Star Wars, Book One: The Glove of Darth Vader; The Lost City of the Jedi; Zorba the Hutt's Revenge

Star Wars: Jedi Prince #1-3

by Paul Davids, Hollace Davids

Introduces the characters in the Star Wars universe that used the dark side of the Force, those that supported the evildoers, and those that stood up for the right side. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and the Rebel Alliance have fought valiantly against the evil Galactic Empire. Together they have kept alive the hopes for freedom, and helped restore the ways of the Old Republic with its wise Senate and noble line of Jedi Knights. But now a new threat awaits the Alliance. Within the evil Empire, the surviving Imperial warlords have been fighting among themselves for power. No one knows who will seize control, but the Prophets of the Dark Side have foretold that soon a new Emperor will arise, and on his right hand he shall wear an indestructible symbol of evil.

Contents:
* 1)The Glove of Darth Vader [Star Wars: Jedi Prince • 1] (1993) / short fiction by Hollace Davids, Paul Davids: After the destruction of the second Death Star and the death of the Emperor, the Galactic Empire is left without a true leader. The Supreme Prophet Kadann has prophesied that the next leader of the Empire would wear the indestructible right hand glove of Darth Vader, so Imperial senator Timothy Barclay sends Captain Dunwell to find the glove. The Rebel Alliance and the Senate's Planetary Intelligence Network, hoping to find information on the new emperor, send C-3PO and R2-D2 to the planet Kessel. There they discover Grand Moff Hissa introducing Trioculus, who claims to be Palpatine's son, as the heir to the Empire. Although he manages to trick his followers by seemingly producing Force lightning, he demands that his advisors find the glove so he can cement his power. After much searching and no clues on the glove's whereabouts, Captain Dunwell, the head of the Whaladon Processing Center on Mon Calamari, contacts him to inform him that he has found the glove, deep underneath the ocean. By chance, Luke Skywalker and Admiral Ackbar, after picking up the droids from Kessel, bring them to Mon Calamari to download the information that R2-D2 found. Although the whaling ship is destroyed and Captain Dunwell killed, Luke is unable to stop Trioculus from obtaining the glove and becoming the new emperor. As he parts ways with Luke, Trioculus swears he will destroy him.

* 2)The Lost City of the Jedi [Star Wars: Jedi Prince • 2] (1993) / short fiction by Hollace Davids, Paul Davids: After an attempted assassination by the Empire trying to blow up Luke's X-wing fighter, he has a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of the secret Lost City of the Jedi hidden beneath the rainforests of Yavin 4. Unknown to Luke at the time, the city is home to a 12-year-old boy named Ken, who is called the "Jedi Prince". In the city, with the vast databanks on the computers, Ken learns the history of the Jedi and the Rebellion from his only companions, his caretaker droids. As Luke is searching the forests he meets a mysterious healer, Baji. With Baji, he searches the forests, eventually encountering Ken, who had run away from the droids. Before he is questioned further, his caretaker droid Dee-Jay finds him and helps him vanish in a puff of smoke. Luke, more determined to find this city, returns to get help from the rest of the Rebels. Meanwhile, Emperor Trioculus has a meeting with Supreme Prophet Kadann. Kadann tells him that he is not the true son of Palpatine, but still gives him the blessing of the Prophets. He also tells him of the Lost City of the Jedi, where the Jedi Prince lives, saying that this prince could end Trioculus' reign. Able to infiltrate the Rebel's meeting with an explosive device, he demands that they reveal to him the location of the city. When they refuse, he readies the device's explosion, while still taking in the beauty of Princess Leia. As Luke stops the explosion, Trioculus starts his second plan: to raze the forests in order to find the entrance. During this implementation, he suddenly goes blind and orders the capture of the healer, Baji. Baji tells him that when he uses the power of Vader's glove, he is injuring his nerve endings, causing blindness and his body to rot. Baji tells him of a cure, but it can only be found in his hut, which is about to be destroyed by the fires. Unable to stop his troops, Trioculus rushes into the hut, and saves the cure, but is badly burned and scarred. As the Rebels attempt to stop the troops, Luke finally finds the city. With the help of the droids at the weather-controlling center, he creates a rainstorm to put an end to the fires. Ken decides to leave with Luke and join the Rebels in their fight leaving the city and his caretakers. Without finding the city, Trioculus leaves the planet, vowing to destroy all of the Rebels except Leia, whom he would make his queen.

* 3)Zorba the Hutt's Revenge [Star Wars: Jedi Prince • 3] (1993) / short fiction by Hollace Davids, Paul Davids: In order to help Ken become accustomed to the world outside of the Lost Cit...

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Collections, Anthologies, Childrens, Young Adult

273 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 1996

About the author

Paul Jeffrey Davids is an American independent filmmaker and writer, especially in the area of science fiction. Often collaborating with his wife Hollace, Davids has written and directed several films. He has also written episodes for the television show Transformers, as well as a Star Wars spin-off book series for young readers, known informally as the Jedi Prince series.

The Davids have two children together, Jordan and Scott.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Paul^^Davids

Reviews

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Can't you see that I am not the boy you are looking for!"

[Lover of Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this when I was a teenager and was in my crazy Star Wars obsession phase. As it was recently Star Wars Day, I decided to return to these books and highly entertaining and fun to revisit.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I started the project of reading the Star Wars Expanded Universe books, I was unclear as to whether I would include on my reading list the YA or intermediate reader EU books in addition to those targeted at adult readers. Reading this omnibus edition of three books ("The Glove of Darth Vader," "The Lost City of the Jedi" and "Zorba the Hutt's Revenge") has not really helped me with that decision . . .

These books are ostensibly targeted at readers 9 to 12 years of age, but it is hard to envision children in this age range enjoying a vision of Star Wars that is so terribly dumbed down. I watched the first Star Wars film in the theaters at the age of 7 and although I am sure I did not pick up every nuance of emotion or the full philosophical underpinnings of the work, I didn't really need anyone to explain it to me in *simpler* terms. The basic story of good vs. evil, the emotions of peril and loss, the moral message of standing up for what is right or the notion of self-sacrifice all made sense without Cliff's Notes, even to my young mind.

Nonetheless, these books seem determined to make Star Wars safer and more palatable for young readers. Violence is glossed over with few consequences, death is not really addressed head-on and moral lessons are force-fed to the reader. I was especially annoyed with the environmentalism that was injected in to each of these stories. I am as concerned about climate change as the next person, but having the heroes of the story save marine mammals called Whaladons in the first story, threatening the jungle of Yavin's fourth moon with fire in the second story or clogging Cloud City with Imperial pollution in the third story all felt very contrived. I like my moral conflicts to arise naturally from the characters and the situation, thank you. I don't need to have someone's moral, political or social agenda forced upon me, even if I may happen to agree with the point being made.

I also felt that the stories were overly cheesy and condescending, even considering the target audience. Plot points such as a homework correction droid, or acronyms such as SPIN (the Senate's Planetary Intelligence Network) just seemed silly. Again, maybe I am a bad test case as I was reading ahead of my grade level, but at age 10 I know I was reading "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Dragonriders of Pern" as well as science fiction legends such as Heinlein, Clarke and Asimov. I am sure some of these books went over my head and that I would get more out of them at later re-readings, but I do think the authors of these Star Wars stories underestimate the ability of children to read and understand more sophisticated stories.

I'm not sure if I'll try more Star Wars books aimed at children or not. Time will tell.

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the heck out Glove of Darth Vader as a kid but never really got any of the other in the series. I really think there’s a lot of good material here. I love Trioculus and Triclops and Kadann but Ken is absolutely miserable, the writing is terrible and Luke doesn’t fly a Y-Wing, he flies an X-Wing.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The series was for children and published in 1992-1993. Each book contains a dubious cast of characters, illustrated fully but not well, and concludes with a strange little "glossary," which in the real world would be "an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge," but for Mr. and Mrs. Davids, it is a place to cover the cast of characters for a third time.

The titles of the complete series are The Glove of Darth Vader, The Lost City of the Jedi, and Zorba the Hutt’s Revenge. They make absolutely no attempt to be canonical, logical, or even coherent, and remain simply an excuse for people to spend their money on things with the Star Wars tattoo on them.

They tell the story of Palpatine's insane, mutant, three-eyed son Triclops (because Palpatine would totally name any three-eyed offspring "Triclops")–and the three-eyed mutant Trioculus (because nothing could have three eyes without being a mutant), whom the Empire is trying to put into power as a dummy for the insane son. The "Glove" of Vader, supposedly indestructible for no reason the authors care to mention, is the key to his power, because some Dark Side Prophets (who only speak in verse) have declared that the next ruler will wear the Glove of Darth Vader. Because said glove is indestructible, they conclude that it was not destroyed in the explosion of Death Star II, merely flung somewhere.

While Luke and the gang are helping out a Captain Ahab rip-off on Mon Calamari (he hunts "whalevin"), they discover wreckage from the Death Star deep in Mon Calamari's oceans. They've also happened on it at the same time as Trioculus and his pals. One of the characters graciously expresses surprise that Vader's glove should be found there, but the explosion of the Death Star, it is explained, had an explosion so powerful it was able to knock bits of wreckage and the glove "many millions of miles." I'll say. Mon Calamari is literally on the other end of the galaxy from Endor.

You say maybe the authors couldn't have known they were that far apart? I say, you're really going to defend that "many millions of miles" thing? Look, one lightyear equals 5.879 trillion miles. Even if you subtracted "many millions" from 5.8 trillion, you'd still have over 5 trillion. One lightyear, by the way, besides equaling more miles than the authors could even begin to compute, is only a quarter of the distance between us and Alpha Centauri -– it won't even get you one star system away, in other words. I don't mean to harp but this was one of the lowest points of the entire book. It was beyond ridiculous. To think a glove could get blown even one planet away -- and that bits of wreckage could be surviving the explosion, trip, and entry into atmosphere -- it's obvious trash.

But I have more delightful points. Yavin IV, the isolated jungle moon the rebels chose for a base because of its obscurity, turns out to be home of the galaxy's absolute best top-notch physicians, because Luke can't get his artificial hand repaired on Mon Calamari but has to go back to Yavin IV. There, in the Lost City of the Jedi, a young boy (apparently a rejected Robert A. Heinlein protagonist) is growing up raised by droids and playing with Star Wars action figures, I kid you not. His name is Ken and he lives in the underground lost city of the Jedi that just so happens to be on Yavin IV. He decides to run away on the very day his idol, Luke Skywalker, is strolling around. Also, Trioculus is there because the glove is making him go blind (his mama warned him!), and there's some super-duper secret healer who lives on Yavin IV. This clown also only speaks in rhymed couplets that could make a cat sick. Insert hints that maybe Ken is Obi-Wan Kenobi's lost son, which the authors really expect us to believe even though Ken's only 12 and Obi-Wan was like 65 when he died.

Many ludicrous things happen in the course of the book, including the fact that Lando remains chief administrator of Cloud City -- because Empire Strikes Back apparently had no consequences whatsoever -- and Han buys a big house there. Literally. He throws a housewarming party for his sky house on Cloud City, because he doesn't have any reason to have bad memories of that place.

Reading the entire thing took me about half an hour. They are liberally illustrated, but the pictures are generally horrible and do little to make the action make sense. There is pretty much nothing that 1) is not contradicted in a real book, and 2) makes any sense whatsoever, no matter what planet you are from. Although a lot of reivews here express amusement at the "campy read," I found it a little too campy for me. Like camping in the creepy woods where some toothless rednecks are going to put a serious hurt on you and you’ll get poison ivy.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh.
See, when Disney decided to burn the Expanded Universe, I grew sad. I also got into s verbal arguments about whether or not the EU was contradictory. The fact is, this is one of those books that I would be perfectly happy having jettisoned from the canon. By a cannon.
Let's start with the Force. It is quite clear that the author doesn't know how the Force works. Trioculus thinks Vader's glove will allow him to Force Choke, then has things installed so he can make people's brains melt. Also, the Imperials go around saying "Dark Greetings." Really? Really?
Trioculus is a terrible bad guy. He never DOES anything. The heroes are the only members of this top-secret spy organization within the Alliance, why? Why would Lando be a top member of anything? And what the Hell is it with all the environmental lessons the book is so heavy-handed about? Braze, whalodons, burning down rain forests, seriously?
This was not Star Wars this is....this is garbage and seriously needs to disappear.

[RumBelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book of short stories when I was young and, at times the plots got a little hokey, but overall I really liked them. The Lost City of the Jedi was my favorite. The idea of a city where the Jedi went to hide was intriguing. Of course, these stories came out before the prequels, so comparing that to what happened in the films sometimes makes for some quirky results.

[Marcelo Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these as a kid and remembered really loving them. Do they hold up? Not even remotely. Are they still kind of fun? They have their moments.

BOOK 1: The Glove of Darth Vader
Easily the worst of the three, there is a conspiracy to put a man named Trioculus on the throne as the presumed son of the emperor. In case his name wasn't a dead giveaway, he has three eyes, same as the son of the Emperor had. Except, Trioculus isn't the son of the emperor and everyone knows that, but they are just playing like he is anyway so he can share power with the Grand Moffs.

Luke and Co. spy on a secret Imperial meeting on Kessel, end up following them to Mon Calmari, where they find out from Admiral Ackbar about the Whaldron massacre (literally whales) being perpetuated by the Empire. Trioculus only goes because an Imperial leader believes he found the glove of Darth Vader, an object that Trioculus believed Vader used to choke people. The glove was on the hand of Vader that was in the Death Star II when it blew up because, remember, Luke cut it off. And the glove is indestructible. And on Mon Calmari because that's how explosions work or something.

Long story short, Luke and co. blow up the Whaldron Slayer 4000 or whatever they called it, Trioculus escapes with the glove and everything continues.

BOOK 2: The Lost City of the Jedi
Spoiler Alert: It was under the temples on Yavin IV the entire time. Not only that, but there's a kid living there for some reason who is being raised/home schooled by droids. The kids name is Ken and he knows absolutely everything because of the Jedi archive there that he has done nothing but read for 12 years of his life. Luke finds him because Obi-Wan comes to him in a vision and tells him about the city, but also tells him he needs to remember the code JE-99-DI-88-FOR-00-CE. The Jedi were not an inventive people. Trioculus is trying to find this city too because of the aforementioned archive and of course he burns down half the planet to find it, but the Jedi had a weather controlling station that could put out the fires but OH NO! It's password protected. Fortunately, Luke knows the password because Obi-Wan gave it to him and Obi-Wan knew it somehow too. Who knows? They save the planet and Trioculus runs away. Also, his hand is allergic to the glove of Darth Vader so he takes it off and wears a replica instead. I don't know why that was important.

BOOK III: Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
This is the one I remember reading as a kid and for good reason: It's legitimately an interesting idea and simultaneously bonkers. You know how I haven't mentioned Han Solo this entire time? It's because he's not there. Want to know where he has been? Near Cloud City on Bespin FIXING HIS SKYHOUSE. Han Solo bought a sky house and has been playing house with Chewbacca for the entirety of this series. He has little hovering race cars, he has a stove, HE HAS AN ANSWERING MACHINE. The one thing he doesn't have is a robot maid, so as a housewarming gift, Luke buys him one named KT-18 who goes by, not Katie, but Kate. So close.

Meanwhile, Jabba the Hutt's papa is at his house just now realizing his son is dead because that Hutt information network is absolute garbage and no one dropped Zorba a line to tell him his son was dead. He finds out from some bounty hunters in Mos Eisley that Leia's to blame and he vows revenge on Leia. But first, he gets Jabba's Hidden Will (Cue Jennifer Coolidge voice from 'A Cinderella Story'). He owns the Holiday Casino on, as luck would have it, Cloud City! But it's already been repossessed by the government and that means Lando, who has become Governor again. Lando won't give it back, Zorba plays him for it in sabaac, and - because Lando didn't learn his lesson the first time having lost The Millennium Falcon playing this very game - Zorba wins the governorship of Cloud City.

At the housewarming party, Kate falls off the house, Luke and Leia zoom after her, land on an Imperial barge of some sort, Leia is taken, Luke fights to get her back, Han thinks nothing of all this and babysits Ken, poorly as it turns out because Ken takes one of his race cars and, as he is driving without a license, is arrested by Cloud City police. Zorba goes in and questions the kid Michael Bluth style, asking him if he's the Jedi archive kid and Ken straight up tells him yes, so Zorba tells Trioculus, who he has already found out has Princess Leia, that he will trade Ken for Leia. This puts Trioculus in a bind because he has realized he loves Leia, who he just saw 2 seconds ago, and wants her to be the queen of the Empire. Leia of course says no and it's not because she's given everything to defeat the Empire, it's because he's ugly and disfigured, which is a really messed up thing to put in any book, let alone a kid book. #NotMyLeia

Leia escapes, Ken escapes, they blow up the barge, everyone swears vengeance, Han considers asking Leia to marry him right then and wusses out. Cue credits.

Up until the third one, I was scared it was all going to be terrible but I have renewed up for Book 2: Mission to Mount Yoda, Queen of the Empire, and Prophets of the Dark Side.

Let the conclusion commence.

[Taylor]

These are the dumbest books, that make no sense in the star wars world even taken as a stand alone story.

[Rami Abuhamra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there's something fascinating about junior novels. While they're not as grounded, serious, edgy, and deep as most adult novels, they always have something to tell.

I've been going through an adventure of reading Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. I've enjoyed it for the most part. There are a few stinkers here and there, but for the most part, there's a sense of discovery within book after book.

I decided to take a short break from the adult novels and tackle a junior novel. Yes, the Jedi Prince novels. At least the first volume. To many, this is considered the worst Star Wars series ever written. Why? I don't really know. It's a junior novel; it shouldn't get much hate. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this—quite a lot, as a matter of fact.

There's a lot of great stuff in this series. For starters, the characters that we all know and love all felt right. In fact, they're a little more mature here than we last saw them in Return of the Jedi. That kind of growth is something I appreciate in series. The villains are fascinating, even when they’re ridiculous. Trioculus claiming to be Palpatine’s son, while the real son is revealed to be Triclops, gives the story a bizarre but entertaining pulp energy. Zorba the Hutt works perfectly too — basically a grumpy Jabba 2.0, which makes sense since the Hutts are all gangsters anyway. I also saw clear parallels between Ken and Anakin Skywalker: both are young, bright, imaginative, and unaware of their heritage.
Darth Vader's Glove is another standout. It isn't just any random prop; it's powerful enough to harm Trioculus physically and even temporarily blind him, making it a dangerous relic worth seeking out. On top of that, we have amusing tiny touches like Baji, the quirky healer who speaks in riddles and rhymes, similar to Yoda. Overall, the stories are lighthearted, yet entertaining and memorable.

Despite the number of praises I've given this, I did have some things I felt like weren't that great.
A lot of the side characters felt underdeveloped. Notable examples include Ackbar and the Grand Moffs. They appear in the story and have a role, but they weren't developed.
Another thing is Triclops' Absence. It's mentioned, but not present. It would've been better if he appeared in Vol. 1, but the buildup may pay off in Vol. 2. Palpatine's Family Mystery is another issue. Rejecting his son is such a Palpatine thing to do, but the absence of the mother or who she even is leaves a void. Again, maybe Vol. 2 will fill this in.

One more piece of criticism: Not enough Lando :(

That being said, I'm looking for Vol. 2, but my hopes aren't high. I never get my hopes up for anything. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. If I were to get my hopes up—regardless of whether the final product is good or bad—and I didn't enjoy it, I'd be very disappointed. Having low hopes helps me avoid feeling as disappointed.

Now that I think about it, I think I have a clue as to why fans hate this series.
They just hate anything with children in it.
Remember what happened in The Phantom Menace?
Yeah, that should give you something to think about.

Rating: 3/4 stars.

[Mandalorian Jedi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read

I enjoyed the Jedi Prince series but they are definitely not the best Star Wars stories I’ve ever read. These stories are also unlikely to be canonized or adapted in any major way into the current canon. They're still worth a read, especially for younger Star Wars fans.

I first read the Jedi Prince as a kid and liked it so much that I carried it forward into the future to read again today, and will eventually pass on to my kids when they are ready for them. The Jedi Prince series is a collection of six short books collected into two hardcover volumes, which is what I have. One of the things I remember liking about these books is each of the three books contained in each volume starts with character names and images and ends with a glossary which describes a number of Star Wars terms and technologies. This was immensely helpful to me at the time. I also really enjoyed the simple black and white images that are scattered throughout the books.

The stories are simple, but not boring, because they are meant for younger readers. They introduce some new characters, generally have good arcs through the series, and some fun new technologies, but interestingly enough, they seem to go out of their way not to introduce many new planets. Aside from a few exceptions they stick to well-known planets from the original trilogy, even when a new planet would probably have served the story better, but it probably makes it easier to follow for young Star Wars fans.

[James Zanghi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since Disney bought Star Wars and decided to disregard the entire expanded literary universe established by a large amount of authors and comic book artists and various video game designers, I've had a real interest in reading all the 'Legends' of Star Wars. I bought this omnibus edition of the Jedi Prince saga and started reading it.

Yes, I agree, the dialogue is pretty bad, the villains are dumb, and the author(s) have little to no knowledge of how the Star Wars universe as created by George Lucas works, as well as the heavy environmental messages in each volume are heavy and rather forced on the reader. However, there are some interesting twists and turns that make up for it. It wasn't a great read, but it wasn't an entirely bad read either. All in all, if you are a collector of Star Wars Legends books and you find a copy of this omnibus for cheap, pick it up. If anything, you can use it to test your knowledge against the author's limited knowledge of Star Wars or have a little laugh at it.

May the Force be with you!

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first found this book, titled "Star Wars Book One" with its photocopy cover and listing of 3 nonsensical books at a flea market in 2004. It sat in my attic for over a decade, until I saw TRoS. Since this story also details about Sheev Palpatine's child, I thought it would be a fun easy read.

After the first story in this book I had to put it down for quite a while. It's mostly meaningless drivel. It reads like a poorly written Saturday Morning Cartoon, where women are halfway between not existing and existing only to be objects prized by the important male characters.

The villains are an absolute joke. They're ignored by the heroes because they pose no threat, despite being the leadership of the remains of the galactic Empire.

The only positive I really have, other than it being comically silly, is that I'm pretty sure Sheev canonically had sex in this version (whereas Rey's father was a "failed" clone of ol Sheeven). In the universe where the Emperor lays pipe, there's always a silver lining.

[Steve Ellerhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember trying to read this when I was twelve and having absolutely no time for it whatsoever. I was already on the Zahn trilogy bandwagon, and this was far too absurd. Funnily enough, as an adult I later found the Zahn trilogy didn't scratch the itch anymore -- and this series, well, for some reason it's amusing me to no end. Part of the enjoyment is how ridiculous the behavior of our favorite characters is (Han ditches Leia to build his dream sky house on Bespin, for instance, and Luke frets over an insurance claim on a wrecked rented speeder on Tatooine). Part of the fun is the strange cast of new characters who don't seem to fit quite right -- not only is there Trioculus but also Triclops -- each claiming to be Palpatine's offspring and rightful emperor of the galaxy. Jabba's dad, Zorba (not played by Anthony Quinn), shows up to exact revenge on Leia for killing his boy. Then there's Ken, the Jedi Prince, and Kadann, Prophet of the Dark Side. It's waffly as heck, but I'm enjoying myself.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 1 out of 5]

God help me, I read and reviewed each of the three books collected here separately, so this is basically just for my own records. Each volume earned a single star, and that was frankly generous. They are dire. Remember that scene in Return of the Jedi where Salacious Crumb was ripping out C-3PO's eye? The droid got off lucky. He could have been reading this instead.

[Stasia Bruhn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite honestly I finished this book like months ago and I can't remember much about it..The stories are pretty forgettable.

[Jonathan Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even good for kids, but hey it's star wars.

[Book Nerd · Rating 1 out of 5]

These are kids stories but they're pretty terrible compared to something like the Young Jedi Knights books. They're from before the EU really got going and they don't fit with the rest of it.

[Daniel Folk · Rating 2 out of 5]

So bad it's good

[Wildcard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possibly the most bonkers corner of the Old EU.

[Nathaniel Irvin]

I first read "The Lost City of the Jedi" when I was 10, so about the target audience of these stories. For years afterwards I wasn't sure if they were even real - even at that age I could tell they were way different, both in style, tone and chronology, from the Extended Universe novels that were coming out at the same time. I wondered if maybe these were some sort of unauthorized sequels that snuck onto the market somehow. Turns out that they are real, genuine Lucasfilm works, though their place within even the Extended Universe (which of course is now non-cannon) is kinda murky.

Going back and reading them now I can kinda see why they a lot of people, even many Star Wars fans, haven't heard of them. Even for kid books they're pretty bad. The Bernstein Bears chapter books had better writing and plots than this. The biggest problem is that the characterization is way off - Luke, Han, and Leia do not feel like those characters at all. Timothy Zahn once said the challenge of writing in the voices of Luke, Han, and Leia was the thing that scared him the most about writing Heir to the Empire, and I can totally see why. Getting it wrong torpedoes the whole effort. (Thankfully, Zahn nailed it.) These books also really don't capture the tone of Star Wars - the world of these books feel more like one of Asmiov's Robot stories, or really any generic 80s science fiction story.

That said, I'm glad I own a copy of this book, and I'm gonna read the next anthology. It's nice to have a piece of my childhood, even one that doesn't really stand the test of time. And some of the concepts, even though they don't fit with anything the Extended Universe did or anything that Lucasfilm is doing now, are kinda interesting. The idea that Palpatine had a son, that the Empire went through a succession crisis, is a interesting notion. The prophets of the Dark Side is similarly an interesting riff on the nature of the Jedi & Sith as religious orders.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting.
I am a big fan of Star Wars and this picked up after Return of the Jedi.
It wasn't awesome, but it does continue the story.
The love story between Princess Leia and Han Solo is really cheezy.
This definitely would not make a good movie at all, too much cheese.
But is was fun.
I will look for more in this series just for the heck of it.

[Braeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book there are 3 different stories that all connect to the original star wars movie plot. The first out of the three stories i thought was pretty good, but when it came to the second story is was kind of boring to me since the part i stopped was a struggle for me to get there.

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books do an excellent job of continuing the story after Return of the Jedi, especially for younger readers. I recently read them as an adult and still found them entertaining and enjoyable. The villains are compelling, and there are some great twists that keep the story fresh.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read these for campy laughs rather than a good story.

[Harvey McCarthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just awful.

[Alisha]

It's the best book in the world 🌎 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💕