Star Wars: Brotherhood – The Kenobi Story We Didn’t Know We Needed [Review]

Star Wars Day is officially behind us. Still, it left an indelible mark upon us with the new trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series arrives three weeks from tomorrow, coinciding with 2022’s Star Wars Celebration. As all eyes are on everyone’s favorite Jedi Master right now, what better time to drop a new book that dives even deeper into the character? That’s exactly what Del Rey Books is doing with Mike Chen’s exceptional work, Star Wars: Brotherhood.

Between three feature films (yes, the Clone Wars animated film counts) and The Clone Wars series, Lucasfilm has delighted fans with an avalanche of storytelling and character development throughout a pivotal period in the Star Wars timeline. A good deal of that has dealt with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his relationship with Anakin Skywalker. Rightfully so, as they themselves are the two most pivotal characters in the entire saga. Brotherhood, however, raises each to an entirely new level.

Brotherhood: the Clone Wars story we didn’t know we needed

Here’s part of the official story synopsis:

After an explosion devastates Cato Neimoidia, the jewel of the Trade Federation, the Republic is blamed and the fragile neutrality of the planet is threatened. The Jedi dispatch Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the Order’s most gifted diplomatic minds, to investigate the crime and maintain the balance that has begun to dangerously shift. As Obi-Wan investigates with the help of a heroic Neimoidian guard, he finds himself working against Separatists who hope to draw the planet into their conspiracy… And senses the sinister hand of Asajj Ventress in the mists that cloak the planet.

Brotherhood covers a period of the Clone Wars we’ve not seen thus far. Anakin is a newly minted Jedi Knight, and Obi-Wan? He’s just joined the Jedi Counsel. As the story unfolds, so too does the changing relationship between former master and apprentice. For the first time, each must learn to operate outside the familiar symbiosis they’ve developed. Each struggles, and with the novel we see Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, together and separately, from a whole new perspective.

To paraphrase Kenobi from his later years, our perception of Star Wars storytelling often depends greatly upon our own point of view. Brotherhood takes that point of view and turns it on its ear. It does so not only with how we view Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, mind you. We see the Nemoidians in a new light in the novel, as well as the galactic impacts of the Clone Wars on systems struggling to remain neutral.

Kenobi, Skywalker, and the Clone Wars

Like the novel Dark Disciple before it, Brotherhood delivers a new tale essential to Clone Wars storytelling. To see our favorite characters’ differing points of view on the same events as Chen presents them is indeed a treat.  If your craving more Kenobi before the series premiers May 27^th, this is the book for you.

Star Wars: Brotherhood arrives at retailers everywhere May 10.