Jedi Twilight (Star Wars: Coruscant Nights, #1) in The Expanded Universe

Dec 31, 2013 Scott Rhee rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars, noir, movie-tie-in, science-fiction, fantasy, old-canon-legends

Somewhen between "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope" is the setting for the Star Wars novel "Jedi Twilight" by Michael Reaves, the first in his Coruscant Nights series. It's a fun action/adventure that pits a Sam Spade-like private detective within the Star Wars universe. The result is fun sci-fi noir that reminds readers of the pulp influences that helped inspire and infuse the world(s) that George Lucas created.

Reaves clearly grew up reading lots o Somewhen between "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope" is the setting for the Star Wars novel "Jedi Twilight" by Michael Reaves, the first in his Coruscant Nights series. It's a fun action/adventure that pits a Sam Spade-like private detective within the Star Wars universe. The result is fun sci-fi noir that reminds readers of the pulp influences that helped inspire and infuse the world(s) that George Lucas created.

Reaves clearly grew up reading lots of paperback writers. His collection was obviously replete with just as many by authors like Mickey Spillane and Ross McDonald as it was with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.

In "Jedi Twilight", former Jedi Knight Jax Pavan is forced to go into hiding after Emperor Palpatine's Order 66, what is commonly referred to in the Star Wars universe as "The Purge". By order of the Emperor, all Jedis were branded as enemies of the state and were to be killed on sight. A few Jedis, scattered throughout the galaxy, survived the massacre. Unfortunately, they are now the Galaxy's most wanted. The Emperor's second-in-command, Darth Vader, has taken it upon himself to seek and destroy any remaining Jedi.

Pavan now moonlights as a private investigator, helping those in the lower levels of Coruscant, the "slums" beneath the great towers of the rich and powerful. When an old Republic Army buddy, Nick Rostu, shows up with news that Pavan's former Jedi Master, Even Piell, is dead, Pavan finds himself on a mission to finish what Piell started. Unfortunately, he's not completely sure what the mission is. He knows it has something to do with a missing droid, rumored to have belonged to an ancient Sith Lord. Strangely enough, someone else wants the droid just as badly: Darth Vader himself.

Along the way, Pavan picks up a rag-tag team: Den Dhur, a down-and-out reporter looking for his next big story; I-5YQ, a droid who possesses the uncanny ability to feel emotions and an accompanying smart-ass attitude; and Laranth Tarak, a female Jedi who also survived the Purge, who is tough as nails but also has a secret crush on Pavan.

The plot is relatively lame, but Reaves has fun creating some likable characters. While the novel, at times, feels more like an episode of "Futurama", with its humorous repartee between the characters, than it does its most obvious source of inspiration, "The Maltese Falcon", it is still an entertaining addition to the Expanded Universe. There are two more books in the series. ...more

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