Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice #17: The Only Witness

After Qui-Gon "recovers" from Tahl's death, the Council asks him to escort a witness who plans to testify before the Senate. It turns out that the witness wishes to expose the Cobrals (a leading crime family). She requests escorts because she think someone is out to kill her.This gripping story is difficult to put down.~ JFS

"The Only Witness" packs it all: deception, trust, betrayal, violence, and emotion (and all within 118 pages too). After returning back to Coruscant and mouring the death of his true love, Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn is anything but ready to go on another misson. But when the Jedi Council summons him and his teenaged apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for another mission, the heart-broken Jedi won't say no. The Master/Padawan team have been requested to help widow Lena Corbal bring her villanous in-laws to justice, as her past husband intended to do. Lena is in hiding with her cousin, Mica, and intends to go to testify against her in-laws, led by her brother-in-law, in front of the Galatic Senate. But before she leaves, she must gather evidence to support herself, something she did not tell the less-than-pleased Jedi. But the mission is getting more difficult by the minute, especially when Lena asks her mother-in-law, Zanita, for assistance. Qui-Gon is not himself and is convinced that he is not being told the entire truth and Lena's old appartment has been ransacked, her potential evidence misplaced. Thankfully, that mystery was cleared when Mica admitted to Obi-Wan that she misplaced the information so that Lena could not testify. Obi-Wan is in over his head when he realizes that he is falling for Lena. And after a mysterious package arrive for Lena -- from her deceased husband -- and Lena disappears, Obi-Wan feels more compelled than ever to prove to Qui-Gon that Lena's quest is true. But it is more harder to convince him of that after Zanita is kidnapped. Now the Jedi are in over their heads with a kidnapping, a deception, and still no evidence. Is it too much for the Jedi to handle?

The Council has decided that Qui-Gon is finally ready for his next mission after grieving over the loss of Tahl. Even though Qui-Gon is heartbroken, he offers to go along with Obi-Wan in their current mission. They have been assigned to protect a girl who must testify against an evil crime family on her planet, and she is believed to be the only witness with the evidence to prove that her planet is corrupt. Lena lives with the fear that she will constantly be killed by those who will do anything to stop her, but she also lives with a fiery determination that is like Tahl's. Qui-Gon isn't so sure to trust her, but Obi-Wan is reluctant to trust her right away. He's certain that although they must simply escort her to safety, Lena has separate problems as well. It's up to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to protect her even more than they had imagined. Jedi Apprentice #17: The Only Witness is a dramatic but short book in the series, and is not as good as the previous books -- but it is still very enjoyable.

The jedi apprentice seires books have always been my favorite, but for some reason, this book has not. I think it foucused too much on Thal's death rather than getting straght to the point. The story outline was very uncomfortable, because you didn't know which person is good and bad until the very end, which kept me quite nervous. I read these book in an hour. I sure wish it could be longer. May the force be with you always.

I thought that this book begins to wrap up the series. This may be the end of Qui-Gon's grief for Tahl. Even though I think this series will end well (I don't see why not), it will be too bad that it's over. In this book, the plot is sometimes confusing, but unlike with some books, you can't quite see how it ends. Overall, I think it was good and worth reading.