Dawn of the Jedi: Ostrander and Duursema Strike Gold Again
For over a decade, the team of John Ostrander and Jan Duursema consistently has delivered some of the highest quality stories in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. During the Prequels years, their entries in the Republic comics series featured their signature characters, Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura, in storylines about the tolls of war on the Jedi, the danger of the dark side of the Force, and the importance of friendships and relationships. In 2006 they launched the Legacy series and introduced an impressive cast of equally memorable characters including Cade Skywalker, Darth Krayt and his One Sith, and the Fel Empire’s Imperial Knights. Jumping ahead to over 130 years after Return of the Jedi, and about a century from the then-current EU, Legacy extrapolated the future of politics, war, Force philosophy, and family histories in the galaxy. With the new Dawn of the Jedi series, Ostrander and Duursema shift to the opposite end of the timeline – 36,453 years before A New Hope, to be precise – to tell a tale grounded in the very heart of the Star Wars universe: the origins of the Jedi Order itself. The series begins with the first five-issue arc, Force Storm.
Simply on its own merits, Force Storm is a great Star Wars story. What makes Force Storm outstanding is the thoughtfulness and insight with which Ostrander and Duursema have reverse-engineered the setting, characters, and Force philosophies to create a fully believable “real” ancient history of the Jedi. Once again their work displays their mastery of the deep themes and foundational conceits of Star Wars. Click onward to read the rest of my review of Force Storm.
The next five-issue arc, Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan, begins with issue #1 on Wednesday, November 28. The trade paperback collection of Force Storm goes on sale December 12.
There’s more ancient Je’daii history on the way, too. On May 7, 2013, Del Rey will release Tim Lebbon‘s prose novel Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, an all-new story set roughly contemporaneously with Force Storm.
B.J. Priester is editor of FANgirl Blog and contributes reviews and posts on a range of topics. A longtime Star Wars fandom collaborator with Tricia, he is also editing her upcoming novel Wynde. He is a law professor in Florida and a proud geek dad.
B.J. has served as editor of FANgirl Blog from its inception, as well as contributing reviews and posts on a range of topics. He edited Tricia’s novel Wynde, and is collaborating with her on several future projects set in that original universe.
Currently a tenured law professor in Florida, B.J. has been a practicing lawyer in Washington, D.C., a law clerk to a federal appeals court judge, and a law journal editor-in-chief. He is also a proud geek dad whose son who is a big fan of Star Wars and The Clone Wars.
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