The Dark Rival by Jude Watson is the second in the young readers Jedi Apprentice series. All of the books in the series are written by Jude Watson, except for the first book, The Rising Force, which was written by Dave Wolverton. The series explores the adventures of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. A backstory from this book later became the basis for the comic Star Wars: Jedi—The Dark Side.