Star Wars: Kenobi

Come scritto dall'autore nella prefazione, Kenobi era iniziato come sceneggiatura per una serie a fumetti, evolutasi poi in romanzo vero e proprio. Chi conosce l'universo di Star Wars sa quanto sia vasto e, alle volte, frammentario. Ma Miller parte da un punto ben noto ai fan della serie: l'arrivo di Kenobi su Tatooine per portare Luke agli zii. Da qui si evolvono le vicende del primo anno (o giù di lì, non c''è una vera e propria posizione temporale indicata) di Obi-Wan (ora Ben) sul pianeta desertico. E la storia, per quanto semplice e un pochino telefonata verso il finale, si regge bene e crea una buona base per eventuali storie successive (che ci sono di sicuro state, perché il libro è del 2017 e l'avevo nella pila dei libri da leggere praticamente da allora). Infarcito di citazioni più o meno evidenti, è un buon romanzo dell'Universo espanso di Star Wars (quello che, in gergo, viene indicato con "Legends" per differenziarlo dal "Canon").

I have to say I was disappointed by this book.

Not because it was badly written, but because I feel it was presented as something it isn't really. It's called Kenobi and it has a picture of a youngish Obi-Wan on the cover. But it's not actually about him.

Oh he's certainly in the book, and his presence is critical to the events that unfold. But you're not going to learn anything about his character or even much about what he's thinking in this book because we only get a few short passages from his point of view.

Instead what we get is (by author John Jackson Miller's own acknowledgement) Star Wars as a western. And on that level I think it actually works fairly well.

We have a lot of familiar western elements here. Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi plays the role of the stranger who comes into town. We have a land-owner with just a bit too much power and influence. We have his spoilt brat kids. Oh and we have the Tusken's in the role of native Americans. It really does work quite nicely. There's even an almost romance for Kenobi.

Admittedly the pacing is a little odd as things build up to an apparent climax in the middle of the book, only to take a new path and build back up again for the real conclusion. That did throw me a little while I was reading, but looking back I quite like it.

There are niggling frustrations though. Since the book is 95% from the point of view of characters who don't know who Kenobi is, we have endless scenes of people wondering how he did something or references to funny noises or a blue strobe. But since the reader knows perfectly well what it is and why, that's just kind of annoying.

And in theory there is a sort of redemption story here for Kenobi, it's just not a very good one and we never really get to feel what he must be feeling. It just feels a bit tacked on. Basically it could have been any Jedi in this book, it really didn't have to be Obi-wan.

But I will admit a significant part of my unhappiness is that I really wanted a book about Obi-wan. A book where he was the focal character and the view point character. He's probably my favorite character from all the movies and he never gets the attention others get. So yeah, I'm a bit biased.