Buy Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising
3,998 BBY
*The second Tales of the Jedi omnibus begins with this story. So why on earth did they put a picture on the front that actually illustrates something from The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, the last story in the first Tales of the Jedi omnibus? I like the image, of Nomi, clutching an infant Vima, defending herself against Dark Side dragons. But there are a crap ton of great images you could get from The Freedon Nadd Uprising, Dark Lords of the Sith and The Sith War. Why put a picture from a story that isn’t in the book? Weird.
*So, we’ve moved into the next year, 3,998 BBY, finally leaving last year behind. So, we have Ulic and his buddies getting into the Beast War one year; the following year, Nomi Sunrider is widowed and starts learning from Master Thon; also, The Freedon Nadd Uprising really begins at some point in that year, because Tott Doneeta shows up to borrow Oss Willum for help during Saga of Nomi Sunrider. Then this one happens the following year.
*So, has the Freedon Nadd Uprising been going on for a year? Several months? Maybe. I suppose it could make more sense if Tott shows up in Saga very late in 3,999 BBY and this one starts very early in 3,998 BBY.
*So, Tott’s brief cameo notwithstanding, it’s at this point that our two story threads finally really get together. The group on Onderon is attempting to quell an uprising of adherents of Freedon Nadd. Who should show up to help but Nomi?
*The new queen reveals that her father, Ommin, is a follower of Freedon Nadd and is still alive in a secret medical facility.
*Now, there’s no getting around this one. The Beast Wars, in which Arca and his students vanquished Queen Amanoa and, they thought, broke the hold of Freedon Nadd on Onderon happened in 4,000 BBY and this story begins in 3,998 BBY. Even assuming the latest possible date for the Beast Wars and the earliest possible date for this story, it’s still at least a year between them, probably more.
*And this woman has just been sitting on the information that Freedon Nadd still has a powerful Dark Side adherent on Onderon in King Ommin? This is perhaps something it would have been nice to have heard about A YEAR AGO!
*King Ommin is a great villain, very creepy looking.
*Of course, the fact that all these Jedi are getting their asses handed to them by a dead guy and a sickly old man who can’t even stand up on his own is hardly inspiring.
*If you guessed that one of the Jedi would get a hand lopped off, give yourself a gold star. If you guessed it would be the brother of the main character, give yourself two. If you wrote that stupid clichéd plot point, give yourself three. Right up the butt.
*Okay, wall of light, Freedon Nadd’s spirit banished, Ommin dies, Cay gets a mechanical hand. Blah blah blah blah.
*Unfortunately, the Jedi don’t know that Satal & Aleema Keto, a pair of wealthy siblings, have managed to escape Onderon with a ton of Sith artifacts, courtesy of Ommin and Nadd. By the time these two characters eventually meet their ends, you’ll wish you didn’t know anything about them either.
*Extremely short which would tick me off except it was so bad, I was glad it was over so quickly.
*CANONICAL STATUS: This attempt to give a backstory to some of the significant participants in the Sith War is a complete misfire; it is considered by most scholars to be completely fabricated. This work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.
*Awful. Strongly Warned Against. ½ star
Tom Veitch
*Next time, we’ll see how this story fares as *shudder* an audio drama. Join me next time for Tales of the Jedi (Part Three).