Missed a post? Catch up on The Year of Kenobi here.

The Story

Picking up where the last book left off (I would assume, my secondhand copy is missing the first two pages), The Evil Experiment sees Qui-Gon Jinn in the hands of Jenna Zan Arbor, for whom the term “mad scientist” seems too kind a descriptor. Her plan is to study the force as it manifests in individual Jedi, and takes samples of their blood to study. When she is finished with a subject, she drains them completely.

Obi-Wan, for his part, is very distressed at the loss of his Master, but can’t even begin to guess where he might have been taken off to. He teams up with Astri, as well as a gang of youths, to try and track down Jenna Zan Arbor’s secret lab. Problem is it’s a big galaxy.

Thoughts and Impressions

As far as these books go, this one was probably the darkest. At least up till now. We’ve come so far from “Obi-Wan leads a union strike” haven’t we?

It seems, at least so far, that my mistrust of Uti S’orn might have been misplaced, considering how horrifically her son Ren was killed by Jenna Zan Arbor. Then again, this series takes so many twists and turns, watch Uti S’orn be involved with this somehow, and for her to have sold out her son.

Also, a senator’s named Ren dying under horrible circumstances? It’s like poetry it rhymes.

The most fascinating aspect of the book, for me, is Jenna Zan Arbor, and wondering what exactly it is she’s trying to do by studying the Jedi’s blood. Not to make too large a leap of logic, but it’s very reminiscent of The Mandalorian and the experiments Dr. Pershing is ordered to carry out on little Grogu. Granted, he knows enough to pull back on drawing blood samples before he hurts the subject. Is this common sense? Or is it that a horrible experiment went wrong once in the days before the Clone wars, and all scientists are taught about this incident to avoid it? Did I just draw a connection between two wildly unrelated things? Yes. Yes I did.

What’s Next?

I mean, the next book is called “The Dangerous Rescue” so I assume that’s where it’s going. I would also like some resolution on this Ren story, and to know exactly why Jenna Zan Arbor feels the need to drain her subjects beyond general psychopathy.

***

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