Star Wars: Dark Forces - The Collector's Trilogy

Star Wars Legends: Audio Dramas

by John Whitman (Adapted By), William C. Dietz (Creator), Tom Voegeli (Producer)

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

6 pages, Audio CD

First published August 18, 1998

Reviews

[Mario · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audio drama for the William C. Dietz novels is a great effort, very good narration, use of sound effects and a completely professional production.

The novels themselves are a retelling of the events depicted in the video games Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, where the Imperial academy graduate Kyle Katarn is tasked (way before Rogue One) to recover the Death Star plans and would later find himself in the middle of the search for the Valley of the Jedi.

I enjoyed them a lot, Kyle Katarn is one of my favorite characters, but nevertheless after going back to these narrations, I am somewhat relieved that they're not the canon version of the story anymore.

[Lave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fan of these dialogue-only adapations, but that said the voice acting is decent and the sound effects are legit. One extra star for pure nostalgia making me remember the many hours I spent playing this game.

[Scot Eaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're going to dive into the Dark Forces storyline, the audio dramas are the best way to do it. Is the story great? No, but as a character archetype, Kyle Katarn nails it. From Imperial Soldier to Rebel Agent to Jedi Knight. I'm glad to have listened to it.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done reading of the story, but it felt short. Developed for a different target age.

[Bill Rand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look into an era between two videogames.

[kev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read these books. Or listen to the audio drama. Or play the game on your old PC and get a headache from the bad graphics.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the late 90's, Dark Horse produced a trilogy of hardcover illustrated novellas adapting the Dark Forces games. I bought the first one, and after 20 years, it's still sitting on my shelf, unread.

When I saw this dramatized adaptation, I was really interested, curious how they would adapt the story that was an adaptation of the game.

I'll admit, it was fun. It was enjoyable. I liked it well enough. The voices and the sound effects all added to a decent dramatization.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't as great as I'd hoped. While production quality was good, the acting was great in some places, and less great in others. And the adaptation cut out quite a lot, just from perusing my Dark Forces #1.

It's not a long audiobook, but I might only recommend it to die hard Star Wars completists, or huge fans of the game that might like to see where they went with the characters.

Of course, the books are probably better.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dramatized audio book that happens around the time of the PC Game Star Wars:Jedi Knight. It's about Kyle Katarn, an ex-Imperial cadet who gets wrapped up in the rebellion and awakens to his own Jedi powers.

For a full dramatization, it has some very impressive voice work. The main villain, Lord Jeric, and the disembodied Jedi Rahl in particular are excellent actors, but the entire cast doesn't disappoint. I haven't read the novels, so I'm not sure about how faithful they are to them, but dramatizations often have to deal with more constraints than audio books, like a lack of narration. The plot is somewhat standard audio drama, as it careens wildly between action and action.

I still enjoyed it quite a bit though. Star Wars audio drama has been consistently good, from the NPR adaptions to even the lesser works, and it livens up many a commute.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak adaptation of the Dark Forces games. Mon Mothma's repeated insistence on assassinating Kyle seems out of character. I enjoy that this was done as an audio drama, but several character's voices seem to be the same actors repeating themselves, which is distracting and confusing. There's also some odd editing with some of the flashbacks surrounding Kyle's father that make it tough to follow the timeline of events.

[Jared Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review will be brief- the first book is good, the last two are mediocre, too much is added on to the plot of the game, and Kyle seems way more of a wimp than the seasoned rebel agent he seems to be in the game.

[Leo Matoush · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it summarized the novelizations ok. I'm not a fan of abridged stories, but it is dramatized so it's not as tedious as normal abridged stories.

[Thomas Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story. I'm bummed Kyle Kararn has been cut from the cannon.