When we first saw the fully-grown Anakin Skywalker and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2002’s Attack of The Clones, we are led to believe that they had been on many great adventures and had become great friends. All the way back in Star Wars: A New Hope it was implied that Anakin and Obi-Wan had a bond of some sort, but with the Obi-Wan TV show on its way, it was the right time for Disney to flesh things out a little.
Star Wars – Brotherhood is the adventure that the fans have been waiting for since 1977. A tale of brothers-in-arms, both action-packed but sensitive enough to appeal to all reads. A war story built that balances hope and violence to bring the reader a compelling narrative.
The bulk of Mike Chen’s story takes us through what happened on Cato Neimoidia, an adventure alluded to in the movies and joked about by the two Jedi. This is an intriguing war story, with the main twist being that the two central protagonists aren’t very good at politics or investigating terrorist plots. We get duels with notable Star Wars villains, a touch of mystery, and Anakin is even likable; had this book been the plot of the second Star Wars prequel movie, we suspect the fans would have been a lot more satisfied.
One of the interesting things about the Disney era of Star Wars is that the majority of the books produced before Disney’s control of the franchise are categorized as ‘Legends’, or to put it another way, they aren’t part of the Star Wars canon anymore. This means that the new books have had free reign to re-invent parts of the Star Wars Universe, or bring back artefacts from the old days. Mike Chen does this with a steady hand; weaving this new tale into the larger narrative. For example, we get to see a version of the ship from the Knights of the Old Republic video game and there’s a nod to characters from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They are other nods, but it’s all deftly done, without detracting from the core narrative.
What is sorely missing however is further development of Anakin and Padme. Given how central this relationship is to the back story of the entire saga, we had hoped for more, but alas we get what amounts mostly to a cameo. We suspect yet another book will cover all of that someday.
Overall, Star Wars – Brotherhood is an impressive addition to the canon.
STAR WARS – BROTHERHOOD is out now via booksellers across the known galaxy.
Click to order from Amazon
