– Spoiler-Free Review –
Obi-Wan Kenobi is on his first solo adventure as a Jedi Knight! But will he find that his place is somewhere other than the Jedi Order? Read my review of Star Wars: Padawan!
Obi-Wan Kenobi is, shall we say, not my favorite character. When his Disney Plus TV show was announced, I was almost dreading the fact that in a post-Phase I of The High Republic world, almost all of the material would be based on Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first major release, Brotherhood by Mike Chen, was a delightful surprise, which I enjoyed quite a bit. The Marvel series, Obi-Wan, the logo recycled from Soule’s past series Obi-Wan & Anakin, speaks to me as much as most Marvel mini-series, which is to say… not a ton. Now, Padawan, by Kiersten White, finds itself right in the middle of the two, personally!
The novel follows a pretty straightforward young adult premise: a young hero is on their own for the first time and faces an existential crisis. I actually kind of liked the concept of taking someone as strict and no-nonsense as Obi-Wan and putting him through the YA wringer. As Obi-Wan grows as a Jedi Knight, he chafes with his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, as the older Jedi is far different from the younger one. Almost too different, he fears. After exploring the Jedi Temple, Obi-Wan discovers a note left by a very, very exciting Jedi from the High Republic era, and uses it as an excuse to create a mission for him and his Master. Obi-Wan wants to use the adventure to prove himself as a Jedi both to himself and his Master. But when he gets to the planet Lenhara, he finds that maybe he doesn’t want to do either, anymore.
On Lenhara, an interesting planet in itself, Obi-Wan comes in contact with a group of kids that are a weird mix of the Children of the Corn and the Lord of the Flies. They are a community unto themselves, but they are also gifted with extreme powers. These powers are necessary for survival on Lenhara, as the whole planet, wildlife and fauna alike, seem to be poised against the kids and seeking to destroy them. As Obi-Wan spends time with them, his anxiety grows and he feels like he may not have a place in the Jedi Order any more, and might prefer to stay on Lenhara. Of course, bigger things are happening than Obi-Wan might realize, and it’s up to him to figure them out and potentially save a lot of lives.
There are a lot of things to like about this book. We get to know a lot about Obi-Wan, like, more than I thought we would. Personally, I resonated with his internal anxiety monologue. Maker knows that I’ve had almost verbatim anxiety monologues myself. I think White gets these really well here, and I think it really introduces a lot of dimensions to his character that I would have liked to see in Master & Apprentice and the not-yet-announced-and-honestly-surprisingly-MIA-book about him and Satine on Mandalore. It was really nice watching Obi-Wan interact with peers, as it usually feels like Obi-Wan is interacting with people that he almost sees himself as above, like Anakin, Luke, etc. I did feel like some of his anxiety and inability to mesh with Qui-Gon was a bit redundant after Master & Apprentice, but I do appreciate that they were written for different audiences. This novel helps Obi-Wan figure out his place in the Order, and the rest of the story of the Skywalker Saga is seeing him view that place as absolute.
I really liked Lenhara as well. As I talk more on in my The Princess and the Scoundrel review, the franchise has suffered from a lack of place. The Disney Plus series have generated some fairly bland locations for the stories, and the comics and other visual media don’t seem to be creating totally creative or cool places, either. Lenhara bucks this trend a bit. It has a really diverse and interesting wildlife, one that makes the planet feel unique. The fact that the planet is out to destroy its inhabitants is really cool, too, making one of the primary antagonists of the book the planet instead of a person.
I did have a few problems with the book, and most were pacing. I felt like the villain showed up way too late in the book to be anything but a plot device, as I didn’t really engage with him as much. If he were introduced a bit more explicitly earlier, I feel like I would’ve engaged more. His crew has some interesting characters, but they don’t really get a lot of time to shine and exist in ways that mostly fill roles instead of fleshing out their character. One in particular could’ve really used a LOT more time to develop, and I am a little disappointed by how tertiary he seemed. There were also a few places where the writing felt very young adult, which doesn’t mean it had bad writing, just that the writing wasn’t aimed at me.
All in all, Padawan is a good book for fans of Obi-Wan. If you liked Master & Apprentice, it’s a good prequel and the two would work pretty well together, even if I felt they overlapped a bit too often. As far as the young adult Star Wars offerings go, it’s one of the better ones.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book, through NetGalley, from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.
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