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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Plot line is...?, April 22, 2001
This review is from: Champions of the Force (Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm a Star Wars maniac, pure and true, and this book I would not have finished if it weren't for my devotion. I didn't read the rest of the trilogy, and talking to a friend who had, I found out I didn't need to. The story just went in a hundred different directions all at once, which in the beginning was captivating--many Star Wars novels have done this-- but what really turned my attention off was the fact the conflicts--Mon Mothma's disease, Kyp going completely insane and blowing things up, Lukes illness, Anakin's kidnapping, and so on and so forth-- never had anything to do with each other. It was just like the writer, Anderson, said, "Okay, let's write about the everyday lives of some well-known Star Wars characters in a completely random way for no apparent reason in the form of a trilogy." All the plot line really did was run around in little circles over, and over, and over, and over, and over again like hamsters on an exercize wheel. And the ending was really abrupt, like "Blah, blah, everything's going terrible for our heroes, but the book is ending, so we'll just say that everybody lives happily ever after, shall we? Alrighty then-- this and this and this happened, The End!" Whoopie. Absolutely "edge-of-you-seat", gripping, climatic, and altogether totally NOT. Then there are the not-so-small nits; General Garm Bel Iblis's last name is spelled, well, Bel Iblis. In COTF, though, his name is mispelled Bel-Iblis. Then there's the Threkin Horm, whose name is mispelled BIG TIME in COTF as Hrekin Thorm. What in all the worlds is UP WITH THAT?! Then, we have the fact that just about every quote is ended in "!". So I plan to do the same, from here on! I'll write every sentance with over-exaggerating exclamation points! We'll see just how ANNOYING this can get! Finally, that little speech made by Leia in the jadi temple was sappy! That's it; just plain-old sappy! It wouldn't happen, I guarente it! Well, at least the cover art was good! My final word to buyers: don't! Read the Thrawn trilogy instead, and if you've finished, then READ 'EM AGAIN! They're good! And if you really must know what happens in this time period, then read I, JEDI! I think I have made my point with the exclamation marks, haven't I?! I think so! Cya'll! Ps! Sorry about all the bashing here! I really am a cruel critic here, aren't I?!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ending with a bang AND a whimper, August 18, 2003
This review is from: Champions of the Force (Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
The climactic novel of Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy is probably the best of the series, but in the end it is something of a disappointment.
The book picks up where Dark Apprentice leaves off, namely with yet another super weapon on the loose, this time in the hands of a would-be Jedi with revenge on his mind, while Luke lays in a helpless trance on Yavin 4. Meanwhile, a plot is in motion to kidnap Leia and Han's third child (Anakin Solo), the Republic finally gets around to moving against that hidden weapon's research facility from Book #1, and Admiral Daala continues to fail miserably in her Honor Harrington imitation (why does anyone in their right minds follow her?). All of these plot lines lead to that perennial Big Climactic Space Battle, which are a trademark of the Star Wars series. On the plus side, the action works well, the characters are much more interesting, and there's actually a good deal of humor (more so, IMHO, than in either of the previous two books). However, on the negative side...
To give Anderson credit, he does manage to tie in all the threads he began in the previous two books, which is in some ways a marvel. But the ending feels rushed, and the novel loses much of its steam because of it. Going into the end of such a series, there should be a feeling of tension and excitement, a build-up to the final confrontations about to take place. There is little of that here, just a feeling that we're finally reaching a conclusion. Anderson does achieve his primary task of re-establishing the Jedi order, but once he has them back he doesn't really have much for them to do -- which is a shame, because that was supposedly the point of the series in the first place. At least he sets things up adequately for subsequent novels.
If you've managed to get through the first two books of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Champions of the Force is an adequate ending. Even if you were wavering on reading the third book because Dark Apprentice was not quite up to snuff, going on to the last will at least satisfy your curiosity about how things turn out. But once you're finished, don't expect to want to ever go back to the books again. This isn't the kind of series that's likely to occupy a permanent place on your shelves unless you are a Star Wars completest.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book is Hurtin', April 21, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Champions of the Force (Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Jedi Acadamy series as a whole was a truly amazing series (really!). Throughout the whole series, I was continually surprised. Anderson has accomplished some things in this series which I thought would be impossible to do in a book. Okay. Some people may be wondering why I just gave the review a negative title and a one star review, then started heaping praise on it. Let me explain. The amazing thing about this series, and the rerason I was continually surprised, was that somehow, the always managed to get worse as the series progressed. I never would have imagined that someone could start with a book as bad a Jedi Search, go even lower with Dark Apprentice, and still manage to find new deapths with Champions of the Force. For anyone who didn't head my warnings and read through the first two anyway, this book is plagued by some of the same problems that hit the first two, such as the surplus of superweapons, Daala, and the omnipotence of the force, plus a few new ones. For starters, there was Exar Kun. A powerful but dead Sith Lord who began to influence Luke's students with the Dark Side. He even granted the ever insinuating Kyp engough power to take Luke down. So, why does this powerful dead guy then lose to a bunch of trainees barely a hundred pages into the book? With Kun gone, Kyp, who has busied himself by blowing up stars with the Suncrusher (I will talk about that later), suddenly has a change of heart and decides that everything he has been doing under Exar Kun's influence was wrong. So he apologizes and, in a section which clearly demonstrates that the legal system in the Star Wars universe is as corrupt as our own, strikes a deal with Luke. All he has to do is cast the suncrusher into a black hole, and he will recieve a pardon. The murderer of billions, forgiven just like that! Now I ask: does this mean that if I shoot a couple people but then drop the gun I did it with to the bottom of the ocean that I, too, can be forgiven? Of course, mentioning the suncrusher, I can't help but observe that there seem to be a lot of superweapons floating around in this trillogy. Are we really so uncreative that we have to rely on the same plot device over and over and over again? Guess so, because there's another in Darksaber. In the plus category (if there is one for this book), Daala seems a little less imcompetent than in the previous books. Though, of course, this may just be that she is in this one less. Actually, it probably would have been better for her character had she died in this episode. At least then she would have gone out a hero, rather than screwing up again in Darksaber and finally finishing with a weak conclusion at the end of Planet of Twilight. Oh well. I guess the dream of having the whole body of Star Wars literature live up to the standards of The Thrawn Trillogy was just not meant to be. Despite the fact that I am not a fan of the series, I am not the all mighty whose opinions are the absolute last word. Therefore, I encourage you to form your own opinions.
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