The epic battle between the Jedi Order and the Sith Lords rages across the ages – and you can read stories about ten Jedi and Sith characters in Stories of Jedi and Sith. Is the anthology book worth your time and money?
Stories of Jedi and Sith, a collection of ten short stories focusing on, well, you guessed it, Jedi and Sith, is a sort of spiritual successor to the The Clone Wars – Stories of Light and Dark. The first one, Stories of Light and Dark was a sort of From a Certain Point of View, but for The Clone Wars, as each short story adapted an arc or an episode from the show but told it from a slightly different point of view. This anthology book is entirely new stories, told from across the eras, from The High Republic to the Sequel Trilogy, fans of any era will find a story that speaks to them.
Half of the stories focus on the Jedi, starring Yoda, Luke Skywalker, and Rey Skywalker. A couple other stories feature some exciting characters, some of which may be more fun to read about in the course of the book. These stories generally ask: what does it mean to be a Jedi? But as a nice twist, they don’t normally center the Jedi as the POV characters. Instead, the stories center other characters and their interactions with Jedi and let us see them through their eyes. Most of these stories work really well, and I applaud each authors ability to get inside the head of the character that they are writing. And by investigating Jedi of every era, the book is able to look into what makes a Jedi across the ages, not just during the Clone Wars. I thought this was a cool way to bring unity to the Saga by investigating the core of what makes a Jedi, even if the characters would never really be able to meet.
One thing that surprised me was that this book featured a pretty substantial story about Rey Skywalker. (In fact, I would say most stories felt a bit more substantial than not – I’m used to these kinds of books being a bit light and fluffy, but not this one!) Specifically, the story about Rey shows a bit of the tension that builds between Rey and Poe, which now feels just a little bit better in the context of The Rise of Skyalker . I thought it was cool to get something from the Sequels at all, let alone one that explored a pretty new area of character growth.
The Sith stories were also pretty interesting, and a lot of that is because of the questions that they ask or the way that they investigate what it means to be a Sith. Instead of celebrating the Dark Side or reveling in badass tales, the stories more ask: what does it cost to be a Sith? What toll does the Dark Side extract from its users? In this sense, what could have been run of the mill stories about Darth Sidious, Vader or Asajj Ventress could have been much fluffier. The story about Palpatine, specifically, serves as a great introduction to the new Luminous author, Tessa Gratton!
Being a Middle Grade book, there’s not much I would critique about the stories. They suit the age-group well, are mostly well-paced, self-contained, and validate their need to be told. The only one I struggled with was Delilah Dawson’s Ventress story, which I felt was too violently described to fit the age group…which is a common critique I’ve leveled against her writing in general. Some authors that I may not have connected with before prove to be strong writers here, and I was happy to see some newer-to-Star Wars faces.
I do want to shout out Jake Bartok, who created the art for the book. Jake’s style is very distinct, and you may have seen it in his Medieval takes on Jedi. Even in more “traditional” interpretations of the characters, you can feel Jake’s art style shine. I’d hope to see Jake more in future anthologies, if this format is to continue. A few other new names worked on some of the stories, and I would say between the artists and authors, I was happy to see so many new faces that fit in very well.
A few stand-out stories, for one reason or another, to me were Sarwat Chadda’s story on Anakin and Obi-Wan, Sam Maggs’ on Luke, and Tessa Gratton’s story about Palpatine (and another character….)
In the end, Stories of Jedi and Sith operates as a well-written, substantial anthology book. Every story takes an interesting look into the character that the story is about from a new angle, one that makes it more fun to read.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!
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