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Rogue Planet (Star Wars) Mass Market Paperback – May 1, 2001
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The Force is strong in twelve-year-old Anakin Skywalker . . . so strong that the Jedi Council, despite misgivings, entrusted young Obi-Wan Kenobi with the mission of training him to become a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan—like his slain Master Qui-Gon—believes Anakin may be the chosen one, the Jedi destined to bring balance to the Force. But first Obi-Wan must help his undisciplined apprentice, who still bears the scars of slavery, find his own balance.
Dispatched to the mysterious planet of Zonama Sekot, source of the fastest ships in the galaxy, Obi-Wan and Anakin are swept up in a swirl of deadly intrigue and betrayal. They sense a disturbance in the Force unlike any they have encountered before. It seems there are more secrets on Zonama Sekot than meet the eye. But the search for those secrets will threaten the bond between Obi-Wan and Anakin . . . and bring the troubled young apprentice face-to-face with his deepest fears—and his darkest destiny.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House Worlds
- Publication dateMay 1, 2001
- Dimensions4.27 x 0.69 x 6.79 inches
- ISBN-100345435400
- ISBN-13978-0345435408
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
The Force is strong in twelve-year-old Anakin Skywalker . . . so strong that the Jedi Council, despite misgivings, entrusted young Obi-Wan Kenobi with the mission of training him to become a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan? like his slain Master Qui-Gon?believes Anakin may be the chosen one, the Jedi destined to bring balance to the Force. But first Obi-Wan must help his undisciplined apprentice, who still bears the scars of slavery, find his own balance.
Dispatched to the mysterious planet of Zonama Sekot, source of the fastest ships in the galaxy, Obi-Wan and Anakin are swept up in a swirl of deadly intrigue and betrayal. They sense a disturbance in the Force unlike any they have encountered before. It seems there are more secrets on Zonama Sekot than meet the eye. But the search for those secrets will threaten the bond between Obi-Wan and Anakin . . . and bring the troubled young apprentice face-to-face with his deepest fears?and his darkest destiny.
From the Back Cover
The Force is strong in twelve-year-old Anakin Skywalker . . . so strong that the Jedi Council, despite misgivings, entrusted young Obi-Wan Kenobi with the mission of training him to become a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan? like his slain Master Qui-Gon?believes Anakin may be the chosen one, the Jedi destined to bring balance to the Force. But first Obi-Wan must help his undisciplined apprentice, who still bears the scars of slavery, find his own balance.
Dispatched to the mysterious planet of Zonama Sekot, source of the fastest ships in the galaxy, Obi-Wan and Anakin are swept up in a swirl of deadly intrigue and betrayal. They sense a disturbance in the Force unlike any they have encountered before. It seems there are more secrets on Zonama Sekot than meet the eye. But the search for those secrets will threaten the bond between Obi-Wan and Anakin . . . and bring the troubled young apprentice face-to-face with his deepest fears?and his darkest destiny.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Anakin Skywalker stood in a long, single-file line in an abandoned maintenance tunnel leading to the Wicko district garbage pit. With an impatient sigh, he hoisted his flimsy and tightly folded race wings by their leather harness and propped the broad rudder on the strap of his flight sandal. Then he leaned the wings against the wall of the tunnel and, tongue between his lips, applied the small glowing blade of a pocket welder, like a tiny lightsaber, to a crack in the left lateral brace. Repairs finished, he waggled the rotator experimentally. Smooth, though old.
Just the week before, he had bought the wings from a former champion with a broken back. Anakin had worked his wonders in record time, so he could fly now in the very competition where the champion had ended his career.
Anakin enjoyed the wrenching twist and bone- popping jerk of the race wings in flight. He savored the speed and the extreme difficulty as some savor the beauty of the night sky, difficult enough to see on Coruscant, with its eternal planet-spanning city-glow. He craved the competition and even felt a thrill at the nervous stink of the contestants, scum and riffraff all.
But above all, he loved winning.
The garbage pit race was illegal, of course. The authorities on Coruscant tried to maintain the image of a staid and respectable metropolitan planet, capital of the Republic, center of law and civilization for tens of thousands of stellar systems. The truth was far otherwise, if one knew where to look, and Anakin instinctively knew where to look.
He had, after all, been born and raised on Tatooine.
Though he loved the Jedi training, stuffing himself into such tight philosophical garments was not easy. Anakin had suspected from the very beginning that on a world where a thousand species and races met to palaver, there would be places of great fun.
The tunnel master in charge of the race was a Naplousean, little more than a tangle of stringlike tissues with three legs and a knotted nubbin of glittering wet eyes. “First flight is away,” it hissed as it walked in quick, graceful twirls down the narrow, smooth-walled tun- nel. The Naplousean spoke Basic, except when it was angry, and then it simply smelled bad. “Wings! Up!” it ordered.
Anakin hefted his wings over one shoulder with a professionally timed series of grunts, one-two-three, slipped his arms through the straps, and cinched the harness he had cut down to fit the frame of a twelve-year-old human boy.
The Naplousean examined each of the contestants with many critical eyes. When it came to Anakin, it slipped a thin, dry ribbon of tissue between his ribs and the straps and tugged with a strength that nearly pulled the boy over.
“Who you?” the tunnel master coughed.
“Anakin Skywalker,” the boy said. He never lied, and he never worried about being punished.
“You way bold,” the tunnel master observed. “What mother and father say, we bring back dead boy?”
“They’ll raise another,” Anakin answered, hoping to sound tough and capable, but not really caring what opinion the tunnel master held so long as it let him race.
“I know racers,” the Naplousean said, its knot of eyes fighting each other for a better view. “You no racer!”
Anakin kept a respectful silence and focused on the circle of murky blue light ahead, growing larger as the line shortened.
“Ha!” the Naplousean barked, though it was impossible for its kind to actually laugh. It twirled back down the line, poking, tugging, and issuing more pronouncements of doom, all the while followed by an adoring little swarm of cam droids.
A small, tight voice spoke behind Anakin. “You’ve raced here before.”
Anakin had been aware of the Blood Carver in line behind him for some time. There were only a few hundred on all of Coruscant, and they had joined the Republic less than a century before. They were an impressive-looking people: slender, graceful, with long three-jointed limbs, small heads mounted on a high, thick neck, and iridescent gold skin.
“Twice,” Anakin said. “And you?”
“Twice,” the Blood Carver said amiably, then blinked and looked up. Across the Blood Carver’s narrow face, his nose spread into two fleshy flaps like a split shield, half hiding his wide, lipless mouth. The ornately tattooed nose flaps functioned both as a sensor of smell and a very sensitive ear, supplemented by two small pits behind his small, onyx-black eyes. “The tunnel master is correct. You are too young.” He spoke perfect Basic, as if he had been brought up in the best schools on Coruscant.
Anakin smiled and tried to shrug. The weight of the race wings made this gesture moot.
“You will probably die down there,” the Blood Carver added, eyes aloof.
“Thanks for the support,” Anakin said, his face coloring. He did not mind a professional opinion, such as that registered by the tunnel master, but he hated being ragged, and he especially hated an opponent trying to psych him out.
Fear, hatred, anger . . . The old trio Anakin fought every day of his life, though he revealed his deepest emotions to only one man: Obi-Wan Kenobi, his master in the Jedi Temple.
The Blood Carver stooped slightly on his three-jointed legs. “You smell like a slave,” he said softly, for Anakin’s ears alone.
It was all Anakin could do to keep from throwing off his wings and going for the Blood Carver’s long throat. He swallowed his emotions down into a private cold place and stored them with the other dark things left over from Tatooine. The Blood Carver was on target with his insult, which stiffened Anakin’s anger and made it harder to control himself. Both he and his mother, Shmi, had been slaves to the supercilious junk dealer, Watto. When the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn had won him from Watto, they had had to leave Shmi behind . . . something Anakin thought about every day of his life.
“You four next!” the tunnel master hissed, breezing by with its midsection whirled out like ribbons on a child’s spinner.
Mace Windu strode down a narrow side hall in the main dormitory of the Jedi Temple, lost in thought, his arms tucked into his long sleeves, and was nearly bowled over by a trim young Jedi who dashed from a doorway. Mace stepped aside deftly, just in time, but stuck out an elbow and deliberately clipped the younger Jedi, who spun about.
“Pardon me, Master,” Obi-Wan Kenobi apologized, bowing quickly. “Clumsy of me.”
“No harm,” Mace Windu said. “Though you should have known I was here.”
“Yes. The elbow. A correction. I’m appreciative.” Obi-Wan was, in fact, embarrassed, but there was no time to explain things.
“In a hurry?”
“A great hurry,” Obi-Wan said.
“The chosen one is not in his quarters?” Mace’s tone carried both respect and irony, a combination at which he was particularly adept.
“I know where he’s gone, Master Windu. I found his tools, his workbench.”
“Not just building droids we don’t need?”
“No, Master,” Obi-Wan said.
“About the boy—” Mace Windu began.
“Master, when there is time.”
“Of course,” Mace said. “Find him. Then we shall speak . . . and I want him there to listen.”
“Of course, Master!” Obi-Wan did not disguise his haste. Few could hide concern or intent from Mace Windu.
Mace smiled. “He will bring you wisdom!” he called out as Obi-Wan ran down the hall toward the turbolift and the Temple’s sky transport exit.
Obi-Wan was not in the least irritated by the jibe. He quite agreed. Wisdom, or insanity. It was ridiculous for a Jedi to always be chasing after a troublesome Padawan. But Anakin was no ordinary Padawan. He had been bequeathed to Obi-Wan by Obi-Wan’s own beloved Master, Qui-Gon Jinn.
Yoda had put the situation to Obi-Wan with some style a few months back, as they squatted over a glowing charcoal fire and cooked shoo bread and wurr in his small, low-ceilinged quarters. Yoda had been about to leave Coruscant on business that did not concern Obi-Wan. He had ended a long, contemplative silence by saying, “A very interesting problem you face, and so we all face, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Obi-Wan, ever the polite one, had tilted his head as if he were not acquainted with any particular problem.
“The chosen one Qui-Gon gave to us all, not proven, full of fear, and yours to save. And if you do not save him . . .”
Yoda had said nothing more to Obi-Wan about Anakin thereafter. His words echoed in Obi-Wan’s thoughts as he took an express taxi to the outskirts of the Senate District. Travel time—mere minutes, with wrenching twists and turns through hundreds of slower, cheaper lanes and levels of traffic.
Obi-Wan was concerned it would not be nearly fast enough.
The pit spread before Anakin as he stepped out on the apron below the tunnel. The three other contestants in this flight jostled for a view. The Blood Carver was particularly rough with Anakin, who had hoped to save all his energy for the flight.
What’s eating him? the boy wondered.
The pit was two kilometers wide and three deep from the top of the last accelerator shield to the dark bottom. This old maintenance tunnel overlooked the second accelerator shield. Squinting up, Anakin saw the bottom of the first shield, a huge concave roof cut through with an orderly pattern of hundreds of holes, like an overturned colander in Shmi’s kitchen on Tatooine. Each hole in this colander, however, was ten meters wide. Hundreds of shafts of sunlight dropped from the ports to pierce the gloom, acting like sundials to tell the time in the open world, high above the tunnel. It was well past meridian.
There were over five thousand such garbage pits on Coruscant. The city-planet produced a trillion tons of garbage every hour. Waste that was too dangerous to recycle—fusion shields, worn-out hyperdrive cores, and a thousand other by-products of a rich and highly advanced world—was delivered to the district pit. Here, the waste was sealed into canisters, and the canisters were conveyed along magnetic rails to a huge circular gun carriage below the lowest shield. Every five seconds, a volley of canisters was propelled from the gun by chemical charges. The shields then guided the trajectory of the canisters through their holes, gave them an extra tractor-field boost, and sent them into tightly controlled orbits around Coruscant.
Hour after hour, garbage ships in orbit collected the canisters and transported them to outlying moons for storage. Some of the most dangerous loads were actually shot off into the large, dim yellow sun, where they would vanish like dust motes cast into a volcano.
It was a precise and necessary operation, carried out like clockwork day after day, year after year.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House Worlds; First Edition (May 1, 2001)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0345435400
- ISBN-13 : 978-0345435408
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 4.27 x 0.69 x 6.79 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #439,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #746 in Classic Action & Adventure (Books)
- #6,652 in Space Operas
- #10,353 in Science Fiction Adventures
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Greg Bear](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61a7ymIrlRL._SY600_.jpg)
Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books, spanning thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy, including Blood Music, Eon, The Forge of God, Darwin's Radio, City at the End of Time, and Hull Zero Three. His books have won numerous international prizes, have been translated into more than twenty-two languages, and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Over the last twenty-eight years, he has also served as a consultant for NASA, the U.S. Army, the State Department, the International Food Protection Association, and Homeland Security on matters ranging from privatizing space to food safety, the frontiers of microbiology and genetics, and biological security.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the storyline great and excellent. They appreciate the interesting insights and cinematic concepts that keep the pace brisk. Readers also describe the writing style as well-written.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the storyline great, entertaining, and simple. They also say it's a great book for Star Wars fans.
"I really enjoyed this book! Cool story about a funky mysterious planet on the edge of the galaxy...." Read more
"...become one with the Force (i.e. Force Ghosts), it was still a really interesting book...if you've already read the New Jedi Order...." Read more
"Great story to begin to bridge together The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clone." Read more
"...It is weakened in that the story itself tends to feel transplanted from a non-Star Wars novel, and the story's principal elements have little payoff..." Read more
Customers find the concepts in the book interesting, cool, and unexpected. They also describe the book as a fascinating addition to the Star Wars universe and a distinct entry in the Expanded Universe. Customers also say the storyline is wonderful and keeps the pace brisk.
"...and the manner of the Carver's death at the book's end is genuinely unexpected and creepy...." Read more
"...It offers interesting insights, like how Obi-Wan planned on taking a hermitage on a desert planet after he finished training Anakin as a reward...." Read more
"...the novel, with its interesting culture and biology, and the well-paced revelations about its connections to the force...." Read more
"w wonderful storyline I really liked Anakin much better as a youth and I think that when he betrayed Amadala it was such a weak reason that was not..." Read more
Customers find the writing style very well written and the pages nice and thin.
"...Zonama Sekot, the titular entity of Rogue Planet, is a well-realized and thoroughly explored locale...." Read more
"This is probably the best written Star Wars book I've ever read...." Read more
"...Other than that it was in good condition, and the pages were nice and thin...." Read more
"...I can't say much more about it except that it is well-written and fits seamlessly in the overall story of Star Wars...." Read more
Customers find the story pace of the book slow.
"Good story that kept me interested. Only complaint was that it wrapped up too quickly. Good filler between the first and second movie." Read more
"Might be the worst Star Wars book I've read. Slow and plodding pace, uninteresting plot, and is entirely too inconsistent with canon...." Read more
"This is a bad book. The story is slow, the characters are bland and the outcome was totally predictable...." Read more
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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I realize that this book is meant to be read before you get into the last 5 or 6 books of the New Jedi Order but I can see where this book might get a little tedious if you don't understand the importance of what is happening on Zonama Sekot and how it will affect events 55-60 years later during the New Jedi Order.
Sure, you lose some small element of surprise but it's not really all that important in the overall scheme of things since we already know the fate of the main characters.
Aside from the Zonama Sekot aspect, this book does contain some very nice moments between Obi-Wan and his 12-year old apprentice. Obi-Wan is still only about 28 years old and trying to deal with the still-recent death of his own master, Qui-Gon, as well as with his role as a Jedi Knight and master to Anakin. Having always been a bit wary of Anakin, he is finding that the boy has become quite special to him.
The main threat to Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Zonama Sekot is none other than Commander Tarkin (who will become Governor Tarkin - the one "holding Vader's leash" in Star Wars: A New Hope) and we get to see the first meeting between Tarkin and the boy who will become Darth Vader.
***Spoilers ahead***
If you've finished reading the New Jedi Order and you enjoyed it as much as I did, you may really enjoy this book for what you learn about the shaping of the Sekotan ships as well as the incident mentioned to Jacen - "Anakin killed the Blood Carver without a lightsaber." I really loved the New Jedi Order and I loved the moments on Zonama when Luke is speaking to Sekot in the form of Anakin Skywalker while Jacen speaks to Sekot in the form of Vergere. I also loved that there is now a connection between the prequel era and the New Jedi Order mostly through Zonama Sekot, Vergere, and Jabitha, who is one of only a handful of characters who knew both Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker and was able to speak with Luke about his father.
Obi-Wan is struggling to be the perfect mentor for his brilliant student Anakin Skywalker, who may be the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy. The book is set three years after The Phantom Menace, putting Anakin right on the cusp of adolescence. Bear does a great job exploring the relationship between these two central characters. Anakin shows boyish flashes of enthusiasm very much in keeping with the boy we met in Episode I, spontaneously hugging his master at one point (much to Obi-Wan's chagrin) and generally leading Obi-Wan on a merry chase just to keep up. He also shows signs of the much more troubled man he will become, still unable to let go of his attachments and striving to contain the immense power he carries within.
It is also a treat to follow Commander Wilhuff Tarkin throughout the story. This young incarnation is venal and ambitious, willing to align with any forces necessary to ensure his star continues to rise unhindered. He "partners" with Raith Sienar, a young weapons designer key to the creation of the Death Star and the soon-to-be-ubiquitous TIE Fighter. (Bear mentions vehicles in Chapter 2 which sounds suspiciously like larger TIE prototypes: "Each was twenty meters wide, with broad, flat cooling vanes terminating their wings. The compartments were compact, spherical, hardly luxurious."
Zonama Sekot, the titular entity of Rogue Planet, is a well-realized and thoroughly explored locale. A quibble I have with it and this storyline is there is something elemental about it that does not have the "Star Wars" feel - perhaps it is the organic technology that pervades the planet (although the Gungans went a bit in that direction). At times I felt like the book could easily have been some other science-fiction story and didn't need to be Star Wars at all. There are a few chapters in the middle dealing with Sekotan ship-building where the book bogs down in details of the process and the biosphere. However, this difference in focus also makes it an intriguing addition to the EU.
It's interesting to note how at times Obi-Wan and Anakin both feel Qui-Gon Jinn is speaking to them from beyond. The book seems to conclude that this is not the case, but Revenge of the Sith establishes that Qui-Gon does manage to contact Yoda, so what communication there is in this book could be subject to a different interpretation.
A couple of other thoughts: garbage pit racing made a great opening chapter. Anakin's assault on the Blood Carver and the manner of the Carver's death at the book's end is genuinely unexpected and creepy. I like how Bear uses wildly varying chapter lengths - the progressively shorter chapters in the climax are very cinematic and keep the pace brisk.
Rogue Planet is a well-written and distinctive entry in the Expanded Universe. It is weakened in that the story itself tends to feel transplanted from a non-Star Wars novel, and the story's principal elements have little payoff without reading the nineteen-book New Jedi Order, in which Zonama Sekot and the "Far Outsiders" play a central role. Depending on what Lucasfilm outlined to Greg Bear, it is likely neither of these flaws are something he could change. Additionally, the middle of the book lingers overlong on the ship-building storyline.
I would like to see more stories written focusing on this critical early stage of the Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship and also would be intrigued to read another entry from Greg Bear.
Top reviews from other countries
![](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/70c1d5ab-e377-424c-a385-50ad5e1c7df6._CR0,0,500,500_SX48_.jpg)
Si collega alla saga del The New Jedi Order.
![](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
チャーザの船内や、
スターシップを作るとこなどの描写
これらが、
複雑かつ、かなり奇想天外で、文章読んで頭のなかで、映像をイメージするのが難しかった。
それでも、アナキン修行時代の、師弟の2人は愛すべき人物。会話のシーンだけでも楽しい。
![](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/9c0d2695-9445-4bbe-a582-443e640b2df5._CR0,0,375,375_SX48_.jpg)
![](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)
Pierre
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/default._CR0,0,1024,1024_SX48_.png)