New novel explores the early life of Obi-Wan Kenobi

The story of Obi-Wan Kenobi is far from over.

July 26 will see the release of young reader novel Star Wars: Padawan from writer Kiersten White.

The book will feature a young Obi-Wan as well as his newly assigned master Qui-Gon Jinn in an adventure that will reveal previously unseen parts of the future Jedi knight’s early life who earlier this year got his own long awaited live action series, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In 2020 White made her first contribution to the Star Wars galaxy with the short story Eyes of the Empire in the anthology book From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back.

The story takes place nine years before the events of The Phantom Menace, making Padawan one of the earliest occurring works in the current canon chronology, with only the works of the High Republic project taking place earlier.

This means we will be seeing a very different sort of Obi-Wan. Instead of the cool and level headed ‘negotiator’ of the Clone Wars, we will witness a teenage padawan struggling between the desire for action and the discipline of a Jedi in training.

The release of such a story now is certainly aiming to take advantage of the recent buzz around the character thanks to the live action series, but older fans may remember that this is not the first time we’ve read about the early days of Kenobi as an apprentice.

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s young readers were treated to the Jedi Apprentice series of novels that established how Obi-Wan came to be Qui-Gon’s apprentice as well as many of their early exploits in the years before the prequel trilogy. The series of 18 books were written by Jude Watson with the exception of the first entry which was written by Dave Wolverton.

Watson is a highly prolific Star Wars writer, having written around fifty stories for the galaxy far, far away across a decade-long timespan.

While at this stage it is believed that Padawan will deal with exclusively new material, the precedent of young adult novels starting an adolescent Obi-Wan means that eagle-eyed fans may be able to glean some references to the old favorites.

Star Wars: Padawan by Kiersten White is available July 26 everywhere books are sold.

Will you be reading Star Wars: Padawan? Let us know in the comments below! For all things Star Wars, head on over to Dork Side of the Force!