This one really didn't make much a dent for me. It was an early read and it was okay, but it wasn't great. Very few liveplurk notes included below.



ɑรรɑรรiɳcɑptɑiɳ
I’m already a little over a third of away into this one. I keep playing my books through my morning setup & afternoon classroom working

ɑรรɑรรiɳcɑptɑiɳ
All my feeling about Luke learning from voices in his head and feelings in The Force, both in faith & frustration. Also, eeeeevvveeerryyy juxtaposed mention of Darth Vader the evil & his thoughts about learning to be Jedi to honor his dead father.

ɑรรɑรรiɳcɑptɑiɳ
I love every time people call The Force a religion. ( )

This story takes place after New Hope, but before Empire Strikes Back. The story starts with C3PO meeting a fighter pilot named Jessika Pava. C3PO mentions Luke Skywalker and Jessika ask him to tell her a story about him. C3PO decides to tell her the story about Luke using a lightsaber for the first time in a battle.
Luke is not a Jedi in the story. He is a fighter for the Rebels. He is sent on a mission for them with C3PO and R2D2. Luke feels something pulling him to a mysterious planet instead of the mission he has been sent on. On the planet, Luke meets a young girl named Farnay and a person named Sarco Plank. Sarco agrees to take Luke to a temple that has been calling to him. Farnay tries to warn Luke not to go with Sarco, but Luke goes anyway. Luke runs into issues along with way to the temple and at the temple. Luke has to fight a new enemy as well as the empire in order to save someone.

The story was fast-paced. It was a nice little look into Luke's start to the road of becoming a Jedi. ( )

A short young Luke Skywalker tale

This is clearly intended to a younger audience and thus the higher rating, but it is honestly a bit too short... which is probably a good sign as I was left wanting for more. This is a tale that attempts to explain how Luke progressed in his training as a Jedi between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

It captures and portrays pilot Luke and Jedi Knight Luke quite well. It definitely captures the character of C-3PO. The pacing is fast, as expected of a short book like this, and it is full of action with at least four combat scenes.

If a young Luke TV series were to be made the content of this book would be enough to fill a two episode arc at best, with a single 30 minute episode being possibly more than enough time.

Main complaint, a mission is given to Luke at the beginning of the book and while it is not a particularly interesting mission we really don’t see him accomplish it... It is understandable that it was not the main plot but still...

8/10 and a good way to pass an afternoon. ( )

This book takes place right after New Hope. Luke is the hailed hero, but he much prefers to be just a regular pilot with the rebuilt Red Squadron (the only ones to survive from the original were him and Wedge). Luke and Wedge are pulling up the rear at the end of a mission and while Luke's Jedi reflexes help with his flying (and with helping him and Wedge avoid trouble from TIE fighters), he worries about how he will ever learn how to be a Jedi if there is no one to train him. He has not heard from Obi Wan since he was inside the Death Star. As everyone is leaving the area to meet up at the rendezvous point, Luke senses the Force and sets Artoo to fly the X-Wing so he can meditate. He has a vision of being in a jungle practicing with a lightsaber, when suddenly there is danger behind him. It does not make sense and he has no idea where he was.

The Red Squadron Leader has a mission for Luke to retrieve logs of Imperial communications. The order comes directly from Mon Mothma herself, but to Luke, its a rather boring mission. He signed up to fight, not pick up data tapes. And worse, he will have to fly a Y-wing, which is an ungainly and slow fighter. His cover story is that he is a hyperspace scout. C3PO, for better or worse, is along for the ride too. The Force seems to be telling him to go to the planet Devaron, which is one of the stops, but he ignores it and goes on. After being hit by TIE fighters and barely escaping, he ends up on Devaron anyway to seek repairs and finds the planet is part of his vision.

Luke lands on a sort of airstrip and is met by a Davorian named Kivas and his daughter, Farnay. He is a mechanic and they reach an agreement about fixing his fighter. Luke and the droids head into the town of Tikaroo to find a place to stay and something to eat. He walks into the main building and is immediately assaulted by various "people" insisting they are the best guide in the area and offering their services--for a price of course. Luke soon finds out that Devaron has become a popular place to hunt creatures known as pikhrons.

Luke is not interested in hunting innocent animals, but he is interested in hiring a guide to the ancient ruins, but soon finds that no one goes to Eedit, as it is off limits by order of the Empire and is said to be haunted by the "wizards" who used to live there. That night Luke has a vision about the ruins. The next day, Farnay offers to take him there as a guide, but she only has one small beast for them to ride. It just won't be possible. At that time, Farnay happens to see his lightsaber and becomes afraid that he is one of the wizards, but he assures her that he is not a Jedi (well he isn't yet) and decides to trust her with the truth and tells her his real name and that he is with the Rebel Alliance. He believes that whatever he finds in that Temple will help her planet in some way and him as well, if he can just get there.

Luke finds himself forced to take on Sarco Plank as a guide as he is the only one who can take him to the ruins. He knows the man is dangerous and that he cannot trust him, but he has no choice. He will also find that Sarco won't be the only one he needs to look out for. This Temple will be the link between New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It will explain how Luke learns something about how to finally use his lightsaber, which is one of the biggest unanswered questions of the saga. There are those who are not fond of Luke as a character, but this is a really good book and a very good story about the history of the Jedi, a planet that has been destroyed by the Empire, and a strong teenager who learns to stand up for herself and others. ( )

In The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure, Jason Fry presents a middle-reader novel about Luke Skywalker learning to better use his father's lightsaber, territory that the new expanded universe canon has yet to explore. Fry's story feels like a continuation of themes begun in Kevin Hearne's Heir to the Jedi, which focused on Luke learning how to use the Force for telekinesis. The overall feel of the narrative is introspective, with Luke musing on the nature of the Force and Fry manages to give the fight scenes a sense of tension, despite the fact that Luke must survive to appear in The Empire Strikes Back. Though not marketed at an adult audience, Fry's writing is among the best of the various junior novels released under the Star Wars banner over the years and will entertain adults.
The glimpses of continuity leading to The Force Awakens come in the form of the bookended nature of the story. The entire tale, though written in the third-person, is told by C-3PO sometime nearer to Episode VII and after he received his red arm. This is a nice narrative device, but, unless one of the side characters should tie into The Force Awakens, it is the only thing linking this novel to the future films. That shouldn't deter or disappoint readers, however, as the story is fun and adds to the canon. Fry also helps link some prequel-era concepts with the original trilogy in a way that adds to the story without calling too much attention to them. Probably the best callback occurs when C-3PO picks up the broken head of a battle droid and R2-D2 encourages him to exchange his head.
The art by Phil Noto is a lovely touch. The black, white, gray, and red tones condense the action down to its most basic elements and give this book, and its three companions, a distinctive look. Hopefully future Star Wars middle-reader novels continue to blend story with art to such great effect. ( )