There are still two long years to wait until Star Wars: Episode VII, but you can console yourself this week with the release of what you might call Episode 3.1.

Kenobi, by author and comic-book writer John Jackson Miller, will hit bookstores Tuesday. It's the story of what happens to Obi-Wan during his first seven weeks on Tatooine, after dropping baby Luke off with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru at the end of Revenge of the Sith, and then leaving to watch over them from afar.

The book doesn't explain how Ewan McGregor (who plays Obi-Wan in Episode III) could transform into Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan in Episode IV) in what is supposed to be just 19 years — we're left to assume people just age faster living on a desert planet with two suns. (That's what happens when moisture is so rare, you have to farm for it.)

But it does explain one of the things that have puzzled Star Wars fans over the years: Namely, how did the Jedi in exile — knowing he would be wanted by the Empire — come to be known by the not-quite-alias Ben Kenobi? Turns out the first name was a geographic feature, and the last name was revealed by accident. As for the fact that Kenobi came to be known as a "crazy old wizard" — there's a reason for that too.

Kenobi offers all of this in the context of a story that is unlike any other in the Star Wars canon. "There are no space battles, there are no lightsaber battles with Sith lords," Miller told Mashable.

Instead, what we get is much more of a Western, with elements of romance mingled in. "It's like Shane," he said. "The mysterious stranger who rides into town with a past nobody knows. It struck me this was the right way to tell a story about Kenobi at this time."

Besides, Miller added, it's still got one plot element common to all Star Wars movies: "patiently waiting to play the role you were destined to play."

An atmospheric, Western-style, slow-moving book might not sound like it would appeal to the franchise's fans. But after more than 250 hit-or-miss novels, it seems Star Wars readers are hungry for something different. One review site hailed it as "precisely the book we've been asking to get for years."

The publishers are hoping Kenobi will appear to non-fans, or casual Star Wars fans, more than the average novel. After all, approaching the Star Wars shelf at your local book store can be a daunting experience.

"We're well aware that with this many books, it's easy to say, 'forget it, we're not going to even try,'" says Shelly Shapiro, veteran Star Wars book editor at Del Rey. "There are a lot of people who love Star Wars movies, and would never think of reading a novel. So we're reaching out in a way that isn't just for the core fans. We're trying hard to keep things as movie-based as possible."

Kenobi very nearly didn't happen. Lucasfilm was wary of allowing Shapiro and Miller to set a book during the "Dark Times" — that is, the rise of the Empire, the gap between the prequels and the original trilogy. Coincidentally or not-so-coincidentally, this is the time period covered by the upcoming animated series, Star Wars Rebels.

But Miller persisted; he'd been writing this story since 2006, and first envisaged it as a graphic novel until the idea became too big. He tweaked the story until it fit into the first year after Episode III, a time period that is fair game, according to Lucasfilm.

Does this mean Kenobi could show up in Rebels, the same way he starred in the animated series Clone Wars? Miller hopes not.

"He would think it a dereliction of his duty to go running off around the galaxy," the author said. "He doesn't know it yet, but he's kind of serving a prison sentence. He has to atone." (A fun piece of trivia Miller dug up: Kenobi is on Tatooine for the same length of time that Andy Dufresne inhabits Shawshank prison).

That's a lot of time for more books, and Miller is happy to do Kenobi sequels if there's interest. For now, he's happy with a self-contained story, and is focused on his own novels, such as this Wall Street satire set in space.

"I look on licensed properties like Star Wars as National Parks," he said. "Truck out what you bring in. Have a good time, tell a good story, illustrate an important period of change in a character's life, but you don't want to leave your litter everywhere."

Bonus: here's James Arnold Taylor, the voice of Obi-Wan in the animated series The Clone Wars, reading an extract from the book. Here, Kenobi is trying to commune with the spirit of his former master Qui-Gon Jinn:

Image: Del Rey