Star Wars: Champions of the Force

Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy #3

by Kevin J. Anderson

As the New Republic continues its struggle for survival, a scattered but powerful remnant of the shattered Empire seeks to destroy three precious children - among them Han and Leia's Jedi twins - who represent the next generation of Jedi Knights, in this third and final novel of the Jedi Academy Trilogy…

Suspended helplessly between life and death, Luke Skywalker lies in state at the Jedi academy. But on the spirit plane, Luke fights desperately for survival, reaching out physically to the Jedi twins. At the same time, Leia is on a life-and-death mission of her own, a race against Imperial agents hoping to destroy a third Jedi child - Leia and Han's baby Anakin - hidden on the planet Anoth.

Meanwhile, Luke's former protégé Kyp Durron has pirated the deadly Sun Crusher on an apocalyptic mission of mass destruction, convinced he is fighting for a just cause. Hunting down the rogue warrior, Han must persuade Kyp to renounce his dark crusade and regain his lost honor. To do it, Kyp must take the Sun Crusher on a suicide mission against the awesome Death Star prototype - a battle Han knows they may be unable to win… even with Luke Skywalker at their side!

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

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

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never again with this series! If I ever, ever get the urge to re-read it again, somebody smack me in my face-ular area.

In all seriousness, I can’t tell if this book was genuinely better than the last one or not, because I sped-read most of it, focused only on the parts that caught my attention, and skipped large chunks of it that seemed stupid or boring. Anyway, it didn’t fill me with rage.

I’m not going to go into huge detail, or really any detail at all, in this review. I have already more than said my piece in my long and longer reviews of books one and two.

This one has the task of cleaning up the mess from before. Luke is unconscious in a Jedi fashion after being attacked by Kyp Durron and his spiritual stowaway Exar Kun, and coincidentally Leia and Han’s two year old Jedi twins are the only ones who can see his spirit floating around. At one point they have to wield his lightsaber. Yeah, a two year old wields a lightsaber. I have no energy to mock it right now, so just know that I would like to and leave it at that. Meanwhile the remnant of the Empire that is after the baby Jedi because REASONS? (Seriouslly, what the eff makes them think that a baby will be a good asset for them?? As I said in one of my status updates:

“He’s a BABY. What the what are you going to do with a BABY. Just because he has Jedi powers doesn’t mean you can make him your own Emperor. And what, he won’t even be an adult for twenty years! By then, the Empire will be gone. Great plan, asshole!"

Then there’s this whole black hole thing that is a joke and Daala fucks shit up and there is a nearly hundred page battle I skipped entirely, which turned out to be a good idea because KJA summed it all up at the end anyway so I literally missed nothing.

In summation, these are not good Star Wars books. They are not good books in the standard of books in general. You should not read them.

[First read, February 2001]

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good: This finale of the trilogy was pretty good. I liked the writing style, and the narrative kept me involved.

The Bad: The chapters were rather short, which wasted a lot of space; that's something that often annoys me in books.

Conclusion: Star Wars fans will enjoy this; others won't...but, you already knew that, right?

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jumbled plot lines abruptly end, making this book feel like a messy Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

We open the final book in the Jedi Academy Trilogy with many open plot threads. Kyp Durron is on the run with the Sun Crusher, Han in pursuit to try to reel the boy back in. Chewbacca and Wedge head off to the Maw Cluster to take it over. Leia is appointed Chief of State, and the Jedi students must find a way to bring Luke back from his Force induced coma and defeat Dark Lord Exar Kun.
NOTE: Again, I listened to the audiobook, but have read the book in the past, though too long ago for me to remember perfectly.

I Liked:
First mention goes to Chewbacca, who actually has a job in this book besides standing by Han and moaning incomprehensibly! Kudos to Anderson to putting our Wookiee friend in charge of his own commandos! At first, it seemed an odd move, but ultimately, I liked how he was used (not sure why C-3PO had to be sent also, unless it was to translate) and showed that he could be used in more versatile roles.
Second place goes to Kyp Durron, whose Dark Side arc continues to be interesting. I enjoyed seeing his rise and fall, to see his thought process and how he wants to destroy the Empire (but ends up destroying the one he loved instead!).
Also, while it does go overboard, Tol Sivron and his cohorts on the Maw Installation made for amusing reading.

I Didn't Like:
There are so many aggravating, annoying things about this book! I almost don't know where to begin.
The characters haven't changed from Jedi Search and Dark Apprentice. Luke is still completely stupid. Ackbar is still whiny. Leia doesn't do much more than dump her kids on other people and run around the galaxy doing Mon Mothma's job. Wedge and Qui make me want to yell at them to get a room (thank God that relationship was retconned). Admiral Daala continuously proves that she should never have been given command of a turtle, much less several Star Destroyers. At least Han and Lando aren't gambling the Falcon every other sentence. I just wish Lando's feelings for Mara weren't so obvious and gag worthy. And that the characters didn't constantly quote themselves. Every other word out of their mouths was "I have a bad feeling about this", "This deal is gettin' worse" and "Don't tell me the odds".
Most of the problems I have with this book are in relation to the plots and how they are wrapped up.
For instance, the Jedi Academy faces off with Exar Kun. This is an interesting idea...but quickly, I start seeing problems.
Number One: Luke is only be able to communicate with his two year old niece and nephew. Why can he only communicate to toddlers who have absolutely no Jedi training? Why couldn't he communicate with Streen or Kirana Ti or Kam, whom he has been training for some weeks/months? Why would he try to communicate with two kids who can barely talk themselves?
Number Two: Jacen, the two year old son of Han and Leia, wields a lightsaber against a two headed beast. I thought that people tended to protect children, but obviously, I'm wrong. Also, I would think that a toddler would be unable to handle the forces of the blade regardless of Luke's helping him (Han certainly had a hard time), but again, I must be wrong. And what idiot caretaker thought it would be acceptable to put a child in such a compromising position? Han and Leia need to sue Luke, Cilghal, and all those Jedi when they return. Of course, if Han and Leia hadn't been irresponsible and out of character they wouldn't have dumped their twins on Yavin 4 with Luke (who was in a coma) in the first place. I can tell Han and Leia are shapening up to be wonderful parents. Not.
Number Three: Cilghal, the newest arrival to the Praxeum, becomes the de facto leader. I would have placed bets that Kam or Streen would have risen to lead in Luke's absence.
Number Four: The whole Exar Kun plot line was way too quickly and too easily wrapped up. The Jedi just circle around him, say they won't back down, and POOF! Exar Kun is destroyed! Wow, that was easy! So much for that Super Powered, Really Scary Sith Lord that killed one Jedi student and turned another into a genocidal Dark Sider.
And what's worse than HOW it was wrapped up was HOW QUICKLY it was wrapped up. The end of the Exar Kun plot was about 1/4th of the way through the book! We had a climax, and a denouement...and then, let's move on to our next plot thread to wrap up! And people blame Return of the King for having too many denouements!
The whole Anoth plot bugged the heck out of me. Anakin and the twins were placed there, a place only three people knew about (Winter, Luke, and ACKBAR???), to keep themselves from the Dark Side? This just sounds crazy! Who built the compound? Did Ackbar bring them in then kill them like the Empire would have? Lastly, this plot just put a spotlight on Han and Leia that I hated: that they would drop their kids on anyone (Winter, nanny droid, Jedi students they barely know) at the drop of a hat to go off and doing something "more exciting" and "important". Again, so much for being parents, if any of their kids keep from heading down the Dark Side, it would be a miracle.
Kyp Durron returns to the Light Side...just because he has to. He had a really great story going, and then Anderson went, "Shoot, I have to wrap this up fast!" and just wrote a pell-mell ending for Kyp. That has to be the only reason why Kyp was allowed to go scot-free with the murder of an entire system (the Carida system) and several other planets. Either that, or the New Republic is more corrupt than the Old Republic.
After these THREE threads are over, we STILL have to wrap up the Maw Installation, Moruth Doole, and the Daala threads! Good heavens, this book has more endings than The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition). At least in that movie, they had a reason to end that way (it was like the book), and it all happened in the last half hour. Here, we wade through nearly a whole book of endings. I had that "done" feeling and then had to read more endings. It was tiring and hard to maintain momentum.
I love how this New Republic works too. Mon Mothma can just pass down her office to Leia. No vote, no line of succession, nothing. Why did was the New Republic created again? To give people freedom, right? So why can't the people vote on their Chief of State? Heck, when Obama was elected, they had a whole special election for the Senator of Illinois! Another questionable aspect of the New Republic: Leia at one point "reasons, cajoles, and shames" people into letting Luke deal with Kyp. And how is the New Republic different than the Empire? Oh, right, the Republic is freedom--freedom for the Skywalkers and Solos, that is. Must be why Kyp Durron can murder an entire world and get a slap on the wrist.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Tame to none.
Ditto.
Big space battle explosions, people die, it's Star Wars.

Overall:
Anderson had some amazing ideas. The Jedi Academy. The Maw Installation. Heck, trying to create a female Imperial who DOESN'T turn to the New Republic at the first sight of a man...I mean, drop of a helmet. But ultimately, I think he failed in one big way: in tying all these ends together in a cohesive story. This book felt like one long ending after another. Finish if you must, but I don't think it's all that critical.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

[Caleb Likes Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry into the Jedi Academy trilogy. This is probably the weakest one, but it’s still a solid read.

Like the prior book, I think the true strength of this one lies with Kyp Durron. [Spoilers for the previous books; I can’t really discuss this without spoiling.] I really enjoyed Kyp’s character journey throughout the first two books, and the same can be said here. His deepening fall to the Dark Side is interesting to see, especially since the book opens with an event in which his fall leads him to commit an act he truly regrets. I do think that part of his arc is resolved a little too quickly in this entry, but his character is still a highlight.

The other characters are pretty decent as well. [Once again, spoilers for previous books.] Several of the characters in the Rebellion visit the now mostly abandoned Maw Installation, Han and Lando try to go convince Kyp to turn back to the light, Mon Mothma has to deal with a sudden deadly illness, and Luke has to deal with essentially being separated from his body and watching his students struggle. All of these plots are pretty enjoyable, but I still don’t think it holds up against the thrilling plots of book one.

Overall, is this the weakest entry in Jedi Academy? Probably. But it’s still a decently enjoyable read despite moving a bit quickly through some character arcs and some scenes that I didn’t particularly like. It’s a good end to a solid trilogy that I actually quite enjoyed.

Rating: 7.5/10

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good conclusion to the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin Anderson, "Champions of the Force" finds Luke Skywalker down but not out. While his body is in a coma, his life-force is still strong, and he attempts to use the Force by telepathically connecting with his niece and nephew, Jacen and Jaina Solo, both of whom are strong in the Force.

Meanwhile, Leia and Admiral Akbar lead a contingent to stop an Imperial attack on planet Anoth, which is the secret location of Han and Leia's youngest son, Annakin. The Empire, knowledgable of Annakin's dark lineage, wants to kidnap the child and raise him in the Dark Side, like his legendary grandfather, Darth Vader.

Han and Lando go off in search of Kyp Durron, a renegade Jedi, possessed by the spirit of a long-dead Sith Lord, bent on destroying any solar system in which remnants of the Empire still have a stronghold. Unfortunately, he has the capability of doing this with his doomsday weapon called the Sun Crusher.

"COTF" nicely finishes this entertaining series and leaves a few pleasant cliffhangers for future books.

[Joshua Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am giving this a 4/5 stars.

I thought that this was a fitting conclusion to the Jedi Academy Trilogy. We didn’t get any new characters, but we got a lot of fleshed out storylines.

Kyp Durron continues to be one of the most fascinating characters of this trilogy of books. His struggle to walk the line between dark and light is the stuff of legends and rivals that of Anakin and Luke themselves.

I thought it was a great storyline having the Jedi padawan’s band together to defeat Exar Kun and become Knights in their own right. I would’ve liked to see some of the Knights beyond Kyp and the Calamarian get fleshed out personalities but I liked all of their chapters.

I will say I think what lost the star for me in this book was any chapter where the imperial scientists were the POV characters. The monotony and bureaucracy of them was so droll and boring I could barely pay attention. Also the third Death Star seemed a lazy inclusion and seemed way to repetitive with other storylines from the films.

All in all this was a good book. I’m the end I think I would rank the series (from best to “worst”) as 2, 3, 1.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars fans might rate it four stars; everyone else probably two.

Shallow re-hash of classic elements from original movies. (Written before second set filmed.) The usual impossible, improbable and silly plot devices.

Flunks high school physics . . . again. After explaining why long hyperspace jumps are increasingly fatal, Anderson proceeds to have people make "direct" and Inner Galactic Core to Outer Core jumps with no casualties. The latter would be improbable to the point of certain death--or least being jerked out of hyperspace by proximity to some gravity well.

He also starts with the Maw being an almost impenetrable collection of Black Holes, then has people popping in and out on various routes, including the "back door" and a brute force (un-Force assisted) jump. Then an unlikely fatal plunge into a black hole figures in the climax--at least unlikely as described. Anderson apparently doesn't understand what a black hole is or, more likely, assumes his readers don't. Errors are forgivable; deceiving the reader isn't.

[David Orphal · Rating 2 out of 5]

My problem with this series is that there were too many villains who were all too easily defeated. Who's the bad guy?

Is it the slave lord? Mmmmm. Not really?
The imperial Admiral and her 4 star destroyers? Oops! 3 Star Destroy... Nope, 2 Star De... Nope, Damn.
The spirit of the Lord of the Sith? Nope.
The imperial ambassador?
The prototype Death Star?
The new Sun Crusher super weapon?
This apprentice of Luke's? Who is turning to the dark side? Oops! Nope, he just died without a fight.
What about this other apprentice? He looks like he is turning too?

Maybe the author was trying to capture the confusion of a war, that while in the mopping up stage, has a lot of things in need of mopping.

For me, it translated and just a rag-tag group of ineffective advisories.

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stars: 1
Re-Read: No
Recommend to: Only people wanting to reading all EU books.

The trilogy started off decently with Jedi Search, which was flawed but still enjoyable. Dark Apprentice was ridiculous, and things went even worse with Champions of the Force. Anderson pretty regularly in this trilogy starts off with a strong foundation of characters and plot, but he squanders it every single time. Characters do things that don't make sense. Events happen that don't fit the universe. All of the villains are complete jokes. Anderson can't help but create ridiculously powerful weapons that the characters either just don't use or they forget about them. This really is Disney levels of incompetence.

The things I liked were mostly on the conceptual level that Anderson didn't make work:
- The Maw.
- The general plot in theory of Luke building a Jedi Academy. Sadly, this was more of an afterthought in the story.
- The Kessel plot, particularly in the first book, is good. I really like the Kessel spiders.
- Carida. I like that they have a primary stormtrooper training facility that has harsh conditions (weather and more gravity) to make the troopers more powerful.
- The way they poison Mon Mothma with a substance that specifically targets her genes.
- Anderson carried over Momaw Nadon from the Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina story.

Things I didn't like:
- Anderson has the bad habit of taking lines from the OT and re-using them. I'm sure it is a form of tribute, but it's really bad. In the last book has Ackbar say "It is a trap." Han is always telling people not to tell him the odds. In this one, Leia says, "It was...a great disturbance...in the Force." after Kyp uses the Sun Crusher. Another one is when Luke says, "Your imagined power is your weakness, Exar Kun." And Kun replies, "And your faith in your friends is yours!" I think I groaned out loud on that one.
- Anderson doesn't seem to understand that, the bigger the ship, the more ponderous it is likely to be. He routinely describes their movements like they are x-wings dogfighting. The worst examples are usually when he is describing the movements of the Death Star prototype. "Before she could complete her sentence, the gigantic sphere of the Death Star shot away toward the edge of the black hole cluster and vanished into the masking clouds of superhot gas." This wasn't it travelling in hyperspace. This moon-sized vessel just turned on its engines and zipped away. There is one scene where a bunch of fast smuggler ships are fighting the Death Star. The Death Star "wheeled about on its axis...picking up speed as it left the flurry of other ships behind." It turned around and left them behind? In another scene, Daala idiotically flies the Gorgon right next to the asteroids she is destroying. When they blow up, it is assumed they are dead because they are gone. What lunacy is this? They cannot go to hyperspace in the Maw. So in the time frame of a single explosion, a gigantic star destroyer on sub-light engines disappeared from view and sensors. This is really stupid. It would be like if you were looking at a hot air balloon that was fifty feet above you, and then you blinked and it was gone.
- Anderson gets way too comfortable with inventing things the Force can do. There is a scene where Han/Lando use an override code to shut down the Sun Crusher that Kyp is piloting. First, it's far more likely Han would know that he needs to try and reason with Kyp instead of tricking him, but whatever. The bigger deal is what happens next. Kyp uses the Force to nearly-instantaneously rewrite the coding to give him control again. Here is how it was described: "In outrage Kyp found the power to send a burst of controlling thought through the integrated circuits in the Sun Crusher's computer. He flushed the alien programming, wiping pathways clean and rebuilding them in an instant." This is absurd.
- Anderson is incapable of writing an intriguing villain. Some of his characters have promise to start.
*Admiral Daala is supposedly brilliant, but we sure never see it. She fails at every task. She has no plans other than to kill as many people in the Republic as she can. That's a weak motivation for a villain, but fine. But then it never even crosses her mind to use a full functional prototype Death Star that she owns. She leaves it behind though and goes around losing every battle she fights (other than capturing a single smuggler vessel, which she brags about). She sends fighters after the Sun Crusher when she knows it is impossible to harm it. She gets down to only have a barely held together Star Destroyer. Now, she decides that her mission is to go back and protect the Maw installation. What? Protect it for whom? The people she was protecting it for are all dead. Plus, she won't be able to resupply or fix her ship. What is her plan? It literally is to go sit outside that asteroid and that is it. She almost gets destroyed (and should've been) when she had her star destroyer too close to the Maw installation when it was about to explode. Then, she decides that her purpose is to go join up with other Imperials. Daala is one of the worst written villains ever. She is stupid and incompetent.
*Exar Kun is a cool villain to start. But in the end, he doesn't appear to have any plan to regain his physical form. All he wants to do is turn people to the dark side. He ends up being killed by teamwork.
*Ambassador Furgan starts off powerful and smart. He is in charge of the stormtrooper academy system of Carida. He comes up with a plan to use a special poison to kill Mon Mothma, and he is succeeding in this. By the time the third book comes around, he is 100% comic relief. He is a total buffoon.
*Tol Sivron is another character that should be capable and smart. Instead, Anderson has made him into more comic relief. He is wildly incompetent at his job and spends all of his time planning useless meetings. Here is an example of his leadership in the midst of a fight for their lives:
"You mean we don't have any fighters of our own?...That was poor planning. Who wrote that seciont of procedure? I want to know right now."
"Director," the stormtrooper said with a tinge of exasperation in his filtered voice, "that doesn't matter at the moment."
"It matters to me!" Tol Sivron said.
Later.
"Agreed, agreed," Sivron said. "We should have a meeting immediately to discuss the implications of-"
The Stormtrooper captain stood up from his station. "Director, we must establish certain priorities right now! We are under attack."
This is the kind of character you would see on a show for three year old's.
And that is his defining characteristic. He has to have a vote on any decision that is made and he wants endless meetings. It'd be one thing if he was representative of a failed bureaucracy, but he was hand-picked by Tarkin for his brilliance and capabilities.
- The repercussions for certain actions in the story are laughably bad. Kyp steals the Sun Crusher and kills either millions or billions of people when he destroys multiple star systems. The New Republic High Council says some line like, "He is a Jedi. A Jedi should judge him." There isn't going to be massive outcry about how Kyp will completely avoid being brought to justice? Kyp agrees to send the Sun Crusher into the Maw, and that's all the penance required. Luke even gets offended when Wedge doesn't immediately go along. "Kyp is here to help us, Wedge. He has returned from the dark side, and I've made my peace with him. If you still hold a grudge, then take it up with him once this is all over." Oooohh. I guess if Luke has made his peace with him, then it's all good. Let's forget all about how Kyp fell to the dark side practically the second he began training and then killed billions of people. Luke's cool with it, so shut up. Lucas was smart enough to kill Vader after he returned to the light so he wouldn't have to face anything like this, because any real-world scenario would require he be put to death.
- After Luke is defeated by Kyp and is lifeless, Leia doesn't come to see him for an entire week. He might be dead or dying, but she's got important meetings I guess.
- Terpfen is no longer mind-controlled once Carida is destroyed. Randomly, I guess the Carida leader would taunt Terpfen personally on something like a nightly basis. Yeah, ok. Anyway, Terpfen knows that the imperials know where Anakin is hidden. Does he report this to intelligence? Does he get word to someone in charge? Does he try to communicate with Leia via the holonet? No. He decides he has to personally go to Yavin IV. An X-Wing pilot dies while chasing him. He is never held accountable for that. Leia finds out. What does she do? Does she reach out to Ackbar via the holonet to get the location of Anoth? No. She flies to Calamari herself to ask Ackbar. The entire sequence of events where Winter and Anakin are almost murdered could have very easily been avoided if they just called each other instead of flying from Coruscant to Yavin IV and then to Calamari and then to Anoth. It should've just been, "Ackbar, the Imperials know where Anakin is. Send me the coordinates right now or he might die." Bam, you are on your way in ten minutes instead of flying back and forth across the galaxy.
- Nobody seems to care that Lando lost his beloved ship while rescuing Han. Why does nobody feel the need to help him? It's because Anderson already knew the events of the story would reunite Lando with the Lady Luck.
- Anderson has no self-control when deciding how powerful to make something. The Sun Crusher is obviously the most powerful thing in existence and can only be destroyed by a black hole. It can destroy entire star systems with a single missile. It doesn't matter that this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. How was it constructed? How would you cut the materials? How would you fasten them together? How would you make something like a screw out of this material if you weren't able to cut it? We see more items like that in this book. The scientists at the Maw installation created a weapon that atomizes the hull of ships, which instantaneously destroys them. Luckily, it only works once. Still, Admiral Daala has the research for this, so I'm sure we'll see this incredibly powerful weapon again. (Yeah right)
- The laziness of Anderson is pretty incredible. He doesn't want to put in the work to create realistic scenarios that have the characters where he wants them, so he just has them make some decision to do what he wants. A good example is how he wants Lando to go adventuring with Han. Lando needs to get to Kessel in a week to meet Mara Jade for a really important meeting and to pick up his ship. He asks to hitch a ride with Han. Han says he isn't going anywhere near Kessel. Lando says something like, "you don't know where you are going, so who knows where you'll end up?" What? Lando has a million credits. Rent a ship and go wherever you want.
Another example is when Wedge/Chewbacca take C-3PO with them for the assault on the Maw Installation. Why would C-3PO be in the top million options? Oh, because Anderson wants to use a famous character and, what do you know, they end up needing him to do some stupid communicating between ships. This is so bad.
- Exar Kun sends three flying monsters to kill Luke while he is having his out of body experience. In what I can only surmise was a drug-fueled manic episode from Anderson, Luke communicates with two year old Jacen Solo to go and fight these monsters. There are multiple times when Jacen is almost killed before Luke eventually takes over his body and fights like a master swordsman. This was one of those moments when you are in shock at how little an author like Anderson knows about Luke Skywalker as well as how people working for Lucas could allow this to be printed. Luke would never risk the life of his infant nephew to save his own. He could've just had Jacen tell any of the nearby Jedi, "Luke is under attack. Hurry." Insane. Almost as bad though is how, when the Jedi do show up, they mostly just watch Jacen and then Jaina fight the creatures.
- Anderson had the chance to create some interesting and conflicted characters, but he was too cowardly to go through with it and gave them an easy way out. Kyp fell to the dark side and murdered millions. This could've been interesting to see him grapple with this as well as deal with the repercussions from the rest of the universe. But no, he has virtually no punishment, and it is written off as he was under the control of Exar Kun, so it wasn't like he had 100% agency anyway. Another example is Qwi Xux. She designed the Death Star and the Sun Crusher. It is laughably explained that she didn't know what these would be used for. I think Anderson knew this wouldn't fly, so he has Kyp wipe her mind. So even if you thought she was an evil person, she isn't really that person anymore you see.
- The Death Star emerges from the Maw at Kessel. They take either hours or days to do repairs. So Wedge and the Republic forces watch the Death Star leave the Maw and they don't chase it? They don't even send a single fighter through to get the word out that there is now a freakin Death Star roaming the galaxy. I really can't understand how this book got published.
- Anakin is being protected by Winter on Anoth. They have a ridiculous semi-sentient monster droid thing and one or two traps. But neither Luke, Winter, or Ackbar thought to plan an escape route. It would seem like that would be the most obvious thing of all. It guaranteed that Winter and Anakin would be trapped if more than 5 people attacked. To make matters worse, the plan is for Winter to be a decoy and lead people away from Anakin, but they don't even bother hiding him. If a single stormtrooper decides not to blindly follow the obvious decoy, then there is only a single nanny droid left defending Anakin. Seriously, why not have a tunnel leading to a secret little hangar? Why not have a well disguised hiding place they could hide in?
- In the second book, the forces of Kessel were destroyed by Daala and it now is undefended and unclaimed. Like I mentioned in previous reviews, this is one of the most profitable planets in the galaxy. There would be an immediate war of well supplied fleets for this. But Anderson acts like nobody is really interested.
- How did Terpfen know about Mon Mothma's disease? He wasn't involved in it. So did Furgan explain it to him for no reason other than to facilitate the plot?
- Anderson has a scene where he casually mentions that some smugglers flew the Falcon down to Kessel. Talk about not knowing a character at all. There is zero chance that Han would let some random people fly the Falcon when it wasn't an extreme emergency. In this case, he flew down from the moon with Lando, and they brought him the Falcon. Laughable.
- This one drove me nuts. Anderson legit has the Death Star in a dogfight. It's absurd to act like a Death Star would be a threat to a highly maneuverable fleet. There would be a very narrow window for the laser to target, and then it would be very ponderous to move. A fleet taken by surprise could take one or two hits like in ROTJ, but you would soon be completely safe. Later, the Death Star is chasing around the Sun Crusher. It's just the most absurd thing when you remember one is the size of a small moon.
- Every single time I read about the Death Star, I'm irritated again that Daala left a perfectly good weapon of mass destruction behind when her only goal was mass destruction. Then the New Republic wasn't overly concerned about taking possession of this Death Star either.
- Luke/Kyp land at the Maw installation in the Sun Crusher and just leave it behind. Do they even lock it? They leave it completely unprotected in an enemy base to go to Wedge and offer the services of two Jedi. Forget the hand to hand combat and fly the indestructible Sun Crusher through the Star Destroyer and the Death Star you absolute morons!
- Lando and Mara are setting bombs in the Death Star core. Luckily for them, Sivron only sends two troopers to stop them when he has many more just siting around doing nothing. He sends them all like five minutes later when the damage is done though.
- Why doesn't Kyp just fly through the core of the Death Star instead of the stupid chase to get it sucked into a black hole?
- I still can't get over phrases like "he wheeled over the Death Star".
- The Sun Crusher laughably has a large messenger pod with powerful rockets to allow Kyp to escape the black hole.
- Cilghal heals Mon Mothma by removing the nanobots one at a time. There are millions of them. If she removed one a second, which seems really fast, it would take her 11.5 days to remove one million. So multiple millions would take like a month if they didn't replicate.
- What a mess this book made for future books. Daala is out there with the research to replicate all of the stuff from the Maw. It is so overpowered.
- The biggest missed opportunity was how little of the trilogy was devoted to the Jedi Academy.

First Reads: 3 Stars. (2001/2008)
Again, I have some problems with this book. The biggest of the three problems is that there is no definitive plot throughout the book. Stuff just keeps happening to the characters that isn't necessarily connected to anything else that happened. Perhaps one of the most annoying things for me in this book is the complete incompetency of every villain in this entire trilogy. They are all ridiculously dumb. A lot of the actions of the characters were stupid as well. The trilogy could be improved greatly if the main characters possessed a shred of intelligence.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay finish to this trilogy. Kind of ho-hum after the first two. Also, it leaned a lot on cliches from the original movies - Han said, "don't quote me the odds" every other page it seemed.

[Meggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.

This week’s focus: Champions of the Force by Kevin J. Anderson.

SOME HISTORY:

Bantam continued to bang out Star Wars books at record speed. Champions of the Force was released in October of 1994, making it the fourth of five books that Bantam would release that year. It made it to number four on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of October 2, 1994, and it was ultimately on the NYT list for 8 weeks. The end of the Jedi Academy trilogy was not the end of Anderson’s foray into the Star Wars universe; he went on to write Darksaber and co-write the Young Jedi Knight books with his wife, and edit three themed collections of short stories.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

I remembered the huge plot points, but not a lot of the smaller details. I had also forgotten how weirdly this book builds to multiple climaxes of different subplots, over and over again.

PRINCESS LEIA COSTUME CHANGE COUNT:

Yeah, I got nothing. She’s certainly present in the book, we just get no insight into her (doubtless) extensive wardrobe.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Luke Skywalker lies comatose, and his pupils are forced to face the evil spirit of Exar Kun on their own. Han heads off in the Millenium Falcon to dissuade Kyp Durron from his destructive path of vengeance. And Wedge Antilles and Chewbacca head to the Maw Installation to liberate the Wookiee slaves and neutralize its threat.

THE CHARACTERS:

Luke proved himself a poor teacher in Dark Apprentice, but he’s even less useful in this book. He spends the first half as a Force ghost of sorts, only able to communicate with his toddler niece and nephew. (In one memorably horrific scene, he possesses? assists? his toddler nephew in wielding his lightsaber to kill some Sith alchemical monsters.) Once returned to his actual body, he promptly forgives Kyp Durron, and then is merely along for the ride as they dispose of the Sun Crusher. I hate to say it, but he’s so boring in this book.

Leia, meanwhile, returns to her bystander role from book 1 and just tags along on things. You could remove her from many of her scenes, especially the foiled kidnapping attempt on baby Anakin, and you wouldn’t lose anything. Mon Mothma steps down as Chief of State and hands the role off to Leia, and other than coercing the Senate into letting Kyp get rid of the Sun Crusher, we don’t see much of her job duties. Poor Leia.

Han has things to do in the first half of the book--he’s the only person that Kyp Durron will listen to, and is able to talk him (very quickly) down from his revenge plot. Unfortunately, that means that Han is now useless for the second half, and ends up tagging along to the Kessel & Maw Installation subplot merely because Lando needed a ride.

Lando is still flirting with Mara Jade. I’m also confused about how Lando’s million credits from Umgul are apparently enough to take over the Kessel mines. I would think you would need a lot more than one million credits to revamp all that? And that’s not even getting into the question of who exactly would be your market for an addictive drug that gives you telepathic power. How is the glitterstim market legal?

I am confused by the emphasis on Jaina and Jacen as “the Jedi twins,” and Anakin as “the Jedi baby.” Surely there are other Force sensitive children out there in the galaxy? Why all the focus on Han and Leia’s offspring? (Nepotism. The answer is nepotism.) And while I loved The Last Command, I am now blaming Zahn for all these Solo children kidnapping plotlines. Ambassador Furgan tries to kidnap baby (!) Anakin so they can have a new Emperor. Insert that Gru meme here...

The Jedi-in-training continue to be amorphous, two-dimensional creations. We can identify them by their archetype--Cilghal is the healer, Tionne is the bard--but otherwise they’re not remotely fleshed out. They manage to defeat Exar Kun with light and teamwork! It’s strangely anticlimatic.

Moruth Doule dies in the mines, consumed by spiders. Cheating death in the Cauldron Nebula, Admiral Daala returns to the Maw Installation to cause mayhew. She then has ANOTHER fakeout death. I would say that I’m surprised that she is this stupid and yet has survived this long, but Daala is pretty much the cockroach of the GFFA so this is par for the course.

ISSUES:

Crystal Starr Light mentions in her review that Champions of the Force is a jumble of plotlines and conclusions, and I agree. The book is weirdly paced, in that we’ll be hurtling towards a climax, get a brief denouement, and then start hurtling towards the climax of a totally different plotline. Kyp Durron destroys Carida in the first chapter; the Jedi pupils defeat Exar Kun AND Han stops Kyp at almost exactly the halfway point. There’s very little sustained action, just constant lurching from one *pivotal scene* to another, and it’s difficult to read.

Other reviews have mentioned Anderson’s flubbing of basic sci-fi elements like black holes, but I was most bothered by the incorrect military ranks! We find out in Jedi Search that Wedge Antilles is now a General. Previously, Wedge was a starfighter pilot and then a starfighter commander; I would assume that he’s part of the New Republic naval forces. However, a general is usually an army officer (think Han being in charge of the ground mission on the forest moon of Endor). General Wedge is overseeing construction, then serves as the personal bodyguard to Qwi Xux, then heads up the Maw Installation mission. Why isn’t he an Admiral? And why is he doing all these jobs that seem totally outside of his purview?

My main issue, though, concerns how Kyp Durron atones for the destruction of multiple planets and millions (maybe billions) of people.

THE ATONEMENT OF KYP DURRON:

I liked Anderson’s treatment of Kyp’s debacle on Carida. He shows up, demanding that they give him info about his brother, and fires a missile when he hears that Zeth is dead. Of course, the Imperials lied to him; and of course, he’s not able to save his brother before the star goes supernova. He heads off, destroys another solar system, and then Han reaches out to him at exactly the moment that Exar Kun is defeated. Kyp gives in, and he’s sent before the Senate for sentencing.

Mon Mothma orders that only Luke Skywalker can decide what to do with him. Luke sends Kyp to face something like the cave on Dagobah, and Kyp doesn’t use his weapon. Hurrah! He’s a Jedi now!

WHAT.

I’m not saying that Kyp Durron deserved a prison sentence, or the death penalty, or anything, but he murdered millions. Sure, they were Imperial worlds, but there were probably more people like Zeth, who had not chosen to align themselves with the Empire but were forced into it.

Morality issues in Star Wars can get a little iffy when you look at them too closely, and this is a classic example. Kyp never fully atones for what he’s done, and so Luke’s immediate reacceptance of him feels off putting and not properly attained.

IN CONCLUSION:

I can’t stress enough--the Jedi Academy trilogy is pivotal to the 90s era Star Wars books. It introduces a lot of characters and concepts that we will see again! But Champions of the Force in particular is weirdly paced, weirdly plotted, and handles both the OG characters as well as the newer ones so haphazardly that it’s not even close to an enjoyable read.

Next up: another doozy, The Crystal Star by Vonda N. McIntyre.

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/0Wmnp8TD_aI

[DiscoSpacePanther · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I’ve come to the end of my quarter-century overdue re-read of Kevin J. Anderson’s most significant contribution to the Star Wars universe, and I’ve gone from loathing it with a fierce passion to a tolerant condescension of its virtues as a YA adventure tempered by irritation at the things it managed to do so badly.

Once again the story in this third volume rattles along at a cracking pace and feels, if not quite vintage quality Star Wars, then something approximating Star Wars that is good enough to satisfy an undemanding YA audience. There is, at its core, a simple idea that should be fantastic to read about: Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order at an academy in the abandoned Rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin. There are still serious problems with this storytelling, though.

I’m not fond of superweapons at all, and Kyp’s usage of the Sun Crusher takes him, as a character, well beyond the pale into irredeemability. His destruction of the Carida system is as despicable a war crime as anything Kylo “Diet Coke Vader” did with Starkiller base.

The author's Star Wars knowledge is sometimes surprisingly lacking. Anderson seems to be unaware of, or want to retcon away, the fact that Chewbacca did not receive a medal after the Battle of Yavin. Several times in this trilogy he asserts that Chewie did in fact get presented a medal by Leia. This is, on the face of it, irksome—but to me it actually helps me to build a case to keep this story out of my head canon. Clearly, in Anderson’s continuity, Chewie did receive a medal, which means this isn’t the same Star Wars as the movies. I’ll take that succour, thank you Kevin J.

Anderson has the habit of infodumping a character’s backstory into the narrative. It is common for writers to develop complex backstories for their characters, but that is part of the exercise that an author must do to get to know their characters—to inform their behaviour and provide a prism through which to apprehend their future actions in the story. It doesn’t ever have to see the light of day. Anderson clearly wants all readers to know he put in the hard work of backstory development and he will share it, no matter how much it interrupts the plot. And it isn’t even woven naturally into the prose, Anderson slips time-after-time into stating baldly where a character comes from, what the key moments in their life were, and how this will make them behave in the story. He never bothers to elicit this backstory from the characters themselves, allowing the history to seep into the portrayal and be uncovered by the reader. If KJA was a stripper he wouldn’t slowly tease the audience with an artful removal of one piece of clothing at a time to build up drama and suspense—no, he’d march straight out and immediately disrobe and start explaining what each of the tattoos on his body were meant to portray.

The thing is, these backstories aren’t bad, and by a more capable writer they would be used sparingly to add colour and depth. Unfortunately, KJA makes you wish you were actually reading a more involved telling of the story instead of it being a precis told in semi-flashback. There’s no failure of imagination here, just a failure of style and craft. Still, the lack of ambiguity might be considered appropriate for children’s or even YA literature.

What really can't be forgiven is the supremely clunky writing. For example, consider the majestic glory of these two quotes regarding General (why not Admiral?) Wedge Antilles:

“Thinking of the terrible things the Empire had done to the delicate and lovely Qwi made Wedge clench his teeth.” And that quote made the audience clench their buttocks.

“Even frightened and dismayed, Qwi looked exotic and beautiful.” 🤮 Mmmm - he finds vulnerability arousing. What a nice guy! Anderson writes Wedge as if he was a fourteen year old, not like the seasoned war veteran of the X-Wing novels.

And then there's my new favourite quote of all time, “Mara Jade wore only a tight-fitting jumpsuit; her curves looked like hazardous paths through a complicated planetary system.” I had to rush into my wife's office to share that one with her as soon as I read it, it's such a corker!

The Jedi Academy trilogy has loads of fun ideas that would be absolutely fine in a comic for kids, but the execution as a novel is absolutely horrible and absolutely presages the calamity of the Disney trilogy of Star Wars sequels (which just goes further than KJA and ditches the fun). Kyp is a villain on par with Kylo (is it a coincidence their names both start "Ky-"?) - both destroy star systems and mindrape people, but Kyp is just portrayed as a goofy kid whom everyone (even his mindrape victim) just kind of lets off the hook in the end. Daala is as incompetent a military leader as the equally redheaded Hux, speechifying to her underlings before launching inept attacks and owing her position to nepotism. But KJA's books have crazy things like "blob" races, giant glass cathedrals that make music, a frog-alien who runs a slave mine, and wacky jedi trainees, etc. whereas the sequel trilogy plays everything straight and as dully as possible. KJA's stuff feels like it could just be offscreen in an episode of the Clone Wars.

I can't quite believe I'm defending the awful Jedi Academy trilogy. I've hated these books for more than a quarter-century as one of the low points of the Star Wars Classic EU. But has taken the godawful Disney sequels to throw the positive elements of KJA's books into sharp relief. At least the Jedi Academy books were a foundation for other storytellers to build upon. At least they didn't kill off any possible future storylines. At least they didn't portray the OT heroes as depressing failures.

[Declan O'Keeffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was honestly OK. This whole trilogy was just OK.

It just felt like a lot of wasted potential with side plots I didn't care about.

As an avid Star Wars fan, I've heard tell of Exar Kun, the Sith trapped in the Massassi temple. Now having read it, meh.

Luke starting his Jedi academy was what I wanted most out of this trilogy, and the books just spent too much time dawdling about with the ongoings of the never-ending war with the imperial remnant and their stupid super weapons.

I didn't connect to many of the characters, there were no real stakes (oh no, the babies have been stolen), and I was just a bit bored by the end.

oh well, moving on to... I, Jedi. Heard mixed reviews on this one, so I guess we'll see.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this book and for the entire trilogy.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

As "Star Wars" books generally go, they are read for their plot and interesting conflicts much more than for artistic merit and technique. This installment is no different--not that that's a negative point. In order to read these, I have to keep this in mind.

I've read a few of Kevin J. Anderson's books in the past, including "Star Wars" and other sci-fi, and this isn't one of his best. I won't cover the plot here, since you can find that on the back cover and elsewhere. But for critical purposes, this book is plain and often amateurish and downright silly.

Mr. Anderson, like many other "Star Wars" authors, still finds it necessary to make references to themes, events, and dialogue from the original cinematic trilogy. But it serves only to irritate. I don't need to be reminded of Jabba and the trash compactor every few chapters. Nor do I need to be entertained with such literary morsels as: "Mara Jade wore only a tight-fitting jumpsuit; her curves looked like hazardous paths through a complicated planetary system." *gag* At moments like this, Mr. Anderson sounds like he's fourteen years old.

Since the plot also failed to hold my attention, there is little enjoyment to be had here. The Jedi were fighting against a bunch of idiots here. The book is tolerable, but I think I've had my fill of Mr. Anderson's writing for several years.

[Raoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The final Jedi Academy book is the best of the trilogy, with strong development for the Jedi students and a compelling arc for Kyp Durron as he wrestles with the dark side. The Jedi coming together to defeat Exar Kun is a great payoff, and Luke’s rescue adds emotional weight. The chapters with the Imperial scientists bring a fresh, almost corporate feel to the Empire’s inner workings. While the use of a Death Star prototype feels repetitive and Daala’s character remains flat, the story delivers a satisfying and well-rounded conclusion.

7.5 out of 10

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The finale of the Jedi Academy, while not being perfect, is far better than the slog that was the previous book Dark Apprentice. For me Champions of the Force is the best of the trilogy. Mostly because it's the book where things actually happen. All the action and development is found in this book.

I love the idea of Uncle Luke, it makes me smile. And his ghost interacting with the kids is fun. I also think the Jedi Padawans coming together and finding their courage to defeat Exar Kuns spirit was a great inspiring Star Wars moment.

KJA writes the villians so stupid and incompetent throughout this series, but in this book i feel like he just leans into it and makes it full camp. I enjoy it when it's this tounge and cheek, especially with Sivron. Even funnier is the one nameless Stormtrooper who is hilariously competent. Sanity is hilarious in a world of insanity.


I also quite like that there is progress in this book, the Galaxy is moving forward. This is mostly in regards to Mon Mothma passing the chief of state banner over to Leia, though I think having Mothma get healed is a bit of a cop out.


I do have my problems with this book. Firstly, do we really need to do the Death Star for a third time. Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. That's just lazy. Also how many times is Daala going to escape from inescapable situations with fake out deaths??? Is KJA really that proud of this character. He certainly doesn't write her like he is.

My final problem is the fact that everyone just so happens to show up in the Maw for the final battle for totally unrelated reasons. Just by mere happenstance to they end up in the same place at the same time. A bit convenient.

Overall an enjoyable ending to what is a flawed and often slog of a trilogy.

[Rhys Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a big improvement on the previous instalment in the trilogy, unfortunately it has the unenviable task of trying to tie together all the loose threads left behind by “Dark Apprentice”

As such the book takes off at whirlwind pace and never really stops, which after the previous instalment is a welcome change, unfortunately the issues from the previous books still appear, with storylines progressing off-page and making the story feel disjointed as characters seemingly teleports across the galaxy and at times the writing being very poor and janky

Would I read this trilogy again? Probably not, but I want to experience the Extended Universe with as much depth as possible so I’m hopeful by reading these books I will have a better appreciation for later stories that involve these characters

[Buster Maclean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first one was fine, it just kept going downhill after that.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh I love following the adventures of Luke, Han and Leia. I also appreciated that everything was summed up in this book and there was no cliffhanger. I also appreciated that Kevin focused more on the Jedi powers and the twins powers, especially since the twins are so important in canon lore.

[Tony Schwocher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is ass. Read with caution.

[Suden Käpälä · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad to have finished. In some of the following entries, I wonder (as I have in the past) whether I should read more of this easy franchise pulp. I won't, straight away. I am a bit tired of it. Just as I get tired of literature and/or more cerebral works, after a while. I guess I am doomed to wander the dark and murky middle way between the two, getting tired of each and seldomly finding my real stride in reading. Alas.

The novel proper was 324p. Excerpts and other commercial additives (e.g., blurbs for the Thrawn trilogy) measured an additional 36 (unnumbered) pages; so this edition -- which I could borrow -- actually had a total of 360p. (But it didn't have the nice, original cover art that I remember from the editions I had access to during the previous millennium. Hence I chose a different ISBN here.)

July 10, 2021 – page 16. Finally on my way into this last stretch. And Kyp is firmly on his way down into the dark.

July 11, 2021 – page 44. Generic "reading journal entry" (note): I recently realised (again), that I can read only a limited number of books during my remaining time on this globe; possibly less, even, than I have read so far. So, time to be very picky from now on. I may want to spend some of that time with Wars books (and certainly Dark Horse comics!), but I reckon it won't be much.
Heck -- I don't know. Maybe I do like this pulp stuff enough to learn to accept the bad writing, and be willing to trade horrible sentences for (paradoxally) easy entertainment? We'll see.

July 11, 2021 – page 55. Indeed, as other reviews have mentioned, the frequent call-backs to the original films -- often with exact dialogue -- are a bit excessive. Would've been easily remedied by spending a few lines more, and have characters think back and remember -- instead of just rehashing scenes. Too bad. Enjoying it for the light read it is, though. Glad not to be editing it, too. (My prev. read was a Trek novella proofreading project.)

July 14, 2021 – page 70. New characters introduced; Twi'Lek Tol Sivron's 4 division managers, Maw Installation. (Doxin, man; Golanda, aquiline woman; Yemm, Devaronian; Wermyn, purple.)

July 18, 2021 – page 121. The child-with-lightsaber scene luckily wasn't as horrible for me as I had feared after reading another reviewer's take on that. What I did find annoying was that astral Luke did not seem to hesitate or rationalise using the boy's presence to save his immobilised physical self. The author could've easily justified it somehow, but neglected to do so.
On the plus side, finally meeting the disembodied, trapped Exar Kun after all these decades (for me; millennia for himself), as his story was set up at the end of TotJ, was a thrill. It's the main reason for me to pick up this trilogy again.

July 21, 2021 – page 138. "SPOILER! Ulic Qel-Droma (of Tales of the Jedi fame -- rather infamy) is mentioned in connection to Exar Kun's past. It seems Exar has been defeated already, by this time. I hope not. [Edit, 21.08.14: yes, he was definitively vanquished here.] On the other hand, could be an interesting choice / unconventional plot structure.

July 23, 2021 – page 150. I, too, wondered about Qui Xux's naiveté after reading baffled remarks about it in other reviews. (At least Maggie's. But that wasn't the one that inspired me; I thought there was another -- and even more devastating -- one, for which I searched for 30'; but I can't find that one anymore. Serves me right for being a links nerd!) I didn't remember anything about her story from the trilogy's first part (read decades ago). However, it seems to have been nominally addressed, as here on p150: "[Qui] had been brainwashed by Imps [...] twisted as a child and forced to perform to the utter limits of her mental abilities". For this franchise and this novel, that satisfies me, personally.

July 24, 2021 – page 156. Sometimes, Mr Anderson gets a description completely right in a single attempt. Such as, on this page: "The screeching resistance of heavy metal filled the air." I can hear the distorted power chords and smell blistered fingers and molten strings.
Outstanding!

21.07.25 (external log entry): Around p150, I had wanted to mention that I hadn't been annoyed (and thus mildly/base-line pleased) by the writing style for a number of chapters now. But then (on p151) came a rather corny shred of dialogue (Wedge/Qui). Too bad; but overall, at this moment, it's not horrible or too repetitive.

July 29, 2021 – page 212. This update has nothing to do with the book and everything with myself. I am having fun & am not annoyed right now. I shouldn't be in a hurry. And yet, I am; I find myself -- always, with any tome! -- constantly checking the page count left until the back cover. I want to be done with this novel & get on with the next. ASAP! But why? Does anybody recognize this "auto-pressure"? Does it vex you? (It does me.) Thanks. [Edit, 21.08.14: Regretfully I got no reactions to this... yet?]

21.07.31, p229 (ext. log): Addressing Keith's & David Orphal's concerns (or at least I thought they raised understandable issues in that department), I do agree that the myriad antagonists are as incompetent (and/or as unlucky) as they are numerous and diverse (to a fault). However, I do ultimately like the less-than-usual plot progression; some story archs having been resolved already halfway the novel (as mentioned by Crystal, too). Indeed, such may not be a standard build-up to an all-out simultaneous climax; and it can feel as taking the easy way out from a planning/production (i.e., writing) POV. (Admittedly, I think I may have employed that strategy when I was writing amateur fiction.) But it also feels... natural, somehow. Life can be like that. Still -- if it's tension & anticipation you're after (which I'm not, per se), this aspect could disappoint you.

August 13, 2021 – page 324. Finally, finished the novel proper. (Somehow, during the second half my read speed seemed to slow to a crawl -- or did it? Not sure if, nor why.) Also read the 2 pages of author info infused with attempted humour; not extremely succesfull but certainly less dry and boring than a plainlist of works and awards. Now starting the promotional excerpt (rather extensive, and the first of two) of another contemporary Wars novel -- "The Crystal Star", by Vonda N. McIntyre.

August 15, 2021 – Finished the 2nd excerpt (from Timothy Zahn's Conqueror's Pride). The 1st one (of The Crystal Star) was a no-go for me (writing was okay I guess, especially from the kids' POV; but the plot didn't pull me in). This was better more interesting, but action-emphasized opera with (seemingly) cardboard characters isn't for me anymore. I'll eventually finish Vatta's War, but that's it.

21.08.14: I've been thinking overnight, about what it is that hampered my progress through the latter half of this volume. I think I can't deny it's -- quite simply and in retrospect not surprisingly! -- a combination of issues that many reviewers have already touched upon; some of which I tried to (wanted to? If so, why?) waylay in previous entries of my reading journal. I guess I wanted to be positive.
And, since there has been written enough about its flaws, I can choose to focus on what remains of the positive, in my final analysis. And that's the continuation of the aspects that I liked throughout the second novel, and in the first half of this third part. So I guess I needn't reiterate them here. It was flawed and fun. I missed the menacing prescence of Exar Kun -- the only worthy opponent by far in this novel -- during the last stretch. But I am glad to have read all about him, now; from 4000 BBY until 11 ABY. (Years before/after the Battle of Yavin, which represents the timeline origins of the Wars universe.)
I don't feel compelled anymore to read "Courtship" or the Tatooine anthologies straight away. One day, perhaps. But I'm thristing for some more literary (or at least higher-quality) work. We'll see what I come up with.

The rating... The first half came down upon 3*; the second half garnered 2*. Since I don't do halves, and since its entertainment value as a whole didn't sink below 2* anywhere, I'll award a "meagre" 3* to the total page count.

(Review 2162068172, internal #49.)

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for the Jedi Academy Trilogy (Overall trilogy rating 4/5):

This was one of my favorite series set in the Star Wars universe growing up. After a re-read it's still near the tops for me* in terms of the ideas it covers, but it's flaws are more obvious to me now.

This trilogy covers an amazing number of great scenes and world building:
- We get to see the planet Kessel and get introduced to The Maw (a series of black holes near the planet). That world and the spice within get very fleshed out. We also learn how Han was able to brag about making the Kessel run using a unit of distance instead of time.
- Blob Races!
- Good development of Admiral Ackbar, his homeworld, and people.
- A race of aliens with a tower sized glass cathedral with the only purpose of being a building sized flute.
- We finally get introduced to Han and Leia's twins.
- Luke makes his first fumbling attempts at reestablishing the Jedi.
- The Sun Crusher! There is a new big bad weapon in town and it blows up stars!

Overall these books are fun and have a lot going for them. The purported villain is pretty weak (though you could argue that the real villain is an anti-hero within the book). Also for some reason Kevin J. Anderson has some *really* weird issues with time and space. For example, it felt like the books took place over the course of a couple weeks (which made it feel very cramped in terms of what happened) but apparently it was actually months if not longer.

* (In terms of overall Star Wars Legends recommendations I think the Thrawn trilogy is top. I'm not really a huge fan of a lot that was written around the time of the prequels. The X-Wing series as I've written before is also amazing. And I'll get to it in my re-read later on but the New Jedi Order series is also fantastic. But the NJO isn't as significant if you haven't lived with the characters and books like these contribute heavily to that.)

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really nice way to round the series off, enjoyed this much more than book 2

[Michael Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This may have been the worst Star Wars book I've read so far. The author, Kevin J. Anderson, has written some pretty good Science Fiction. But not this time. The story was contrived, the characters were not well developed (I didn't care about any of them), their interactions were juvenile; and what happens is easily predictable. It's like Anderson just through this story together on a whiteboard and then filled in the necessary dialogue. It was frustrating reading for me. I actually yelled at the book/author multiple times. Oh well. They can't all be good. Seems like there's about 100 Star Wars books out now. Some have been pretty good. Most have been very average. This series sucked pretty badly.

[Allie Scac · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You are the first of the new Jedi Knights. You are the core of what will become a great order to protect the New Republic. You are champions of the Force” ~Luke

Great way to end the trilogy. So many things here!
Redemption, Jedi healing techniques, adventure, near-death experiences (repeatedly) romance, and pleasantly domestic familial moments between Han, Leia and their 3 kids.

I really respect Mon Mothma as a leader, and this novel showed a more vulnerable side to her.
Sivron was so inept to the point where it was almost comical. Exar Kun was cool to read about, and learning a little bit more about holocrons.

Also cool to see Ghent pop in, even if just for a moment. Interested to see where authors take some of these characters. Onto the next adventure!

[Alexa (Alexa Loves Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

FIRST THOUGHTS: Who would have thought a Star Wars book would make me tear up? Not me! But that's exactly what happened with this one. All in all, a fitting conclusion, with a steady pace and intricately woven multiple plots!

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the Star Wars expanded universe. And with a title like "Jedi Academy Trilogy" I thought I would get the Jedi Academy .
The Jedi were only a fraction of the story. Most of the trilogy was taken up with trying to defeat a certain Imperial admiral.

[Uriel Perez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some truly juvenile drivel here. If I were a Disney exec, I too, would have thrown this one out.