Vader's Fortress

Star Wars: Junior Jedi Knights #5

by Rebecca Moesta

Anakin Solo and his friends--including Tionne and the Jedi Master Ikrit--venture into Darth Vader's abandoned fortress on the planet Vjun to recover Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber, supposedly hidden within the deadly walls of the stronghold

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

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

Rebecca Moesta is the author of several science fiction books. Although born in Germany, Rebecca was born to American parents and raised in Pasadena, California, where she lived until her early twenties. Rebecca graduated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Cal State L.A.. and shortly after graduation married a former classmate from Caltech, becoming Rebecca Moesta Cowan.

In 1981, the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where they lived for one year until they moved to Darmstadt, Germany, until 1987. In Germany Rebecca took graduate courses with Boston University and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration. During their stay in Germany she gave birth to her son, Jonathan, before moving back to the United States and settling in Livermore, California.

In 1989, Rebecca took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a proof reader and copy editor. There she formed a science fiction club in which she met her future husband Kevin J. Anderson. She divorced her first husband in 1990 and married Anderson in 1991.

The couple started working together writing science fiction novels and to date has written two Titan A.E. young adult novels, two high-tech pop-up books and fourteen Star Wars novels, the Young Jedi Knights series. The couple owns and runs the company Wordfire, and Rebecca is currently working on several new projects, including copy editing her husband's works.

Reviews

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of the Junior Knights series. Learning more about Vader is always cool. Anakin and Tahiri are yet again entertaining and cute. Weird (and also sad) to see R2 wandering around in Anakin Skywalker's old fortress of space evil, though. His memory is still wiped so he has no idea how close he was with Vader at one time. It's actually quite tragic.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another fun read about Anakin, Tahiti, and Ikrit. I liked Uldir better in this book.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun adventure! Uldir is still annoying, but he is growing on me. It was so interesting to explore Vader's fortress and learn more about Vader! The villain was very over-the-top, but it is a kids book after all so I'll allow it 😂 Once again, I love Anakin and Tahiri, and I'm a little sad that there's only one book left 🥲

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebecca Moesta reliably continues the story on Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila. Jedi Historian Tionne has caught wind of rumors that Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber might be stashed away in the old Bast Castle on Vjun. With the blessing of Luke Skywalker, she takes Anakin, Tahiri, Ikrit, and for some reason their increasingly annoying friend Uldir on a trip to go recover the object.

Bast Castle is an interesting crossroads of continuity, being previously canonically seen in the Jedi Academy PC game and the Dark Empire comic. It's very cool being able to revisit the old crumbled Vader statue one last time and it's even more great to have Anakin along for the entire thing. It's fun to watch him learn about his heritage given his namesake. The novel slips though when the tropey, mustache-twirling archetype villain turns up in the later half of the story to harry the heroes and steal Kenobi's blade. But they turn him away and nab not only the lightsaber, but a Jedi Holocron in the process as well.

Not as thematically pleasing as the previous entry but still a good romp nonetheless, Vader's Fortress is perfectly serviceable.

Six holographic beasts out of ten.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kudos to Anakin and Tahiri for being better people than me. Uldir is a self-centered, egotistical, disrespectful jerk, and he doesn’t deserve their kindness and friendship. I certainly wouldn’t give it to him. I love how Vader kept Obi-Wan’s lightsaber in his fortress protected with all sorts of booby traps, and especially how he had a holo of Luke. Dad Vader is the best Vader. And I’m coming too close to where I’m going to have to see my babies Anakin and Tahiri have their lives destroyed in the war. Though I really AM looking forward to reading NJO.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand that these books are for young readers and therefore need to be primarily about the younger characters, not the adults, but that becomes especially frustrating in this entry. I find it incredibly hard to be believe that Luke would not go along on this mission to retrieve Obi-Wan's lightsaber just because he has a meeting he's supposed to attend on Coruscant. He would duck out to go, and Leia would understand. Also, Tionne needs to be reminded not once but twice that she is in possession of a lightsaber she can use to defend them all, which is ridiculous.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could probably be combined with the final volume without losing anything. I do have some affinity for Orloc, the Dark Side Prophet wannabe who serves as the antagonist of these last two books. He was quite memorable when I was a kid and feels so out of place with the current canon that there's a certain charm to him. The idea of Vader's castle is a fun one that Star Wars would return to later, but unlike the previous couple of books in the series, this one doesn't feel like it justifies its place in the Star Wars universe.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some more backstory is added in via this book, but again it's a bit shallow, although that's probably to be expected for a kid's book. We do finally see a bit more of Tionne, even if she doesn't exactly cover herself in glory. One more, then onto JJK.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The weakest of the series so far. If you take out the campy villain, the only thing they do is retrieve the lightsaber and a holocron.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gotta be my favorite Junior Jedi Knights book so far!

[Jaime K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moesta's acknowledgements really show the research and work she put into writing this latter half of the series. She really does get the characters right.

Well, mostly.

I feel like Luke is lacking in that department. So in the novels before this, he could ignore Leia but now, after Tionne receives news of Obi-Wan's lightsaber being on Vjun, he can't drop everything and go with her for it?
*sighs*
At least Moesta continues the trend of him ASKING PARENTS FOR PERMISSION FOR THE KIDS TO LEAVE THE PLANET. Again, Richardson failed horribly with this. Moesta understands parenthood.

Also, Tionne telling Anakin, Tahiri, and Uldir about the lightsaber before she even saw Luke is very unreasonable and doesn't make sense.

I love that Ikrit and Tionne talk of the past. It makes me smile, reading of Tionne's passion coming through and being fed.

Uldir's constant complaints become increasingly annoying.

I really liked the line about not letting the ghosts of THE past essentially ruin you. That's not just your past, but anyone else's.

When the three kids and two Masters (and one Artoo) were on Vjun, it didn't make sense that there were three groups of two instead of two groups of three. Even worse was sticking Uldir with Tahiri seeing as he doesn't even have Force abilities.

It also didn't make sense for Vader to have had "I am Anakin" as a password. Even in ROTJ, he states that the name 'Anakin' means nothing to him.
However, him having a hologram of Luke is adorable.

It is hilarious that Tahiri stuns Mage Orloc with her constant yammering.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some real gems in this story. Obviously, going on a quest to retrieve the light saber of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which Darth Vader had secreted off the Death Star and hidden on his secret fortress, was fun. The villain was, well, campy. But I really enjoyed the overall story of the delve into Vader's fortress, previously seen in some of the other EU comic and novels. The most touching moment I thought was when the delvers discovered the hologram of Luke Skywalker which Vader kept in his personal quarters. Given that the Episodes I-III had not yet been made when this book was written, it was really cool to see this post-Vader, but obviously still conflicted, side of Anakin Skywalker, who clearly had fond feelings for his son even though he had turned nearly wholly evil.

[Heathert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personally, I liked this book. The plot tracking Anakin Solo (youngest son of Han Solo and Princes Leia) and his friends is a bit simplified. But it had its moments. I especially liked the startled reaction people have when they discover the true identity of Jedi Master Ikrit, Anakin’s primary teacher. After all, Ikrit does look sort of like a bunny but with a longer tail and more walking legs rather than hopping ones.

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

The villain introduced in this book is pretty dumb, although its better than the first four books that don't even really have a proper antagonist. On the other hand, seeing Darth Vader's fortress was interesting, although it also appears in better Star Wars stuff.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

i remember this was not very good at all. very cheesey

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anakin and a group of Jedi friends, go to Vader's fortress. They are looking for Obi Won's lightsaber.

[Mark Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another week story from Rebecca.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shockingly, in Vader's Fortress Anakin&co visit one of Darth Vader's fortress, in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber.

Five stars.