Star
Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace
is a film that does not work. Between a
script of unnatural dialogue, an incredibly uneven pace, and George Lucas’
wishing to pioneer computer generated imagery without really understanding how
to implement it, it’s one of those films with many problems as do all three of
the Star Wars prequels. It was
received incredibly poorly upon release and no amount of revisionism is going to
actually save it as a film despite some good ideas and Lucas’ insanely stupid
penchant for worldbuilding. Liam Neeson
as Qui-Gon Jinn is a one of character that left an impression in the film for a
reason, Neeson’s performance being one aspect of the film generally praised. Master & Apprentice is an
examination of Qui-Gon Jinn as a character and teacher before the prequel
trilogy began, effectively being a prequel to a prequel. Claudia Gray even includes an epilogue taking
place right at the end of The Phantom Menace, though it is the more
superfluous portion of the book. It’s a
flash forward that feels more a tie in to the already existing work than adding
anything to the novel itself outside of Obi-Wan promising to train Anakin, something
that is used as an attempt to push the prophecy through further defining Anakin’s
character arc. The trouble with that is
that honestly, this really isn’t a book about Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yes, he is one of the apprentices that the
title refers to and he has a rather large role to play in the plot, but Gray
isn’t interested in exploring him. This
is Qui-Gon’s book, through and through, and it’s all the better for it.
Qui-Gon
Jinn as a character is decidedly portrayed as human: a Jedi trained under a master
who fell to the Dark Side, even if it was something he never actually saw; a
Jedi perhaps equally as tempted by the Dark Side in several ways; is offered a
seat of power and internally struggles to accept or reject it. He eventually does reject it, the position of
power being a part of the Jedi Council, but not entirely for altruistic
reasons. Yes, continuing Obi-Wan’s
training is part of it, but Master & Apprentice is very much
concerned with laying out, so the reader cannot possibly miss, that the traditions
of the Jedi Order are generally outdated and going to eventually cause it to
fall. This is something that is present
in the prequel trilogy, not even as hidden subtext but fairly obvious text. Gray doesn’t posit that the Order should fall,
but that it is inevitable that it will fall.
Now some of this is because this is a prequel to an already established
story, but Gray also expands on the idea of the corruption. Qui-Gon Jinn often flaunts the rules of the
Jedi, taking advantage of what people assume versus what they actually know to
achieve his aims, and it’s something he intentionally is passing down to
Obi-Wan.
The model
of master and apprentice is important, but it is also perhaps too
singular. Master & Apprentice
is a book with several flashbacks to Qui-Gon’s own training to explore how he
became the way that he is. He was
trained under Count Dooku, just before Dooku left the Jedi Order for his own
reasons (revealed in the films to be training as a Sith), but not before
training Qui-Gon Jinn to always question.
As a master, he’s stern, imposing, and Gray makes a great deal of
playing on both a childlike fear and the reader’s own knowledge of Dooku as
Sith. Yet, he is the one to push Qui-Gon
into exploring prophecy and history, the one to get him to cut loose just a
little bit. Gray using Dooku mostly in
flashbacks has this interesting knock-on effect, the plot of Master &
Apprentice cannot really include him logically, so instead she invents
another student of his, now an adult requesting help from the Jedi. The plot of the novel is probably the weakest
aspect of the novel: it isn’t bad but Gray uses it as a facilitation for the
flashbacks, and thus the larger characterization of Qui-Gon Jinn to
happen. It doesn’t serve Obi-Wan Kenobi
as well as it could, because it isn’t a book about him, it’s about Qui-Gon.
Overall, Star
Wars: Master & Apprentice is a fine example of how to expand the ideas
of the Star Wars prequels, but has a tendency to be too reliant on what the
reader already knows. Claudia Gray has
written a solid character driven novel, but there is one major player who is
slighted by the narrative through reduction.
The best material is in flashbacks which have a great purpose for the overall
narrative, but are still only a side element that holds a good novel from being
a great one. 7/10.
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