Promises

Star Wars: Junior Jedi Knights #3

by Nan Fischer, Nancy Richardson

Before she joined the Jedi academy, Anakin's friend Tahiri knew nothing of her real parents--or how she came to live with the treacherous Tusken Raiders. Now the day has come when Tahiri will learn everything, But first she must prove herself worthy. With Anakin at her side, she must pass a deadly test, using the Force like never before.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Childrens, Space Opera, Ebooks

114 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Welcome to my author page!

Here’s a bit about my books...

Novels under the name Nan Fischer:

The Book of Silver Linings (Berkley Publishing, August 15, 2023)

Some Of It Was Real (Berkley Publishing)

Novels under the name Nancy Richardson Fischer:

The Speed of Falling Objects (HarperCollins/Inkyard Press).
When Elephants Fly (HarperCollin/Inkyard Press.

Novels under the name Nancy Richardson:

Middle Grade:
Junior Jedi Knights Trilogy for LucasFilm (Berkeley Press).

Sport Autobiographies:
Feel No Fear, The Power, Passion and Politics of a Life in Gymnastics (Hyperion).
Riding For My Life (LIttle Brown)
Monica: From Fear to Victory (HarperCollins)
A Journey: The Autobiography of Apolo Anton Ohno (Simon & Schuster)
Nadia Comaneci: Letters to a Young Gymnast (Basic Books)
Winning Every Day with Shannon Miller (Bantam Books).

If you'd like to learn more about my novels, events, or sign up for my newsletter, please visit www.nancyrichardsonfischer.com

Reviews

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anakin and Tahiri's friendship is adorable. I smile constantly while reading these. If only the saga stayed this happy *cough*

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This adventure of Anakin and Tahiri allowed them to explore Tantoonie. I think it was a solid ending to this particular trilogy. I will be reading the next three books.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m pretty sure this is the one I read as a kid. The cover is super familiar and I’m pretty sure my knowledge of Tahiri’s background of being raised by Tusken Raiders was more extensive than the mention of it in her brief paragraph in my Essential Guide to Characters. Again, a fun little story with characters I like, but the writing is far from great. I’m hoping the next three are better written since Rebecca Moesta co-wrote Young Jedi Knights and those were good. There’s something about the feel of this series that’s different from most SW (which was why I didn’t like it as a kid), and I can’t really put my finger on it. Not bad, necessarily, just different. Not what a kid whose mind has been steeped in Jude Watson SW expects. But I love Anakin and Tahiri and I’m both looking forward to and dreading continuing their story in NJO after I finish JJK.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is better than the first two books, but only because it wraps up the larger story that the first three books are telling. It still feels very simple, very basic, and it's weird how Richardson repeats a lot of details, sometimes on the same page. The overarching story is decent, but for all the build up through all three books, it finishes in one brief chapter. Still, this series is intended for a younger audience, so maybe that's normal. I've just read other juvenile books that don't feel quite as patronizing in the narrative.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun read!! I read it almost all in one sitting. I loved getting to know more about Tahiri and her past! Anakin and Tahiri grow stronger in the Force and their friendship, and I grow stronger in my love for them. I'm very excited to find out what will happen in the rest of the series, since this one wraps up an arc.

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This, the third of six Junior Jedi Knights books, closes out the story arc set in motion in the first book, namely, that of the mysterious golden globe discovered in a cave on the planet Yavin 4, where new recruit to the Jedi Academy, Anakin Skywalker Solo, is learning the ways of the Force. For its intended age level (juvenile) I thought it was a fun story. Each of the three so far have been short, easy to read, but also providing some additional character development for Anakin and precious few supporting characters. After being relegated to 'baby mechanical genius' status in the rest of the adult-oriented Expanded Universe novels thus far, it is enjoyable to read of his own adventures growing up before presumably being relegated back to a minor character in the New Jedi Order books.

Of particular note was the long-standing solution to the age old question: where in the heck did the Jawas get their sandcrawlers, for surely they didn't build them. This book provides the answer: they are ore haulers left behind by human settlers to Tatooine who brought them to the planet for their failed get-rick-quick mining schemes, and were consequently scavenged and taken over by the Jawas. Thank you Fischer for finally providing some closure on this answer which so plagued my waking dreams. It's little gems like this that make me glad to have gone out of my way to read these books, even though I was going to do so anyway on account of my EU-completionist quest to read ALL Star Wars books in publication order.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book had focussed a little more on the found family aspect, as it feels like even at the end Tahiri doesn't truly consider the Tusken Raiders who raised her to be her family. Also, after a book mostly about that, it feels like the bit at the end that wrapped up the main plot of these first three books felt pretty rushed and tacked-on.

[Trevor Williamson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Concluding Nancy Richardson's contributions to the Star Wars expanded universe, Promises concludes the mystery of the Golden Globe and fleshes out Tahiri's past in one fell swoop. Undoubtedly the best of her three novels, the book takes Anakin and Tahiri back to Tatooine, where they have a short adventure before confronting the final mystery of the Golden Globe.

The bits on Tatooine are a little odd, leading to a confrontation with a Sarlacc pit as well as some Jawas and a krayt dragon (because no trip to Tatooine is complete without those confrontations, apparently). These elements wouldn't feel so out of place if the rest of the canon didn't already suggest that krayt dragons are rare and nobody even knows if another Sarlacc exists on the planet--and the one that does was destroyed by Boba Fett long prior to the events of this book.

Overall, I do feel like these books are the weakest in all of the Star Wars youth novels to date, with conflicts a little too simple and undeveloped to make for very compelling reading. I may have felt differently at 9 years old, which is the likely target audience for these books, but aside from wanting to read every Star Wars novel, there's little need to seek these (exceedingly expensive) books out any more.

I do want to see what Rebecca Moesta does with these characters, but I can't say I'll spare much more thought on Richardson's contributions to legend.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anakin and Tahiri travel to Tatooine to honor a promise Tahiri made to her adoptive Tusken Raider father. The writing and the plot have finally met each other in terms of quality and it's easily the best of Richardson's three JJK stories, though the writing still feels a little more hollow than it should be. However, the story is still packed with great character moments and wonderful development for Tahiri where we learn a lot about her past and her family. The Golden Globe arc is also wrapped up at the story's end but despite everything coming to a happy conclusion, it seems like an aside and should've had more time dedicated to it. Still, it was more enjoyable than Golden Globe and much better than Lyric's World.

5 out of 10 parental thumb print pendants.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the books in this series that I remember most distinctly from my childhood read-through. At the time, I had never stopped to consider the culture and lifestyle of the Tuscan Raiders who acted mainly as nameless and faceless minor antagonists in the movies. Obviously, there are real-world, colonialist parallels to be drawn, and drawing them is complicated by all kinds of factors, so I won't comment on any of that, but it was really cool to be exposed to that reversal of expectations as a kid.

Having now completed my read-through of this series, this is the best of the 6.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another cute adventure with Anakin and Tahiri, although I cried quite a lot seeing Anakin again after his death in NJO and seeing Tahiri innocent and free of the pain she suffers in later books. I loved that this book got into Tahiri’s origins and who her parents were and how she came to be in a tribe of tusken raiders on Tatooine. Also can’t leave out the fact that a krayt dragon was in this book cuz they’re awesome lol.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather good, actually! It's great learning about Tahiri's backstory. Really fucked up kid's book though... Anakin (11) and Tahiri (9), amongst other events, fall into the Sarlacc and get seriously injured by a Krayt Dragon. But it's a fun read, short enough that it's worth your time, and a younger me would have loved this

[Martin Krumpholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, quick read. Bit hard to swallow they’re nine year olds taking on all these risks and dangers, but the prose is smooth and concise, which is more than I can say for many of the ‘adult’ Star Wars’ novels I’ve read.

[Declan O'Keeffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely and fun conclusion to a fun first trilogy.

I really do enjoy these books, and I'm loving getting to know Anakin Skywalker along with some fun foreshadowing that these books allow for what i only vaguely know about the characters future.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Daniel Gaul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the life of an eleven-year-old Jedi; some of the EU facts are a bit vague, but an interesting read nonetheless!

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is Star Wars! Anakin’s best friend was raised by the sand people which mirrors his grandfathers hatred for them.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid entry with a good conclusion to previous books. A lot of fun character development for anakin and Tahiri in this one.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tahiri - better back story than Rey

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tusken raider lore.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This probably should've been two books but it at least had a conclusion.

[Elizabeth Brokaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s cute and has the ability to teach a lesson. It’s simple and easy to read if you’re looking to bring a pre-teen into the universe and feel connected to the morals being discussed.

[elef · Rating 3 out of 5]

anakin ve tahiri'den aşırı percabeth vibes almaya başladım ikisi de öz evladım yicemm

[Jess Neuner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book where we finally learn what happened to Tahiri's parents and how she came to be adopted by a tribe of Sand People. Part of the agreement when Tahiri went to Yavin 4 to learn to be a Jedi was that she would come back to Tatooine to find out about her family and then make an informed decision about whether or not she truly wanted to be a Jedi or if she wanted to return to her tribe (I think we all know which one she chooses, as there are two more books in this series). Naturally, Anakin goes too, as at this point these two may as well be conjoined twins, for all the time they spend apart.

Tionne, having apparently not learnt from Peckhum's experience in the previous book, escorts the two to Tatooine so Tahiri can meet with her tribe, where, predictably, Tahiri's visit home turns into craziness pretty much instantly. Since attracting all of the trouble possible seems to be a habit for these two, I feel sorry for any adult whose responsibility includes trying to keep them out of it. Poor Tionne.

Tahiri returned to Tatooine to learn the truth about what happened to her birth parents only to be told that she can only learn that if she's a full member of the tribe. So, she has to undergo the tribe's initiation ritual, which consists of being dropped off alone (well, with Anakin, so not really alone, so I suppose he's now an honorary member of the tribe, too) in the desert with no supplies and making her way back to the tribe within three days without dying first.

Of the Junior Jedi books, I think this is my favourite, in part because it focuses a lot more on Tahiri's background. We already know where Anakin came from, but Tahiri was a bit of a mystery, even to herself. We also see a lot more of Sand People, as well as learn what a Krayt dragon looks like and how Jawas got their sandcrawlers. Then, after everybody heals up from the injuries sustained trekking across the desert with no supplies at all and fighting dragons (mostly Anakin - the Krayt dragon doesn't agree with him very much), they finally tie up the golden globe thing that was introduced in the first book.

[Jaime K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, Richardson. You have contradicted yourself here. I specifically remember the first book saying that Tahiri is 10 and was orphaned at 4; here you say Tahiri is 9 and was orphaned at 3. I don't get it.

And we learn this because it begins with Silven, a Tusken Raider tribe leader. He raised Tahiri against the wishes of the rest of his tribe and knew her parents. He also holds a secret that contains a promise about her past and very real danger.

Part of this promise requires Tahiri to undergo a test, a trial of sorts, one that not only allows her to learn of her past and her parents, but also puts her - and Anakin - in danger. To fail means their death, and the death of Silven.
To turn her back on it though means that Silven will be put to death anyway.

There is a monologue of Tahiri's when she is talking to Anakin about being an orphan. Although his family's history is dark, he at least knows it and has a past. She on the other hand has nothing.

So, of course she learns of how Silven knew her parents and undergoes the test. Anakin is allowed with her, but not Tionne. And Tionne wasn't going to fight a tribe of Tuskens to ensure she could go with the kids.

I find it strange that the Raiders didn't smell and showered. I know this was mentioned in the first book, but it only hit me in this one that they had dry showers and changed wrappings and stuff. One of the things I like with more recent books is that they're wrapped from birth. It's not a bad thing that Richardson has them this way, but it wasn't something that hit me.

Was WAS bad were the frustrating bits that made me sigh. Anakin and Tahiri are nearly eaten by a sarlacc and defeat a krayt dragon. It's a bit ridiculous.
Yet it IS a good way to show their strengths and how each relies on the other in different situations. Luke's thoughts at the end regarding this are great.

The end with the globe and the children was quite abrupt. Strangely enough though it wasn't anticlimactic.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Promises is the third book in the Junior Jedi Knights series, and has a strong focus on Tahiri and her origins. Her and Anakin go to Tatooine where Tahiri must make the choice of whether to return to the Jedi Academy or to stay with her (adopted) people, the Tusken Raiders. Which of course leads the two to end up having to cross the desert alone in a week because the Tusken Raiders' are, in fact, batshit insane particularly when it comes to political strategies.

But in the end, they make it back and Tahiri chooses to continue her Jedi training, of course. As well, the pair quickly wrap up the plot arc started in the Golden Globe and free the Massassi children, so that's rad.

Five stars!

[Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anakin and Tahiri attempt to survive the desert of Tatooine. This was always my favorite of the Junior Jedi Knight books. It's a classic survival story, but beyond that, we get to learn a lot about Tahiri's own history, and also get to learn a lot about the Sand People. Incidentally, reading this book is what made me really horrified when Anakin Skywalker went and killed all those Sand People in the movie. Really, really horrified.

[amypete]

Hayden loves listening to these stories each night before bed, but I can hardly stomach them! Oh well, I love to make him happy. And it's great to test his listening comprehension and see him so engaged in a story. He wants to read the whole series. He also wants to be a Jedi when he grows up.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

About the same quality as the previous book, this one wraps up the first story arc. Overall it's not been a hugely interesting story in comparison to many of the others in the Star Wars universe, probably in large part because an 11 year old can't face threats that are all that powerful.

[Darryl Dobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a great book earmarked for ages 7-9. Highly recommended for that age group. Much, much better than the Galaxy of Fear children's series.

I'm reading the series because it won't take long and perhaps some of the characters will appear in the regular novels.