Fiction Reviews
Star Wars: The Living Force
(2024) John Jackson Miller, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, xi + 405pp, ISBN 978-1-529-91944-8
In the year before The Phantom Menace, Yoda, Mace Windu, and the entire Jedi Council confront a galaxy on the brink of change. The galaxy is changing, and along with it, the Jedi Order. More and more, the Order finds itself focused on the future of the Republic, secluded on Coruscant, where the twelve members of the Jedi Council weigh crises on a galactic scale. As Qui-Gon Jinn challenges the Council about the increasing isolation of the Order, Mace Windu suggests a bold response: all twelve Jedi Masters will embark on a goodwill mission to help the planet, and remind the people of the galaxy that the Jedi remain as stalwart and present as they have been across the ages. But the arrival of the Jedi leadership is not seen by all as a cause for celebration and the Jedi Masters must reckon with an unwelcome truth: that while no one thinks more about the future than the Jedi Council, nobody needs their help more than those living in the present.
First of all, hats off to the great cover art by Oliver Richardson depicting the members of the Jedi Council, a few familiar faces among them. Then, before the novel starts we get a timeline of all the Star Wars novels and where they fit against the movies from The Phantom Menace through to The Rise of Skywalker. The Living Force is one of 13 novels (so far) that come before The Phantom Menace in a period known as “The High Republic”. Following the timeline, we get a map of the Gem Cities of Kwenn which are sited on a series of thirteen named islands, each ending in the word “Key” which are connected by bridges. The main island is Capital Key which contains a Jedi outpost. After that we get a timely quote from Qui-Gon Jinn to Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Be mindful of the living Force, young Padawan” before a little scene-setter telling the reader that all is not well in the galaxy with the withdrawal of the Jedi from important regions, and darker forces waiting to take their place.
This is author, Jackson Miller’s, seventh Star Wars novel, and he’s also written nine Star Trek novels, so he’s an old hand at this, and here delivers a novel told over 4 parts, 60 chapters, plus an epilogue, before finishing up with some acknowledgements. Each chapter starts with a little location label telling us that we are on a particular island, or at a spaceport, or on a Jedi shuttle, in a compound, in hyperspace and so on. Fortunately given the length of the novel and 60 chapters and an epilogue, my reluctant reader-sense didn’t flare up at the prospect of reading 30-page long chapters, so more hats off to Jackson Miller for keeping his plates spinning and driving the plot forward. I say that because there is a big problem with this novel, and it is that there are just too many characters. Qui-Gon Jinn challenges the Jedi Council to do something, anything, to end their isolation and be servants to the people again, so the entire Council jumps in, or rather, out, paying a goodwill visit to a Jedi outpost that is closing, which gives us twelve characters to follow. Twelve characters that Jackson Miller has to accommodate and differentiate in the minds of the reader. Not only that, he has to come up with a series of friends and villains among the populace on the different islands, not to mention those who serve the Jedi in various roles.
There is also the added problem of a lack of jeopardy. Followers of the films will know that the real fate of some of the Council members is revealed in The Revenge of the Sith. Perhaps that is why I had a feeling of light touch throughout the novel, right from the very start when Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Kenobi exhibit a similar light touch by thwarting a hi-jacking without even having to draw their light sabres. With a plethora of characters and events to accommodate them, I felt there was a real lack of descriptions of characters and surroundings throughout, and those expecting more from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan will be sorely disappointed as they exit the narrative fairly early on. No spoilers here, but Jackson Miller does introduce a cameo from a major Star Wars character at the end of the novel which reminds the reader of the scheming going on in the background, and how precarious the role of the Jedi is in the universe, and how quickly the balance of power can change.
To sum up, Jackson Miller delivers a novel that does what it says on the cover – the illustration and the blurb – giving us an adventure involving the entire Jedi Council, when perhaps what might have worked better was actually three of four shorter books chronicling the exploits of a small group of Jedi masters before bringing the Council together at the end to thwart a greater evil. I’m not a Star Wars completist, but there are plenty of them out there who are, and will buy this book and enjoy it. May the Force be with them.
Ian Hunter
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