My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/wcgvPpboC_4

Enjoy! ( )

The artwork felt dated and there were some "ugh" parts, but it held my interest throughout. ( )

Tales of the Jedi is a series I've known and wondered about ever since I became a serious Star Wars fan, a mysterious and unknowable marker early on chronologies. Now, thanks to Dark Horse's exhaustive Omnibus program, I've gotten a chance to read it. This book collects four stories.

The first two, "The Golden Age of the Sith" and "The Fall of the Sith Empire," take place 5,000 years before the films. They're not great-- thin characters with flimsy motivations act out enormous events. Okay, so that's Star Wars in a nutshell, but these stories lack style and fun. I did like the Hutt with a hat (anyone who knows me could have seen this coming), and I'll admit the final battle was suitably epic. But the protagonists, who seem to be aiming at Luke Skywalker redux, are far more whiny and far less interesting than he ever was. I really liked the visual aesthetic of the stories, though; making the Old Republic look cod-Egyptian during this time might be a cheap trick, but it works.

Then we jump a thousand years with "Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon," which is okay. I feel like I'm supposed to like Ulic more than I do. He's kind of a jerk. And so is his master, Arca Jeth, for sending him off on his own, untested. Seeing how he'll fare is a flimsy motivation when lives are at stake!

Finally, though, is "The Saga of Nomi Sunrider." Now this is more like it! It feels like an ancient legend come to life, something out of the Grail mythos. Nomi is the wife of a Jedi who sees her husband gunned down in front of her and must learn  to become a Jedi herself... except she doesn't want to ever pick up a lightsaber. It's an atmospheric tale by Tom Veitch, Janine Johnston, and David Roach, about grief, regret, and violence, with well-used bits of weirdness. Just a perfect little slice of storytelling.

One thing I do really like about both of the last two tales: that they're not about Jedi caught up in big, galactic events, but Jedi who serve as peacekeepers, reclusive mystics, and what have you. These are stories on a local scale, but no less important for it. When I imagine the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, this is what I like to imagine-- a more civilized age.

Wicked Sweet!!
Set thousands of years before the movies, this book features tonnes of stories of Jedi Knights in the Old Republic. This book circulates in my library at a constant. Sci Fi awsomeness at its best!!
MIDDLE SCHOOL ( )

This is a collection of tales from the historical setting of Star Wars: Kevin J. Anderson's "The Golden Age of the Sith" and "The Fall of the Sith Empire", and Tom Veitch's "Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon" and "The Saga of Nomi Sunrider".

The tales are visually quite interesting, with excellent detail and plenty of action; the limitations of having to constrain a plot to a limited series comic book have helped Anderson's writing, though it still has rough edges and less-than-believable sudden acquisitions of skill on the part of major characters; the epic story does feel abbreviated from being crammed into such a small space. Veitch's tales are more focused and flow rather well.

The stories are a good look at a different era of the Jedi, before they were as decadent as we see them in Episodes I-III. ( )