1/5 Rancors - Both Del Rey and Bantam Spectra before them have chosen a wide array of authors to drop a book or two into the Star Wars galaxy. This strategy can produce uneven results depending on how readily a particular author can integrate into the increasingly complex Expanded Universe. Some, such as Timothy Zahn and James Luceno, quickly adapt to what's needed for this space opera and are asked back multiple times for follow-up volumes. Others end up writing just one book, such as David Sherman and Dan Cragg, the authors of Jedi Trial.
The authors' military credentials covered in their bios are noteworthy and they have written a large number of books in their own series. Unfortunately, their writing style does not lend itself to a Star Wars novel. Jedi Trial is populated by rather cardboard characters who all tend to speak in the same tone and voice as the surrounding prose. We follow two troopers very closely throughout the book, Odie Subu and Erk H'arman, but they are more ciphers than fleshed-out people. They fall in love in what feels like minutes and we never get an organic feel for what drives them; rather, we are simply told how they feel and what they are thinking, as literally as possible.
This brings me to another concern; the book does not trust us as readers to be able to infer anything for ourselves. Every single point is both shown and told to us; no subtlety is employed with character motivations and thoughts or storylines. Every time we leave one scene for another and then return to where we were a page or two later, every characters' full name is used again as if we would have forgotten. For instance, we see the names Odie Subu and Erk H'arman dozens of times in the book, and I can't believe many readers would have been confused if they had just been referred to as Odie and Erk. We don't get a consistent point of view in scenes, as we are directly told what each character is thinking along with hearing them say it in their dialogue.
The story focuses on Anakin's efforts leading troops to save hostages in a Republic communications center on Praesitlyn. I enjoyed learning about Anakin's early steps to becoming a commander of soldiers rather than a Jedi doing his own thing, and I think this is a good step to illustrating the skills he would require as Darth Vader leading legions of clone troopers. Sherman and Cragg seem to have an excellent grasp of military life and tactics and are able to lay out battles and strategies with a vast amount of detail. However, one thing I love about Star Wars as an adventure tale is how it glosses over some of these finer points, as they are lost on readers like me who are more interested in characters than troop movements and logistics.
Despite the title of the book, there's not much focus on what exactly Anakin's trial is. Presumably the trial is his ability to command Republic forces in battle. He is tempted to kill the commander of the Separatist forces in a bunker at the end, but restrains himself in time. This doesn't seem any more significant than the hundreds of killing situations he's been exposed to already during the course of the war. My personal view of what sort of trial a Jedi would undergo is something more personal, and I believe Anakin faced something much more trying on Nelvaan in the Clone Wars cartoon than he does in this book.
Jedi Trial was a disappointing read. The writing style greatly hinders the book's flow and makes for a tedious experience. In another book cover discrepancy (similar to Dooku's appearance on The Cestus Deception), Asajj Ventress is featured on the jacket but only appears briefly as a hologram in the story. It's too hard to connect with the characters and the storyline in this book for it to make much of an impact.
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