a character I care about in this book: Nejaa Halcyon. But Corran Horn’s beloved grandfather is rendered so clumsily, so unrecognisably, that to call the character in this book by the same name is frankly insulting. We’re supposed to buy into the notion that he and Anakin form a friendship, but instead of showing this to us, the authors summarise far too often, for example telling us that;

“They sparred again the next day, and the next, and the day after that. Each day, each improved, and each surprised the other with new moves and tricks. After the first few days they didn’t immediately part company when their sparring was over, but sat and talked. The next day they talked for a longer time. And the day after that, they dined together.”

This is so uninteresting and boring. Both in terms of repetitive sentence structure and in terms of telling me rather than showing me how their friendship develops. On a sidenote: the prequels really screw over Jedi like Nejaa Halcyon and their pre-established families. Actually, I could go off on a whole rant about how stupid the ‘no love’ rule was in the prequels, not just because several pieces of existing lore established Jedi families, but because of false causality. It’s not love that needs to be banned, but the notion that love is the most important thing in the galaxy and that we should sacrifice everything for it, pay any cost to gain it, including our most cherished principles on the altar of True Love. Speaking of romance, what is it with the prequels and young couples marrying in haste? Erk and Odie have known each other all of a few days – and he has shown seriously questionable behaviour during that time. I also laughed long and hard at Anakin’s attempts to write a love letter to Padme – he seems devoid of any capability to speak earnestly and authentically to her, and instead fills his missive full of purple prose and clichéd lines. As if he’s going through the motions of what he thinks love is rather than having any understanding of a real, healthy relationship where you can be yourself.

I can completely understand other readers who say they struggled to find something positive to praise in Jedi Trial. The only thing I can think of is that the authors definitely know their stuff when it comes to military logistics – both are ex-military, so I don’t question their expertise. The problem is they don’t know how to judiciously apply it. Instead the book is crammed with extremely dull information dumps that have no relevance to actually advancing the plot. Just because you know your stuff doesn’t mean you should try to cram every fact you can think of into your book. That does not make a compelling story. I struggled to stay awake whenever I picked up Jedi Trial, and by the time I got to 20% in I caught myself skimming – mostly to get through these dry info dumps, or the pallid, uninteresting protagonists’ scenes in order to get back to Anakin, Nejaa, or anyone who showed a bit of internal life really. I suppose you might enjoy it if you like repressed military types who spout clichéd one-liners that we’ve all heard before, laugh at moments that are definitely not funny, and wouldn’t recognise an emotion if it bit them on the nose.

I honestly think this book is worse than The Crystal Star. The Crystal Star had some weird, out-of-character shit in it, but its out-there ideas at least made it attention-grabbing and interesting on some level. I am most definitely scrubbing Jedi Trial from my canon and my conclusion is that it’s best left forgotten.

1 out of 10

[✨Rebel Fairy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so sorry this was published...

This didn't feel ike a Star Wars novel at all. I understand it is part of the Clone Wars, and war it is in this time period, but this novel felt pointless in the grand scheme of things. This didn't add to the universe.

This was supposed to be the pinnacle of Annakin's Jedi life, from Padawan to Jedi Knight. But all it was, war, death and military jargon with no fulfilment in my heart on how he became one🤷🏻‍♀️

The characters felt out of place in the dialogue. I can't imagine Dooku, saying what he said, nor Palpatine or Anakin.

The whole thing at the end with Yoda's 'investiture' (clouded this boy's future is) is bull... We all know how Yoda acted and reacted around Anakin.

I felt the characters' personalities were inconsistent and completely out of character.

Unfortunately, if I remove 'Star Wars' from the story, it still wasn't good.

I wish I could unread this one.

If you like constant military action, this is the novel for you.

[Meggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

For 2022, I decided to go back in time and reread all the Prequels Era novels published between 1999 and 2005, plus a smidgen of other novels (like Survivor's Quest and the Dark Nest trilogy) released during that time frame. This shakes out to 21 novels, four eBook novellas, and at least thirteen short stories.

This week’s focus: another Clone Wars book, this one primarily about Anakin Skywalker but also featuring Nejaa Halcyon: Jedi Trial by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

SOME HISTORY:

David Sherman was a US Marine, and Dan Cragg served as a non-commissioned officer in the US Army for 22 years. Together, they wrote 17 novels in the military sci-fi Starfist series between 1997 and 2009. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that their sole Star Wars novel Jedi Trial is also mostly military sci-fi. (As I discovered, your mileage may vary whether that’s something you’re interested in or not.)

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

When I first started reading Jedi Trial, I didn't remember any of it—but then I got to a Certain Scene and I remembered ‘lo those many years ago in 2004 getting to that exact same scene and putting the book down. I did read this, I'm just not sure whether I actually finished it .

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

The Separatists have taken Praesitlyn, a crucial Republic communications hub. The Jedi have dispatched Corellian Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon as well as Anakin Skywalker to join forces with an independent fighting group that has prior history with Halcyon. If Anakin returns from this battle triumphant, he will become a Jedi Knight—but he faces many temptations along the way…

THE CHARACTERS:

Jedi Trial was promoted as the book in which Anakin Skywalker becomes a Jedi Knight, 30 months into the Clone Wars conflict. (If you've watched the 3D animated Clone Wars TV show, you know that this timeline got rejiggered a bit so that instead Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight soon after the Battle of Geonosis. He takes an apprentice, and it gives him a little more justification for his meltdown in Revenge of the Sith about not being made a Jedi Master.) Here, though, Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight a mere six months before Episode III, and so Jedi Trial is meant to show us the ordeal he went through to become Knighted.

Honestly, though, Anakin isn't in a huge chunk of this story. We meet him in the Prologue where Obi-Wan is leaving for a mission and Anakin is left behind. He becomes friendly with Nejaa Halcyon because they’re both stuck on Coruscant at the same time. When Halcyon is given command of this force to rescue the communications hub on Praesitlyn, he names Anakin as his second-in-command. But even then, Anakin and Halcyon don't arrive on Praesitlyn until Chapter 16, more than halfway through the story.

So you may be wondering: Okay, if the Jedi aren't there for a lot of the story, then what's going on? And the answer is: we see the Battle of Praesitlyn before the Jedi reinforcements arrive, and we meet a lot of Original Characters. We have the people in the communications hub like Reija Momen, who are captured by the Separatists; we have the local Praesitlyn forces like Odie Subu the recon trooper and Erk H’Armen the pilot, and their commanding officers; and we have the independent fighting force led by Zozridor Slayke, who arrive and enter into a standoff with the Separatist forces until Halcyon’s reinforcements arrive.

Odie and Erk are main characters here, for better or (mostly) for worse. Erk’s starfighter is shot down, and he’s rescued by Odie, who was the sole survivor from her recon troop. They travel through the desert, and get picked up by Slayke’s forces, then they get trapped and subsequently rescued and they join up with Anakin’s group. There is an awful lot of the plot devoted to Odie and Erk, and I didn’t find their story particularly moving. Their romance likewise felt rushed and out of place.

The only person within the communications hub that we get to know at all—and even that is very fleetingly—is Reija Momen. All we know about her is that she’s Alderaanian, and she’s “matronly.” Everyone views her as this mother figure, yet we don’t see any examples of her being motherly to the crew under her command. It felt a bit insulting, to be honest, that Momen exists solely to remind Anakin of his own mother and then die tragically so that he can get mad and lash out at the Separatist forces.

Slayke is depicted as such a great man—even Halcyon, who had beef with him, thinks that he’s a great guy. Everyone likes him, everyone respects him as a leader, but at the same time I felt like his supposedly noble backstory had some issues? He didn’t think the Republic was doing enough against the Separatists, so he stole his ship and built up this unofficial force. Halcyon was dispatched to arrest him and bring him to Coruscant, but instead he stole Halcyon’s ship. He ended up being pardoned, and is now working as a mercenary/privateer for the Republic. Basically he got mad that things weren't going his own way, and he ran off and stole equipment. But he’s a great guy, a great leader! He gives many inspiring speeches to his men, and after the third one I was over his inspiring speeches (and Slayke too).

I liked some of Anakin's plotline, that he really dug into his role as the leader of these troops and tried to learn everything he could about his forces. I did feel that maybe Anakin should have been given opportunities like this earlier, seeing that we are now two and a half years into the Clone Wars. Maybe it’s a consequence of wanting to keep him out of the stories until Revenge of the Sith, so that the authors don’t contradict anything in Episode III? I also felt like Anakin's conclusion was more unsubtle setup for Revenge the Sith--this matronly woman is killed before him, reminding him of the death of his mother, and he gives into his anger and attacks the Separatists. Palpatine/Sidious must have had a plan for this battle, but when we get to the end it seems like his plan was just “make Anakin angry.” Palpatine has been manipulating events from the beginning, so I don’t understand setting up the Battle of Praesitlyn if this whole attack is only to (maybe) make Anakin mad again about dead mothers.

Nejaa Halcyon… As we learned in the X-Wing books and I, Jedi, he was a Corellian Jedi Master and the biological grandfather of Corran Horn. Except here, you could have replaced Halcyon with any other Jedi character and it wouldn’t have mattered. I suspect that someone at Del Rey or Lucasfilm told Sherman and Cragg to pair up Halcyon and Anakin, because they were both secretly married. But this doesn’t play out in a natural manner in Jedi Trial AT ALL.

Nejaa and Anakin encounter each other in the Jedi Temple and they spar together. This is one of many instances in the book, where we are told something but not really shown it. So we’re told that Halcyon and Anakin slowly become friends, but we don’t see their friendly interactions. And halfway through the story, as they're heading to Praesitlyn, both Halcyon and Anakin write secret letters to their secret wives. Then Halcyon seeks Anakin out, and (out of nowhere!) reveals to Anakin that he’s married. Anakin replies that he’s also married! This was the point years ago where I remember putting the book down, because it’s such an awkward and unnatural conversation. I can’t see that scene playing out like that in real life. Even if they’re friends, I still don’t think that Halcyon would make this out-of-the-blue revelation to Anakin, and that Anakin would confess as well. It seemed like someone thought “we know these two characters are secretly married even though the Jedi Order wouldn’t approve of it, so let's smash them together in a book and make them talk about it.” But this scene doesn’t work for me—I don’t buy it.

There’s nothing touchcing on the differences between Halcyon and Anakin’s situations: as a Corellian Jedi, Halcyon had a different upbringing and comes from an insular, somewhat renegade Jedi community that might have led to his secret marriage being treated differently than Anakin’s. But you get no sense of that here. Halcyon has connections to other Jedi, like Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Caamasi Jedi Ylenic It’kla, but we only get surface-level references to his friendship with Kenobi and nothing about It'kla. He feels like a Generic Jedi more than what had been previously established about him. He also didn’t seem to be a very good commander, seeing as his big ground action leads to Anakin’s forces being pulverized.

And while the cover suggests that Asajj Ventress is the Big Bad, this is just like The Cestus Deception--she only appears in a few scenes via hologram, and the actual leader is Pors Tonith of the Banking Clan. He’s the kind of villain that sits around and doesn’t get his hands dirty, drinking gross tea that turns his teeth purple and antagonizing both his bosses and his forces. He thinks highly of himself, but he’s not very smart. I would have rather had Ventress here, because at least she’s interesting.

Once again, I'm not sure what the Separatist plot is, because they take the communications hub yet Dooku suggests that there is another plan in place that Tonith doesn’t know about. If this was meant to redirect the Republic’s attention from somewhere else, we don’t get any sense of that. Even the choice to use Reija Momen as a hostage was Tonith’s idea, not Palpatine’s, so I have no idea how this battle fits into Palpatine and Dooku’s larger game plan.

ONE NICE THING:

Before I get into issues, I will say that it was nice to see some Expanded Universe cameos here. We have Armand Isard as a Republic Intelligence lead; we have Nejaa Halcyon, even if he retains few of his defining traits; we have a member of the Tarkin family serving as a senator. That’s interesting!

ISSUES:

There were some weird bits here that didn't fit with previous EU continuity, though. The Separatists take Praesitlyn, and it appears that nearby Sluis Van is allied with the Republic. But one of the in-universe Holonet News volumes on the Star Wars website depicted the Sluis sector siding with the Separatists. If Praesitlyn is part of that sector, why does the Republic have a major communications hub on it? The Separatists are also using many cloaked ships, something that I didn’t think was widely available at the time. Five years after the Battle of Endor in the Thrawn trilogy, Thrawn gets his hand on cloaking technology, and it takes a while for the New Republic to figure out what he’s up to. Yet here we see cloaked ships boarding Halcyon’s flagship, and the Separatist reinforcement fleet is entirely cloaked. I didn’t think that tech was running rampant during the Clone Wars, but I may be wrong.

One of my big issues with Jedi Trial was that this is straight-up military sci-fi for most of the story. It doesn't even feel like Star Wars military sci-fi for the scenes with Odie and Erk and Slayke, just generic military stuff. (Which is what Sherman and Cragg usually write.) It didn’t feel Star Wars enough—or interesting enough—for me. I also found some of the battle scenes hard to follow; the internal chronology jumps around at times, and I couldn’t visualize where all these lines were and what they were doing. (A map would have been much appreciated, but alas.) The scenes with Odie and Erk especially did not contribute much to the story, and felt like padding for length. If scenes don’t feel integral or like they’re leading to something, then I'm going to get bored.

And so much of the military scenes are logistics: we can only hold out for another seven days because we need two tons of blah blah blah, but we’re losing too many shuttles and only have one ton of blah on the ground. I don’t care! Maybe that’s why I’m not familiar with Sherman and Cragg’s other works, because they look like dude-heavy Space Marine stories, which is not one of my preferred sci-fi subgenres.

Odie and Erk are a whole issue in and of themselves. First, Odie is a terrible name; Erk isn’t great either, but Odie makes me think of the dog from Garfield. Why would you name her something that? Odie’s described as a great recon trooper, but she doesn’t get many opportunities to show her skills. Instead she’s wandering around the desert with Erk in a state of dehydration, or following Erk around as his “wingmate.” They staff a big repeating blaster and get trapped under debris because Erk won’t retreat. They cut through rock with a vibroknife?? She accidentally shoots someone and people joke about it, as though killing someone under friendly fire is not a super traumatic experience. (She has maybe one chapter to be upset about it, then she’s fine and she’s storming the communications hub with Anakin.) And despite knowing each other for a week tops, she and Erk get married in the end in a ceremony officiated by Anakin. WHAT?

IN CONCLUSION:

Jedi Trial is ostensibly the story of how Anakin Skywalker became a Jedi Knight. But truthfully, Anakin isn’t a significant part of the story until the halfway point, and instead the focus is on characters like Odie and Erk and Zozridor Slayke, and copious confusing battle scenes. (If you like military sci-fi, you may like Jedi Trial more than I did.) I also felt like there were times when Sherman and Cragg had interesting ideas, but the execution of them fell completely apart—and the epitome of that was the conversation between Nejaa Halcyon and Anakin about their secret marriages. It was garbage.


Next up: possibly my favorite Clone Wars story! Yoda: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/Mw5elKUtE6I

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Set in 22BBY

Well.. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

An ok plot with a bad bad.. bad execution. While the premise of Anakin Skywalker's trial to become a Jedi Knight holds promise, the characterization falls short, particularly with Anakin appearing one-dimensional to say the least. Pacing issues and an overemphasis on military tactics detract from the narrative's momentum. Moreover, the supporting cast lacks depth, hindering reader investment.

The writing style feels flat and fails to capture the essence of the Star Wars universe. It felt like a bad episode of Hercules and Xena in space.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book as both Star Wars and fan fiction go, but not very readable either. Mssrs. Sherman and Cragg should have spent more time on their story and less on educating the reader on the importance of logistics. Their lengthy digressions stopped the story dead, and--curiously--never really impacted it.

Unlike other Clone War tomes, this one does advance the Star Wars plot toward Episode Three.

Despite their apparent war story credentials, a number of incidents seem counter-intuitive, even stupid. One such, organizing your force on the fly, could not possibly be done in the time and to the degree of effectiveness claimed. If your forces haven't formed and operated larger-than-company units, it's unlikely they will magically coalesce into effective battalions and regiments during a couple of days in transit.

In improbability of Odie and Erk's activities, of course, is the stuff of which YA adventure novels thrive.

[Rae · Rating 1 out of 5]

God-awful. Authors focused WAY too heavily on military action. Romantic relationship between minor characters was forced and contrived. UGH.

[Spookybats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from my first official star wars novel but it was better than expected
I was surprised to see obi wan, padme and other main characters not be in the story, but even with all the various new characters it was still a good read
I wasn't expecting the multiple povs but it actually worked better than I hoped
my favorite part was when Anakin found out his Jedi master friend was also married and even had kids. when I found that out, I was expecting bad news for that character, but he's fine. maybe he's back with his wife and kid. Anakin was like 'it feels bad to lie to everyone, especially obi wan, but also it doesn't feel wrong to love padme' like go off king
he also wrote poetry to her and that means a lot to me
I wonder why the force ghost went to him then and not.....other times in his life. could've helped him out but whatever it was still a nice surprise

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another reason why Disney decided to get rid of the old SW universe... It was at the library and I saw that it had a 3.64 ratings here. I have no idea how and I probably should have looked at one of my friends review and several others in the beginning who basically said this book blows donkey. But I didn't until about 100 pages in because I was wondering how this was rated this high.

The book is maybe 25% about Anakin and the Jedi. It is mostly about the other people on the planet who are being attacked by the Separatist. Here is the skinny and trust me I am not ruining anything because this is a book you can skip or what I ended up doing was really skipping a lot of the book just to get it over with.

Erk-a male pilot on the good side who is a hot shot
Odie-a female soldier on the good side, who came off as great then was reduced to someone who needs a man...like Erk...
Despite the attack going on they find love with each other in the most absurd and fictional way. I ended up skipping entire sections with them in it.

General Slayke happens to be the dude who steals Jedi Master Halcyon ship awhile back. His man are all laughs and giggles when he talks about the battle and what needs to be done.

Despite being a Jedi Master he is pretty much banished by the Jedi Counsel up until now because of the ship stealing.

Anakin and Halcyon become friends and Ana's is invited to join him on this fight.

Ana's and Hal's tell each other that they are married. Not believable as Ana's wouldn't do that.

Slayke doesn't like Hal...

Blah blah blah, we win they lose despite having over a million droids compared to two hundred thousand.

The dialog is terrible and forced.

The description of what goes into the battles are good, but excessive. The authors write war books and are former military people.

And the worst ending ever with Erk's and Odie asking Ana's to marry them. Just horrible.

DON'T READ THIS.

[Jared · Rating 1 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #154

Background: Jedi Trial was written by David Sherman and Dan Cragg. It was published in October 2004. Sherman is the author of a series of Vietnam War novels and Cragg is the author of several nonfiction books about the military. Together they have collaborated on a series of military sci-fi novels. This is their only Star Wars work.

Jedi Trial is set . . . okay, well, about that: According to the novel itself and any other sources printed around the time of its publication and for several years after, it is set 30 months after the Battle of Geonosis (about 20 years before the battle of Yavin) and depicts Anakin's ascension to the rank of Jedi Knight during the final months of the Clone Wars. Then The Clone Wars animated series came along and decided that Anakin was made a Jedi Knight about a month into the war, a good two and a half years before this. The official attempt to reconcile this was to declare that any works depicting or mentioning Anakin as a Jedi apprentice (i.e. most of the comics, novels, and YA novels, etc. published as part of the collaborative Clone Wars multimedia project during the years between the release of Episode II and Episode III) now take place in the first 6 months of the way.

This is a stupid solution, and the sheer absurdity of it finally struck me full-force as I read this novel. I wrote a bit before in my review of The Clone Wars novel about what a mess this all was from the point of view of trying to figure out the timeline in advance of reading my way through all the Clone Wars stuff. Now that I have, it ends up looking even worse. At the time I just figured it was really confusing, but that contradictions would be fairly minor. But it runs quite a bit deeper than that. The problem is twofold:

First, the inconsistencies and contradictions are significant, not in what the older material states, but in what it leaves out. It simply isn't possible to imagine the events of The Clone Wars animated series happening in-between or around the events of the Clone Wars multimedia project that came before it. Too many important things happen, and they would come up. Ahsoka Tano alone leaves a gaping vacuum that can't be plausibly filled.

Second, if you're trying to construct some sort of combined Legends timeline, as difficult as that is, the majority of the animated series stuff falls together right in the middle of the multimedia project stuff. But the multimedia project was written as a coherent whole to tell the story of the Clone Wars, and it's pretty disruptive to the narrative flow for it to be interrupted by a completely different story of the Clone Wars halfway through.

When it was announced in 2014 that the Star Wars Expanded Universe was no longer canon and would be rebranded as "Legends," splitting it off into its own closed alternate timeline, it was a big deal. At the time, I'd read little or none of the Clone Wars multimedia project, and hadn't seen any of the Clone Wars animated series beyond the pilot movie, so what I didn't realize then was that the timeline had already split. Disney may have formalized it, but the animated series had already broken ranks with all previous Star Wars media by totally disregarding and even outright contradicting previously established material. I've already noted at least one instance where this totally derailed an ongoing storyline in the EU. Namely, that it resulted in Karen Traviss bowing out of completing her "Republic Commando" series because the animated series completely scrapped all of the lore she had painstakingly established about Mandalore.

And don't get me wrong: The animated series is a wonderful gift to Star Wars fans. It's great, and it has fed directly into the even-better Rebels animated series. It's not perfect, but it is consistently better than much of the EU covering the same period. I didn't know how I'd ever get through reading The Cestus Deception and Jedi Trial is (spoiler for the rest of this review) utter crap. But I don't like the way the series showed such total disregard for others playing in the same sandbox, often in ways that weren't really necessary.

What's weird, then, is that when the EU split happened, everything up to that point remains part of the Legends timeline, but the animated series was basically the only thing outside of the films to also make the transition into the new canon. In my opinion, this means the obvious solution to the timeline weirdness is to consider the animated series tie-in stuff to be part of the new canon only, where it actually makes sense and actually fits, and if I were beginning this project again, I'd cut all of it out of the Legends timeline entirely.

Summary: Praesitlyn is a planet that houses the beating heart of the entire Republic communications network, and a Muun admiral named Pors Tonith has just swept in to take it with an overwhelming force. With resources already stretched too thin, but forced to act, the Jedi Council assembles a small army of clone troopers to be led by the only two Jedi available: the disgraced master Nejaa Halcyon of Coruscant and Anakin Skywalker. Both are hungry for an opportunity to prove themselves, but the odds are stacked against them and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Review: On paper, this had to have sounded like a brilliant idea: Get two authors with military and combat backgrounds and experience writing about the military who have collaborated on military sci-fi to write you a Star Wars war novel. But then it turns out that they're terrible writers and the book is terrible. Somehow Jedi Trial manages to be orders of magnitude crappier and less gritty and less visceral and authentic (for lack of a better word) than literally anything by Karen Traviss, or Stover's epic, Vietnam-esque Shatterpoint, or even the MASH-inspired Medstar duology.

It's very clear that the writers know what they're talking about when it comes to the military and warfare, and it's nice that they make an effort to address issues that just never ever come up anywhere else in Star Wars: Armies take time and planning to put together and to coordinate and to deploy. Armies require supplies and supply lines, which also takes a lot of additional personnel working behind the scenes. Armies need information to operate, and that requires good reconnaissance. There's more to strategy than throwing masses of troops at each other. The problem is, they mostly raise these issues by pausing the action to have a character deliver a didactic monologue about it . . . like they just can't stay off this soapbox, whether anyone (either the reader or the characters in the story) is interested or not.

And speaking of the characters in the story . . . They're so, so bad. Bland, featureless, laden with wooden dialogue. And their names are even worse. Names like, I kid you not, "Makx Maganinny" and Clone Commando CT-19/39: "His own nickname for himself was Green Wizard, because of his rank as a sergeant and his skill at patrol craft." The main POV original characters are pilot Erk (named, I assume, after the noise an Imperial Admiral makes when Darth Vader Force-chokes him mid-sentence) and recon trooper Odie (named after . . . well, who knows). These two stumble from bit to bit all through the story, and about 2/3 of the way through I suddenly realized that they hadn't actually had any impact on anything that had happened. You could just chop every mention of them out of the book and it wouldn't leave a hole. I'm pretty sure we'd all be better off if this one had been left out: "Anakin leaned forward and kissed Odie lightly on the cheek. The aroma of her freshly washed hair brought back memories--Padme--and his heart raced with joy." Sweet lord, Anakin, don't be such a benighted creeper! Is Padme the only person you know who washes her hair regularly, or just the only person whose hair you regularly sniff? Wait, don't answer that. I don't actually want to know.

Oh, and about Anakin . . . Yes, he's pretty badly written in this. Though Anakin is such a poorly written character to begin with that I suppose I should at least partway forgive them that. I'm less inclined to forgive them their protrayal of Nejaa Halcyon, which is so bad Michael Stackpole should consider suing. The reason he's "disgraced" makes absolutely no sense, and the eventual payoff of all that is even worse. But the missed opportunity here is even more egregious. The one thing we know about Nejaa Halcyon (as a character who was created before the prequels dictated certain rules about the Jedi Order), it's that he had a family. And so, of course, that family is a dark secret he keeps from the rest of the Jedi, much like Anakin's own secret. And this thing they have in common actually comes up between them, which ought to be the basis for some fantastic characterization and development . . . but they just throw it away like the garbage the rest of this book is.

The one concession I'll give it (in addition to the "raising pertinent, often-ignored issues" I mentioned earlier) is that it's not a complete drag to get through. They keep things moving for most of the book, and the plot never feels like it's just marking time the way some of the worst novels do. But that's pretty far from enough. I'll leave you with this series of excerpts centered around an event that happens partway through the novel:

"Friendly fire, Anakin thought, that was what the sergeant had called the accident. He wondered who had invented such a ridiculous term. Some staff officer, no doubt, someone safe and secure in a headquarters, someone who jested at scars but who'd never felt a wound himself. There was nothing friendly about fire that caused that much injury, no matter who it came from. Anakin fought down a surge of anger at the kind of military mind that would call such a thing 'friendly fire.'"

I hope that's the last time I ever see a Star Wars novel attempt such a trite, flagrant Shakespeare rip off. It doesn't even make sense. Later, Anakin visits his friend, the victim of the aforementioned incident:

"'With a head injury like that he won't last much longer. We can't even give him a sedative, unless, of course, you want me to end his misery--'
"Anakin turned on him. 'If I ever again hear you say something like that about one of my troopers, I swear . . .' He shook his head."

HOW DARE YOU PROPOSE A HUMANE OPTION FOR A SUFFERING PATIENT, YOU MONSTER. But then, after Anakin threatens the doctor for daring to suggest such a thing and the doctor leaves ... Anakin straight up lies to his friend! He’s all, “You’re gonna be fine! We’re gonna lift you up to our best hospital ship and they’ll get you all fixed up!”

And then his friend dies and Anakin is all, “Tomorrow I lead the attack! He will be avenged!”

Anakin, bro ... HE :clap: WAS :clap: KILLED :clap: BY :clap: FRIENDLY :clap: FIRE. Of all the things going on around you, this is the one thing that is not the enemy's fault. Actually, come to think of it . . . I said earlier that those two characters could be pulled from the novel without causing a ripple. That's not quite true. This was their fault. So it's not even that things would be no different if they didn't exist. It's that things would be better.

Don't. Read. This.

D-

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. I often get defensive about EU novels when people criticize them unfairly, but it is books like this that earn the scorn. This book seems pretty out of the ordinary for both of the authors (why two?), so maybe that is why it was such a colossal failure. It has been years since I've read Crystal Star, but this has to be the worst Star Wars book in the EU.

This was one of the few books that I felt was a failure on virtually every level. Even basic descriptions seemed way off and were very distracting. I'll make up an example that is very close to something I remember. '"Please pass me the salt." He roared.' You get to the end and think, "He roared? Is he pissed for some reason and I missed it? No? I guess he is just mad? No idea." Another one would be: '"Please pass me the salt." They noticed the fury in his eyes.' But there wasn't any tension prior to this or after it, so you are just regularly confused. I found an example. They are discussing strategy calmly. "That's what he's hoping for, so he can cut us down to size!" Did he yell that last bit?

It was also very cliché. I remember at least twice that the authors had two people, in the midst of battle and massive amounts of death and carnage, just start roaring with laughter. They even had multiple editions of "We aren't retreating. We are advancing in the opposite direction!!!!!!" Everyone laughs in an uproar. The greatest thing they've ever heard.

I think the worst was the characters. It was like they condensed an entire season or two of a tv show into half of one book. In the beginning, a male pilot and a female scout get stranded together. Literally within minutes they are in love and he is talking about them being a team and suddenly they are kissing. Didn't they just have everyone they care about get slaughtered and they are both injured and dehydrated and just met this person? Erk and Odie could have been taken out of this story and it wouldn't have harmed a thing other than the idiot Odie wouldn't have shot her ally Grudo. Anakin is basically an unrecognizable character. Everything is the authors telling us stuff instead of showing us. We constantly get people who just met Anakin making corny comments like, "Wow, I can see you value your soldiers and lead from the front. You wouldn't send them into danger that you yourself wouldn't go into. You have a strong grasp of strategy and also a great amount of humility. You are a a reliable commander." He is also a Gary Stu. He reads some descriptions of historical battles for a week or two and is immediately besting seasoned generals in coming up with strategy. The generals just stand in awe saying, "Boy, this kid sure is sharp. He has figured out strategies and is a capable commander who understands what it takes. He is going to shape the galaxy." That isn't hyperbole. That is literally how they talk in this book. Anakin's relationship with Grudo was absurd. They knew each other for the duration of the trip from Coruscant whatever the planet was where the battle takes place. Let's be generous and say this took a week. This is a quote when Grudo died. "He thought of Anakin, whom he'd come to love during the time they had worked together." He loved him! They didn't even fight in battles together. They travelled on a ship together and Grudo gave him a few tips. That is a good example of how ridiculous the characters are in this book.

The plot was ludicrous. Apparently this is an insanely important planet. We don't really know why. It is just a powerful communications hub. Losing it would threaten the Republic. But they barely had it defended. This is brought up to Palpatine and he basically is just like, "Yeah, my bad." This is offensive. Every single strategic mind in the GAR who saw that would've been asking, "Why aren't we defending this critical planet? Isn't that insanely stupid?" But no. Apparently nobody thought to defend a planet that may end the war if the Republic lost it.

Also, near the end of the novel, it is offensive that Anakin literally just flew to the coms center, ran inside, and easily got the hostages and captured the enemy general. Prior this this, they said it couldn't be done because they had anti-air. I guess the droids weren't paying attention.
It sure sucks that about 70,000 people died in this battle because they didn't just try flying a jedi straight to the site. Then, when he rescues the woman who looks like his mom (why?), he isn't able to save her. He goes from effortlessly slaughtering droids, to standing their like an idiot while she jumps in front of him to protect him and takes a laser through the spine, to being a killing machine again and single-handedly ending the battle. This is just bad..

They even have a moment at the end when one of them says something like, "We should just blow up the communications station." The entire time, the only reason they didn't was because of the hostages. So according to the authors, Palpatine and the other top officials are willing to risk the existence of the Republic to save a handful of communications technicians.
They are also willing to sacrifice over 50k troops for them. There didn't seem to be too much hope of taking and holding the facility, that is until Anakin miraculously destroyed the massive incoming fleet that would've killed them all. He basically just shoots a torpedo at the main ship and they win.
Anakin dies, except he jumped to lightspeed real quick, then came back out, then came back to surprise them all. Gee, I bet a lot of the pilots who've died in near identical circumstances would've like to know that you can just do a blind jump to hyperspace and survive.

The two authors are veterans, so maybe they have experience to refute my criticism. But there is a scene where a wounded clone is brought to the hospital area with a wound from his shoulder to his hip. It is so deep, Odie can see his freakin spine. They don't make a point of saying he'd had work done already, they just say he was in shock. Anyway, Odie gives him a drink of water and he thanks her. Are we really supposed to believe this dude is alive at minimum 20-30 minutes after receiving a wound that would kill you in a few minutes tops? It just seemed so outlandish for a pair of authors who appear to know what they are talking about in a military sense.

The authors desperately needed an editor to tell them when to stop with something. There is a scene where a droid describes his abilities and it reminded me of when Bubba was telling Forrest Gump all the methods of cooking shrimp. In the movie, it comically fades out and fades back in much later with him still talking. This book does the same thing, but it never fades out. There are literally pages of this droid describing what it is qualified to do.

These authors clearly know the military and made a point of bring logistics into it. The problem is that it was insanely over done and didn't factor into the story at all. I would love getting a few details that support the decisions of some of the characters. This book goes into detail about how many calories a person needs per day and what kind of foods. How much water they drink a day and how they have to bring the ships down 100km away and transport them over and they lose some so they'll eventually run out of water and...none of it ever factors into the plot at all. It is brought up quite a bit, so it felt pointless once you figured out near the end that none of it really pertained to the story.

The authors didn't seem to get the characters already established. They mainly stuck with characters they created, but they really butchered it with Anakin. I cut them some slack because I believe this was one of the early books. If you compare this to the Clone Wars series, the difference in character is stark. In the series, Anakin develops very close bonds from the get-go with clones and is willing to sacrifice himself for them. He doesn't really care about them at all in this book. He cares just enough to want to do well, but only because he wants to be knighted. When he is leading them to slaughter and they are getting horrifically massacred, he isn't too concerned.
They even blow up a number of their own troops because they didn't wait for them to get clear before opening the artillery barrage. When a clone asks him why they didn't wait (because we don't really get a good reason), Anakin gets all mad that they are questioning his authority and blows them off saying obviously it was the right decision. I guess a clone should just keep his mouth shut when one of his brothers is needlessly killed by his own side. If they would've named the character something different, nobody would ever think this was Anakin.


There is a weird recurring speech about how you better never say friendly fire, because boy, it isn't friendly at all. That is brought up again and again. It was such a dumb argument you have to start wondering if the authors know that it is friendly because you are being shot by your friends not because the action itself is friendly.

I can usually find some redeeming quality in every Star Wars books. Even in the bad books, I find something that I felt added to the EU in a positive way. This book has zero redeeming qualities.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Wars: Legends: A Clone Wars Novel 06 Jedi Trial by Dan Cragg, David Sherman

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense

Medium-paced

Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes

3.75 Stars

This is a war story, but one that is notable...for this is the first one, where Anakin is a leader of Clone Troopers. See how he did, by picking up this book and reading it.

This book has some good characters, like Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon. When Obi-Wan is off on a seperate SOLO mission, Halcyon does Anakin a solid...and gets permission to take him with him on this mission. It is a test for BOTH of them.

The planet of Praesitlyn, which I've never heard of before...but where a huge battle is taking place...and they (our heroes) are going to help the current soldiers...with Clone Troopers and a couple of Jedi (Master and Padawan).

Seperatists versus the Republic, which is the entire Clone Wars arc. I didn't like the Prequels all that much, when I first saw them, but now that I've watched The Clone Wars (movie and TV series), I've fallen in love with the part of Galactic history.

Clone Troopers versus Droids, also AKA as Clankers. "Roger, Roger", which sadly, I don't remember this ever being said during the entire book. Missed opportunity, if you ask me.

Chancellor Palpatine versus Count Dooku. Those in the "know", know what EXACTLY is going on. Ha!

Reija Momen is a great character, too. One that touches Anakin. Some truly great scenes with her...and her power.

...and one of my favourite side characters was Odie. 

[Samuel Saul Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly not a great Star Wars book. Focusing on Anakin learning to become a military commander there was a lot of military logistics covered and it was also very graphic for the violence, which is uncommon in this universe.

*SPOILERS*

Anakin gets paired with a Jedi Master who also has a wife and a kid?! Yet we conveniently never see or hear from him again. Why wouldn't Anakin have talked with and relied on him, rather than Sidious or Yoda?

This is also where Anakin gains Knighthood (or, at least one version- as its also shown in 2003 Clone Wars) but it feels very unceremonial and rushed.

Jedi (and/or Army officers) are apparently able to do weddings.

We also (unsurprisingly) find Anakin about to commit a murderous rampage until Qui-Gon gives him advice from beyond the grave. The second time we hear from a 'Force ghost.'

[Mike Wilmoth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Always have been interested in this book. It’s mentioned a bunch in “Yoda” and “Labyrinth of Evil”. This never caught my interest. I think it was one of Jonathan Davis’ worst. There for sure won’t be a reread.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it is me, but I found the book quite boring. It could have been so much more. When I compare to other star wars books I feel like it just misses substance. When I ask myself what now actually happened in this book. I would say not much. I hope other people enjoy it more than I did. Maybe there was just too much large scale combat for me.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Skip it. I beg.

[William Boyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Wars: Jedi Trial is a novel set a little after the 1st Battle of Geonosois, which takes a young Anakin Skywalker on a mission rescue a captured Republic intergalactic communications center from the hands of the Separatists. It is about 330 pages, and the time I spent reading this book is time I would like back. When Disney made most of the old Star Wars novel legends back in 2012 I was disappointed, but I’m not sad about this one’s fate. This novel might be one of the worst I’ve ever read, and it’s not because the writing is necessarily bad, but because the story and characters make no sense, and have no basis in what was previously established in the saga. The writing has flaws as well, though.

First I will get what I liked about this book out of the way, and there is a fair bit. I liked how the story was an adventure for Anakin, and I liked the chapters from the clones point of view, although there were only a couple, and I mean like 2 maybe. I also liked how it had a grittier tone than what we saw in the movies and in the current Disney Star Wars, with blown off limbs, blood, and realistic wounds. I also appreciated the representation of the droids as actual killer robots, and not as comedic relief as they were shown frequently in the movies and shows. Finally, I like the opening chapter with Obi-Wan and the chapter with the chancellor, and the closing two pages.

Now that that is out of the way, let me get into why I believe this is not a good book. I will start first with the tone, which I just praised, but unfortunately they could not keep it good for the whole book. This problem may be attributed to the fact that two authors worked on this story, but it fluctuates so much that you can’t take the darker, grittier chapters seriously when the next chapter is about them arguing with a protocol droid or bantering with a droid guard. I understand that every story has lighter moments, and that it’s a Star Wars book, but why bother with the darker story at all if you won’t even try to stick with it.

The pacing of this story is also a mess, with all of the action being completed in the last 30 pages of the book. It’s as if they wanted to make a really in depth story, but Lucasfilm gave them a page restriction, and instead of cutting out inconsequential scenes like all of the scenes with Odie and Reija, just decided to rush the ending. It’s mind boggling why they did that, as it messes with the pacing as well as hurting the overall narrative, as the chapters with them are so annoying. I’ll get more into that later, but these are the reasons why I think the pacing is awful.

The first two problems might be slightly negated if the story was still good, but this is honestly one of the worst stories I have had the displeasure to read. Spoilers are going to start here, by the way. Anyway, the entire plot is that the republic relies upon this communications center, but they couldn’t be bothered to defend it with more than the equivalent of a local militia group in the Revolutionary War. The separatists easily take the station of course, and the republic decided on sending a man who let his capital ship to be stolen from him and a padawn without his master to go and save this critical point with a grand army of 20,000 men. The first 200 pages of this book don’t even include the battle to take back the planet, but Odie and Erk, who I mentioned earlier, sauntering around the planet getting in trouble everywhere they go. These chapters are honestly awful. Basically they were apart of the local defense army with is wiped out, and they just happen to be together when the defenses collapse, and decide to stick together. Every one of their interactions are hard to read, and within the fight rat days of knowing each other they are magically in love, for some reason. Where these feelings came from are never explained, as what was written definitely didn’t lead to it. The whole love story feels so forced and plays no point in the plot, and truthfully neither of them do. They should have been city out for chapters with characters that are actually interesting, like the Clone Commadoes, but no, unfortunately we’re stuck with them.

The entire plot was honestly stupid and half baked in the oven, but it is never more noticeable than in the final battle. Nejaa, the commanding Jedi, lands his forces and prepares to attack the enemy. He sends out scouts, listens to the least qualified one, and turns his artillery on the other scouts early so they can not share their critical intelligence, just to still wait until the next day to attack. They try to portray Nejaa as a good tactician, but a 10 year old wouldn’t make that mistake. Wouldn’t you know it, the attack fails miserably and they are forced to retreat, and Anakin has a major character change despite already participating in much bigger battles like Jabiim. Anyway, Nejaa admits to everyone that he is incompetent and doesn’t know more than three strategies, but fear not, here comes Anakin to save the day. He proposes to take 20 men, walk right into the communications center and rescue the hostages, and by a sheer miracle, the separatists don’t have radar or any type of scanner, or even a guard posted at the window. The authors also made a big point about how formidable their anti aircraft weapons are, but Anakin and his two transports manage to avoid them just like that. Then they just waltz into the center and rescue the hostage, and then a bizarre scene happens when the an old women they rescued goes and kissed Anakin on the cheek, to which he responds by hugging her and putting his head in her shoulder, in the middle of a battle! He has never seen this woman before, why did they include this? A droid then shoots the woman, and despite mover seeing her before, she reminds him of his mother, so he goes absolutely berserk and takes the entire center, as well as capturing the separatists leader, practically by himself. I’m sorry, what? Where did this come from? They were trying to ship the temptations of the dark side affecting Anakin, particularly when they have him about to kill unarmed technician. Despite all the obvious flaws with his already, Qui Gon reaches out to him and tells him to stop. This was so forced it’s not even funny. The authors knew that they had written Anakin in a way that fits none of the other depictions of him previously, in the movies or comics.

The plot is not finished though! We still have a separatist fleet attacking the republic one, and it managed to get within two hours of the fleet before being noticed, with the explanation being “new technology.” Either way, the fleet needs to be defeated, and Anakin, fresh off of winning the entire battle by himself basically, sends himself into the atmosphere with Nejaa, and activated his super force powers again to tear through the fleet. What happens next is true poetry, they try to add suspense by threatening the death of……… Anakin! Wait, what? Anakin? Yes, the authors have Anakin blow up while destroying the enemy’s capital ship, and attempts to make it emotional and sad, which is great, except that, you know, everyone knows Anakin is going to live. They all know he becomes Vader, so why try to make suspense with him, the only character in the story with zero stakes. They could have successfully executed this dramatic conclusion with any other character, but decided to pick the only character that it would work with. Brilliant, truly the pinnacle of writing talent. I’m convinced these authors just don’t know the universe, I don’t believe that they actually think this book has a place in the Star Wars universe. Anyway, Anakin lives obviously and the good guys win, hooray! They all say their goodbyes, and Anakin gets his Jedi knighthood. The end. Not the end of this review, however. We still have to talk about the characters.

Anakin is the supposed main character of the book, front and center on the cover, but he gets much less time in the story than Odie and Erk, the Walmart Romeo and Juliet. I can’t even complain though, because the authors didn’t even try to develop Anakin, which is crazy considering he had already been in two movies and they know how is story is going to end. Outside of the first chapter there is no distinguishing Anakin between any generic Jedi in this story, and that’s sad. He feels nothing like Attack of The Clones Anakin, or Revenge of The Sith Anakin. Even his representation in the comics feels more legitimate than this version. He is dry, with no real emotions until the woman he met five minutes ago died, and even then only for a little bit. There is legitimately zero moments in this book where Anakin feels like himself, even in the beginning he is much to cordial to his master telling him he would be alone, he acts completely different with the clones than in any other Star Wars media, he is just a different person.

The other characters are old more generic. Erk is your stereotypical hotshot pilot, except for the fact that he has none of the swagger or charisma of his much superior peers, like, oh I don’t know, Han Solo. Odie is equally as boring. Nejaa was supposed to be interesting but just wasn’t, like most of the attempts in this book. The authors clearly understand military theory and tactics, but they cannot right characters.

One more issue I have with this book is that it just doesn’t feel like Star Wars. Besides them throwing in familiar names and places, none of this feels like Stat Wars. Iconic weapons and technology is just forgotten, replaced by grimmer Science Fiction weapons, which would be fine if this was a generic Science Fiction series like the authors own “Starfist”, but this is an established universe, which should be really easy to utilize because of the vastness of it. The authors just don’t, and like I said earlier, I believe the authors just did not do their research of the Star Wars universe like they did for the Vietnam War, which they also wrote books about.

In conclusion, this is a highly forgettable book that adds nothing of value to the Star Wars universe, doesn’t understand the universe it’s in, has no deeper meaning beneath the surface, has no interesting plot points or characters, and frankly is not worth reading. I did rate this book 2 stars, because I believe the authors have a great understanding of military affairs and organization, and the grittier feeling of the Clone Wars did have some decent points, so I don’t think this book deserves the dreaded one star. It is not getting more than two though, and I truthfully have no idea his some people give this book five stars. If you are one of those people, please tell me why. I am genuine interested if I missed some things. Regardless, that is my rating. Please, avoid this book.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things I like include: (1) the relationship between Anakin and Halcyon...so much more interesting than the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan; (2) an Anakin who isn't annoying and cloying; (3) a story set in the Clone Wars that doesn't require much in the way of back story -- you can dive right in. Things I dislike include: (1) the uncertain tone -- is this a YA novel, or a full on novel for an adult audience? The tone veers between overly simplistic and incredibly detailed intensity; (2) a supporting cast where the grunts & ground-pounders are the least interesting and most forgettable part of the story; (3) so much combat writing that the story becomes a smear of action wallpaper. So this time, I'll split the difference; it earns a very middle-of-the-road rating.

[V.E. · Rating 1 out of 5]

A crucial Republic Communications center is in peril. It's up to Anakin Skywalker, the defeated Jedi Halcyron, a space pirate, loads of other officers and clones to save the day. I wish I could muster a better summary but I just can't.

Jedi Trial was a tedious book. I wanted to like it but at the end I just stopped caring and wanted it to be over. It bounced back and forth between several story lines that did not mesh together very well. The characters were thin and the writing was so choppy in places that the plot just crashed to a screeching halt about halfway through.

The Good:

It was nice to read a Clone Wars book that had Anakin fighting and acting like a Jedi instead of a whiny brat like he is portrayed in many other novels. His relationship with Halcyron is interesting and well developed in the beginning and I looked forward to them working together to solve this massive battle.



The Bad:

More than once I wanted to personally shoot Erk and Odie. They were the most annoying characters in the book. Their love story was stilted and the dialog was simply horrid. I found myself rushing through their chapters because honestly I could have cut those pages out and not missed a single thing.

The Ugly:

The writing and plot were all over the place. Sometimes it was good, but most of the time it was just plain bad. I could go on and on but I won't.

The verdict:

If you are a diehard fan and will read anything then go for it. If you want to skip this one you won't be missing a thing. It's not the worst Star Wars book that I have read but it's pretty far down on my list. Which sucks because it could have been a really interesting book!

[Genevieve Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this on my shelf for a long time, but haven't read it because meh. It's about the battle of Praesitlyn, which got Anakin knighted in the EU. I was convinced to read it by trawling Wookieepedia and running onto some interesting facts about Nejaa Halcyon.

It turns out that... my first impression was right, though. This book is pretty meh.

• Nejaa Halcyon is maybe a little younger than Qui-Gon. He is secretly married, and has a ten-year-old son. That's pretty important.

• However, after what seems like a mere week of knowing Anakin, he suddenly goes, "Can you keep a secret?" and then blurts out the truth about his marriage and child. Anakin instantly goes, "ME TOO?!?" It's kind of a weird moment, and it's also the first and LAST time the whole situation is mentioned in the book. Like... come on. Explore it a LITTLE more.

• The one nice thing this book does is show us Anakin's hard-working nature and what a good military commander he turns out to be.

• Apparently being a Jedi commissioned in the GAR also grants you the powers of a Justice of the Peace? Who knew.

• LOTS of strategy and military shenanigans, almost as much as you'd expect from a Thrawn book, except infantry-based. Not gonna lie, I speedread through most of it.

• Way too many new characters introduced with hardly any time put to making you care about them. Odie, Erk, and even the banking clan bad guy were just annoying whenever you had to read a chapter focused on them. Anakin's emotional connection to the Rodian soldier really didn't ring true for me.

• Laughed REALLY hard at Anakin and Nejaa both writing embarrassing secret love notes.

[Jim C · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book that takes place during The Clone Wars. This tells the tale of a battle between the Separatists and the Republic on one planet. In the course of this campaign Anakin proves his worth to the Jedi Council and becomes a Jedi Knight.

If you are a fan of this universe I strongly suggest skipping this book. The only good aspect of this book was the battle campaign on the planet's surface. The author's definitely had experience in military actions and it was on full display in this book. But even that became tiresome as they harped on certain aspects like "friendly fire". I understand that war is not glamorous like it is portrayed in movies and other novels but it was repeated over and over.

The reason that this novel received a low rating is the writing. It was amateurish. The characters were cardboard and full of clichés. The leader of the droid army was portrayed as the villain incarnate and if he had a mustache he would have been twirling it like we see in the silent movies. This happened with other characters that as soon as they were introduced you knew their path. I don't know if this novel is the author's first effort but it read like it. Another gripe I have is that the cover displays Asajj Ventriss but she had a total of three pages and she was never directly involved in the action.

I could list other problems I had with this novel but I figure you get the idea. The only reason to read this book is if you would like to read every Star Wars novel but even then I would recommend to pretend that this one does not exist.

[Koit · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is only my fond memories of reading this nigh 15 years ago that grant it the second star. It should, perhaps, be a rule of books that one shouldn’t ever go back to the ones you remember liking when you were young (not younger, but young). Not only do tastes evolve but so does one’s appreciation of style, and it is clear that this book to which I returned after years has neither.

The one-dimensional characters and bland dialogue are saved in the smallest part by the setting of Praesitlyn. The planet looked interesting to me even now though it was a touch more desolate, a touch more dry, than necessary. The author had at least seemingly spent some time thinking about the environment though in the majority this seemed to be to facilitate some thrilling tangents on the wisdom of logistics.

Overall, I’m not impressed. To a degree, I wonder if I ever was… Memories change over time and perhaps only the figure of Nejaa Halcyon — who does not really crop up elsewhere — was what made me think it was worthwhile. Though, I will also readily admit that now I do expect more of my characters than the simple-minded simplicity that all of the participants here applied to their lives.

[Revan Legend · Rating 1 out of 5]

10 Second Review:

Deadass this just felt like someone took a military novel and pasted in some SW characters. Slayke was cool tho.

[Kaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, here we already have a candidate for one of the worst novels of the Clone Wars and SW in general. If we compare it with other series that follow this military theme such as "The Black Fleet Crisis" or "Republic Commando", this book reaches the point of turning the whole topic of war, weapons, and so on into an exaggeration. The characters are terrifyingly portrayed and written, Anakin doesn't seem the same as we all know, the other subplots are so boring and useless that as you progress and turn the pages you realize that it is nothing. There are ridiculous moments like Nejaa Halcyon losing her ship for literally fighting a Rodian on the ground. I appreciate the connection in learning more about Corran Horn's grandfather, but honestly, this guy here is a complete clown. And that the story ends with Anakin marrying a ridiculous couple, because that's what they are, it's one of the most absurd things I've ever had to read in SW. I can't believe when I first watched the 2003 CW series and watched Anakin being promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight, I always wondered what kind of adventures he had to go through to get there. Well, it turns out that the story that connects these events is one where it does not have the slightest relevance.

SUMMARY:

The novel begins with Obi-Wan and Anakin having a conversation where Kenobi reveals that he has to go on a mission where unfortunately he cannot take Anakin with him. But without first telling him, that once he returns, he will talk to the Council about promoting him to the rank of Jedi Knight (by the way, Kenobi does not appear again in the entire book). Disappointed and thinking that the day he will become a Jedi Knight is far away, Anakin heads to the training room, where he meets Nejaa Halcyon, a Corellian Jedi. After one of the weirdest interactions you read in SW, Neeja and Anakin developed a friendship after training for a while (I'm not kidding).
Meanwhile, on Praesitlyn, a droid army led by Muun Race Admiral Tonith invades the planet on the orders of Count Dooku and under the supervision of Commander Ventress. Waiting for reinforcements, Tonith obeys all of Dooku's orders, even though the Count's true intentions lie elsewhere.
Separatist forces managed to decimate the local defenses, leaving scout Odie Subu and pilot Erk H'arman as survivors who must band together to resist the planet's harsh deserts. On their grueling journey back to a command post, they forge a bond of trust and love that looks overblown, underdeveloped, and stupid from lousy writing, but hey...
Tonith ends up capturing the communications center and takes the staff hostage. After sending a message threatening to kill the hostages, the Republic responds with a task force led by General Nejaa Halcyon and Anakin Skywalker, reinforced by the private military force known as the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, led by Zozridor Slayke.
Given everything that is happening, Anakin comes to wonder if all this is nothing more than a test on the part of the Council. Here the young Padawan begins to question his loyalties and for some strange reason that I don't understand, Nejaa reveals that he has a family, with a wife and a son. Anakin, getting caught up in the moment, also reveals that he is married to Senator Padme Amidala.
Already in Praesitlyn, Anakin and Halcyon contact Slayke, and we are told all the history that exists between these two. It turns out that Slayke took possession of a ship with which he began to carry out attacks against the Separatists before the start of the Clone Wars. To recover the ship and stop Slayke, the Republic sent Nejaa Halcyon, who in one of the most infamous moments of all, ended up failing her task by getting into a ground fight with a Rodian; in addition to the fact of losing his ship for being distracted making a fool of himself. Despite this rivalry, they maintain a mutual relationship.
Things eventually turn out well, the communications center is retaken, with the hostages rescued and Tonith defeated, but things seem to be just beginning when a Separatist fleet arrives on the planet. Anakin once again, with his risky strategies, manages to launch the final attack against an orbiting Separatist battleship and destroy it along with a large part of the enemy fleet, winning the battle. Just when everyone thought Anakin was killed in the explosion, it turns out that, at the last moment, he managed to jump his modified fighter into hyperspace before the Separatist ship exploded.
For his valor, Anakin is promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight, and thus a general in the Republic military. One of his first acts with this lofty authority is to preside over the marriage of Odie and Erk. The novel ends with Palpatine revealing to us that he was behind everything that happened (as always) and laughing as he wrings his hands in the style of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons.

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

Man, when I wrote my review of MedStar II and went "I'm kinda worried about the quality of the last two books and if they can measure up to this one" I wasn't expecting to be proved right so quickly. But this book frankly sucked. I was actually kinda excited for it when I was flipping through the DK Eyewitness style guide to RotS (yes, the same one that Dooku's Signature Look of Superiority) came from. That mentions that events on Praeistlyn are why Anakin was knighted, and I went "oh there's a book about that, cool".

Unfortunately this book really doesn't do a good job of telling that story in an interesting way. In fact in general this book feels more like a generic military sci-fi with a few Star Wars characters tossed in, meaning that I was unsurprised to discover that this is the authors' only Star Wars book and they otherwise do indeed do generic milSF. Despite being on the cover, and again this apparently being an important part of his arc, Anakin feels like he's barely in this book.

While it starts strong with a prologue where he strikes up a friendship with another Jedi while stuck at the Temple, pretty soon Anakin is thrown by the wayside to focus on a whole pile of original characters. A surprising amount of this book follows Odie the cartoon dog scout and Erk the shot down fighter jockey. There isn't really anything special or interesting about them - they're just kinda generically there, wandering through the plot and having instalove that leads to the book ending with them getting married after knowing each other for about a week. Plus they have some rather un-Star Warsy dialogue like "It's a guy thing. You guys always want to do everything right now. Let this woman do it."

Anakin himself doesn't even get to join the battle that takes up the majority of the book into about halfway through. The entire story revolves around the Separatists invading a world with a communications center and the Republic trying to liberate it. That's really it. And I get it, this is the Clone Wars, so I should expect some battles. But all the books before this have managed to do something interesting, from MedStar looking at the surgeons to even The Cestus Deception having stuff with guerilla warfare. And the battle here is never very interesting, just a lot of charging and retreating. The enemy emplacement has strong enough anti-air that there's no gunships or fighter attacks - until inexplicably we can suddenly run Anakin in with a shuttle at the end. And there's only one or two perfunctory chapters of not very good space combat.

In some ways this may be the worst of the Clone Wars novels because even The Cestus Deception, which I also thought kinda sucked, did some cool stuff with the clones. This book is barely aware of them, and except when we get weirdly long spiels about logistics, the armies feel like vague piles of NPCs, like I'm reading a bad after action report of an RTS. There is one thing that has potential here but it's never done well. Anakin, as everyone knows, is secretly married to Padme. He gets to hang out with another Jedi who is also secretly married - and a Jedi who is the grandfather of Corran Horn, though I had to check Wookiepedia to remember that. Because while Neeja Halcyon is a cool idea for a character, here he gets basically nothing to him. And even the potential interplay of Anakin meeting another Jedi in a relationship comes to naught. The two just inexplicably share their secrets with each other and then basically never actually talk about it. Hell, aside from Anakin's awkward attempts at writing a letter to Padme, you could basically forget he's married. This should've been a cool moment on the way towards Anakin's turn to the dark side and a nice tie in to the post RotJ era, but it feels like it could've been skipped.

Also, I just have to mention possibly the laziest OC I've ever seen. There's a Rodian who appears for a bit before getting unceremoniously killed off. His name? Grudo. Really. Grudo. Just take Greedo and swap the double e for a u. Incredible.

So yeah, I think this is safely going to be the worst Clone Wars book I've read. I cannot image that Dark Rendezvous will somehow outsuck it. I even feel like I was a little over harsh on the Jude Watson book in retrospect - that at least was for kids, but this has no excuse for being this bad. Admittedly I expect this to get dethroned as the worst Star Wars book overall when I get back into my New Republic era reading, but until then, boy do I have a new standard for how bad things can get. At least I can take solace in the fact that this was short and I never have to read it again.

[Matthew Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jedi Trial tells the story of the mission that finally grants Anakin the position of full-fledged Jedi Knight.

Whilst Obi-Wan is off in the galaxy on other missions, Anakin is appointed to assist Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon as he takes what limited resources are available in this time of war to go and defend the planet of Praesitlyn.
The planet is home to the key republic intergalactic communications center and is under attack by an excellently portrayed villain and minion of Count Dooku, Poors Tonith - a ruthless and calculating ex-banking clan turned military commander Muun with a love of a narcotic tea that leaves a black stain over his mouth and makes him seem all the more evil...

Currently, the planet's only defense is a rebel faction, led by Commander Zozrider Slayke, who puts me in mind a little of Saw Gerrera from the Rogue One film as a battered and bruised militant, who Halcyon must begrudgingly assist - Slayke had once stolen a starship under the command of Halcyon out from under his very nose... The Jedi, with the help of clones, clone commandos, pilots, arc troopers and a battle hungry Rodian, must employ a variety of tactics to defend as best they can the communications center and the hostages within.

I found this entry in the Clone Wars novels to be a good page turner, but not without it faults. So far, many of the stories have focused on the deceit, corruption and the dark, political underworld of the Star Wars universe in the decent to the dark side. Jedi Trial is pretty much a war story, that just happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. Many of the events are written around the varying deployment of military tactics, and how 2 steps forward can often lead to 3 steps backward when something doesn't go according to the strategy, as is so often the case in Jedi Trial. At one point, Tonith is able to relay orders on behalf of Halcyon and things go very much awry as the armies unquestioningly follow their orders.

I also like the mix of characters, and I enjoyed the relationships that develop throughout, especially between Anakin and Halcyon who actually have a lot in common. That being said, a lot of the time I felt this to be very rushed and I feel could have been fleshed out a lot, especially between Anakin and Grudo the Rodian. At one point he didn't seem to have done much apart from be there with Anakin, then all of a sudden they seem to profess a mutual love for one another? This confused me slightly, and as the characters are actually all really likable and well described, I would definitely have liked a longer book to accommodate proper development of these relationships.

However, as I said before, this definitely feels like a war story, and the battles are all suitably chaotic and exciting; peril laden and adrenaline pumping. Anakin takes control beautifully, and the struggles he faces as the force flows through him remind you that he's younger than his capability for command would suggest, and that he's always battling between the dark and the light.

So, whilst not perfect I did find this exciting. It's also fairly short with quick chapters so if you're a Star Wars fan, especially of the Clone Wars; or like good, exciting military stories, then Jedi Trial is worth a punt. There are better Star Wars books, but definitely worse ones, too.