Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens the Weapon of a Jedi

by Jason Fry

[inlibrisveritas]

The Weapon of a Jedi is one of three middle grade books released on Force Friday and a part of the official Journey to Star Wars: Force Awakens line designed to drum up hype and curiosity for the new film. Each of the middle grade books is a little single dose adventure designed to help the newer fans get to know the old crew of the original films. This particular book centers on Luke and his struggle to become a Jedi.

The book starts and ends with a nice little ‘current’ prologue and epilogue, introducing us to a new character Jessika Pava as Threepio tells one of his adventures with his master Luke. I can only wonder if we’ll be seeing her in the movie at some point. Luke’s story begins with a bang as he pilots his X-Wing and staves off enemy fire from TIE fighters, and receives another mission. Right away we get to know Luke (for those who don’t know him) and see that he’s brave, a skilled pilot, and humble; while getting to know him is the main focus it’s also really great for those who already know Luke and want a nice little one-shot story focused on his growth as a Jedi. There is plenty of action as well and we get some really nice scenes while he learns more about using his lightsaber, and is forced to put it to the test. We also get to see a new planet (from the current canon stories atleast) Devaron which was pretty cool and definitely has me excited to see what other places they plan to explore in other novels as well.

The writing itself is quickly paced but has plenty of detail and depth, and I had no trouble seeing how addicting this could be for a younger reader since I had trouble putting it down. Add that too the really awesome artwork included and you have a winner.

I have hopes that this will help usher in some new fans, both from Star Wars loving families and those who are not. It’s fresh and fun, and definitely more accessible than the previous EU’s younger novels.