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A review by jaredkwheeler
Deceptions by Jude Watson
3.0
Star Wars Legends Project #80
Background: Deceptions was written by [a:Jude Watson|11912|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1403530689p2/11912.jpg] and published in July 2001. It is the first of two books written to tie together the Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series, both written by Watson.
Deceptions is partly set 44 years before the Battle of Yavin, shortly after the events of [b:The Day of Reckoning|320407|The Day of Reckoning (Star Wars Jedi Apprentice, #8)|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374774312s/320407.jpg|311160] (my review). The book then flashes forward to 29 years before the Battle of Yavin (3 years after The Phantom Menace). The story is basically a sequel to [b:The Captive Temple|359786|The Captive Temple (Star Wars Jedi Apprentice, #7)|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371939804s/359786.jpg|349903] (my review), with appearances by Qui-Gon, Tahl, Bant, the family of Bruck Chun, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Andra and Den (from The Day of Reckoning).
Summary: Obi-Wan is still haunted by guilt for the death of Bruck Chun, killed when they fought during Xanatos' attack on the Jedi Temple. Now, Bruck's father and brother have arrived on Coruscant to demand justice, and Obi-Wan is facing a Senate inquiry. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon and Tahl are investigating mysterious acts of sabotage against a fledgling Jedi pilot program. Many years later, Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched on their first mission as master and apprentice, and Obi-Wan's past catches up with them.
Review: The Jedi Apprentice books are far from my favorite, and a lot of them are decidedly mediocre. This was isn't great, either, but there was a welcome familiarity about it that I was surprised to really enjoy. It felt kind of nostalgic to pick this up a few months after finishing that series and revisit many of the old characters from it, a few of whom have been killed off in the interim. I was worried at first that this would feel like two extremely short stories stitched together into a still quite short book, but the connections between the two timelines ran deeper than I suspected. That was good, overall, though some of it felt a bit "Hardy Boys" (with all of the different "cases" inevitably tying into each other in one overly-neat package).
The best part about this is the way it takes some time to really delve into and deal with the emotional fallout from a key moment in Obi-Wan's life. Now, as I recall, the original books that this follows onto already sunk a good bit of time into this, so some of the Obi-Wan guilt stuff felt like a bit of a retread, but . . . not all of it. Really, the thing that bothered me most was how the "bad guys" were allowed to get away with saying, over and over again, that Obi-Wan killed Bruck and no one ever seems to contradict this. Except Obi-Wan did nothing of the kind. This being a series for younger readers, that story went way out of its way to set up a situation where the bad guy dies in a fight with the good guy without the good guy being even slightly responsible. Obi-Wan feels guilt for good emotional reasons that are based on his character, but not for any logical reason. Bruck died because he was an idiot, and Obi-Wan did try to save him. It kind of drove me crazy that no one worked very hard to point that out, particularly since a certain crucial bit of evidence that suddenly turns up to save the day felt spectacularly contrived and shouldn't have been necessary.
The plotline that picks up with Obi-Wan and Anakin years later was decidedly less interesting, and the connections with the previous storyline were . . . somewhat welcome, but also a bit strained. There were some plotholes and inconsistencies that I'm not interested enough to poke at, and I'm not sure how much I like the way the older Obi-Wan doesn't feel that much more mature or able than the younger Obi-Wan at times, but I'll let the coming series get a bit further along and see how that develops. I do like that Anakin's particular talents have a lot more of a chance to shine than any talents the younger Obi-Wan possessed ever did. This is definitely worth reading if you enjoyed some of the better storylines from Jedi Apprentice.
C+
Background: Deceptions was written by [a:Jude Watson|11912|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1403530689p2/11912.jpg] and published in July 2001. It is the first of two books written to tie together the Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series, both written by Watson.
Deceptions is partly set 44 years before the Battle of Yavin, shortly after the events of [b:The Day of Reckoning|320407|The Day of Reckoning (Star Wars Jedi Apprentice, #8)|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374774312s/320407.jpg|311160] (my review). The book then flashes forward to 29 years before the Battle of Yavin (3 years after The Phantom Menace). The story is basically a sequel to [b:The Captive Temple|359786|The Captive Temple (Star Wars Jedi Apprentice, #7)|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371939804s/359786.jpg|349903] (my review), with appearances by Qui-Gon, Tahl, Bant, the family of Bruck Chun, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Andra and Den (from The Day of Reckoning).
Summary: Obi-Wan is still haunted by guilt for the death of Bruck Chun, killed when they fought during Xanatos' attack on the Jedi Temple. Now, Bruck's father and brother have arrived on Coruscant to demand justice, and Obi-Wan is facing a Senate inquiry. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon and Tahl are investigating mysterious acts of sabotage against a fledgling Jedi pilot program. Many years later, Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched on their first mission as master and apprentice, and Obi-Wan's past catches up with them.
Review: The Jedi Apprentice books are far from my favorite, and a lot of them are decidedly mediocre. This was isn't great, either, but there was a welcome familiarity about it that I was surprised to really enjoy. It felt kind of nostalgic to pick this up a few months after finishing that series and revisit many of the old characters from it, a few of whom have been killed off in the interim. I was worried at first that this would feel like two extremely short stories stitched together into a still quite short book, but the connections between the two timelines ran deeper than I suspected. That was good, overall, though some of it felt a bit "Hardy Boys" (with all of the different "cases" inevitably tying into each other in one overly-neat package).
The best part about this is the way it takes some time to really delve into and deal with the emotional fallout from a key moment in Obi-Wan's life. Now, as I recall, the original books that this follows onto already sunk a good bit of time into this, so some of the Obi-Wan guilt stuff felt like a bit of a retread, but . . . not all of it. Really, the thing that bothered me most was how the "bad guys" were allowed to get away with saying, over and over again, that Obi-Wan killed Bruck and no one ever seems to contradict this. Except Obi-Wan did nothing of the kind. This being a series for younger readers, that story went way out of its way to set up a situation where the bad guy dies in a fight with the good guy without the good guy being even slightly responsible. Obi-Wan feels guilt for good emotional reasons that are based on his character, but not for any logical reason. Bruck died because he was an idiot, and Obi-Wan did try to save him. It kind of drove me crazy that no one worked very hard to point that out, particularly since a certain crucial bit of evidence that suddenly turns up to save the day felt spectacularly contrived and shouldn't have been necessary.
The plotline that picks up with Obi-Wan and Anakin years later was decidedly less interesting, and the connections with the previous storyline were . . . somewhat welcome, but also a bit strained. There were some plotholes and inconsistencies that I'm not interested enough to poke at, and I'm not sure how much I like the way the older Obi-Wan doesn't feel that much more mature or able than the younger Obi-Wan at times, but I'll let the coming series get a bit further along and see how that develops. I do like that Anakin's particular talents have a lot more of a chance to shine than any talents the younger Obi-Wan possessed ever did. This is definitely worth reading if you enjoyed some of the better storylines from Jedi Apprentice.
C+