Book Review | Star Wars: The Living Force

I’m glad I saw the light in time. JJ Miller, you are a brilliant man. Star Wars: The Living Force is an exceptional read.

STAR WARS: THE LIVING FORCE is John Jackson Miller’s latest foray into the Star Wars canon. Almost ten years ago, he wrote the canon “pilot” A New Dawn, which kicked off a new generation of Star Wars novels. He also wrote Kenobi, one of the last novels of the Legends era. I must say, it was an excellent standalone novel in its own right. JJ is a phenomenal writer, and I was pretty excited when this book was announced.

For the first time, we would see the classic 1999 Phantom Menace-era Jedi Council interact with one another and go on an adventure like nothing we had ever seen before—at least in theory.

RETURNING TO THE PHANTOM MENACE ERA

The novel started very slowly, and my first split-second impression was disappointment. The Jedi were doing lots of paperwork to close various Jedi outposts across the galaxy. They were deemed to be failing and not monetarily sustainable to the Republic. I usually am one of the few people who ENJOYED the political aspects of the Prequel trilogy (coming from a family with a father in politics). However, I felt the “The Living Force” process was tedious and boring.

I don’t want to read about Yaddle doing paperwork or Eeth Koth looking for materials to salvage from these outposts. It’s mundane and, quite frankly, too “Earth-like.” However, I could not have been more wrong as the story shifted.

QUI-GON JINN

While returning from a mission, Qui-Gon Jinn noticed the Jedi were becoming increasingly distant from the ordinary people. During a tense standoff with some incompetent hijackers, he was saddened to see the public opinion of the Jedi was far from warm, and many beings had never even seen one. Jinn is a very hippy-dippy yoga-instructor-type Jedi (even more so in New Canon), but I agree with his realization.

The Jedi have become similar to politicians, who are only heard and not seen. They are so focused on the bigger picture that they have forgotten the true essence of being a Jedi, which is to help individuals regardless of how small or insignificant their troubles may seem. I admire Jinn’s tenacity as he addresses the Council and proposes they make a change.

JEDI COUNCIL

Some of the more long-lived members of the Council oppose this idea but eventually see Jinn’s wise point. Soon, they decide to visit a critical Jedi outpost on Kwenn to show more visibility among the ordinary people. It also coincides with the outpost’s 200th birthday. With some members having even been in attendance at its opening, they plan a festival for its “birthday” and hopefully find a reason to preserve it for the future. Even though it is one of the places, the Republic wants to close. It is pretty creepy to see that Palpatine is already tugging on the ear of the now-Chancellor Valorum. The poor sap has no clue that Palpatine will politically outmaneuver and betray him in a few short years.

The foil to the Council’s goodness is the space pirate mastermind, the Nautolan woman, Zilastra. Zilastra is ambitious, near-merciless, and has deep anger and resentment towards the Jedi. Her lofty goal is to have her pirate gang (the Riftwalkers) take control over the five other gangs that plague the hyperlanes where Kwenn is situated.

ZILASTRA

I do have some sympathy for Zilastra. However, the woman is almost a child in her anger, and her actions against innocent people are inexcusable. She is snarky and nasty to everyone she feels she is better than, and I find her barbs trading with Depa Billaba to be very much that of a schoolyard bully.

Depa Billaba has a sub-story in this novel. She works undercover in the Kwenn region and befriends a young human girl named Kylah, an orphan under Zilastra’s mentorship. Yet Kylah is a good person, and Depa makes it her mission to save her from a life of piracy. I admire Billaba’s guts in getting close to Zilastra. Her sacrifice to save her padawan in The Bad Batch reinforces her bravery and nobility as a Jedi.

THE JEDI

JJ has done a great job creating a wide range of well-developed characters. Some of them include the uptight Ki-Adi-Mundi, the cranky Saesse Tiin, the whimsical Yarael Poof, the proper Oppo Rancisis, the stoic Mace Windu, the gruff Even Piell, the nerdy Eeth Koth, the analytic Plo Koon, the warm and caring Yaddle, and the loving but snarky Master Yoda. Each of the Council members had a unique personality. Seeing them interact with each other, sometimes in jest or irritation, amused me. However, they are all perfect beings who care deeply for others. That is really what being a Jedi is all about.

I also love that Miller included one of his original characters from another story, Pell Baylo. Baylo was introduced as the aging and cranky Imperial captain during the beginning of the Empire. He was tough enough to stand up to Palpatine himself. At age 50, Baylo is the captain of the meager defense forces that work for the Republic.

PELL BAYLO

Baylo is gruff and cranky, doesn’t trust anyone, and does not like Jedi. He is thrust into working with Mace Windu, and the man is not afraid to tell the legendary Jedi Master what he thinks and how he feels. He is also a demanding boss to the young cadets who mostly staff the starship Assurance. Surprisingly, he reminds me of my late father. He is a good man but has no time for bureaucracy and likes to get things done his way.

One of the things that I didn’t like about this book turned out to be its greatest strength and overall purpose. Like a fool, I didn’t understand its beauty until the end. I found many of the Council members’ interactions with Kwenn to be boring and silly busywork. Ki-Adi is dealing with a marriage dispute. Even Piell plays an attendance officer, and Yaddle boosts a sound engineer’s confidence. I chalked them all up as poor writing but then remembered what Qui-Gon said initially. He wanted the Council to detach themselves from the unifying Force they were so occupied with and redirect their focus to the small individual. The Living Force, which they had so lately neglected.

BEING MINDFUL

Each of the stories may have been silly, but they were merely just following this wise advice and making a difference on an individual level. No matter how small and insignificant. I feel like such a moron. That was the point of the whole novel, but I’m glad I caught myself in time. This was a remarkable experiment that JJ embarked on, and I give him so much kudos for doing it so well.

The twist also took me aback at the end. Within 100 or so pages towards the conclusion, I started to get a hunch that someone was pulling the strings. However, I did not see the real villain until the very end. I was shocked at this betrayal. Yet, I also know how individuals can be manipulated by someone they view as a friend and that even the most noble person can be led astray by someone they thought they could trust.

Lastly, I want to touch on Zilastra again. She is a pure fiend, and her plots to kill and murder make her an evil on par with Marchion Ro or Palpatine himself! She is a cruel mastermind, and her plan to get back at the Jedi is as sinister as possible. Yet, her story reminds us that even though the Jedi have the best intentions at heart, they are still only people, and people do make mistakes.

MISTAKES AND OVERSIGHTS

The mistake made with Zilastra was a significant oversight that the Council members acknowledged. The one who did it acted unprofessionally and without permission from the Council. Due to his poor judgment, he created the monster Zilastra, and some pity needs to be distributed to her. Yet, we all choose our path, and choosing the wrong one is up to the individual. Zilastra must be punished for her crimes; there is no way around this. It is quite an important lesson for our young readers.

I’m glad I saw the light in time. JJ Miller, you are a brilliant man. There is nothing wrong with this novel. If I had a memo, it would be about the inconsistency of Kwenn’s islands. Despite claims of chaos and financial losses, the reality is quite different. Some islands seemed better off than others, and I want more consistency.

STAR WARS: THE LIVING FORCE hits bookshelves everywhere on April 9th.

FORCE FACTS

Throughout the novel, we notice various Force facts, Easter eggs, trivia moments, and observations. How many of them can you spot?

One of the things that will need to be addressed (at some point) is the revelation that Coruscant indeed has a liquid ocean on its surface, known as the Great Western Sea. This contradicts everything we have known about Coruscant (in both Legends and Canon), as the water on the surface had long dried up or gone underground. We need some explanation about this!
Creepily, Heezo appears in this novel. Heezo was a failed Jedi student whom the Council allowed to stay on in the Temple as a repairman. 10 years after this, he is revealed to be a spy for Palpatine and uses his deception to manipulate and monitor the troubled Jedi female, Iskat, from Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade. The wheels in my head are turning, and since this book takes place a little over a decade before the end of the Clone Wars, I am wondering if Heezo has already been working for Palpatine as early as c 35 BBY. My gut tells me yes, and I would really, REALLY like a Heezo novel or comic series somewhere down the line. He is a fascinating character.
Since many Council Members in the book are 200+, Miller introduces a unique take on their memory systems and perception of the universe. Opo Rancisis marvels at the “magic” of memory as he is able to recall moments of his life that stretch centuries back in mere seconds. On Earth, memory is still a great mystery and its mechanics in super-centenarians is currently inconclusive. Could a multi-century being recall when they were 5 20 or 50. We don’t know yet. Yet, I admire the scientific optimism Miller goes with and hope that memories can last indeed last forever.
Star Wars has caught up to the present and includes a few retconned technologies, such as automated vehicles. Technically, a droid piloting a speeder would be an automated vehicle. However, Saeasse mentions that some speeders have a smart autopilot. This is basically Star Wars’s acknowledgment of driverless cars, and it is only logical that they exist in the background.
Apparently, the ARC-170 starfighter is the latest in a long line of fighters dating back to the High Republic era. This novel introduces the ARC-8 starfighter, which is already considered an antique as of the late 30s BBY.
One of the many thoughts that Star Wars fans have had (including myself) was the potential for interplanetary contamination between various planets. Every planet’s ecosystem is starkly different, and with the constant amount of travel between them, it would only be natural that there would be some danger of foreign animals, fauna, or bacteria being transferred into a new environment and, in a sense, spoil it. This is finally addressed in The Living Force. Spaceports have decontamination protocols, and when they are not heeded, there is potential for problems…..
Building on what I said earlier, the long lifespans of some species create unique scenarios that are quite fascinating to ruminate on. Yarael Poof has been alive so long that he bores easily. This makes a lot of sense, as we see boredom in ourselves as we age. Time seems to move faster, and things start to seem less significant. To counter this boredom, Poof plays a game with himself by actively choosing to respond to situations much differently than he would, say, 50-100 years ago. It only makes me wonder what a different being Poof had been in his youth.
Among the Quemerians, Poof is a historic and grand surname. To us humans, it sounds like a fart.
Back to automation, Mace Windu can sense when a laser cannon is not manned by a living creature. He senses” no intelligence” behind it. Hmm. This is strange. You would think an automated turret would be MORE accurate and efficient than an organic hemmed one, but apparently, in Star Wars, this is not the case. Are their computer targeting programs that lousy, or are the organics far more “enhanced” than regular Earth people?
Lastly, and most importantly, there is a very interesting exchange between Saesse Tiin and Plo Koon. They both agree that the hypothetical utilization of the Force to extend someone’s life is immoral and a commitment to a “crime of the highest order.” I love this. JJ Miller is taking a shot at Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord who was obsessed with evading death and controlling biogenesis with the Force. JJ is establishing that midi-chlorian (or m-count) manipulation is perverse and dark and totally an antithesis of what the Jedi and the Light Side stand for.

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Max Nocerino

Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!