Anakin's Quest

Star Wars: Junior Jedi Knights #4

by Rebecca Moesta

Experiencing terrible dreams about a cave on Dagobah, young Anakin journeys to the planet accompanied by Tahiri, R2-D2, and the Jedi master Ikrit, and the group encounters more than they had bargained for

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Space Opera, Fantasy

115 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Rebecca Moesta is the author of several science fiction books. Although born in Germany, Rebecca was born to American parents and raised in Pasadena, California, where she lived until her early twenties. Rebecca graduated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Cal State L.A.. and shortly after graduation married a former classmate from Caltech, becoming Rebecca Moesta Cowan.

In 1981, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where they lived for one year until they moved to Darmstadt, Germany, until 1987. In Germany Rebecca took graduate courses with Boston University and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration. During their stay in Germany she gave birth to her son, Jonathan, before moving back to the United States and settling in Livermore, California.

In 1989, Rebecca took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a proof reader and copy editor. There she formed a science fiction club in which she met her future husband Kevin J. Anderson. She divorced her first husband in 1990 and married Anderson in 1991.

The couple started working together writing science fiction novels and to date has written two Titan A.E. young adult novels, two high-tech pop-up books and fourteen Star Wars novels, the Young Jedi Knights series. The couple owns and runs the company Wordfire, and Rebecca is currently working on several new projects, including copy editing her husband's works.

Reviews

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a bit of depth into Anakin here, actually. His struggles with his family's past are interesting to read. How would one react if he found out his granddad was space Hitler?

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

With this book, we have a new writer in this series, and it's a big improvement. The story still feels simplified, but gone are the repetition and patronizing tone of Nancy Richardson's narrative style. The characters also feel a little more realized, especially with the introduction of Ulthir. He's not a likable character by any means, but he feels more solid than the other secondary characters from the rest of the series.

Like the other books, though, there's a lot of build up to the conclusion, and then the conclusion comes in a hurry. I'm not sure if that was a requirement from the publisher to the authors, but it feels like a long way to go to get to where the story finally gets interesting, only to see it rush past.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book!! The main lesson was sort of a redo from book 1 (we aren't destined for good or evil, but our choices determine who we become), but everything else was very different. It was cool to go to Dagobah and learn more about that planet, and we also got to learn more about Anakin, Tahiri, and Ikrit. The new character Uldir was so annoying 💀, but we got some more sweet friendship moments with Anakin and Tahiri that made up for it. Only two books left!!

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good book. The pacing was good. The plot was tighter than the last series. My issue was with the stowaway teenager. He has an attitude problem. I have enough teenagers in my life. I didn’t need to read about one with a horrible attitude.

[Jess Neuner · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a three-month hiatus from Jedi training, Anakin and Tahiri are back on Yavin 4, ready to learn. Well, Tahiri is - Anakin's been having nightmares about Darth Vader and the Emperor and is starting to worry that he's somehow destined to fall to the dark side. This isn't the first time this has come up, but I thought this problem had been solved in The Golden Globe after the whole learning 'I'm responsible for my own choices' thing. Apparently not.

Anyway, Anakin is convinced that the only way to get rid of the nightmares and reassure himself that he's not inherently evil is to go to Dagobah and find the creepy dark side-filled cave that Yoda had Luke Skywalker go into when he was training there. Since all of the adults can see that there's no convincing him that this isn't necessary, they all agree to a trip out there, although Leia is a bit worried - and given the trouble Anakin and Tahiri inevitably attract whenever they go somewhere together, that's perfectly reasonable.

I liked that they both show a lot better command of the Force in this book than they have shown in previous ones. They can lift things with ease, convince creatures to go around them, sense danger, and sense living creatures around them. In short, they finally seem like Jedi. The early books started on their first day at on Yavin 4, so the time that's passed since then has done wonders for their Jedi skills.

This book would have been a lot better if Uldir hadn't been in it. He's rude, arrogant, and annoying. Even Anakin and Tahiri, who for some reason keep referring to him as their friend, think so. Given that his best friend is a chatterbox who talks constantly about whatever happens to pop into her head, it probably takes quite a bit to try Anakin's patience, and Tahiri's as well, since HER best friend is generally silent and leaves her to carry every conversation, but Uldir regularly manages to do it. Unfortunately, he's sticking around, to 'train' as a Jedi, somehow, even though he's not Force-sensitive.

In the end, the lesson is the same as the one from book 1: it's your choices that matter, much more so than your heritage or your past, or anything else. No dead Sith Lords can have any affect on you that you don't choose to allow them. I guess that lesson just hadn't quite sunk in fully and required a trip across the galaxy to learn. It was certainly interesting see a bit more of Dagobah, though. We meet some new creatures, see Yoda's old house, learn that Ikrit was trained by Yoda, and see Tahiri willingly wear shoes.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anakin Solo has been having dreams of the Emperor and Darth Vader as the legacy his name carries continues to bear weight down on him. Rebecca Moesta who also helped to pen the Young Jedi Knights series takes over writing the remaining Junior Jedi Knights stories and it is a very welcome changing of the guard. Her handling of the prose in a little over a hundred pages is excellent and even though Tahiri, Anakin, Ikrit, and R2 once again go off on their own, she takes just the right amount of time to make everything seem plausible instead of having things occurring because they needed to. They also take on an annoying new friend named Uldir who's desperate to become a Jedi even though he's not Force sensitive in the least; he behaves with the temperament of Mandark and the kid with the glasses from Polar Express.

The group goes on a journey of self discovery on Dagobah where they tangle with all sorts of nasty creatures in an adventure that culminates at the cave Luke went into in Empire. The visions Anakin and Tahiri have within are interesting as Ikrit explains that only they can forge their destinies, not their families who came before or who raised them and not those whose name is burdened by legacy. It's a surprisingly deep theme to be found here and it's very enjoyable and develops the pair in a wonderful way. All in all, a highly enjoyable character outing and an easy read.

7 1/2 Knobby White Spiders out of 10

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new author and a new subtrilogy begin with this book. I think I slightly prefer this new prose style, but the addition of Uldir as a headstrong, bratty foil to Anakin and Tahiri just plays into a lot of the problems I have with child characters in general. Maybe the intended reader isn't annoyed by Uldir's ceaseless blunders, though how different are they really from some of the predictable rebelliousness of Kyp or Jacen? Time is a flat circle, I guess.

We do get some additional lore on the Force vision cave from Empire Strikes Back, which is kind of fun.

[Volkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my 8th birthday (in 1998), my father gave me a special edition of this book where one of the characters had my name. I felt like I was a part of the story and have loved sci-fi ánd Star Wars ever since. I recently gave the book to my nephew who is 9 years old. He loves it!

5 stars for if you're 7-9 years old.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The weakest book so far, the introduction of an angst ridden boy with no force potential trying to force his way into the academy had me wishing he will die a slow painful death on dagobah...

Anakin and Tahiri continue to be the best couple on the saga and the unconventional Jedi Master who has joined them has me wanted to know more about him.

3.5/5

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes indeed, Rebecca Moesta is a better writer than Nancy Richardson. Much less cringy. Still love Anakin and Tahiri, and I loved the little nod to the Jedi Academy trilogy. Anakin’s dealing with fear that he’ll end up like his grandfather, and so he goes to the cave on Dagobah where Yoda sent Luke. And Tahiri learns the value of shoes.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad to see that we are actually addressing the effect on Anakin of carrying his namesake. I understand it probably couldn't have always just been about he and Tahiri, but I find Uldir pretty painful to read. He's just a jerk, and having finished the series at this point, I don't think he ever really improves.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the first, and not the last, book to suffer from the 'retracing the OT' problem, and Uldir is of course intentionally dislikable. But Anakin's struggle with living up to his name (for better or worse) is an important avenue for him to go down, so there are some good points. Again, I'd probably enjoy this more if I read it when of the target age.

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Junior Jedi Knights is such a wonderful and magical series just like Young Jedi Knights and this book of the JJK series is probably my favorite so far! Such a fun little adventure with Anakin, Tahiri and Ikrit!

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An improvement over the previous 3, with some familiar locations and good character development.

[jaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate that uldir dude💀💀

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prologue is a bit confusing. Are the twins on Yavin? If so, why didn't they go home with Anakin? Why is there no interaction between the three in the series?
And if it is indeed the case, then Moesta has contradicted what Richardson wrote in the first book - that Leia doesn't want all her kids out of the house at once.
However, I find Moesta to be a better writer of Star Wars than Richardson.

Moesta goes along with the third book in that Tahiri is 2 years younger than Anakin and was orphaned at the age of 3. I misremembered that she was only a year younger. HOWEVER in the first book she does say she was orphaned at the age of 4.
FOUR, PEOPLE!

Anyway...

This book takes place three months after the previous one. It brings in the fact that Anakin - while in Leia's womb - was ouched by Palpatine's clone. The boy worries about this and fear he has legitimately been infected by the Dark Side. The questions he asks Luke about this are almost calming. Not only are they reminiscent of Luke and Yoda's conversations, but it also brings to mind his namesake talking to Qui-Gon and Yoda, despite those events taking place in our world after this book was originally published.

Luke tells his nephew about the cave on Dabogah, and Anakin is determined to go there.
And he does, along with Tahiri and Ikrit, the latter of whom volunteered to take the youth.

And there is a stowaway on Peckham's ship, named Uldir. I'm surprised Anakin didn't sense the teen, given that he's been able to sense things since he was a young child. I'm also surprised that Uldir's presence wasn't felt by any of the Force sensitives on the way to Dagobah.

Uldir is annoying and arrogant, but is still written well. I feel bad for him, more than anything.

Zekk is mentioned!

What all four characters learn on Dagobah is perfect and beautiful.

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been kind of a chore to sign up myself up to read this series, especially as it is aimed at very young readers and isn't full of space fantasy awesomeness that is the adult-side of the Expanded Universe, but I signed up myself for this all the same because I wanted to a) read every story out there and b) get some more background on little Anakin due to him being a grown up major player in future storylines. That noted, this story was actually pretty cool. It is the first story I remember where a character has gone into the tree-cave Luke went into in Empire. Plus the novel idea that the knobbly-root trees of Dagobah are actually spiders that plant themselves into the ground and turn into trees. That's some pretty cool sci-fi there, let me just admit. All that noted, let me write that there's not much in this piece, except that Anakin realizes he has potential for good and evil, and the choice is up to him, and isn't so haunted by the fact that his parents named him after Darth Vader and his destiny could be evil no matter what.

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think my favorite of the Junior Jedi Knights series thus far.

Ikrit, Anakin, and Tahiri were all better written than the first JJK book and the exploration of Anakin's concern regarding his heritage was perhaps not anything unusual or surprising, but was handled decently well with several quotable moments from Master Ikrit. This boy felt like a future great Jedi Knight more than he has in some of the earlier stories. :)

The only low point in this book was the addition of the character of Uldir - a boy who wants to be a Jedi, but has no Force sensitivity. His plotline seemed to have no real conclusion, or particular purpose in the novel, and he could have been dropped from the story line without any real loss - he's somewhat forgettable as it is.

Otherwise, an easy, quick, fun read.

[Darryl Dobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good series earmarked for ages 7-9. As I noted before, my seven-year-old just finished the Potter series so she's past this, and my five-year-old isn't ready for this. Just a light, quick read with all the usual goofy quirks of a kids book (i.e. silly coincidences, luckily-timed events, and farfetched permissions for the child characters). This one was a little worse than the first three because the character Uldir is pretty annoying.

I won't punish any books this series with a low rating because let's face it - I'm 42, and not seven. Frankly, I think a seven year old would love these books as the adventures move along quickly. Much, much better than the Galaxy of Fear children's series.

I'll read the series because it won't take long and perhaps some of the characters will appear in the regular novels.

[Duane · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book follows the adventures of Anakin as he's becoming a Jedi. It involves Anakin, a couple of new friends and a unusual Jedi Master. A little predictable and not very exciting. Read it once, won't recommend it to anyone.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

The new character is annoying, but it's interesting to return to the cave on Dagobah and the story is competently written. I think I like this book a bit better than the first three, especially as the writer is somewhat better.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed, since the plot was not very fast-paced, and the endings less interesting than I'd expected. But I suppose it's not bad as Moesta's first novel on her own (as opposed to coauthoring).

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anakin's Quest is primarily about Anakin's need to find himself, deciding to go to a faraway cave that Master Yoda sent his uncle into one time.

Four stars, I think Uldir's existence knocked a star off.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book wasn't very good at all. surprise surprise.

[Mark Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book. I felt sorry for the transport pilot that took them to degobah, the auther called him old peckhum that many time the poor guy must have a a complex.

[Zach Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better author for the back half than the first