I, Jedi, written by author Michael Stockpole, follows Corran Horn’s quest to become a Jedi and rescue his wife, Mirax Terrik, from the hands of a pirate coalition named the Invids. Released in early 1998, I, Jedi is the first and only Star Wars book written in first-perspective to ever be released.
When Corran Horn returns home after weeks of hunting Admiral Leonia Tavira’s Star Destroyer Invidious, Corran Horn comes to the shocking realization that his wife has been kidnapped. Corran learns that while on a mission for Republic Intelligence head General Cracken mission to track down the Invideous, Mirax vanished.
After hearing his wife scream his name through the Force, Corran decides to pursue Jedi training before confronting his wife’s kidnappers. Horn travels to Yavin 4 to begin training at Luke Skywalker’s newly formed Jedi Academy, and immediately begins having problems with Luke’s way of teaching.
Under the alias of Keiran Halcyon, Corran is confronted by the spirit of ancient sith lord Exar Kun, who is set on turning all of Luke’s students to the dark and using his new disciples to once again rule the galaxy. After Corran and Luke’s students defeat Kun’s spirit, Corran decides to leave the academy and pursue other ways of hunting down his wife. Armed with new information involving Mirax’s whereabouts, Corran sets his plan to infiltrate the Invids and destroy the pirate coalition from the inside out.
After donning the persona of Jenos Idanian, Corran joins an Invid pirate group dubbed the Survivros and quickly climbs the ranks to the Invid’s most prestigious fighter group, Bolt Squadron. Once dirtside on the pirate’s base on Courkrus, Corran donnes his Jedi robe and begins to terrorize the pirates, quoting that doom has coom to Courkrus, and all their victims shall be avenged.
After Corran single-handedly brings down the entire pirate coalition under his Jedi persona, Admiral Tavira sends her group of Jensaaria Jedi to kill him. Assisted by Luke Skywalker, Corran defeats the jedi sect and learns that Mirax is being held in stasis on Tavira’s base on Susevfi. With the assistance of fellow Rouge pilot Ooryl, the two assault the base and rescue Mirax. When Admiral Tavira shows up in orbit with her star destroyer Invideous, intending to raze the base before they can escape, Corran uses the Force to project an image of the Sun Crusher firing at Tavira’s ship to cause her to retreat.
I thought this book was a fun, action-packed read. With Corran Horn being one of the expanded universe’s most interesting and diverse characters, it was fun to read a book in which the story is told in first-perspective. My only complaint in this book is the ret-conning it did with the Jedi Academy storyline which also ran through Kevin J. Anderson’s three-part Jedi Academy series, in which Corran wasn’t present.
With Michael Stockpole being the main author of the X-Wing series, I could really tell he had fun writing this book with the characters he’d created for his previous Star Wars projects. This book includes a lot of funny instances that don’t come off awkward and cheesy, something most author’s don’t pull off as well as Stockpole has.
Overall, I think this is truly one of the best Star Wars books ever written.