John Jackson Miller

It bothers me that Dark Horse counted volume one of Vector as volume five of Knights of the Old Republic; now it looks there's a blank spot on my shelf. But it's right that they did; they weren't kidding when they said Vector would strongly influence every tale it crossed over with. Thanks to its events, Zayne is finally able to make it to Coruscant and take the fight to the Jedi Covenant who framed him for murder all the way back in volume one-- I hadn't seen that one coming! It's a very show more good wrap-up to three years of stories; almost every side character plays a part of some sort, and though I wish some (like Jarael) had made a bigger contribution, the climax is played exactly right, hinging on Zayne's relationships with Marn Hierogryph and Lucien Draay, the centerpieces of the series. The revelation of exactly what the Covenant's been playing at is perfect, as is the flashback issue depicting the history of Haazen.

Bong Dazo's art in "Exalted" and and "Vindication, Part 2" is better than I remembered him being, and Alan Robinson's art in "Turnabout" is passable enough, but the real highlight of the volume is the return of Brian Ching to art duties for the first time since volume three, as he draws a suitably impressive climax. But of course, this isn't it for KotOR; one plotline may have ended, but there's plenty more to keep this going for a long while, and I'm looking forward to it. John Jackson Miller has once again shown why it's the best Star Wars ongoing out there. show less

If we had only EU novels like this, maybe 1 or 2 a year, the expanded universe could be taken a lot more seriously. This novel is small in scope and in page count, but helps us to understand the role Obi-Wan has to play in his exile. Many fans will want to see one last big adventure for Obi-Wan, but this cannot happen (even though it does in young readers books), and the author understands this. There is a lot of restraint shown by the author, no major reveals are made (again because they show more were made in lessor works), yet the book pulls you in and makes you care not only about Obi-Wan but about the supporting characters as well. While Obi-Wan comes to terms with his final mission, which becomes a way of paying penance for his failures in training his former apprentice, he becomes unwillingly entangled in local events.

This story creates a believable and interesting representation of what the character of Obi-Wan should be in this period between trilogies. What we see of Obi-Wan is mostly through the eyes of others, and it becomes clear how Obi-Wan Kenobi of the prequel trilogy becomes crazy old Ben from Episode IV. This is a must read for any Star Wars fan, especially those who haven't read any of the novels. show less

A western-flavoured, fairly entertaining book that looks at Obi-Wan Kenobi's first months on Tatooine post 'Revenge of the Sith', when he was starting to adapt to the huge changes in his life and in the galaxy at large, and craft his new persona as 'Ben'. These spaces in between canon are the only place I tend to gravitate to for SW EU fiction these days, and this was pretty satisfying. It had some clever nods to fans (e.g. explaining why Obi-Wan didn't change his surname), and managed to show more avoid the angst that too many Obi-Wan stories tend to end up with (although - heh - it was yet another Kenobi story with the main female character falling for him). show less

The most recent Star Trek: Discovery novel once again has no scenes aboard the title ship. Instead, this book follows a year in the life of the USS Enterprise, showing what it was doing during Discovery's first season, leading up to its appearance in the season one finale, and retro-foreshadowing some of season 2.

I've always been a fan of Captain Pike's Enterprise-- I used to have a website on a shitty free hosting platform devoted to it-- and I was disappointed that the first Discovery show more novel, Desperate Hours, didn't quite lean into its Pikeness more. So of course I enjoyed this. At first it's a pretty action-y novel, as the Enterprise explores a dangerous region of space and ends up beset by aliens who kidnap a big chunk of the crew. Fun but disposable. But about halfway through, something dramatic happens, and the novel gets contemplative and atmospheric. I loved the difficult situation everyone ends up in, and I loved how they all handled it, and how it reveals so much about these people. Great big set pieces, awesome visuals of things I surprisingly can't remember being doing in Star Trek before. But also nice little touches, such as Nurse Carlotti's problem, or the role of shipwreck narratives. There are also some nice moments where the book joins

Miller also does a good job with the characters. His Captain Pike captures everything I liked about Anson Mount's portrayal, his Spock is excellent, and he does a strong job with other mainstays like Number One, Yeoman Colt, Nhan, and Doctor Boyce. I also really enjoyed the original character of Galadjian (I hope we see more of him somewhere, but I know by Discovery season 2 he's not around), and I was surprised by he journey Miller took Connolly on. At first the guy annoyed me just as he did in the season 2 premiere, but by novel's end, I understood and liked him and felt bad about how he was depicted in "Brother." Which, I guess, is what a good prequel does!

I'm not totally convinced by every aspect of the joining up, and some of the continuity-smoothing moments are groaners, but overall I really enjoyed this. I've been reading John Jackson Miller's Star Wars comics for over a decade, but this is the first prose fiction and the first Star Trek work I've read from him. He nails it in this universe as much as he did in that one. show less