The Lost City of the Jedi

Star Wars: Jedi Prince #2

by Paul Davids, Hollace Davids

A young Jedi is about to be discovered as the battle to defeat the forces of the evil Galactic Empire rages on.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Childrens, Adventure

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

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

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was…more of the same, pretty much. Except! Now there’s a 12-year-old with a Special Destiny and a Mysterious Past. I wonder whose grandson he is?? 👀

So, we’re still in 1992 here, and I was trying to be mindful of that while I read, but yeah. You really have to set aside everything you know post-RotJ sometimes.

More bullet points. I’m assuming you’re not actually going to read this so there’s going to be minimal spoiler warnings.

• Han is constructing – by hand! – a very large floaty house in what must be a VERY large warehouse. How did he get the money for this? Why is this a thing the writers decided to have him do?? We just don’t know.
• I honestly don’t know if I care about the heroes anymore, I just want to see what wacky bullshit Trioculus (just typing that name makes me die a little inside) and his merry band of war criminals are stirring up
• There’s another three-eyed dude around somewhere, and guess what his name is. Guess. You’re wrong, it’s TRICLOPS. And eye #3 is on the BACK OF HIS FUCKING HEAD. Also we’re still throwing the word “mutant” around, which is gross and bad. I’m so tired.
• Boy howdy, do we like our acronyms
• The titular Jedi Prince* is here! Ken is 12 and was raised by robots! He lives exclusively on Vitamin Syrup(???) and does hella homework, like no wonder he wants to fuckin bail. Also his designated bff is a droid named Chip, short for MICROCHIP, I HATE IT HERE
• Also the Boss Robot looks like a fuckin Autobot
• Ok but please take a moment to look at Zeebo?? I love him. image:
• I can’t believe some of you are really out here shittalking Moff Whatshisface’s blaster-shaped earrings?? It’s called FASHION, look it up
• Ok so like the Prophets of the Dark Side need to rethink their name, but they’re actually pretty dope? They don’t predict SHIT, but they DO use bribery, coercion, murder, and, uh, psychotropic tree bark, possibly? – to hustle the Empire, which is EXCELLENT.
o Also they’ll ruin your outfit with Mystical Symbolic Powders but you probably deserve that if you’re talking to them in the first place.
o Also also they have The Ark of the Covenant in their little museum of stolen shit lmao
• Oh, haven’t you heard? Yavin 4’s weather is actually controlled by the gotdamn underground robots.
o W H A T
o It was uhhhh fuckin colonized and terraformed by Jedi when it was just a dead, cold lump of rock? Who, in addition to building their underground bullshit city, dug to the core??? And vented the warm air and shit from the core to make the surface warm and tropical??? And planted trees??????? YEAH OK FINE.
o How does the ancient species who built all the temples fit into this narrative?? WHO FUCKIING KNOWS, I SURE DON’T
o Do you want to know what the password for the weather machine is????? It’s JE-99-DI-88-FOR-00-CE. NO, REALLY
o It's all very Ancient Aliens, and I need to lie down for a while now
• Trioculus continues to wear some very spikey shoulder pads, presumably to keep the pigeons away
• One character speaks exclusively in rhyme, and it drove ten-year-old Kristen up a wall. Still does.
• The environmentalist message is still going strong. This time we’re all about saving the rainforest, and I’m here for that.
• Trioculus is a bastardman, but after he suffers some severe burns and the narrative goes “Ope, he’s Ugly now!” like?? That’s Bad.
• How does “vaporizing tooth-cleaner” WORK?? How does it “””vaporize””” the shit on your teeth, but not your teeth??? Wookieepedia doesn’t even know what that is. GEORGE, I HAVE QUESTIONS
• How do they keep the Jedi Library updated, and why is Ken studying Luke Skywalker and fam so intensely when the Battle of Yavin was ONLY FIVE YEARS AGO
• “…and become the youngest member of the Rebel Alliance.” Do u mean a child soldier???????
• We’re doing less of the “Hey, remember That Thing from the movies??” now, which is cool, I guess. There’s still too much of it, but meh.
• I feel like there was more I wanted to say, but my brain doesn’t want to think about this book anymore.

EDIT: OH FUCK ok, I remember. Ok so the Glove of Darth Vader, yeah? Whomst ever wears it gets to be Emperor, right? And gets Darth Vader's powers to choke people and electrocute them and shit. Except that's not how it works. It is, however, SUPER CURSED, and WILL make your hair and teeth fall out. Vader's vibes were just that rancid, I guess lmaooooo

This one didn’t fill me with the same level of horrified glee as the last one. Maybe I’m just used to it now??
I’m absolutely going on to book 3, because, if I remember correctly, it REALLY starts going off the rails there.


*he’s not actually royalty, one of the robots just, like, made an offhand remark, and that’s the book series title they went with, idek

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally, I have warm and happy feelings toward the old canon stuff in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU), but Paul and Hollace Davids's six-book Jedi Prince series is weird, even for early SWEU stuff. It's important to note that the series was written back in 1992, long before any of the prequels, sequels, and volumes of accumulated non-canonical novels. Apparently, these were published before Timothy Zahn's now-classic "Heir to the Empire".

Back on Yavin 4, Luke has dreams about a lost city of the Jedi, which, as it turns out, is located on Yavin 4. Convenient! Deep within the underground city, a young boy named Ken is being raised by droids. No mention of who his parents are or how he got there. Meanwhile, Trioculus is trying to garner the support of the Prophets of the Dark Side. They tell him that a young Jedi Prince from the Lost City of the Jedi is the only person in the universe that can kill him, so, of course, Trioculus sets a course for Yavin 4. Because heading towards the very thing that is prophecied to kill you is always a good idea...

No offense to the Davids, but these books remind me of the crappy fan-fiction I used to write when I was in middle school.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, there's another three-eyed character in this series and his name is ...

... wait for it ...

... TRICLOPS.

-_-

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I fully acknowledge I’m not the target audience for this book. But since I’m reading all of the (now Legends) Star Wars books this series must be consumed.

Luke finds a kid hidden in an underground Jedi City, conveniently located on Yavin IV. But forget that.

Meanwhile the three-eyed bad guy trying to be the new Emperor visits a temple / museum where the prophets of the Dark Side live. And that’s where we have the best part of this book. There’s a picture depicting some of the artifacts collected from across the galaxy.

On one of the shelves is the Ark of the Covenant. And Indiana Jones’ whip is coiled up next to a suit of Mandalorian armor. Brilliant! I already knew about the likenesses of C3-P0 and R2-D2 carved into a wall full of hieroglyphics in the Indiana Jones movie series. Raiders of the Lost Ark, I think? Well of Souls? Now the crossover is confirmed.

Normally a two star book. But I’m giving it an extra star for the Ark. ✅🤖

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully hokey, the little things like Grand Moff Dunhausen's jangly earrings and a super secret passcode that is the SW universe's equivalent of setting your banking password to passw0rd is what really makes it for me. Reminds me of sitting in the corner of the little portable library in elementary school during recess. Reminds me of simpler times.

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of this book doesn't make a lot of sense given the established Star Wars canon at the time it was written :-/

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reputed son of the Emperor, Trioculous, receives a warning that at Jedi Prince will be a threat to his reign and must be destroyed. Luke has traveled to Yavin 4 to put out a fire. On Yavin 4, Luke meets a young boy named Ken who lives in a mysterious city below the surface and has been raised by droids. Is this the Jedi Prince?

Kile really enjoyed this book. In particular he liked and related to Ken. The book has good pictures and it is a good reading level for a fourth grade boy. Kile also enjoyed that it is an adventure story with humor.

Overall, The Lost City of the Jedi is another entertaining tale in this series for both a ten-year boy and his mother.

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

This review was first published on my blog at: http://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2016/...

[Shane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forgot to add this to my currently reading list. Another moronic Star Wars novella. I swear the authors made absolutely no effort to make the book shine. So many missed opportunities. Then there's the rhyming alien and the guy with the little laser blaster earings. Just really, really bad. I would suggest this if your under 11 but then again there's good stuff you could be reading at that age. Luckily there's only one more of these in the series. My 10 year-old is loving it so I can't stop without finishing.

[James Zanghi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When we last left our heroic Star Warriors in the Jedi Prince series, Trioculos has captured the right glove of Darth Vader but the Empire no longer had control over the planet of the Mon Calamari. Meanwhile, Han has begun to build a bachelor pad on Bespin's Cloud City with Chewbacca. However, after a visit from Luke Skywalker ends in a terrorist bombing courtesy of the Empire, Han returns to the Alliance. And the second story begins:

Okay, this was a little bit of an improvement from Glove of Darth Vader, but not by incredibly much. The dialogue is a bit better and the characters more believable, but most of the story is still a little ridiculous. Set on Yavin IV (which has been established as the main Rebel planet despite it being abandoned prominently in both canon and Legends universes), a young kid living in a droid city that is underground and built by the Jedi discovers his heroes are real and tries to join the Rebellion to stop Trioculos from destroying the Rain forests of the planet and permanently wrecking the eco-system (much like on the Mon Calamari homeworld). Trioculos also attempts to blow up the Rebel Council of Leadership, but becomes smitten with Leia, which is an actually interesting plot-twist.

I like the character of Ken, the young boy from the underground Droid city, and he has good dialogue with Luke and company. Trioculos is still a whiny brat and he slowly is learning he doesn't have total power over all (Though I am certain he wouldn't mind changing that). The story itself is pretty lame, but at least a little improvement than Glove of Darth Vader. Still, I wouldn't recommend this story.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay. THIS BOOK starts off with Luke going to see Han, and the chemistry between them is UNMATCHED, and then THIS happens:

"I was just wondering, Han," said Luke, "is there any special reason why you made the house with so many bedrooms?"
"Why do you ask?" Han replied suspiciously.
Luke gave a shy smile. "Well, I guess I was just wondering if you ever intend to get married and fill this house with kids."

And Luke covers his bases by saying he was talking about Leia but WE KNOW what he was implying.

We're introduced to Ken in this book, a 12 year old fanboy of Luke and Han. It's endearing, and I can see him being a self-insert for a lot of kids. We're treated to this exchange:
"We know who we are, kid," Han said. "What we don't know is who you are and what you're doing here."
"I'm Ken," he replied. "And I've always wanted to meet you, Mr. Solo, for just about my entire life. You're one of the best Corellian pilots in the whole galaxy!"
"What do you mean one of?" Han replied. "You know anybody better?"
I just love moments like that.

We're also introduced to the character of Baji who always talks in rhyme, which I absolutely love.

And there's some interesting reveals about Trioculus and Triclops. I have a very small brain so them naming their three eyed characters "tri" always helps.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is certainly better than the first volume of the series, which was dire in every respect. It's still not great, however - though I'd raise the rating to two stars if it weren't for the truly terrible poetry that the authors, against all talent and cringe-factor, insist on having one of their characters speak in. (It doesn't even scan, did they not bother to read it aloud?!) Also, I can't say I'm thrilled about the idea of a hidden Jedi prince, in the form of a 12 year old boy called Ken. Prince Ken? Not gonna lie, I kind of snorted at that. I get that this is tie-in for kids, and so they wanted to strongly feature a child character. I get, too, that having him whinge about homework probably makes Ken sympathetic to the target audience, but... it all seems so simplistic, really.* There's a lot of excellent fiction for kids out there that isn't quite so basic, but I suppose as a demographic they want their popcorn reads too.

*And that's not even getting into the secret password Luke has to remember to use in the Lost City, a code which is the Jedi equivalent of "password1."

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The glorious silliness of the previous installment crashes down into a slightly glacial volume introducing the inevitable child-protagonist for the series. A humorously, nearly dystopian, view of our hero's education is presented wherein his studies are entirely composed of trivia about the events of the original trilogy. Granted, that's a subject that I would have thoroughly enjoyed at that age, but it comes across as comically propagandistic to an older eye.

I didn't realize with the first book (which featured a sci fi whaling subplot) that every book was apparently going to feature an environmental moral. This time around its a deforestation situation on Yavin IV. Speaking of which, I have to say how charming it is that the galaxy feels tiny in these books: if the planet/moon is visited in the original trilogy, it has pretty much already been mentioned at least once (with the possible exception of Dagobah, can't remember if they mention that one). It's as quaint as it is cozy.

Is it still worth reading? Probably not, but is popcorn worth eating? No, but we do it anyway, and who's against a little fun?

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I only read Lost City of the Jedi to add another book to my 2019 list, and to pad the number of pages read for the year. That’s it.

And that’s a good thing because like Glove of Darth Vader, this book is really quite awful.

I’ve already given my shallow defense of this series which you can read on my review of Glove, so I won’t repeat myself here. And I won’t be defending this book, or this series, any longer.

Much of the complaints I had from the first book of this series carry over to this one. Simple plot, simple characters, over-reliance on ridiculous onomatopoeia words and sounds. Worst of all, there’s yet another thinly veiled PC, green peace, environmentalist subtext. (First it was hunting whales, now it’s destroying the forest. What’s next?). The Davids’ writing ability is about on par with a 4th grader’s fan fiction and, to be perfectly honest, I’d rather read that 4th grader’s stuff.

I sincerely doubt I’ll be giving any of the other Jedi Prince stuff a read...unless I need some more pages to add to my list.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Lost City of the Jedi (Star Wars: Jedi Prince #2) by Paul and Hollace Davids.

Basic story line: The glove of Darth Vader has been recovered. Trioculus is on his way to the Supreme Prophet to accept his claim to be the new ruler of the Empire. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker has arrived in Cloud City, but while there has a strange dream that leads him on a quest to find the legendary Lost City of the Jedi.

Although slightly better than the first in this series, still very lackluster. Another 2 star read.

#MiddleGradeMarch2024.

[Laney]

The mental image of Luke Skywalker patting his full tummy in satisfaction after eating Chewie's zoochberry pie is my new Roman Empire. Also, the concept of Han Solo building a floating sky house BY HAND.

And Obi-Wan appearing in a dream to tell Luke to quickly memorize a string of numbers and letters that he says only once and then dips is somehow the most accurate characterization in any of these dumb books LOL

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giving this two stars instead of one because I've been super depressed this year, and the secret code in the book made me laugh out loud for a solid five minutes straight. It was the biggest laugh I've had all year, and I'm grateful for it.

But seriously, this book and the series as a whole is terrible.

[Alacritous13 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is growing on me, a bit like a fungus. That said, still an ok book for it's target audience.
The book likes to avoid mention that people die in warfare, which is particularly weird as it's doing it while Trioculus attempts to blow up the Senate.
That coupled with the cheesiest of 12 year olds to ever be inducted into the Alliance make this a strange read.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jedi Prince series books are very short, and as I just now realised, targeted mainly at kids.
This makes them ideal for my lately very tired brain.
Very simple quick-read yet entertaining enough to keep going.

[Jedi Master Nate Lightray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a weird book series. I do like it well enough, and this one is better than the last one in the series, but it wasn’t even allowed into the EU, which has been removed itself from canon. I could only recommend this to the most ardent fans.

[Reg Franklin · Rating 1 out of 5]

All the problems present in The Glove of Darth Vader are present once again here, up to and including the thinly veiled environmental message. Again, strong readers only need apply.

[Katelyn Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't bad really, could have been a bit longer.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoo boy. I had a few ideas in my head based off the title of this book, but I never would have come up with the stuff they actually used. This is crazypants.

[Jacob_Hamblen · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5

[Kneesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are cute. The story is rushed and almost rought-draft-like. It has its enjoyable moments... I'm reading all Star Wars books...

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a lot better than the first book, but it has all of the worst qualities of kids’ books, namely assuming that the readers are idiots and repeatedly explaining the same things.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better part of this series but still pretty bad.

[Andrew Alvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but a bit too short, though that may be a mercy.
Unlike most children featured in Star Wars, I like Ken.

[Kevin Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short easy to read book was much greater than anticipated.

[Riku · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun short book. They mention Snoke in this book lol

[CJ]

Read along w Galactic Book Club podcast