David's Review of I, Jedi

4/5 Rancors - Mr. Stackpole made the unusual choice with I, Jedi of writing it in first person, the first time this has happened in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It takes a little while to get used to but it does clearly put you in the shoes of the main character Corran Horn. We have read about Corran before. He got his start on Corellia as a well-known part of CorSec and then moved on to join Rogue Squadron as an X-wing pilot. He has Jedi genes from his grandfather and much of this book concerns his struggle of whether or not to become a full-fledged Jedi by attending Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy.

The story begins with the disappearance of Corran’s wife Mirax. The question then is how best to find her and rescue her. Should Corran rely on his CorSec investigative skills or should he accept Luke’s offer to attend the academy and then use his more-developed Jedi skills to help Mirax? In the end he does a combination of both. His time at the academy will feel very familiar to any readers who are familiar with Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy, only this time you are seeing the story develop through the eyes of Corran Horn.

I have to admit that I sometimes grow weary of philosophical discussions of the Force, and there is a great deal of that in the first half of the book. However, the second half makes up for any shortcomings. Corran leaves the Academy, infiltrates the pirates being used by Leonia Tavira, and goes hard after Mirax. The book turns into a real page-turner. Tavira is an interesting character who has managed to hide her forces from the Republic. She wreaks havoc on Republic planets as her fleet pops up unexpectedly time after time, and she also has help from Force-sensitive characters.

All of this ties together very well as Luke and Ooryl (Corran’s X-wing pilot buddy) join together with a few others to take on Tavira’s forces in an attempt to rescue Mirax. The action is excellent, and the characters are ones we will remember. I very much enjoyed the book after getting bogged down slightly during Corran’s time at the Jedi Academy.