But enough about the cover. It's what's inside that counts.

First I'll give you some spoiler-free general impressions in case you haven't read the book yet. Then I'll tell you about the plot in a short synopsis (with mild spoilers), the things I like in the Light Side, and the things I thought could have been better in the Dark Side. I'll also be adding an extra section called "Things that make me go Hmm ..." where I'll try to pick apart the text for a few hints about Episodes II and III. Feel free to add your opinions on Echo Station's message boards in the Books section, but please take care to label your spoilers!

General Impressions (spoiler free):

I'm of two minds about this book. On the one hand, it's refreshingly well written, with a strong plot and a very detailed depiction of an alien world with alien technology. The science behind the star system, the planet, its life forms, and the technology seems plausible, and odd enough to make me sit up and take notice. On the other hand, the book left me unsatisfied. Don't getta me wrongo -- I enjoyed it. I devoured all 341 pages in less than four hours during which I also had to referee a frenzied trio of two-to-four-year-old boys. But somehow I felt as if I'd ordered lobster and got filet mignon. Still good, but not what I was expecting. I'll talk more about my disappointment in the Dark Side section.

Plot Description (mild spoilers):

Three years after Episode I, Anakin and Obi-Wan are three years older.

Seriously. It seems as if very little has been accomplished between these two. It's apparent they haven't been out on any missions (Obi-Wan must be going stir crazy) and their relationship seems to be distant at best. After three years you'd think the Chosen One would be able to levitate stuff (Luke learned pretty fast, after all), wield a lightsaber, communicate emotions through his bond with his master ... little things like that. However, instead of training, young Anakin evidently has been cluttering up the hallways with droids he scavenges and repairs during the day, and participating in any illegal speed-fest he can find within 100 kilometers of the Temple at night. When the book opens he's poised on the edge of a balcony with mechanical "wings" strapped to his back, about to jump into a deathtrap of a race ending in a garbage pit full of worms. An assassin tries to kill him, and Obi-Wan must come to his aid at significant peril to his own life. As a result of this fiasco, the Council decides these two need something useful to do and sends them on a mission to a planet called Zonama Sekot where another Jedi, Vergere, disappeared a year ago. Sekot is far out on the western spiral end of the galaxy ... far from Republic or Trade Federation control. Little is known about it, but the Jedi do know that custom-made, superfast starships are being manufactured there for select clients at incredibly high prices. Obi-Wan and Anakin go there to buy a starship and to track down Vergere, but when they get there they see signs of a recent, global conflict and they feel a profound sense of foreboding that turns into visions of a trial for Anakin.

Coincidentally, Commander Willhuf Tarkin (yes, the one with the "foul stench") and Raith Sienar (of Sienar Fleet Systems?) end up in a tension-filled plot to steal a ship from Sekot's factory, and perhaps conquer the planet itself on behalf of a political faction in the Senate linked to the Trade Federation. That is, if they don't kill each other first. Their plans go awry, and they find themselves facing a planetary defense far beyond anything they could have imagined.

Meanwhile, Anakin is facing not only the enemies that seek to kill him from without, but the foes that attack him from within: unworthiness, despair, confusion, fear, and a power inside him that seems beyond his ability to control. The Force is never a nursemaid, he is told. When Obi-Wan is wounded he must face his enemies alone. And the fate of the Jedi may be at stake.

The Light Side:

• I like a book to start with a bang, a bit of exciting action, and this one does. Anakin, sailing to the extreme danger of an illegal race while huge canisters hurtle through the stinking air of the garbage chute, harried by an assassin, rescuing himself and his master while gaining the prize ... jolly good.
• Charza Kwinn, the worm-like Priopulin critter that flies the Jedi's transport ship, is a superb creation. Not only is he interesting as a bizarre alien, but his method of existence -- eating his own offspring -- serves as a lesson to Anakin about acceptance and obedience ... and the necessity of death to sustain life.
• The book does a good job of expanding upon the political situation in Episode I, giving us glimpses into how such a mighty Republic could crumble from within and how men like Tarkin and Sienar take advantage of the situation for their own advancement. Even though the Death Star plans have become a bit of a MacGuffin over the years, it's fun to see their origins here, and the differing attitudes of the two men, one enamored of the elegant designs of a "more civilized age," one interested only in the image of brute strength to inspire fear. And the first meeting of Anakin and Tarkin is full of portent.
• Although the concepts of a group mind and of living organisms functioning as ships are hardly revolutionary (even in the SW universe), Bear's exquisitely detailed descriptions really brought this world to life for me. The hilarious image of the seed partners crawling all over the two Jedi will stay with me a long time.
• Anakin's inner turmoil and outward behavior struck me as very realistic for a lad of 12. His fear of his own power, his confusion about his destiny, his doubts about the Jedi, and his mercurial moods all contributed to a character with depth. Despite knowing what he becomes, I feel sympathy for him. I also liked getting into Obi-Wan's head a bit (not enough for my tastes, though) -- his doubts, his worries, and his genuine affection for Anakin along with the grief and loss he still feels over Qui-Gon's death. It's telling that he still carries Qui-Gon's weapon; after three years he's apparently not bothered to build himself another one.
• Wow. Obi-Wan gives Anakin a pouch full of currency amounting to three billion credits. Too bad Qui-Gon forgot his ATM card on Tatooine.

The Dark Side:

• This book suffers from some of the same problems as the movie that precedes it. First, Obi-Wan has very little to do or say, and ends up in the background until the end. Second, the two Jedi don't seem to connect with any warmth; there's no camaraderie. Third, this book has very little humor. Perhaps I'm spoiled by Stackpole and Allston (I'm re-reading the X-Wing series), but I'd appreciate seeing the human side of the Jedi a bit more. Fourth, for all this book is about two Jedi in the prime of the Order, I found out practically nothing new about the Jedi, the Temple, the training of apprentices, or anything else to satisfy my insatiable curiosity about all things Jedi. The Jedi Apprentice books are much more fulfilling in this regard.
• What's up with Anakin not having a lightsaber? He's been a Padawan for three years! Heck, Luke built his own in that amount of time with no help. And Obi-Wan got to wield a lightsaber even before becoming a Padawan -- in fact, he got to keep the weapon even after being kicked out of the Jedi at age 12. I can think of many reasons why Anakin might not have a lightsaber yet. What I can't understand is why the whole issue is not even given a passing mention in this book.
• The conversation in the Council chambers is extremely formal and stilted. It rang false to me. And Thracia Cho Leem. Who is she, and why is she in this story? She arrives and spouts platitudes a couple of times, then disappears, never to be seen again. She's given enough space that she seems important somehow. Is she a red herring, or something more? Her advice to Anakin seems diametrically opposed to what we know (Yoda: "A Jedi must have the most serious mind..."). She tells him, "Anakin, be a child. Revel in it. Test your limits. Irritate and provoke. It is your way. Time enough for wisdom when you've worn more holes in your shoes." I can't imagine why Obi-Wan and Windu let her tell him this tripe.
• Obi-Wan seems to let Anakin get away with anything. Even when he's nearly killed trying to save the kid in the garbage pits, he just looks at him with patience. I would have though a good whoopin' would be more in order. Obi-Wan knows Anakin doesn't meditate very often, yet he does not even encourage him to do so. Anakin craves discipline, but it looks like he's not getting any. I wonder what Obi-Wan is doing while his apprentice is floundering? We're not told. We're told Anakin does well at his studies, but we don't know what those studies are, and we certainly never see him doing any sort of training, not even the drills with a remote that Obi-Wan had Luke doing on the Millennium Falcon.
• After the Jedi arrive on the planet, the story seemed to bog down for a while. There was no conflict in the middle; despite the mysterious goings on, Obi-Wan and Anakin face no real difficulty in getting a starship. I would have appreciated a chance for them to use their abilities against some sort of foe or natural disaster just to make things interesting -- and to further characterize them by showing us their strengths and weaknesses. The "ritual" of building the starship seemed to drag on for ages.
• The characters on the planet never came alive for me. I didn't really care about any of them or their fates. Interestingly, I've grown more attached to some of Jude Watson's "extras" from the Jedi Apprentice series -- she only has 120 pages to work with, yet her incidental characters are far more memorable than the inhabitants of Sekot.
• We're told the fate of the Jedi might be at stake, but we're not shown how. What would it matter if the Jedi on Sekot disappeared forever?
• Anakin fights his assassin and is suddenly flooded with power, obviously from the Dark Side. Suddenly we switch from his point of view to see his enemy apparently burnt. This is cheating. We should have watched Anakin attack this guy, felt and seen what was happening. Instead, a pivotal moment in Anakin's life -- the source of the main emotional crisis of the story -- happened "off camera." Ten lashes with a Gungan-o-nine-tongues to Bear for this atrocity.

Things that make me go Hmm ...

• Mace Windu ironically asks Obi-Wan, "The chosen one is not in his quarters?" If a Master on the Council is that flippant about the boy, I imagine everyone else is, too. What a burden it must be for Anakin to hear himself referred to in this way. Perhaps this partially explains how Anakin can turn against them later -- it's almost a taunt.
• Mace Windu with a sense of humor and "creative whimsy." Hope we get to see this is Episode II!
• Thracia Cho Leem. Is she the Dark Woman from the comic series? The description might fit if you fudge a bit.
• Obi-Wan has gone from the jokester in Episode I to a humorless man whose apprentice asks him, "Aren't you ever cheerful?" I hope he's not this dour in Episode II. The Obi-Wan of Episode IV at least cracked a smile occasionally.
• A few times Obi-Wan seems to hear Qui-Gon speaking to him, but he dismisses it as a figment of his imagination. Then Anakin dreams of Qui-Gon and tells Obi-Wan, "He said to tell you hello. He said you're so hard to talk to." I'm betting it really is Qui-Gon speaking, but Obi-Wan's just not in the frame of mind to listen. Perhaps we'll see Qui-Gon as a member of the Blue Aura Club in Episode II.
• The Potentium: a splinter group of Jedi, one of whom founded the Zonama Sekot factories. I'm betting we hear more about them.
• The Sekot system is on the edge of the galaxy. Vergere ran off with beings from outside the system called Far Outsiders who have organic spacecraft and are invisible in the Force. Can anyone say "Yuuzhan Vong?" I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Vergere turning up in the New Jedi Order series someday soon.

(Toryn Farr knew everything about Star Wars back in 1977 thanks to Starlog Magazine. She's been trying to keep her know-it-all reputation ever since. During the 90 minutes per day her preschooler is napping, Toryn attempts to run an internet design business and write fantasy fiction.)