Star Wars Legends Project #93

Background: The Moment of Truth was written by [a:Jude Watson|11912|Jude Watson|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1403530689p2/11912.jpg] and published in May 2003. It is the seventh book of the Jedi Quest series, following [b:The Shadow Trap|359804|The Shadow Trap (Star Wars Jedi Quest, #6)|Jude Watson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328869632s/359804.jpg|349921] (my review).

The Moment of Truth is set some months after The Shadow Trap, 25 years before the Battle of Yavin, when Anakin is 16. Obi-Wan and Anakin are the main characters, with brief appearances by half a dozen other recurring Jedi characters, and a cameo by an enemy from Obi-Wan's past.

Summary: The planet Vanqor, largest in the Uziel system, has expanded to conquer every other world in the system save one: Typha-Dor. The lone hold-out against Vanqorian aggression, the people of Typha-Dor are relying on a small lunar communications outpost to warn them about the impending invasion, but the outpost fell silent a month ago. Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive in the system to run the blockade and check on the outpost, but they soon find themselves caught in a web of betrayal and danger that will test their already-fraying bond to the limit.

Review: Watson finally brings to a head the build-up of conflict between Obi-Wan and Anakin from the last few books in a way that is satisfying, but open-ended, and doesn't feel like a cheap or easy resolution. It's a nice trick and rendered all the more satisfying when it's nested amid near non-stop edge-of-seat action.

She does play a bit fast and loose with the system's geography (astrography? planetography? whatever), which is a bit confusing. The Jedi land on a moon of Typha-Dor, but then they somehow end up having to crash-land on Vanqor when they try to escape in an extremely slow ship, except we see later that Typha-Dor itself is 2 hours away from Vanqor at lightspeed. So apparently Typha-Dor's moon is so distant that it actually orbits Vanqor? Okay.

There is a strange interlude part way through involving Anakin and something called the "Zone of Self-Containment" that felt like a transplant from the Jedi Apprentice series and its obsession with YA dystopian cliches . . . and then a big reveal at the end of the story explains why it feels like that. On the one hand, this part of the story felt like a weird, irrelevant departure from everything else that's going on in the plot, but on the other hand, it is the key to the entire thing, precipitating the titular "moment of truth" . . . So make of that what you will. It may strike some as a bug, but I found it to be more of a feature. I was a bit annoyed by the suspicious response of the other Jedi after finding out Anakin had withheld information from Obi-Wan . . . while he was drugged. Really? No one wants to cut the teenager a little slack for acting weird after he'd been dosed as part of a medical experiment? Okay.

You'll also recognize the episode with the "nest of gundarks" referenced by Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, so that's fun . . . even though it doesn't quite jibe with the way Obi-Wan describes it later. Overall, there are a few nagging annoyances, but as always, I really appreciated Watson's character work. And, in particular, I'm excited by the set-up for the next book in the series, and particularly interested to see how Watson brings it all home explosively in the last few books.

B-

Anakin's finally starting to better understand what he's afraid of and why he can't connect to the force in the way his master and other jedi do.

It also includes a depiction of addiction and drug use. It is veiled and brief, but I think quite artfully done.

Vanqor and Typha-Dor may be going to war, and the Jedi have been asked to step in to determine why Typha-Dor's outpost station has gone silent. Of course, it's Obi-Wan and Anakin who are sent there, when they're already suffering a strained relationship due to Anakin's choices from The School of Fear. Like the other books in the series, this one focuses on that relationship, and tries to provide answers to where it's headed.

The Moment of Truth is about war and espionage and spies, which is a common theme in Watson's books, and there's always the one character who's undercover. I've been able to identify the moles in other books, so I'll admit I was surprised when she fooled me here. It just gets a little tiresome to see this same device used in all of her books. I'm not sure if it would be as big a concern to me if I hadn't read all of these back-to-back like I've done, but it's definitely common, even if the stories aren't formulaic.

Watson also resurrects a character from her Jedi Apprentice series, which was fun, as was her filling in the reference to Obi-Wan falling into a nest of gundarks made in Attack of the Clones. So those bits were cool, but the story wasn't as engaging or interesting as her other books, largely because of Anakin and his arrogance. I've written about it enough already in my other reviews of this series, but it's hard to identify with either Anakin or Obi-Wan, since Anakin is insufferable, and Obi-Wan lets him get away with it. I wish Watson would put more scenes in the series like the one where Soara reveals her concern regarding Anakin, or where Obi-Wan shouts Anakin down for abandoning Ferus. I feel like if there were more of these kinds of scenes in the Expanded Universe, we wouldn't have wound up with the Anakin in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. I know, I know; this isn't Watson's fault. I see it as a failing of the larger story.

I've come this far with the series, so I'm not going to quit it, but I can definitely say this series doesn't have the same kind of charm as Jedi Apprentice. It helps that both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are likable, sympathetic characters in that series.