crack_van | Isolated by FernWithy (PG)

Hello once again!

Sorry about my somewhat late start this month, but don't worry! I have a full slate of fic recommendations ready for your reading pleasure. This is my second time driving the

crack_van for Star Wars (please see the memories for my previous recs from May 2005). Last time, I recommended mostly stories centered around the character of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in honor of the release of the final Star Wars movie.

This time around, I will widen my focus and recommend a broader spectrum of stories featuring more characters, particularly Obi-Wan, Padmé, Luke, and Palpatine. Keep in mind that I tend to favor gen stories and that Anakin / Vader is still my favorite character. Therefore, I do have a certain bias toward stories featuring him. Fair warning. *g*

Fandom: STAR WARS PT
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,500 words
Author on LJ:

fernwithy
Author Websites: Vader's Mask, Fern's Humongous Bighead Site

Why this must be read:

This fic is a quiet story, without any noise or excess words. It is a character study, really, of a despairing Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has lost all hope for the future. As he begins his long exile on Tatooine, he spends his time watching the twin Skywalker infant children from afar. Obi-Wan also dutifully goes through the motions of the training Yoda gave him, but that is all. Qui-Gon is there, but Obi-Wan determinedly ignores him at first.

In a very true to character way, Qui-Gon ever so gently forces Obi-Wan to face what has happened and what he did and did not do to Anakin on Mustafar. As long as Obi-Wan could not face and understand what he had done, he was unable to move forward and make the necessary changes in himself. It is clear at the end of the fic that Obi-Wan can now progress and truly become the mentor and master Luke will need him to be. This fic fits in nicely in canon and is very true to the characters and the Star Wars universe.

FernWithy's Star Wars stories have been recced several times on

crack_van, and deservedly so. This is the first fic she wrote after seeing Revenge of the Sith in the theater. It is also a bit of a prequel to Process of Elimination, previously recced on

crack_van here.

This story begins an Obi-Wan trilogy of sorts. Each story in the trilogy is written by a different author. In fact, these stories only form a trilogy in my own mind, but it is remarkable how well they fit together and how each story flows naturally to the next. Each story in the trilogy nicely illustrates what I imagine Obi-Wan's frame of mind to be during the time period in which the story is placed. The trilogy as a whole shows the progression of his thoughts and feelings from the end of Revenge of the Sith through to the end of Return of the Jedi.

For the second and third stories in my pseudo trilogy, please see my next two

crack_van entries here and here.

* * *

The suns set with a certain finality when night came to Tatooine. There was a brief and brilliant period of fire in the sky, and then hard black space above, dotted with sharply defined stars. There was nearly no water vapor and the planet was so sparsely populated that air pollution dissipated, so there was no comforting haziness in their shapes.

Just stark white light, concentrated and isolated, trapped there in the endless black.

But infinite, Obi-Wan reminded himself. There is no end to it.

He stayed outside of the small hovel Owen Lars had found for him in the Jundland Wastes, letting the night's chill settle into his bones slowly and insidiously, nearly a relief after the baking heat of the day. It was a simple cycle here--light to dark, fire to ice--and in its own way it was calming.

The call of a krayt dragon broke the silence, and Obi-Wan slipped back into the hovel. He'd had to fight one of the creatures his first night here, when it had thought he was easy prey, and it had been his first kill since...

He took a sharp breath.

He now simply took precautions to avoid the creatures of the Wastes.

Isolated