I, Jedi

The novel's plot is concurrent to Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy, and revisits much of that story. I, Jedi also features several characters from Stackpole's X-Wing Rogue Squadron comic book series.

Publisher's summary

From New York Times beststelling author Michael A. Stackpole, one of the acclaimed masters of imaginative fiction, comes a stirring new tale set in the Star Wars universe, the story of Corran Horn, a heroic X-wing pilot who faces the greatest challenge of his life: trying to come to terms with his Jedi heritage and learning to use the Force—without succumbing to the dark side.

Corran Horn was an officer in the Corellian Security Force before casting his lot with the New Republic. As the grandson of a legendary Jedi hero, he has latent Force powers that have yet to be developed. But he has managed to distinguish himself with Rogue Squadron, the X-wing fighter force that has become the scourge of the Empire and of the pirates that prey on Republic shipping.

When a new pirate band begins terrorizing the space lanes, Rogue Squadron seems at last to have met its match. Led by an ex-Moff in an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the pirates appear uncannily aware of the squadron's plans and tactics, and are able to detect and escape even the cleverest ambushes. Either there is a security leak…or the pirates have access to a dark and unnatural power that only a trained Jedi could contend with.

Then Corran's wife, Mirax, vanishes on a covert mission to locate the pirates' secret base, and Corran vows to find her. He begins Jedi training at the Jedi academy, hoping to develop his untapped powers. But as he grows dissatisfied with Luke Skywalker's methods, he will break with the academy before his training is finished.

Calling on his Corellian undercover experience, he infiltrates the pirate organization. His plan is daring and dangerous. He will learn what he can, sabotage what he can, and use every means possible to find his wife. And his very survival may depend on a terrible choice—whether or not to surrender to the dark side.

I, Jedi brings readers into the startling, dramatic journey of a young man with a wild talent who must somehow master those powers within…or be destroyed by them.

Plot summary

Following a first-person narrative from the point of view of Corran Horn, I, Jedi starts out in 11 ABY, not long after the end of the Thrawn campaign and Operation Shadow Hand. The story begins with Horn participating in a mission for Rogue Squadron: the ambush of a pirate raiding force said to be connected to the Invids. After the partially-successful mission, Horn returns home to Coruscant, only to discover that his wife, Mirax, is missing. Thinking her to merely be late coming back from a business trip, he goes to sleep, where he feels his instinctive, untrained force-powered connection to her being severed. Deeply shocked by this in a way he cannot understand, Horn seeks aid from ex-Rogue and General Wedge Antilles as well as Luke Skywalker. Going over what he had felt, and describing the situation, the Jedi Master decides that Horn has suffered a psychic wound, and needs time to heal. However, Horn declares that he must be the one to save his wife, and so, after weighing his options, chooses to accept an offer he had once declined—train in the ways of the Force with Master Skywalker at his Jedi Praxeum at Yavin 4. Resolving that only a Jedi could rescue Mirax, Horn becomes one of Skywalker's first students, one of only three with their own lightsaber, in his case the weapon that had belonged to his grandfather, Nejaa Halcyon.

Jedi training

The novel closely follows the events of The Jedi Academy Trilogy from the perspective of Horn, who trains under the alias of Keiran Halcyon and learns more about the legacy of his bloodline. When the apprentice Gantoris encounters the spirit of Exar Kun and is eventually devoured by the dark side manifestation, Horn aids Master Skywalker in conducting the investigation; using his talents with Force sight and Force Illusion, Horn continues to aid in thwarting the efforts of Kun's spirit to destroy the Jedi on Yavin 4, even after Skywalker is separated from his body by Kyp Durron, acting under the influence of Kun. With Skywalker incapacitated, Horn becomes the de facto leader of the Academy until the arrival of Leia Organa Solo and her children, Jaina and Jacen. When Kun tricks the old hermit Streen into using Force Whirlwind to kill Skywalker, the dark spirit also sends a number of battle hydras to finish the job. Appropriating Mara Jade's Z-95 Headhunter, which had been stolen by Durron and then returned after acquiring the Sun Crusher from the heart of Yavin Prime, Horn eliminates the hydras, gaining yet more insight into how Kun operates at the same time.

At this point, Kun himself appears to Horn, offering him the means to reclaim his wife and to destroy the Invids; in exchange, all he need do is to kill Skywalker. Horn refuses the offer, however; furious, Kun declares that in time, Horn will seek him out before departing for the night. Eventually, Leia is called away to deal with the attempted kidnapping of her youngest child, Anakin Solo, personally leaving Horn in charge of keeping her brother safe. Eventually, Horn comes up with a plan to deal with Kun, which he presents to the rest of the Academy students. While Horn attempts to destroy the Temple of Exar Kun with nergon-14 explosives, the rest of the Academy's students prepare to do battle with Kun's spirit when it does arrive. Unfortunately for Horn, he underestimates Kun's abilities; the disembodied Dark Lord proceeds to physically and mentally torture Horn, until the timely arrival of Mara Jade, who distracts him with a few well-chosen taunts. Bragging, Kun departs for the Great Temple, where his spirit is finally annihilated by the combined strength of the other students' light side power. With Master Skywalker returned to his body, he announces that Kyp Durron will be brought back into the Jedi fold. Corran is disgusted however, at this turn of events as he sees Kyp as being unredeemable due to his willful murder of 25 million sentients and resigns from the Jedi Academy.

Return to Corellia

Horn leaves the Academy, visiting his father-in-law Booster Terrik aboard the Errant Venture in order to garner aid in getting onto Corellia, where he visits his step-grandfather Rostek Horn to learn more about his biological grandfather, a Jedi named Nejaa Halcyon. He finds out that Rostek, a freelance horticulturist, has encoded Jedi lore, in binary form, into the genetic sequences of the hybrid flowers he has become famous for. After having what seems to be a prophetic dream, Corran comes to the conclusion that he must fall back on his CorSec training in order to save Mirax. With the help of Rostek, he is set up with the cover identity of "Jenos Idanian," and sets out to infiltrate the Invids.

Undercover among the Invids

Leaving Corellia aboard the Tinta Palette and intending to rendezvous with the Tinta Rainbow, Corran finds himself in the midst of an Invid raid led by the Invidious itself. After narrowing escaping the pirate attack aboard the shuttle Tinta Blue Seven, he again meets with Booster, this time armed with data about the Invids involved. Learning that they are staging out of Courkrus, in the Khuiumin system, Corran takes the appropriated shuttle to Vlarnya, offering it up as a prize in his bid to join any of the pirate gangs operating out of that world. Falling in with the Khuiumin Survivors, he starts out near the bottom, flying a clutch starfighter in Rock Squadron. After participating in a number of raids, culminating in an ambitious raid on Xa Fel, Horn soon finds himself leading Bolt, a high position within the Survivors. At the same time, Corran garners the attention—and lust—of ex-Moff Leonia Tavira, further exacerbating the already caustic rivalry with fellow Survivor Remart Sasyru. During the fight, however, he comes dangerously close to blowing his cover as a Jedi

Not long after this, Corran and the Survivors join the Invidious in raiding the Caamasi Remnant colony Morymento, located on Kerilt. The raid is interrupted by the presence of the Thalassian slavers and their ship, the Harmzuay, which is soon dispatched by the Imperial Star Destroyer's superior firepower. On the ground, a number of his Bolts, led by Sasyru, go missing; Corran lands and goes out in search of the pirates, only to find them amidst a huddle of Caamasi circled around the fallen Trustant Elegos A'Kla. When Horn attempts to intercede on the Caamasi's behalf, a fight breaks out, leaving Sasyru battered almost to a pulp, his wingmates stunned by A'kla, and his own blaster carbine pointed at him. At this, A'kla takes up Corran's idea to have him as a bodyservant in order to maintain the fiction that had precipitated the brawl. With Sasyru killed by Tavira for his insubordination, the Admiral states her intention to have Horn—as Idanian—serve as her consort, promising that all of her resources would be put at his command in order to fulfill the cover story he had created to explain his desire to join the Invids.

The campaign of the Ghost Jedi

With help from A'kla, Horn is able to make the choice between the dark and light sides of his quest; with the Caamasi's help, he constructs a new lightsaber and makes plans to combat the pirates of Courkrus's Aviary. Engaging in a subversive campaign of terror aimed at undermining the morale of the various groups, Horn attacks bands of pirates who prey the planet's indigs, waylays groups of would-be Jedi hunters, and assaults the headquarters of the Blackstar Pirates. Eventually, the Hutt crime boss Shala attempts to call out the "Ghost Jedi", luring him into a trap at his own lair. The trap proves to be a double-cross, and using his abilities with Absorb Energy, Horn manages to survive, though narrowly. Not long afterward, Admiral Tavira learns of what has been happening, and sets up her own force to deal with the mysterious Jedi, a team of five Jensaarai. The team manages to corner Horn down an alleyway, but he is rescued by Luke Skywalker, accompanied by Horn's longtime wingmate Ooryl Qrygg.

Busting the Invids

After interrogating the captured Jensaarai with the assistance of an ysalamir, the two Jedi learn of the hidden community on Susevfi and the whereabouts of Mirax. Traveling there with Qrygg and A'kla, Skywalker and Horn set off at once to rescue her, encountering no resistance until reaching Tavira's headquarters in Yumfla. The group penetrates the palace, facing off against a large contingent of stormtroopers, and securing Horn's wife's release. As they attempt to make good their escape, however, the two Jedi, Qrygg, A'kla and Mirax are met by yet more Jensaarai, led by the Saarai-kaar, who claims that Horn's arrival as "the Halcyon" is a harbinger of their doom. After a short brawl, Skywalker neutralizes the Jensaarai Defenders, while Horn is able to distract the Saarai-Kaar with an illusion of her master, Nikkos Tyris, long enough to prevail against her. All of them are taken into custody just as the Invidious and the Errant Venture, accompanied by Rogue Squadron and Pash Cracken's A-wing group, arrive in the system. Delving deeply into Tavira's mind, Horn plants there a vision of the Venture as the infamous Super Star Destroyer Lusankya as it launches the Sun Crusher at her ship. Spooked by the illusion, Tavira flees the system, leaving the Jedi and the forces of the New Republic to reconcile with the Jensaarai and the Khuiumin Survivors. Shortly afterwards, Corran uses his X-Wing to destroy Exar Kun's temple on Yavin 4--not so much out of petty revenge on the dead Sith Lord, but because he'd realized a connection between the Sith inscriptions on Kun's temple and the Jensaarai Sith texts, and he wanted to do his part to keep Sith knowledge from corrupting more people.

Development

Stackpole has stated that I, Jedi is his favorite of the Star Wars novels he has written. In the novel's acknowledgments, Stackpole thanks fellow authors Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, and A. C. Crispin for helping to incorporate story and character elements.

Continuity

In the first chapter, the luxury cruise liner is referred to as the Glitterstar, but in the second chapter, the same ship is called the Glimmerstar multiple times. In chapter 32, Chempat Engineered Defenses is misspelled as Chepat, and in chapter 36, warlord Blitzer Harrsk is misspelled as Harssk.

When Corran Horn deliberately mixes up the names of the Red Squadron pilots who destroyed the first Death Star so as to appear ill-informed about the Rebellion, he names one "Luke Starkiller." This was the name of Luke Skywalker in the second and third drafts of the Star Wars screenplay.

The novel's cover art depicts an X-wing starfighter on the bottom right corner missing its upper right laser cannon.

I, Jedi is one of the few Star Wars novels that fully retcons events in another novel. In this case, the chain of events surrounding the early days of the Jedi Academy and Exar Kun's incapacitation of Luke Skywalker are altered to include Horn, who was not originally present.

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