(courtesy Penguin Books Australia)
Star Wars is defined in many ways by the relationships which fill it with a space operatic sense of connectiveness that powers the narrative and lends it a great deal more resonance that you might expect what it essentially a galactic Western.
Han and Leia and Luke. Darth Vader and Luke. Yoda and, yup, Luke. One though that really sets the cat amongst the storyline pigeons is the onetime close bond between Anakin Skywalker who becomes you-know-who and his Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which informs them both in numerous ways and drives what is now episode four but was episode one once upon of the time of the nine-part Skywalker Saga.
In Brotherhood by Mike Chen, which takes places after the Battle on Geonosis but before the events of the animated series The Clone Wars – Comic Book Resources has crunched the timeline numbers for which fan is forever grateful since keeping up with all the ins-and-outs of this now sprawling franchise is effectively a full-time job – the Clone War is well underway and political intrigue and violence is rife across the once peaceful Republic.
Count Dooku, onetime Jedi and now Separatist (pssst! Really Sith but hey you know that), is agitating disaffected planets to strike off on their own – we know they won’t keep that independence for long once the Empire rises but let them dream for a second – the Republic is being essentially corrupted and leached from within by Palpatine, all under the guise of chancellor, as the orchestrates many of the very battles which he claims to be working to prevent.
It might even require a conversation with Anakin.
But right now, the Republic was at war. The Jedi had to intervene. And if wanted to prevent Palpatine from falling into Dooku’s trap, he needed to convince Cato Neimoidia to accept a Jedi emissary rather than the chancellor.
Obi-Wan let go of his feelings and started towards the Jedi Archives.
Of course none of the Jedi know this – odd how lacking in perception they are at this point but then Palpatine is a Sith and is likely adept at hiding his tracks – and so when an incident on the planet Cato Neimoidia which kills thousands and destroys part of the capital Zarra, which hang from what are essentially giant stalagmites rising from the foggy planetary surface, demands a response, Palpatine sends Obi-Wan to broker peace and investigate who blew the capital city of this neutral planet apart.
Obi-Wan doesn’t necessarily want to go alone but clever manoeuvring by Dooku and backend power plays by Palpatine mean that he has no choice but to fly the Republic’s flag on a planet whose populace are increasingly convinced they were targeted by the very peaceful, democracy-loving souls sworn to protect them.
Much of Brotherhood then is a cat-and-mouse game between Obi-Wan, who is a brilliant diplomatic mind and a man of integrity who simply wants to find out the truth, whoever’s responsible, the officials of Cato Neimoidia including experience military operative Ruug Quarnom, and Dooku’s forces in the person of duplicitous diplomatic observer Asajj Ventress who presents an impartial front but who is agitating for the planet to fall into Separatist hands.
It’s a murky political and diplomatic soup and true to the fact that the Republic’s days are numbered, Chen tells his story with a mix of justice served but not at the same time, an accurate reflection of what’s is happening in the galaxy of Star Wars at the time.
For all the posturing and intrigue, however, what really powers Brotherhood and powers its emotionally resonant narrative, is the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan who are no longer Master and Padawan but Jedi Knights on an equal footing.
It’s taking them both some time to adjust to this new power and relational dynamic, and much of this expertly told and wholly involving novel concerns itself with how these two quite different men on completely different paths find their way to a relationship of equals even as the world they have known falls apart around them despite their best efforts.
While Obi-Wan is supposed to be on Cato N. all by himself to keep to the terms of his time on the planet, Anaking, always impetuous and driven by the heart, spirits himself there secretly, along with a Youngling Jedi of quite divergent and compassionate Force gifting, in an attempt to lend his onetime Master the support he believes he needs.
According to Comic Book Resources, the events of Brotherhood stem from a throwaway line in Revenge of the Sith, where “Anakin mentioned having saved Obi-Wan’s life for the 10th time. But Obi-Wan was quick to respond, “Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimoidia doesn’t count”, and so Anakin’s arrival on Cato N. is part of a weirdly friendly rivalry between the two.
Figuring out who shot at him — and whether Ventress was involved — required the luxury of time, something he didn’t have thanks to a fleet of seeker remotes rising to his elevation. They propelled forward, and Obi-Wan set out on foot again, switching from Anakin’s improvisation to his own specialty.
He needed a plan.
What makes Brotherhood such a pleasure to read is that Chen evades being a slave to the franchise.
By that, we mean that it’s easy when you’re playing in someone else’s franchisal pit to have to hit so many marks, character, mythos and plot point-wise that you end up with a stiff novel essentially stuck into a storytelling straitjacket which ticks all the boxes but which feels and reads just like that.
Thankfully, while evoking characters and events with a lot of fan history to them, Chen very much steers his own course, serving up a story which feels fresh and vivacious, making Brotherhood a welcome addition to Star Wars canon and a story that while it slots into all kinds of narrative touchpoints, always feels like its very much its own storytelling creation.
All of this means that rather than feeling like you’re reading stodgy addition to the franchise, which observes its rules and mythos to the letter, you’re getting a vividly-told tale which feels like you’re spending time with two old friends in a world you love being in.
In short, Brotherhood has the vivacity that drew this reviewer to the franchise all the way back in 1977 when, of course, it was not yet that big and sprawling storytelling beast, evoking everything you love about Star Wars from its defining relationship to its big, epic, 1950s serial storytelling while serving up a fresh, clever storyline that keeps you engaged right to the very end and which reflects what we’ve always loved about these stories that they’re all about people in the middle of extraordinary events trying to find a way where none appears to be but where one, if the galaxy is to be saved, must be made to be.