Star Wars Omnibus: Tales of the Jedi Volume 2

Tales of the Jedi #4–7

by Kevin J. Anderson

Learn the fate of the ancient Jedi Order's most legendary heroes in this huge collection!

In a time when Jedi were numerous and the Sith Empire but a bitter memory, an ancient evil rose again, corrupting one of the Jedi's finest and igniting a war that ravaged worlds. The Sith were reborn, ties of friendship and family were betrayed, and the lives of Jedi Nomi Sunrider and Ulic QelDroma were changed forever.

* This gargantuan omnibus completes the epic Tales of the Jedi saga with "The Freedon Nadd Uprising," "Dark Lords of the Sith," "The Sith War," and "Redemption."

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Comic Book

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than volume 1. The characters are more fleshed out, the action is better (and there is more of it), and there plots are much tighter.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Another good Star Wars comic. Very enjoyable. RIP Ulic, Cat, and the other Jedi who died. Hope Nomi and Vima Sunrider help bring lots of peace to the galaxy.

Can't wait to read more Star Wars omnibus comics!!!!

[Iset · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story in this collection is The Freedon Nadd Uprising with Tom Veitch at the helm of the script, and Tony Akins and Denis Rodier on the art. I have mixed feelings about this one. I wasn’t a fan of the art style, though neither did I dislike it. In places the colours were garish, even clashing. Although this does, as I mentioned in my review of the previous volume, evoke something of a sense of an earlier era, it’s not my preferred style in the Star Wars comics. The story also had its negatives, coming across as quite rushed. One moment there’s a Naddist attack at the starport, the next the Jedi are visiting King Ommin, and as soon as they return they discover the palace has fallen to Naddist troops. Really? In such a short space of time? And they heard nothing about it? It’s just a little difficult to swallow. At other points time passes and the story jumps suddenly ahead without any real explanation of what occurred in the meantime, and it doesn’t really feel like time has passed. For example, Nomi and her fellow Jedi liberate Ulic Qel-Droma and his fellows under siege, and he says that with the reinforcements they’ll be able to turn back the tide on Onderon. In the very next scene the Jedi are storming King Ommin’s palace and defeating the uprising. Whaaaa?! It feels like a few weeks should’ve passed in between these events, or it should’ve been made more explicit that time had passed. On the other hand, there were things about this story I’ve always liked. The Naddist faction is pretty interesting, especially the history of Freedon Nadd himself and how his legacy came to breed a royal line on Onderon corrupted with the dark side. The problem is not enough time is spent on that. We know so little about Nadd, King Ommin, or Queen Amanoa. A few of the Naddists are clad in impressive armour and wield lightsabres, and one is even specifically named and drawn attention to in dialogue – Warb Null – only for Ulic Qel-Droma to cut him down immediately. Who are these people? I wanted to know more! What was the point of throwing a name out there if he was just a faceless kill? I feel a certain degree of frustration with this tale because it hooks my interest on certain elements but then doesn’t deliver. Equally, the Keto cousins drew me in from the first page they appeared. Although I disliked how they were drawn, I found myself easily imagining their KOTOR era data files featuring the pair glowering defiantly from some criminal records mugshot. Here they seem a little silly as errant and spoilt royalty with little conception of what they’re getting into, but their characters have great potential and I can definitely envision them with a mean streak that would make them way more compelling. Still, this story is just their introduction.

The next story in the collection is Dark Lords of the Sith. Both Tom Veitch and Kevin J Anderson were on the script for this one, with Chris Gossett, Mike Barreiro, and Jordi Ensign on the art. This story by far dominates this second volume of the Tales of the Jedi, at over a third of its page count, and really forms the core of the plot. This is where we see the long prophesised and promised downfalls of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, along with the rise of Nomi Sunrider in the background. I quite liked the art style in this one. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite (truth be told that tip of the hat often goes to Jan Duursema in the Star Wars comics world), but the action scenes do a great job at conveying movement and chaos, the characters are nicely drawn, with expression well conveyed, despite the colours being a little basic. Plot-wise there’s a lot I like here, but also a few things I didn’t like. Let’s get the minor irritants out of the way first. There is a glaring continuity error here which I found simply too distracting to give a free pass to; in this story Naga Sadow is described as a pureblood Sith species, a member of the priesthood enacting a rebellion against the Dark Jedi that conquered the Sith race and set themselves up as their Dark Lords. The problem is that’s not what happens in Volume 1 at all. In Volume 1 Naga Sadow is of mixed race descent from both Sith and the Dark Jedi, and is himself a contender for the title of Dark Lord of the Sith. And, even stranger, despite being told that Sadow is a Sith priest here, he’s drawn as a Human. What gives? I also found Ulic Qel-Droma’s fall pretty difficult to understand, despite multiple re-reads I’ve never wrapped my head around it. The initial premise checks out; he decides to infiltrate the Krath in order to bring them down from within. Even when Nomi comes looking for him and he was probably stupid to stick to his plan, it had a certain logic. But by the time his brother and friends come to rescue him, it’s stopped making any sort of twisted sense whatsoever. Satal Keto is dead, and Aleema, whom Ulic is sleeping with, tells Ulic she knows exactly that his plan is to destroy her… except the time is not right because Sith teachings are out there in the galaxy, and Ulic waiting a bit longer will accomplish… what, exactly? Seriously, what is waiting supposed to do? Ulic’s cover is effectively non-existent since Aleema flat out tells him she knows his whole plan, and it’s never explained how waiting will somehow eradicate the Sith teachings instead of simply going ahead and destroying the Krath now. Ideas spread. There’s not much that can be done about that, and waiting isn’t going to achieve anything. It’s a bit of a mystery what Ulic hopes to accomplish here. In the end I simply have to put his fall down to the Sith poison he’s been infected with, because his motivations don’t make a lick of sense. Also, just a wishlist item really, I would’ve liked to have seen more page space devoted to Satal and Aleema’s takeover. I felt like not enough time was given to that, and as a result it seemed far too easy, as if I was asked to accept that it happened off-screen and that was that. On the plus side however, there’s a lot that I like about this story. Satal and Aleema are much more in the mould I envision them; rangy, glaring, demanding, egotistical, hostile without regard. I like their portrayals, although how Aleema thinks she can get away with her blatant, unsubtle attempts at manipulating Ulic I don’t know. Maybe she knows that Ulic has become so absurd that his denials of being affected by the dark side no longer even make sense. Exar Kun, was by far the more interesting of our two fallen characters, and his fall made a whole lot more sense than Ulic’s, and was even rather compelling. He sets out on the path himself, self-important and harbouring a sinister desire to study Sith artefacts, but the crucial moment comes when he’s left to die, unless he embraces the dark side. He concedes in order to spare his life, but after that finds the light side of the Force closed off to him. On the one hand, this makes for a pretty compelling fall; Exar is angry at being presented with something that is barely a choice at all and the consequences of that choice, and being forcibly unable to access the light side plays out like a tragedy, causing his desperation and frustration to skyrocket. It makes for a much better read than Ulic’s fall. On the other hand, having read an awful lot of Star Wars in my time, I have to wonder what is going on here. It’s difficult to make sense of storylines where a Force user is cut off from the Force. KOTOR 2 presents us with an individual who has subconsciously done it to themselves after trauma, which is a plausible rendering, but elsewhere in the literature we’re told that this is an ability that a few Jedi can inflict on another (see Jedi vs Sith), and the character of Callista presents a mysterious case of Force loss after body switch. Having just the light side forcibly cut off though? I don’t know. I can see how dark side mind set can have a subtle knock-on effect, bringing tragedy into characters’ lives and trapping them into a cycle, and that seems to me the most plausible and compelling way that falls play out. Whilst Exar’s reaction and the fallout out from him being denied access to the light side are plausible and compelling, the why and how behind him being denied that access is more questionable. I think fellow Star Wars fans would agree with my wry observation that sometimes the Force is just whatever the writers need it to be. Nevertheless, a fairly enjoyable story, and better than the first one, I felt.

The next story in the volume is The Sith War, with Kevin Anderson alone on the script, and Dario Carrasco Jr, Jordi Ensign, Mark Heike, Bill Black, and David Beckett on the art. Here we see the climax of the story and the fallout from the paths that Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma have taken. Exar Kun is at his evil best here, lording it up with not an ounce of regret, combining callousness, lies, and brute force in the classic model of many dark lords. I have to say I’ve really liked his character throughout; this is a character who’s unapologetically evil and doesn’t give a damn about it. He’s much better than Ulic Qel-Droma, who for some reason still avoids fighting his former friends and is still telling himself that he’s doing all this for the greater good… somehow. I really found it difficult to sympathise with Ulic at all because his levels of self-delusion were just so astronomically absurd. When it comes right down to it, he fights when pressed, but immediately regrets it. With Ulic I’ve just always felt like shaking my head and saying, “what are you doing?!” I have to admit I’ve always been slightly disappointed in the character of Nomi Sunrider. Along with Ulic and Exar she’s touted as one of the main characters of The Tales of the Jedi. The problem is she’s not, really. She’s often in the background, supposedly Ulic’s love interest, going on various missions but making little impact, and rarely showing any personality. The most significant action she takes here is to strip Ulic of access to the Force, and that seemed to me a stand out deviation from her usual background position in the story. I really hoped she would be more, but for me her most interesting story is the first one in which she appears, where her husband is killed and she chooses the path of a Jedi. She seemed to have far more personality and distinctiveness there than in any subsequent stories in which she appears. Aleema in this tale was strangely underpowered and naïve in comparison to her earlier incarnations, and it was difficult to believe she fell for Exar and Ulic’s deception. I think page space was a definite issue here. The plot advances fairly quickly, quite a lot has to happen off screen, battles sometimes feel abbreviated and certain events are mentioned but we never get to see them; overall I definitely got a sense of the story being bigger than the pages the creators had to work with. Nevertheless, I had to say I liked the ending. It was pretty dark, excusing the pun.

The final story of the volume is called Redemption and is also written by Kevin Anderson, with Chris Gossett and Andrew Pepoy on the artwork. This is my favourite story of the whole two volumes by far. The art style is definitely much more my kind of speed, making use of a more subtle use of colour and shadow than the garish look of previous stories in this series, the scenery is gorgeous, the characters well drawn; in short I love the art style. The story is shorter than the main bulk of the volume, which is taken up by The Sith War and Dark Lords of the Sith, but for me it’s by far the best. Ulic Qel-Droma is at his best here; nuanced, sympathetic, and actually seeming like a real human being for the first time in the series. His motivations never made sense to me in the previous stories, but here he seems like a living, breathing person, and his motivations are understandable, I even find myself rooting for him. Likewise the other characters; all are driven by subtle motivations and none fall neatly into boxes of good or evil, more driven by personal goals and experiences. The plot is interesting, and the ending is unexpected, but good, in the way that’s both awful and tugs on the heartstrings. Ulic is drawn rather old here, considering his age in previous stories and the fact that ten years have passed, but I’ve got to put that down to the toll of the dark side and several years of regret; he looks more late forties than late thirties, but it’s understandable. Whilst the rest of the series was interesting, and enjoyable, none of them were as good as this entry, and I rather wish the whole series had art work, plot, and characters as interesting and nuanced as this.

I rated the first story 6 out of 10, the next two both 7 out of 10, and the final story 9 out of ten, reaching a total of 29 out of 40. Expressed as an overall score out of ten, that’s 7.25 out of 10.

[Teraesia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Táto druhá zbierka sa mi páčila viac ako prvá. Zatiaľ čo v prvom dieli sa hlavné postavy ešte len predstavovali čitateľom, v druhej sa dalo nádherne pozorovať ich prepojenie dejových línií a vzájomné ovplyvňovanie. Tieto postavy udávali históriu Star Wars... Bolo vzrušujúce byť súčasťou legendárnych vojen a zároveň byť tak blízko životov jednotlivcov... Pozorovať, ako sa formujú hrdinovia v priamom prenose...
Tiež musím dodať, že záverečná časť mam veľmi dojala. Netušila som, že mi Jediovia až tak prirastú k srdcu...

[Joseph Keys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lucas eat your heart out! This is how you REALLY do a pre-original Star Wars story.
Instantly creating mystique by making "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away" a long LONG time ago, Tales of the Jedi's Sith Wars produce some of the most enigmatic characters and enduring story-lines that (I feel) the Star Wars Expanded Universe has to offer.
Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider are easily my favorite characters aside from the original movie cast and their legacy set the stage for all following pre-movie material including some amazing video games.
You really a sense of history and that these Jedi are part of the order that Yoda and Obi-Wan lost, which The Emperor broke and which Luke founded once more. It retains a grittiness to the imagery of the universe that we see in the original films and adds its own flavor of archaism.

These comics are why my love for Star Wars endures past the movies and why I delved deeper into the expanded universe.

[Tyson Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Not as good as I remember from when I read it as a teenager.

[Danny Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first volume of Tales of the Jedi is a three star book in the sense that it's all just fine, this second volume is a three star book in the sense that some of it is truly awful and some of it is surprisingly great.

The volume opens with The Freedon Nadd Uprising two-parter, which essentially just follows on from the first volume in both tone and quality, but serves as a good excuse to bring all the characters together. Things really take a turn for the worse with the Dark Lords of the Sith series and stay that way throughout most of The Sith War.

The problem here is that they want to depict a big, complicated war starring lots of characters with conflicting motives, but they get it completely wrong by confusing bloat for scale and messiness for complexity. Instead of a rich, intricate story we just get mushy nonsense.

Luckily, it all pays off in the appropriately named final part, Redemption. This was so good that it made me look less favourably on everything else I'd just read. The art, storytelling, characterisation, pacing, everything was just on a completely different level. I'm glad I read the series overall, but I wish it had been that good the whole way through.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tales of the Jedi was the first event depicted in the Essential Chronology, so I the outline of the plot many times as a kid. Like a lot of stuff in TEC, it felt weird, full of proper nouns that were similar to things I knew (Sith) but applied in slightly different ways (Sith Sorcery) that made them almost unrecognizable. My memory of my first read of TotJ is pretty foggy, but I had the idea that it was fairly weird compared to KotOR, which was much more closely matched to the OT. There are definitely ways that’s true, but coming back to it now, it’s less the case than I remembered. Even though the ship designs are weird and unique, and the Jedi are somewhat different than they’ve ever been presented otherwise, the universe feels more or less like the same kind of place it does in the OT and KotOR, the same scope and diversity and flickering sense of historicity.

On one hand, Tales feels utterly antediluvian in its storytelling. I always expected that finally getting to TotJ itself, I’d learn what all these people and proper nouns and events were really like, discover the story behind the summary. But the summary is the story. It’s like the Manning comics, and the Goodwin comics, in that all the narrative is just explained in those little rectangles rather than being told as a story, in art, action, or dialogue. Which is a shame, because unlike the Manning or Goodwin comics, the plot here actually has something to it. There are a bunch of potentially meaningful character arcs and relationships here, interesting behaviors that imply interesting motivations, major plotlines with impactful choices. It’s a big epic Star Wars story, more ambitious in scope than the OT itself by far.

The problem is, the storytelling for all of that really matters. Like, Ulic and Cay and Nomi and Exar Kun can’t be the lead characters in an epic, tragic drama unless they’re brought to life as real people with internal lives and emotions and comprehensible motivations. And the story never comes close. It rushes through everything, and the scenes that are here for character development are narrated over, a necessity since the scenes don’t establish character themselves. It’s very ineffectual.

What comes in place of that character development and comprehensible dramatic motivation is simply The Force. This is where I want to argue that Tales of the Jedi is basically ground zero for an alternate Star Wars, a fork in the path that made Legends what it was, and not what the OT told us it might be. And until TROS, the new films had rejected that version of Star Wars and stuck with the OT. Now, I guess this is what Star Wars is again. A depressingly relevant piece of literary history.

So instead of stories about people struggling with questions about identity and morality and what it means to responsibly wield power or whatever, we get characters who are destined to become evil because they show a whiff of interest in the Dark. The Dark Side is treated like Satan, a non-metaphorical supernatural entity that reaches out and controls evildoers through psychic fiat or magic extortion. Exar Kun comes in angry and goes straight for Dark Side artifacts for no established reason at all. Even then, when the time comes for him to fall, Freedon Nadd doesn’t seduce him or appeal to his character in any way. He just beats him nearly to death and forces him to sign over his soul to stay alive. It’s so boring! And Ulic is almost worse. He decides to go off and join the Dark Siders to understand them and destroy them from the inside, but immediately just plain joins them anyway for no reason we’re ever shown, with no internal struggle. It’s like that’s who he always was, no adjustments necessary. His only character trait throughout this process is that he’s always annoyed when his loved ones question him, though he’s given them no reason to trust him. Very weird. And Nomi develops a romance with him at literally the very last second before he embarks on this. At one point Anderson just gives the game away and makes falling to the Dark Side literally a matter of being cut by shards of a contaminated artifact. It’s . . . nothing. Utterly arbitrary. No story behind it at all. The light is no better—not a matter of character and principle but simply something that an arbitrarily chosen set of holy people can wield to ward off the Dark, like a priest holding up a cross.

I was pretty hard on Kevin J Anderson last time I reviewed TotJ, and he’s not a good writer by any means, but it’s certainly unfair to compare him unfavorably to Veitch. There’s a noticeable change in quality when Anderson shows up, though it’s too little too late and the story still just plain doesn’t have time to cover the ground it covers. But Redemption, written many years later and with a new art team, takes so many steps forward dramatically that I can’t help but give Anderson props for it. It quite literally gives Ulic the Ahch-to Luke treatment, and sends Vima as Rey, and nothing happening in the galaxy otherwise. There is no big war here, only its legacy, worked out by a few key characters in very personal, emotional ways that seem utterly unearned by the previous content but nonetheless manage some decently touching moments. Ulic and Vima build snow sculptures! Having a rando cretin shoot the villain instead of making a character do it or letting him be redeemed is a kind of cheap ploy, though it works much better here than it did in Dark Empire.

[Seana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get through the story because I really didn't like the art, except for the final story arc - Redemption - which was both a good story and well drawn.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the many Star Wars comics issued by Dark Horse, the Tales of the Jedi line was far and away my favorite. The series' setting (5000 years before A New Hope) let authors Kevin J. Anderson and Tom Veitch really go wild in creating the early tales of the Jedi Knights and their Sith adversaries, and resulted in the creation of some of the Star Wars Universe's most memorable characters.

Since many of the original Tales of the Jedi trade paperbacks are out of print, Dark Horse has issued Omnibus collections of the Tales of the Jedi comics. This is the second volume, and it collects the following stories:

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - The Freedon Nadd Uprising
This 2-issue series picked up where Ulic Qel Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon left off. Our young Jedi Knights are under assault from the ancient spirit of Sith Lord Freedon Nadd (no snickering please), and any victory they achieve may prove fleeting as secret Sith lore is brought back to the Republic by a pair of Dark Side wannabes. The artwork for this series was less than stellar.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - Dark Lords of the Sith
Two powerful young Jedi come too close to the Dark Side of the Force. Exar Kun seeks forbidden knowledge, and Ulic Qel Droma attempts to defeat the dark from within. These Jedi's journeys towards the Dark Side will lead to massive galactic conflict and the return of the Sith Empire. The artwork in this series is better than the Freedon Nadd Uprising, but not by much.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - The Sith War
Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun and his Sith disciples wage war on the Republic and their Jedi allies. The whole Tales of the Jedi saga has been leading up to this massive conflict. Dario Carasco brings some much needed detailed artwork to the series.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi - Redemption
This long out of print saga takes place years after the close of the Sith War. Nomi Sunrider's daughter Vima seeks a Jedi to tutor her in the ways of the force, and has decided on the one man universally reviled for his role in the Sith War - Ulic Qel Droma. This gorgeously illustrated series is the perfect epilogue to the massive Tales of the Jedi saga.

I love the idea of these mid-priced Omnibus volumes, but am not crazy about their size. Compared to Marvel's larger Omnibus hardcovers, these smaller (they shaved roughly an inch from the height and width of the trade paperback size) paperback collections fall a bit short (no pun intended). Still, if you're new to the Tales of the Jedi series, or like me never got around to buying all of the trade paperbacks, they are an ideal way to get the most bang for your buck.

[Jamieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "Tales of the Jedi" series takes place between 5,000 and 3,986 years before the Battle of Yavin from Star Wars: A New Hope (designated BBY). These take place in the "Legends" universe and thus have no effect on the current Disney era of novels, movies and TV shows. This is Volume 2 of 2 and contains the stories: "The Freedon Nadd Uprising", "Dark Lords of the Sith", "The Sith War" and "Redemption".

The Freedon Nadd Uprising continues the story from Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon in the last volume as Ulic, Nomi and friends hunt down the last vestages of Nadd's power on Onderon. Dark Lords of the Sith introduces us to Exar Kun, a Jedi whose curiosity leads him to the Dark Side while Ulic, in an attempt to avenge his Master's death tries to infilrate the Dark Siders and destroy them from within. This leads directly into The Sith War which sees Exar Kun and Ulic join forces and lead a war against the Jedi and the Republic. The war ends with Nomi severing Ulic from the Force and Exar Kun preforming a ritual on Yavin 4. The final story is Redemption which sees Nomi Sunrider's daughter Vima seek out Ulic to complete her Jedi training because her mother's always too busy.

I think I like this volume better than the first despite really enjoying the first two stories of the first volume. The art has an 80s/90s feel to it and isn't as detailed as some of the comic art now, but it works for the stories and unlike some comic art styles, doesn't detract from the stories. The Dark Lords of the Sith/Sith War story is probably my favorite because of it's epicness and great characters. Yes, I do think the original Tales of the Jedi miniseries (Beast Wars/Saga of Nomi Sunrider) to get the most out of these. Apart from the Golden Age/Sith Empire stories, these all build on each other. These also act as prequel of sorts to the KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) games which only take place 30 years after the last of these stories. So, if you're interested in early Jedi Order, then this is definitely worth checking out.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 2 of Tales. The series definitely picked up and got more interesting around "Dark Lords of the Sith" and "The Sith War." All of this is significant background to the Knights of the Old Republic game, which I'm currently in the middle of playing.

By far, my favorite arc in this collection is "Redemption." It made me burst into tears at the end, so I'd say I'd successfully gotten fairly attached to the characters. Honestly, I didn't like the artwork in that one as well, so it really was the story that made me love it.

[Rizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone very interested in the ancient lore of the Star Wars universe, these volumes are fairly interesting, but for anyone else, I can't imagine you'd enjoy them. They're very dry and slow, your mileage may vary. HOWEVER, the final story in the Tales series, "Redemption" is genuinely a great story that is totally different from the rest. Reading the rest of the stories are required to get there though, but man it's satisfying. I was really pleasantly surprised to see such a grounded, small, emotional story ending this series of grand, epic, emotionless space battles.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reaching the end of the Tales of the Jedi run is like saying goodbye to old, cherished friends. I wouldn't say it doesn't have it flaws (particularly in this second collection), but the stories therein truly deserve the label of "saga". I could definitely have kept reading - if there had been more to read. Unmissable, formative, outstanding, and a treasured relic of the 1990s.

Vale to Tom Veitch, who we lost to COVID-19 at the beginning of the year.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 2 is a lot better than Volume 1, but it takes getting to Kevin J. Anderson's part of the book before you start to see it. That goes against everything I said about Anderson in my review of Volume 1, but maybe I just got used to the style by then? I don't know.

I'm still not sure it's necessary to read all the comics to get the full lore of the Expanded Universe, but I know there are some good titles in there. I'm just looking forward to getting to those....

[Andrew Haile · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll give this 2 stars for effort and a few things that I thought were pretty cool but overall I didn't really care for the characters, the stories were ok, and I didn't like the art. Some of the art was good, but the lightsabers were ugly and the ships looked terrible. Some of the story I could relate to KOTOR which was cool. But overall I'd recommend skipping this one.

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Omnibus is only worth reading if you really enjoyed volume 1. Great 90s artwork continues here even as the run goes into the prequel era.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook - Good ending to the Tales of the Jedi

[Matthew Juffs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, especially the last few issues.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top level artwork. Cool mythology.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

the writing was HORRID, written for a 4th grade reader level at best. seeing as how Star Wars was never a children's story I'm puzzled how this managed to get published in the current form.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story, but the art could have been a lot better in some parts...

[Dustin Merriman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This surprised me towards the back. The beginning was not very great.

[Rusteen Honardoost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of excellent Star Wars shit in here. Definitely worth reading these two omnibus collections, available on Internet Archive

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! What a stellar collection of stories. (Pun intended). I enjoyed every page. The struggle between the Jedi and the Sith was incredibly engrossing. Highly recommended!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The omnibus contained the comics Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising, Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith, Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War, and Tales of the Jedi Redemption. I posted my reviews for each of the following below. Overall, a great collection of Star Wars comics!

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising
Tom Veitch

Much better than the previous Tales of the Jedi story. In this story Nomi Sunrider goes to the planet Ossus to further her Jedi training before getting sent with other Jedi to Onderon to help end the Dark threat that still presides there. There she teams up with Ulic Qel-Droma and the other Jedi Knights apprenticed to Jedi Master Arca.

In Tales of the Jedi: Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Wars of Onderon we learn more about the ancient Sith Lord Freedon Nadd. In this story we learn A LOT more which made for an interesting story. Also, we get to see the planet Ossus where the Great Library that was mentioned in Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire by Odan-Urr. Later the planet is seen in the Legacy of the Force and the Fate of the Jedi series as a Jedi Temple for Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order. In addtion to cool information regarding the anicent Star Wars, there was much action involved and very cool plot ideas including the use of King Ommin.

I great story. My only wish was that it was a little bit longer. The future works for the series look quite promising.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith
Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson

Another great addition to the Tales of the Jedi series. In the story the Jedi are sent to stop Satal Keto and his cousin Aleema from spreading their Sith sorcery. In the meantime, a Jedi named Exar Kun sets off on a journey to learn more about Sith artifacts with the spirit of Exar Kun.

I found the beginning to be a tad bit slow for my tastes, but the epic conclusion made up for it. In the story we learn more about the Massassi Temples on Yavin 4, the Jedi during this time, and, most importantly, Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun. I was interesting to see the first story of Exar Kun who also plays a role in the Jedi Academy Trilogy. We also get to just how much of an effect Naga Sadow truly had on a Sith of the time as well as Freedon Nadd who plays a critical role in the story.

An amazing story and one that I look forward to reading again in the future.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: The Sith Wars
Kevin J. Anderson

Another great addition to the Tales of the Jedi series. The comic went into the rise and fall of the Sith Lords Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun. Two of the more well known ancient Sith Lords. In addition to these two we see Mandalore and the Mandalorians come into the picture and play a part an influential part in the story as they ally themselves with the Krath and the Dark Lords of the Sith. This story tied up the lose ends of the past few Tales of the Jedi comics. All of that leading to this epic conclusion with surprising turn of events. Defiantly a must read.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Redemption
Kevin J. Anderson

This was a very good addition and conclusion to the Tales of the Jedi series. It's the year 3986 BBY, 10 years after Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War, and Vima Sunrider seeks out the exiled Ulic Qel-Droma to be trained in the arts of the Jedi as her mother, Nomi Sunrider, can't seem to make time to train her.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story. I thought that it was a great way to end the epic Tales of the Jedi Series. The choose of characters was perfect. There were to many, but there was too little either. And the characters chosen were the right ones for the story.

We really get to see that even though some falls so far and has so many wrongs they, too, can still be redeemed. That message is why I found this story to be such a great one. A quick story with a powerful message. Don't really get many of those out of Star Wars literature.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork is very good and detailed throughout. The inks and colours enhanced the story, making me pay more attention to the scenes and people than I usually do. Too, the paneling was never the same between two consecutive two-page spreads, which made it more unique.

We also see how blurred the lines between light and dark can be, depending on the situation.
What happens when a being willingly lets evil in? What are the consequences? The morality of this volume is deep , permeating every subplot .

What I didn't like though is that, as with the first volume, each TPB had a different artist/colorist. The inconsistencies are annoying.

This volume in particular houses the comics that seem to have greatly influenced the KOTOR video games and the understanding of Force powers, Onderon, Exar Kun, and battle meditation--among others. Kevin J Anderson writing in multiple forms of media helps with a lot of it.

The Freedon Nadd Uprising (3998 BBY)
-Nadd's remains are on Onderon...and he has some followers. The spirit doesn't only guide, but can hurt.
- Cay and Ulic Qel-Droma, Master Arca, and Nomi Sunrider are the initial Jedi. I love how Nomi is drawn - muscular and strong. Nomi and a few other apprentices are sent to stop a new Sith uprising.
- Cousins Aleema and Satal find a Sith book and dabble in the dark arts.
- When Ulic hopes that Arca isn't dead, I have to wonder why he can't feel it.

Dark Lords of the Sith (3997 BBY)
- Through Naga Sadow and Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun, Aleema and Satar are opened to the dangers of the Dark Side.
Actually, Freedon Nadd's spirit affects everyone.
- The carbonite annoyed me. It's just too far in the past for it to be believable.
- The Jedi on Onderon enlist help to face the dark energies. Despite all that they do, they can't be everywhere at once.
- Nadd temps Ulic to allow the Sith to rise. Exar Kun tries to deceive the Jedi and heads to Yavin Four and the Massassi to reveal Sadow's past. Kun and Ulic are tempted by dark energies and poisons, catalysts for their joining as a Sith pair.
- The "break" on page 109 was spectacular and beautiful.
- The ending was just very sad. I'm heartbroken for Nomi...and a little sad for Aleema.

The Sith War (3996 BBY)
-Mandalore attacks the Tetan worlds and allies himself with Ulic. I couldn't believe Aleema was still with Ulic, but their double-crossing each other wasn't a surprise.
- Ulic plans on attacking Corsucant against Kun's wishes. The latter man goes to Yavin Four and turns some of the Jedi apprentices.
- The Jedi go after Ulic, and Mandalore goes to save him. Events snowball into each other as the Sith slowly seem to overpower the Jedi in horrific ways.
- What Ulic does to Cay...what Nomi does to Ulic...it's such a depressing ordeal. Him protesting everything though is HIGHLY annoying. It's all his fault and yet he says that it "can't" be happening? He can't lose his powers? Dude, it's less than you deserve.
- Kun uses the Massassai to help him flood the light side with the power of the Sith, but the Jedi have powers too. The clash is devastating and enflames Yavin Four. The end was terribly chilling and powerful.

Redemption (3986 BBY)
- 10 years after The Sith War, Nomi Sunrider calls a Jedi convocation. Her daughter, Vima, wants to train as a Jedi but Nomi rarely 'has time.'
- Others, especially Sylvar, want Ulic to pay for his crimes. He wants self-imposed exile and death. Sylvar lives in vengeance for anyone who feels oppressed, and is dangerously close to the Dark Side. Her home planet is beautiful.
- Sylvar saying that Ulic is unpunished shows me that she does not understand at all what Nomi did to him.
- Vima goes to Ulic for training. She is stubborn but helps him through his mental pain and darkness.
- I didn't expect that ending.

[Killer of Dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

To rate the entire volume, I've decided to explain my thoughts on each of the sub-series involved in this entire volume.

The Freedon Nadd Uprising, acting as a bridge to connect the previous Knights of the Old Republic sub-series, provides little enjoyement other than acting as the foundation for the following subsequent series. Its sole purpose is to introduce Ulic and Nomi, as well as the supporting caste for the second half of the Tales of the Jedi. For that reason and little new plot ideas provide this sub-series with 2 stars.

Dark Lords of the Sith provide the emergence into the entire plot of the Tales of the Jedi. Exar Kun is introduced, his plotline is dull compared to that of Ulic's. The climax and culmination of this entire sub-series is Ulic's decline into the Dark side which propel this series. This sub-series earned 3 stars. It would have earned 4 if it wasn't for Kun's plot and that of Ulic's friends who attempt to rescue him several times.

The Sith War sub-series introduces the Mandalorians, and their design in the comics is amazing. The design of the ships in this sub-series is really heightened as a result of the space combat. Although the war is rather fast paced in terms of explanation throughout the issues, the issues contain a solid plotline earning the sub-series 4 stars. The betrayel by Aleema and the ultimate culmination of the sub-series resulting in Clay's death, Ulic losing his touch with the force, and Kun's death serve as a befitting and dark ending.

Redemption is one of the weakest sub-series in the volume. It takes a long time for the plot to advance and the plot is mainly saved by Ulic's exile and his ongoing monologues and self-conflicts. Nomi's daughter's training felt rather fast paced. Ulic's final death serve as sealing the sub-series with 3 stars. The only purpose of this small sub-series is to complete Ulic's arc and finish Tales of the Jedi. His death is befitting to the entire series and thus the arc is closed.

Overall, this volume earns 3 1/2 stars but after rounding and considering the chunk of the volume lies in the Great Sith War and Dark Lords of the Sith, this volume earns 4 stars. Both of those sub-series is very enjoyable to read.

Rating Update 3/14/2019 - 4 to 3 stars. Having placed my ratings with the percentage of the volume, I find that this volume receives a 3.24 star rating ~= 3 stars.

5 - 53 2 48 11% = .22
57 - 200 3 143 33% = .99
204 - 341 4 137 32% = 1.28
343 - 449 3 106 25% = 0.75

434
3.24

Update 14 June 2019
With the adoption of my new rating system, a three star rating is befitting. The original rating, review, and especially the March 14, 2019, rating update conform to the new rating system.

September 5, 2019
Update
It was not mentioned that the appearance of the comics help maintain the volume at a three star rating. The dull colors and the mechanized gladiator look of the Old Republic wars and its combatants is nice. Visually appealing at times.

I also wanted to digress on my liking of the Old Sith Wars, especially the content on the Mandalorians, lifts this volume to a three star-rating. If the plot were replaced with the same boring plot style in the previous volume, this would have earned two stars.

January 25, 2020
Update
This is a book whose contents I cannot remember entirely. I must rely on the original review's praise of this volume, and the update on June 14, 2019, that stamped this book as fit for a three star rating. The apex in the original review was this sentence: "Both of those sub-series is very enjoyable to read". I felt this sentence resonate after I skimmed through the volume just now. Also, I believe this book cannot go lower than a 2.5 star-rating.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, the best part about this is the last chapter, Redemption, but I guess you need all the other chapters for it to make any sense. That being said, it is kind of worth it. Anderson and crew introduce a bunch of cool new characters that are memorable in the vast pantheon of Jedi in the EU. This collection follows the exploits of two really interesting characters: Ulic Qel Droma and Nomi Sunrider interweaving stories of their humble origins and building up to the moments where their lives cross paths agains the backdrop of a resurgent Sith. Anderson and crew do an excellent job creating compelling characters, but the plot is relatively simple and straightforward and the foreshadowing is pretty blatant and obvious. "I sense you will be a great Jedi," says Master Thon. And then, by the end, Master Thon again, "See, I told you you would be a great Jedi." I kind of expected twists in the prophecies and that they wouldn't be quite so literal, and in that I was disappointed, with the exception of Qel Droma. I liked that the focus of this series was on internal struggles and how often times a desire to do good at all costs ends up leading people astray more than purposeless lust for power or pointless ambition, which seems to be the motivation of most of the rogues in the EU. It's fun to see the familiar backdrops of Yavin IV and Ossus expanded upon - their mythologies and histories fleshed out. It's kind of like being able to go back in time after seeing a crumbling ruin to see it when it was brand new and glorious, which was of course the purpose of this series. In that, it succeeds and it creates iconic figures worthy of repeat mention in other subsequent volumes of lore.

The Old Republic has me on a serious EU binge. On to the next one...

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

slightly weighted average brings this to around 3.7/3.8, so i'm happy to round up!

overall, quite a good experience, but the last two arcs reallt stood above the rest in terms of the actual quality of storytelling. i'm satisfied.

the freedon nadd uprising - ★★★
fun and quick, i really didn't mind this! seeing what could be the first miraluka character ever is so cool to me, and the camp factor of veitch's obsession with plucky but dumb sibling duos is really just unmatched. i kept slipping into laughter when they were meant (?) to be serious scenes. too good.

dark lords of the sith - ★★★.5
i really wanted to love this but man we're just going off the rails huh. the good stuff includes cool ancient jedi, a conflict that isn't resolved in just a few issues, and a kind of compelling dark side story in exar kun (but also underwhelming bc there would have been more weight and power if it was fully that he chose it and not that the ghost blocked him from the light side. anyway.) but the cons are like.. the writing. its a little bit camp.

very different 3 stars to the previous arc lol

the sith war - ★★★★.5
if we just ignore the silliness it took for us to get here, this was really really good. like we had great stakes, dramatic deaths, really cool scenes (exar kun striding into the senate kinda slayed), and an excellent ending issue. at long, long last, this series is finally living up to my expectations of it. goodbye silly sith ghosts, goodbye.

redemption - ★★★.75??
this seemed so short and so different in comparison to the previous arcs (honestly felt like a different writer), but i loved the contrasting journeys of ulic and sylvar, and i think everything was wrapped up quite nicely.