Star Wars: The Heart of the Jedi

by Kenneth C. Flint

Genres: Star Wars, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Collections, Novels

443 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Kenneth C. Flint, who has also written under the pseudonym Casey Flynn, is an American fantasy novelist. A resident of Omaha, Nebraska, Flint has now published 18 books, in both print and eBook format. A majority of his works are either based on Irish myths and legends, or else are original stories involving concepts, and sometimes characters, from Irish mythology. His best known works center around three of the most important characters of Irish legend: Lugh, Cúchulainn, and Finn MacCumhal. He has also published short fiction, including a pair of Star Wars stories, a historical fiction novel, On Earth's Remotest Bounds: Year One: Blood and Water, the first of a planned series, and a historical book about Fort Atkinson, Nebraska. Flints books, including both his previous novels and new works, are now being published as eBooks available for all eReader formats like Kindle and Nook.

Reviews

[Jeff Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the crap Disney is “forcing” down our throats.

Okay, sure... it’s not perfect or viewed as “official canon” (it probably should be, in my opinion), but it’s not as terrible as most of the SW titles being heaped out today. I’m not giving any spoilers because I think fans should read it and make that judgement for themselves. But, for me personally, I liked this book and feel it could have been made part of the EU no problem (had it been published in that time it was written).
Usually, I tend to not enjoy most SW books because they are so stuffed with “fluff” chapters, and I’ll admit there’s a few in here, but... the book was far better than I thought it would be, so I kinda over looked those issues.
The pacing was fine, characters fleshed out well, and the story overall was pretty decent. That’s not bad for a unofficial book of the Star Wars universe. So my rating reflects perfectly what I thought after reading it.
Disney needs to unpucker its behind when something like this comes out. They could have easily agreed to sell this as a “what if” or “alternate timeline” book and showed they were making some concessions to appease most of the old EU fandom out there.
Instead they’re trying to bury it and cater to only one side of the fandom. Yeah, it’s being done without their blessing or legal consent... but they should still think through the possibility of accepting it and the marketing appeal this would have to get more SW hungry fans interested. (Come on mouse... cha-Ching! Winner-winner chicken dinner here.)

And that’s my rant and review.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.

This week’s focus: The Heart of the Jedi by Kenneth C. Flint.

SOME HISTORY:

After the success of Heir to the Empire, Bantam realized that they had a cash cow on their hands and started commissioning books from other authors within the publishing house (for instance, Kathy Tyers had published four books with Bantam before The Truce at Bakura). Kenneth C. Flint had previously published a number of Celtic-inspired fantasy books during the 1980s with Bantam, and was commissioned to write the first book in a trilogy--Exiles of the Force and Legacy of Doom, its trilogy-mates, never saw the light of day. The Heart of the Jedi was to be set immediately after Return of the Jedi, and Flint turned his draft into his editor at Bantam Spectra in 1992. You may have noticed the problem here: The Truce at Bakura is also set immediately after Return of the Jedi, and was released in December 1993. Flint was eventually told that it "no longer [fitted] into the sequence for the new series," and THotJ was never released until May 2015, when it was edited and published on Joseph Bongiorno's website, The Star Wars Expanded Universe Timeline.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I never knew about THotJ! I didn’t learn about it until I started poking around on Wookieepedia, so I went into this read completely blind.

PRINCESS LEIA COSTUME CHANGE COUNT:

3 distinct outfits. In the beginning, when they hijack the Imperial Star Destroyer, Leia is wearing the same blue uniform as the other Alliance troops. She changes into a “long gown of lush deep green” with her hair down, when they are en route to their meeting with Senator Valladian, but she changes back into a “nondescript jacket and pants” with her hair in braids when they head to Tatooine to track down Luke.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Following the death of the Emperor and the destruction of the second Death Star, the newfound New Republic is pushing their advantage against the fractured Imperial forces. However, when the reformed Imperial Senate calls for a cease fire, Han Solo and Princess Leia depart for a secret meeting with the senators, while Luke heads out on a journey of discovery. But High Admiral Tharkus will do anything to prevent a peace agreement...

THE CHARACTERS:

I found Luke’s character arc in this book pretty interesting. He’s not sure that his military role can truly mesh with his duties as a Jedi, and at the same time he’s not confident that he even wants to be a Jedi. He spent the first 19 years of his life on the Lars homestead, wanting to get as far away from Tatooine as he possibly could, and then during the past four years with the Alliance, he’s been fighting for his very existence. He didn’t choose to be a Jedi; Obi-Wan just thrust it upon him. So his lack of purpose felt believable to me, because he’s never had a chance to slow down and think about what he wants out of life. (Matthew Stover did something similar in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, which remains one of my favorite SW books.)

Leia and Han are less interesting. Unlike in TTaB, Leia has no internal struggles about her parentage and heritage; she calls Luke her brother, something that TTaB Leia didn’t yet want to publicize, and she uses her latent Force skills to help them track down Luke. But otherwise she’s fine, doing her Alliance duties without any issues. Han’s main conflict is that he’s jealous of another royal diplomatic type, and deals very maturely with this emotion by constantly insulting him. In a way, Han and Leia’s relationship in this book reminds me a lot of their behavior in The Courtship of Princess Leia: Han is jealous of some royal type, and there’s not a lot of romance here.

Threepio is suborned by High Admiral Tharkus, and the Imperials program him to spy on Han & Leia. He betrays their secret rendezvous to the Imperials, Chewbacca is able to reprogram him, but his personality is gone! (Don’t worry, though, R2-D2 carries a backup of his memory banks and programming, so he’s good as new.) I’m never been a fan of the droid subplots, because they usually end like this one--back where we started, can’t disrupt the status quo.

Tharkus is OK, I guess. He doesn’t have much of a personality, he does not like the Force and wants the Empire to win at any cost. I find it a little strange, though, that his rank is “High Admiral” rather than “Grand Admiral;” Wookieepedia tells me that it was a title born by Grand Moffs, so why not just call him a Grand Moff then if he was some sort of sector governor? But he seems to be very much a member of the Imperial Navy??

Luke encounters an awful lot of people on his journey of self-discovery, but only one is outright identified as a woman: Aislinn, one of the Children of the Force exiles. Back where we started on the galactic gender parity front, I guess.

ISSUES:

I wish I could read the original version of this book, without the edits to try to fit it within the EU continuity. We have brief references to clone troopers, the Separatists, and Clawdites--all of which didn’t even exist during the Bantam era.

As soon as Captain Thatch the talking Ewok showed up, my suspension of disbelief completely disappeared; as far as I know the only Ewok that could speak Basic was Kolot from Solo Command, and he was part of a secret Imperial experiment. However, the revelation that Thatch was actually one of the shapeshifters made this slightly more believable in the end.

There were a lot of Earth-isms, more than I would expect from a Star Wars book. A by-no-means complete list: an Alliance member named Higgins, the shapeshifters are twins named Kastor and Pollux, the Heart of the Jedi is on a planet with Force-sensitive hive-mind dolphins, Tharkus and General Kantos play chess, Luke sees an orange cat on Tatooine, the Alliance board the Star Destroyer in the first chapter with grappling beams, the Imperials show up at the secret rendezvous with a subterranean vehicle that Han calls an “Imperial Hedgehog.” These are minor issues, though, and presumably would have been cleaned up/renamed if the book was actually published by Bantam.

Most egregiously, the climax where Luke led the Imperials to the Heart of the Jedi felt like something straight out of Indiana Jones, complete with Luke having to take a leap of faith (stepping into what looked like a pit), and “you have chosen poorly” (Tharkus grabbing the Heart).

IN CONCLUSION:

THotJ is a perfectly serviceable addition to the Bantam-era Star Wars books. It’s not vastly superior to The Truce at Bakura, but neither is it worse, and I thought it stood up just fine. It could have easily fit into the timeline--TTaB is more reliant on that “immediately after Return of the Jedi” setting than THotJ, and this could have been set sometime after the latter book.

Next up: the first book in the Jedi Academy trilogy, Jedi Search by Kevin J. Anderson.


The Heart of the Jedi on StarWarsTimeline.net: http://www.starwarstimeline.net/The%2...

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/eQllB0n3eVY

[Dexcell · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the lost Star Wars books from the early 90s.

Well, it wasn't too bad. I liked Luke's journey trying to find himself and his place in the galaxy. Can't say I really like the conclusion though. His ultimate decision was just to keep doing exactly what he had been doing, and that's it. Bit of a let down. Still, I really enjoyed his slow journey and trying to work through things or even if he wanted to stay a Jedi. I like Luke the most when he's conflicted, he's the most relatable then.

Also, didn't let the Han and Leia characterization in this. They acted more like their Episode 4/5 selves with all the arguing. Not much like they did at the end of 6. But whatever.

I also found the Threepio plot being so similar to Episode 9 and losing his personality and Artoo having a backup of his memories and personality pretty funny with how alike that was. I did like that they showed how important Threepio was to the group and it was good development for Han to be nice to him afterwards. Also that Threepio refused to help the Imperials and betray his cause and his friends, I thought that was rare moment of courage from him.

It wasn't bad over all, but it didn't add much to the lore really which is a shame. It was very much a 90s Star Wars book, for good or ill. Still, I'm glad I read it. I

[Javier Fontecilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was a curious journey.
At first I felt that I was in a Star Wars movie, and it felt so good. Then, things started to get different. The characterization of Luke was more similar of the farm boy from episode IV that the Luke we left in Return of the Jedi. Han and Leia were similar similar to those we saw in episode V, always arguing each other’s.
Talking about the lore, at moments it felt more like a fantasy novel than a Star Wars, and the final confrontation was very similar to Indiana Jones. Maybe too much the same.
I regret reading it? No, not at all.
But I understand why was left behind and unpublished.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5. I really enjoyed readying this story, and I’m very glad it was made available. I’ll admit to some positive bias toward this book because of nostalgia of getting a “new” EU story from before the dark times, before the Mouse.

Unlike some of the reviews I’ve read here, I liked the ending. Luke learns something about himself, and grows as a character. The ending also would have set up some interesting threads for future stories if this book had been included in the EU continuity as originally planned. I also liked a part of the ending that was very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m not sure if it was an intentional reference, but I might as well have been.

I do think this story could have benefited from some further editing. There are a couple of scenes where non-Force-sensitive characters overhear conversations between Luke and Force ghosts. This could have been fixed by having them only able to hear Luke and adjusting the dialog so that Luke says the things they need to hear for the plot to work.

Still I liked this book a lot overall. It makes me want to look for some of the author’s other work.

[Jake Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely lots if spelling/editing issues. But seeing as this book was never truly edited and published the errors are par for the course. That being said, i loved the book. It aged well even for being written 30 years ago when not alot of the prequels and other star wars books had even come out. This felt very much on par with the feel of Star Wars and the books that have been released pre Disney. I found myself loving the character of Thatch and see him as one of the greatest side characters in the Star Wars universe. The book also contains a betrayal that I never suspected and I would even dare to say rivaled the reveal of Darth Vader being Luke’s father. I was utterly jolted and upset (albeit bittersweetly) upon this reveal. I haven’t had a book get to me like that in a long time. I’m truly saddened that Kenneth C. Flint was screwed out of having his Star Wars book published by his agent in Spectra and he still continues to have issues getting his books physically printed even today. I personally would like to see another book from him in this universe someday.

[Andi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was browsing Reddit in some of my favorite Star Wars haunts when I saw that someone decided to be a little rogue and print this book at no-profit. Then, a few days after I bought it, Lucasfilm/Disney took it down.

Now it's going for $500+ on Ebay... and I have to laugh. Is this book truly worth $500 dollars?

For collectors purposes? Yes, just for the mere story and the finger to the Mouse.
For entertainment / enjoyment purposes? No.

This was written back in the early 90's when Star Wars books were few and everyone wanted to write the next adventure with the trio and supporting characters. Instead of this book that was primed to release we had another, the Truce at Bakura. Which, sadly, isn't a good book by any means either.

The problems with this book that some have brought up is the tone. It is very modern and the dialogue and or characteristics of the character are modern in themselves. Characters say 'good-bye' or have certain lingo that just ... feels out of place in a space fantasy.

Some characters also go through a bit of lobotomies? Take for instance Han and Leia. I mean, they already cemented their feelings for one another. You think there was some sort of banter/love between them, but we're treating the teddy bear picnic as something that never happened. I saw what I saw! They were getting cuddly and cozy and hugging and happy. In this book they are bitching and complaining and forgetting they even kissed or were love-y.

Yoda, Obi-Wan, even Anakin Skywalker show up... and their conversations are so sacchrine that I have to roll my eyes. They show up, give some kind of mystery hint to Luke, and then they go 'oh no, my time is up, goodbye'. Bull. If that were true, in Return of the Jedi, Obi Wan would have started having feedback issues when talking to Luke about Leia. So I call bull on that.

Also, an common/human speak ewok showing up and driving a ship had me rollin'. I had to close the book at one point and ask myself if this is real. There also seemed to be a bit of a nod to the Ewok / Endor films, where the 'Ewok' indicates that a traveler ended up on Endor (Wilfred Brimley?) and taught him common and then flew off with him. But we find out that is a lie, since the Ewok is a shapeshifer who has been following Luke around almost the entire book as other characters/species. So it makes you wonder, was the shapeshifter on Endor? Did he know Wilfred Brimley's character? Who knows.

Is the writer good? Maybe he got better as time went on. Maybe his other books are better too, I really can't say. I'm sorry that Bantam / the publicist did him dirty. I think there was / is some good ideas in this story but this thing is just ... a mess.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ABY. An uneasy ceasefire is declared between the embattled Galactic Empire and the recently-formed New Republic, with Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia being given the task of leading the peace negotiations. However, a powerful Imperial High Admiral plans to disrupt the peace accords by any means necessary in order to reunify the Empire under his own rule.
Meanwhile, conflicted over his role in the war, Luke Skywalker returns to Tatooine and is given a quest by the ghost of his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi; find the mystical Heart of the Jedi and embrace his destiny as a Jedi Knight.

Okay, clarifications first: this is not an officially-released Star Wars novel and is certainly not endorsed by (evil) Disney.
Flint was hired to write this book back in the early 90s as part of the first wave of novels for what would become the Expanded Universe. Unfortunately the author was screwed-over by an editor who shelved this book in favour of another (Kathy Tyers' 'The Truce at Bakura'), which led Flint into financial difficulties and, ultimately, to withdraw from professional writing. In 2015 Flint and editor Joe Bongiorno updated the manuscript and released it for free online. In 2021 an unknown individual used Amazon's self-publishing system to create and sell a bound and authentic-looking hardcopy for a short time before the listing was removed (presumably due to the famously litigious Disney).
So, ultimately, what this book constitutes is a bootleg edition of an officially-licenced but never-released Star Wars novel.

But is it any good? Well, yes, I certainly thought so.
It's not without its flaws; with some of the characterisation of familiar faces being slightly off and the world-building also sometimes not feeling entirely authentic as Star Wars, but we have to remember that this was written for the same era of Star Wars books that produced Vonda McIntyre's 'The Crystal Star'. So whilst it doesn't always feel like it fits with Star Wars as we know it now, it certainly feels like it fits with Star Wars in the early days of the Expanded Universe, which was a great nostalgia hit for me.

On it's own merits, this is a perfectly enjoyable adventure in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, filled with starfighter dogfights, ruthless villains and Luke Skywalker riding a bantha and surviving a shootout in the Mos Eisley cantina.
It's not going to blow your mind but it's well worth a read (if you can actually get hold of a copy!).

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com *

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A surprisingly decent edition to the Star Wars EU.

It’s not perfect, and it’s kinda silly, but hell, I liked it for what it was.

While yes, there are better novels in the timeline, there are a lot worse…especially with the new crap-tastic drivel that Disney is forcing down our throats.

Even more interesting is the drama that surrounded this book’s publication. From its initial writing, to its cancellation, to its subsequent revival through the internet and eventual self publication through Amazon…which led to yet another cancellation. All of it adds a bit of intrigue to a story that should have never been taken from the publication window anyways (though that’s not Lucasfilm’s fault in Flint’s story is to be believed).

It’s also a shame that such a halfway decent Star Wars novel led to Flint’s semi-retirement and ruination of his writing career. Can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. B

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, but I just didn’t. The characters all felt wrong, the story felt wrong, it’s just felt wrong. Gutted.

[Kasc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled upon the fact that this “lost novel” had finally been released on social media.
As The Heart of the Jedi does not seem to have been officially approved by Disney, I figured it might not be available for a very long time. So, since the post ROTJ era is the one I am most interested in, I just hopped on Amazon and ordered myself a copy. It turns out I was right in doing so, at the time I am writing this review the book is no longer available.

Honestly, I did not have very high expectations for this. I just assumed there must have been a reason this book has never been officially released and that that reason probably is not outstanding quality. Now that I am done, I cannot say this novel exceeded my expectations because it really does have quite a number of flaws. However, it is far from terrible and fits in quite well with other mediocre Star Wars publications I have read.

The issues I take with this novel are not so much about the plot, which fits right in with the other post second Death Star stories, but with its execution. It often feels clumsy and predictable. Again, nothing that is in any way unique to this novel. I do have to say it does stick out a little considering how obvious some of the “shocking” revelations are (e.g. in the very beginning a “mysterious” black-clad figure wielding a lightsaber revealed as Luke).
On top of that I do not really care for the way the main characters are portrayed here. In a way they feel like superficial, clichéd versions of themselves (a notion that is especially striking coming, as I am, from the New Jedi Order series).
Luke, for some reason, has regressed a lot in his development as a Jedi compared to the level he had already reached in ROTJ. And other than some clarity about his role in the New Republic, he gains nothing at all from his quest that does claim a noteworthy number of lives.
Han and Leia’s relationship also appears to have reverted to where it was prior to Han realizing Luke is Leia’s brother. This feels strange as one would assume their relationship to have evolved since ROTJ and of course this is intensified by no explanation being offered whatsoever. Something similar happens in Courtship of Princess Leia, but there the reasons for their growing apart are evident. Even more aggravatingly, Flint does nothing to resolve the issues he alludes to other than having them share one kiss as if that solved anything.
Of course, like most Star Wars novels The Heart of the Jedi has its own number of oddities, which annoyed me a little in the beginning but I guess I got used to.
Firstly, while I think the whole idea of the shapeshifters is interesting, I find it hard to believe one of them could so easily follow Luke (especially through hyperspace, like how?). Also using an Ewok scavenger (with an Aussie accent??) feels super weird.
Secondly, I highly doubt Obi-Wan had a meaningful relationship with the Sand People teaching them to speak perfect Basic as we have seen nothing of the sort in his dealings with them in ANH.
Thirdly, given Leia has had little to no training at this point and judging from everything we have seen of her abilities later on, there is no way she would be able to track Luke through the Force like that, especially across the galaxy. Plus, there is no way Han would let her pilot the Falcon through difficult terrain.
While all these oddities did not bother me so much, what did is the poor editing. Seriously, they have had 20+ years to go over this and still there were mistakes in it. And I am not just talking about typos, but actual orthographic mistakes, mixing up “than” and “then”, stuff like that.
As far as consistency is concerned, I did not really come across big issues (or just didn’t notice). The one thing that comes to my mind is that Luke probably would have returned to the Heart at some later point, but obviously never did.
On a side note, there are a number of things that feel awfully familiar with very similar events taking place in other publications, both in Legends (e.g. Prince Gowan as a possible suitor for Leia parallels Isolder in Courtship of Princess Leia) and even Canon (e.g. Threepio’s memory being backed up by Artoo just as in TROS). Of course, this is hardly something to blame Flint for given his novel precedes a lot of the other content.

Putting everything together, this novel is definitely flawed and I will certainly not consider it one of my favorites. There are, however, a number of publications that are objectively a lot worse. Also, I found this novel to be rather captivating. I could easily go for 70+ pages in one sitting and feel no desire to put it down. This certainly isn’t a must-read, but it is a fun diversion. I am glad I bought this while I had the chance.

PS: we do get an explanation why this was not published in the 90s. In short: the author was treated unfairly. He put in an extra little chapter complaining about that (and asking if anyone wants to hire him)

[Milan Pohl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Román Kennetha C. Flinta "Star Wars: The Heart of the Jedi" má poměrně zajímavou (a pohnutou) historii.

Měl to být jeden z prvních oficiálních románů moderního expandovaného univerza Star Wars, vznikajícího na počátku 90. let. Flinta si údajně vybral sám George Lucas osobně, následně též schválil první verzi rukopisu. Román přesto nikdy nevyšel, za dosti zvláštních okolností byl odkládán, až ho v publikačním plánu nahradila kniha "The Truce at Bakura" od Kathy Tyersové... a milému Flintovi nakladatelství Bantam oznámilo, že jeho román již nezapadá do vznikající kontinuity.

K fanouškům se kompletní text (mírně zeditovaný, aby pasoval do chronologie expandovaného univerza) dostal teprve před pár lety, a to díky webu StarWarsTimeline. Text je zredigovaný skutečně jen lehkou rukou, při jeho čtení musíte překousnout kvanta překlepů i chybek ve jménech (občas např. "hanger" namísto "hangar", "C-3P0" namísto "C-3PO", "Mos Eisely" namísto "Mos Eisley atd.), byly do něj doplněny možná trochu kontroverzní odkazy na reálie, které v roce 1992 neexistovaly (Clawditi, klonovaní vojáci apod.), výsledek ale přesto stojí za přečtení. Přiznejme si na rovinu, že literárně to není žádné veledílo, ale i tak se jedná o fascinující vhled do toho, co se mohlo stát jedním z úhelných kamenů expandovaného univerza (na Flintův román měla navázat řada dalších knih). "Srdce Jediů" je navíc podstatně poutavější čtení než zmíněná kniha "The Truce at Bakura", která ho nahradila - ale to není až tak těžké, jelikož "Truce" patří asi k (nej)slabším věcem, které v expandovaném univerzu vznikly.

Příběh se odehrává krátce po Epizodě VI. Politická frakce Impéria si přeje s Novou republikou jednat o míru, vojenská pod velením admirála Tharkuse hodlá pokračovat v boji a všechny mírové snahy překazit. Zatímco začíná vyjednávání, Luke se vrací na Tatooine, v domku Bena Kenobiho hledá stopu po čemkoli, co by mu ukázalo cestu, po níž by se měl jako Jedi ubírat. Nechybí takřka "indiánská" zápletka s Tuskeny, vesmírné bitvy, měňavci či návrat jisté vedlejší postavy, kterou byste tu asi nečekali. Finále se pak nese téměř v duchu třetího filmového Indiany Jonese.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Heart of the Jedi takes us back into another time when Lucasfilms still had respect of the fans, the expanded universe was canon and Luke Skywalker was still the hero of Star Wars.

Another segment into the Expanded Universe set a few years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Luke now tired from fighting goes back to Tatoonine to discover a message from Obi Wan about searching for an artifact called Heart of the Jedi which Luke believes will help him the answers he is looking for towards giving him legitimacy as a Jedi. There is also a subplot where Leia has a diplomatic mission with an old boyfriend resulting in Han becoming insanely jealous that it begins to compromise the mission and risks the life of CP30.

The book itself is very fast paced in beginning. It does get you into the story quick enough and the characters do place thsmeselves in situations which does make sense without composing them. I did like how Luke was placed down a peg as he interacts with the tusken raiders, where it did remind me of The Mandalorian.

There is a subplot regarding CP30, where I had wondered if JJ had seen it, because it goes exactly like it was done in The Rise of Palpatine. The difference is that the book places more weight into the importance of CP30 within the group that the resolution does provide some character growth for Han as there was a set up and payoff throughout the story.

My main issue with this book is that the middle portion does tend to drag on, where this book could have been 50 pages shorter as a lot of conflict is somewhat repetitive. The villain is also boring. I wasn't expecting Thrawn, but at least let it be someone memorable as much of what occurs really didn't need the main villain, but he was mainly there for the CP30 plotline.

Regardless of the villain issues, the book is a pretty good read. It is a good recommendation, regardless of it current availability.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an interesting curiosity. According to the author, in 1991, he was given an assignment to write a Star Wars book that would take place right after Return of the Jedi, he submitted his idea, it was accepted, George Lucas supposedly loved it, and then when he submitted the book, he got the runaround and his book never got published. Without an agent or a contract, there wasn't a whole lot he could do, and the book was announced as canceled in 1995. Then, in 2021, it was self-published for a short time (before Disney quashed it, I'm sure), and it fell into this weird "new Legends" territory that fans kinda went crazy for. I didn't find out about it until I was well into The New Jedi Order, so I made a note to read this one after I finished that behemoth of a series.

The thing is, the story behind the book is a lot more interesting than the book itself. It's a fair enough adventure yarn, but it's not very well written. There's far more telling than showing, and it felt a lot like it was written for a juvenile crowd. It feels like a first draft, ready for the editor's pen, and since it never got that far, it just feels like poorly-written fan fiction. Granted, the entire EU is essentially fan fiction, but at least those novels are backed by editors and people who maintain the canon.

Print copies of this book are available on the secondary market for ridiculous prices, but if you absolutely must read the book, it won't take long to track down an electronic copy from various resources. Whatever you do, though, DO NOT pay what the market is asking for this book; it's definitely not worth it.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5. I really enjoyed readying this story, and I’m very glad it was made available. I’ll admit to some positive bias toward this book because of nostalgia of getting a “new” EU story from before the dark times, before the Mouse.

Unlike some of the reviews I’ve read here, I liked the ending. Luke learns something about himself, and grows as a character. The ending also would have set up some interesting threads for future stories if this book had been included in the EU continuity as originally planned. I also liked a part of the ending that was very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m not sure if it was an intentional reference, but I might as well have been.

I do think this story could have benefited from some further editing. There are a couple of scenes where non-Force-sensitive characters overhear conversations between Luke and Force ghosts. This could have been fixed by having them only able to hear Luke and adjusting the dialog so that Luke says the things they need to hear for the plot to work.

Still I liked this book a lot overall. It makes me want to look for some of the author’s other work.

[Rooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I'm glad I read this (the chance to read a new Expanded Universe book is never to be missed as far as I'm concerned), the story of how it came to be in print earned it one of the three stars I'm giving it.

That's not to say it's a bad book, but it's typical run-of-the-mill early 90's Star Wars, which is to say nobody really knew how to continue the story, and everyone that tried had their own ideas about everything.

if you've not read any of the stuff set post Return of the Jedi/Battle of Endor, then you'll probably like it more than I did - but even if you have, it's worth reading because it shows how things very nearly took a very different route for some characters, and the two major factions in the galaxy at the point the book is set.

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an awesome book, I couldn’t put it down once I started. It would of been a much better first book to the new republic era than Truce at Bakura. The only problem is I think that force ghosts aren’t normally seen by non-force users? I may be wrong. Either way, the story was very intriguing and keeps you wanting more. It’s a real shame Lucasfilm didn’t put this out there, but now that Disney ruined Star Wars this is something everyone should check out if you want a classic Star Wars experience.

[Jose F. Martin del Pozo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a real anomaly: a book that was cancelled before publication in the 90s getting self-published thru Amazon in early 2021 and retired from the web a couple of months later... If you weren't able to get your hands on it, just google it, it's easily downloadable.

Take into account that most of the Expanded Universe was yet to be published (I think Truce at Bakura took its slot in the publishing calendar. It feels a little fanfictionish, which is to be expected since the editor didn't finish their work on it. A fun read, anyhow.

[Gary Varga · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to imagine that this would have been at the forefront of the EU publishing as we now understand it.

A great story. Interesting characters. Luke is so much like the character that we know that it is incredible. Han falls into a stereotypical Western character at times. And don't get me started on the Bristolian Ewok Pirate cliché.

Even with all my gripes, still a great fun Star Wars romp!!!

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others said, reading Luke's journey of introspection as he reflects on his experiences from the OT was fun, though the rest of the book read extremely pulpy to me. Don't get me wrong—I love some good Star Wars pulp. However, some of the dialogue and the cast of villains felt trite. Nonetheless, I enjoyed getting to read a little bit of lost Star Wars media! Definitely still remains a part of my personal SW timeline.

[David Sastre · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly stock, middling example from the old SWEU I used to know and love. Better than most SW content these days, though Luke was written more like he was from Episode 5 rather than post RotJ. Otherwise a fun, easy read.

[Jeff Pfeiffer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped a little past half way through, because it's just not a good read. Way too many places where it needed to be gone over by an editor, and way too much adverb abuse after diaogue, he said, sneeringly. You get my point. It's still better than what Disney's pushing though.

[Lauren Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I only read Han and Leia’s chapters? Maybe. Character dialogue was written well but I got lost a lot with what was going on. A+ for Han and Leia banter and romance though.

[Dan Graziotto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool behind the scenes story for the book. Glad I was able to pick it up. Very much a 90s Star Wars adventure

[Emily Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Star Wars book……

[kesseljunkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

FINALLY found time to finish it. Resuming my commute and additional workload has been killing me.

I think it’s a fun read and should have seen the light of day back in the 1990s. I commend everyone who got this out to the public.

The ending is rushed, the plot a little clunky, but it hearkens to the era it’s from. I wish it hadn’t been edited to account for things that had changed between now and then. I’d prefer a full original manuscript instead of trying to force it to work into “understood continuity.”

But it’s a fun read and I’m glad I did read it. Felt like I was transported to the looser, more experimental era of Star Wars books, where even if it wasn’t great literature the authors had more fun with it.

Wish we could get back to that. This is likely more a “3.5” than 3 but...well, Amazon refuses to give me that option on Goodreads.

Why? Who knows. Maybe Lord Bezos found the Heart of the Jedi and corrupted it.

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in the 1990s, Heart of the Jedi was supposed to be an official Star Wars novel. Due to the editor's dishonesty, the book was cancelled and replaced by The Truce at Bakura. As a result, the author stopped writing during a decade. The version I read was modified to match the Expanded Universe, the former Star Wars continuity.

The Heart of the Jedi is a direct sequel to Return of the Jedi. The main characters had evolved in the second half of the trilogy, but the novel portrays them as being on the same level as in Star Wars: A New Hope.

The book is average. However, it is much better than most of the works produced by the new regime of Lucasfilm since the acquisition of the company by Disney.

[Andrew Briggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I loved it. Actually shocked how much I enjoyed this. A simple twist that became a twist but j didn’t see it coming. Solid story that deserves its place in the EU.

I hope a fan prints a hardcover version so it fits the rest of my collection.

Thank you to those who got this made.

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst definitely not the strongest novel from a prose, character, and plot perspective, it is a great look at what could have been.