Reading a book is an opportunity to take a journey with the author to a place and time of their choosing. You get to come along and through the words on the page take that leap into their vision. Random House in coordination with Disney and Lucasfilms published a new story written by Steven Barnes to add the legend of Mace Windu’s lore, Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss.
Once in a galaxy far and away, there was a time when Qui Gon-Jin Jedi Master made his way to a planet, tortured by time. Somehow, a mission was left incomplete, and Mace Windu is now tasked with discovering the secret of a planet whose population has moved underground among crystalline structures illuminated by luminescent mushrooms. Plus, whatever else is lurking in the depths of the lower-level caverns.
At its heart, Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss is a detective story with one of the Jedi’s best detectives on the case. Barnes has taken great effort to put the reader in the midst of planet Metagos with a comprehensive description of the crystalline structure and geometry of this subterranean community thus establishing it as its own character. Mace descends through each of the community’s social strata to earn the trust of the people just trying to make it as well as the tyrants that have oppressed them.
The real question is whether this is really a Star Wars story or just a science fiction story with a protagonist with a special skill. George Lucas’ premise about the Force and the Jedi is the fight between good and evil. The Jedi represents the good and the Sith the bad. So, what does it mean, when a master of the Jedi suppresses the very power that makes him a master? Now, it is acknowledged that there is a whole series about Obi-Wan Kenobi, walking away from the Force. Of course, that is after the supremacy of the Jedi is felled by the traitorous acts of Anakin Skywalker and the issuance of the ominous Order 66 by Emperor Palpatine much later in the Star Wars universe than this story. So is a Jedi a Jedi, without being good, without protecting the weak, and/or without the Force?
Somewhere on the internet, there is an item that suggests that Tupac Shakur was interested in auditioning for the role of Mace Windu. Tupac was a fine enough actor, but Samuel L. Jackson provided just the right amount of swagger and maturity needed for a vaunted Jedi Master. In the comics, animated series, and movies. Mace Windu is really the only Jedi of color – blue, green, excluded – with any major role in almost the entire franchise until the Star Wars post-quels (Episodes 9-11) with John Boyega’s Finn. Windu is first introduced in 1999 during The Phantom Menace.
Like many, there was eagerness in my consumption of any story with Mace in it, which was limited to mainly comics, then he appeared in the animated shorts in 2003. But it was the movie Revenge of the Sith where the real Samuel-L-Jacksonness of Mace shone through with the battle with Emperor Palpatine. Despite being force-lightning blasted out a window, he was a bad-mother-shut-your-mouth. So much so, I spent an entire cruise, sitting by a pool with a cool beverage and Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith: Episode III, by Matthew Stover. Stover’s description of the battles, especially the one between Windu and Palpatine, really solidified why Windu was a Jedi Master.
This other Mace Windu history permeated throughout the rest of the Star Wars universe, maybe why I struggled with the story. At times the plot felt like it was written based on the lyrics to Issac Hayes’ theme to the 1970’s blaxploitation film Shaft:
Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man?
(Mace)
Can you dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about?
(Mace)
Right on
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
(shut your mouth)
I’m talkin’ ’bout Mace
(then we can dig it)
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
(Mace Windu)
Okay, I acknowledge that this could just be my own bias brought into the context of Mace because of Samuel Jackson’s portrayal of both characters on the big screen, but I bet I’m not the only one. If you are looking for a Star Wars story that expands your understanding of the Force or advancing the events between Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, this is not it. If you are looking for a dive into the psyche of Mace Windu, you will have to read this one and make it up your own mind.
You can purchase Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss on Amazon or wherever books are sold.
