David Palazzolo

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Star Wars: Darksaber (The Callista Trilogy, #2)

by Kevin J. Anderson (Goodreads Author)

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David Palazzolo said: " Some thoughts on Darksaber by Kevin J Anderson

Direct sequel to Barbara Hambly’s Children of the Jedi, followed by Planet of Twilight also by Hambly, the concluding novel of this officially unnamed trilogy (but I have seen it referred to as the Calli Some thoughts on Darksaber by Kevin J Anderson

Direct sequel to Barbara Hambly’s Children of the Jedi, followed by Planet of Twilight also by Hambly, the concluding novel of this officially unnamed trilogy (but I have seen it referred to as the Callista Trilogy)

Is it wrong that I have fallen in love with Admiral Daala and just want to read a trilogy written from her point of view? Seriously, shortly into the book I grew restless when it veered from her—okay, “restless” might be too nice a word. How about “annoyed” to “pissed off”. There were moments I was whining about the First Family of Coruscant’s adventures with the Crime Slug Hutts and the Cringe Jedi Necro-Romance plot while impatiently awaiting it to be Darla’s turn again. I have to note that the above doesn’t actually reflect my true feelings towards our heroes, but does accurately reflect Kevin J Anderson’s skill in making me want to stay with a single plot thread.

I may have read Barbara Hambly’s novel wrong, but I could have sworn that Qwi Xux (a person behind the building of the Death Star) was killed off sometime prior to that novel’s opening. Oh, well, not the first time I got things confused…

Overall it’s not a bad novel, there’s a lot of subplots running every which way but loose. At least two of the threads has Luke revisiting key locations in his past, one in the company of Han Solo, one in the company of Callista. During these adventures Anderson mines old Star Wars lore so Luke would have an old adversary from his past to face. Unfortunately, the set up was better than the follow through and the whole thing wound up basically as filler

During the second half of the novel Anderson keeps to very short chapters that are filled with action, keeping the story’s pace at a nice brisk speed

The way Gen Sulamar is described, I picture him as space-bound Frank Burns (from MASH)

I couldn’t help but imagine Mr Burns from the Simpsons in an Imperial Admiral’s uniform when it was described that at the start of a siege, Pelleaon performed some “isometric exercises” that looked like the way Burns classically holds his hands

The conclusion is rather adequate but not entirely satisfactory. Part of this is by design as this book is in itself really but a single chapter in an ongoing continuity, which is a state of affairs I thought only started with The New Jedi Order series. Learn something new every day. ...more "

Sep 22, 2026 08:45PM · see review