Four thousand years before Luke Skywalker stood as the final Jedi, his predecessors wandered the universe, each playing his own role in keeping the peace and holding back the forces of the dark side. This 136-page collection focuses on Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider, two young novices training to become Jedi warriors. Their training, however, turns into a trial by fire when they prematurely have to face off against reigning crimelord Great Bogga, a Hutt who has killed one of the universe's most powerful Jedi Knights. Some 4,000 years before Leia bared her midriff in Jabba's palace, another Force-sensitive woman was doing the same for the good of the plot line: Jedi prodigy and lightsaber-wielding Nomi Sunrider, one of the featured Knights in this two-story collection from Dark Horse's quality Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi miniseries. Sunrider begins her training reluctantly, both to avenge the death of her Jedi hubby at the hands of Bogga the Hutt's minions and to realize her enormous potential in the art of "Jedi Battle Meditation." The other story in this volume also involves Battle Meditation, which Jedi Master Arca uses to save the hides of his young charges Ulic Qel-Droma and friends, who are sent to forge a peace between the beastmaster warlords and walled-city defenders on war-torn Onderon. With plenty of twists, tons of action, and monsters and bad guys at every turn, these two stories are fully worth checking out, although purists be warned: the Ulic tale especially tends more toward the Jedi-as-superhero school of storytelling. It's saberin' time! --Paul Hughes