Kenobi: Star Wars Legends (edition 2022)

Miller does here what the best Star Wars tie-in novels featuring a major character do: he introduces and vividly describes new characters for the reader to care about who for the most part take center stage in the proceedings. In comparison to the disastrous Disney+ show, this story is restrained: nearly the entirety of the story takes place on Tatooine, the stakes are low, and the action set pieces are few and far between.
Nerdy references to other branches of the Star Wars franchise (Satine Kryze, A'Sharad Hett) are similarly brief and fleeting. ( )

It's been a long time since I don't have a 5 stars book. It was a great story and loved to learn more from Tuskens and Tatooine farmers. ( )

This book was bad in so many ways. First, the plot was ludicrous, so full of holes. I know, it's Star Wars and SW is notorious for bad plots, having only 2 out of the 6 movies worth watching. Second, "Ben" Kenobi doesn't use a lightsaber until the last 30 pages. A Jedi novel? Despite trying to keep a no-profile on Tatooine he ends up in the middle of so much farce he might as well have used his lightsaber from the first pages (although he wasn't much in the first 100). Finally the writing is just awful, worse than a YA novel, totally dumbed down.

I might have given this three stars if I was 11 years old. ( )

A história começa morna mas vai crescendo e tem um final muito bacana. Atropelei outras leituras para ver se tinha algumas pistas sobre a história de Obi-wan Kenobi, tamanha a ansiedade pela série (ou minissérie) que a Disney está fazendo. Apesar de não fazer mais parte do cânone oficial, valeu a diversão. ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for a review from the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey Spectra, through the Netgalley.com website.

Since 1978 when I first saw the movie STAR WARS (episode IV, A NEW HOPE) I was 8 years old, and fell in love with it. Aside from anxiously watching as each new movie episode came out (with years in between) I would grab up any side story of STAR WARS that would appear on bookshelves. After many years, it seemed there were too many books in the STAR WARS universe, covering such a vast time span, I just sort of lost interest if the books weren't about specific people I liked from the main storyline from the movies. When I saw STAR WARS: KENOBI being released, I knew this was one I wanted to read!

This takes place immediately after Obi-Wan Kenobi has fled with the twin children of Darth Vader (Annakin Skywalker) and left one (Leia) with Ambassador Bail Organa of Alderaan, and the other (Luke) with Owen Lars on Tatooine. With the need to disappear, as the Emperor is hunting down any remaining members of the Jedi Order, Kenobi stays on in the deserts of Tatooine, to keep an eye of protection on the young Skywalker.

While trying to remain aloof and separate from anyone, to not attract undue attention to himself, and possibly young Skywalker, Kenobi assumes the moniker Ben, and tries to avoid getting involved in the small town-like life of a nearby oasis community as it deals with problems of it's own in the form of the Tusken Raiders. However, Ben's Jedi training will not allow him to see evil being done, even if it may expose the secret he is hiding.

This novel kept me reading at a fast pace as the story developed. Being able to invest some time in an area of the STAR WARS story that had not had any description, was a treat, especially concerning one of the last Jedi at that time. Sharing the guilt that Kenobi had following what he thought as as Annakin's death, and the "signs" he felt he should have seen showing Annakin turning to the Dark Side, it brings out a personal side of the Obi-Wan character we usually do not see.

Overall, I felt the story was well created and told in a third person narrative. There seemed to me to be a good connection of events/characters from my memory of the timeline before, and what is to come, and able to leave room for possible more stories of Obi Wan from this time period he spent on Tatooine while watching of young Skywalker. ( )