Customer Reviews

Darksaber (Star Wars)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

Uh oh. The remnants of the Empire are gathering together to form a threat to the New Republic. Uh oh. There is a giant superweapon being constructed using the original plans and scientists who worked on the Death Star. Sigh. Out of all the possible stories that able to be told in the Star Wars Universe (see the Medstar Duology and the Republic Commando novels for examples), this is the story that Darksaber tells. For Star Wars, one must say "how prosaic". It's all been done before. Two movies and danced around in the novels. This is the best that Kevin Anderson and Lucasfilm could come up with for the novel?

Oh, well. Here's the deal: The Hutts are gathering components to build said superweapon, the title weapon. Remnants of the Empire, Admiral Daala and Pallaeon (second in command to Grand Admiral Thrawn) are pulling together various warlords to strike at the heart of the New Republic and hurt the New Republic bad. Luke Skywalker is seeking to find a way to restore the Jedi Powers of his love Callista. Leia, Han, and Chewbacca are investigating the Hutts to find out what the Hutts are planning. This all comes together with a major threat to the New Republic.

If it wasn't for the fact that this book is much of the same old same old for Star Wars fiction Darksaber wouldn't be that bad. Kevin Anderson has crafted a fast paced classic feeling Star Wars novel. The word "classic" is used here in the sense that the style is reminiscent of the original Star Wars trilogy. So, the action is fun and there are quips and back talk and little guys vs the Big Bad, but the novel just felt like a retread. It is a tired story. Anderson's writing isn't strong enough to overcome a story that does not add anything significant to the Star Wars Universe. It's middle of the road Star Wars. Nothing special to see here. Not truly worth the effort.

-Joe Sherry

Bluntly put, this story is about what you would expect from the Kevin J. Anderson school of Star Wars:slightly tacky writing, overabundant superweapons, lacking villians, and grossly overemphized and exaggerated use of the Force.

Kevin J. Anderson writes a fast paced tale, but the devolpment and ideas are lacking. I grow tired of the constant use of superweapons as plot centers in the Star Wars universe. This was no different. Worse was the title weapon failing to work. One of my greatest frustrations, though, is the character of Daala. While she is constantly refered to as a grand tactician, she manages to lose in situations where the odds are tipped in her failure. I like the original idea behind her, a female with skill, competance and command in a sexist environment. But Kevin J. Anderson either has no idea how to portray those attributes or else simply belives in the rumors of her relationship with Tarkin. This breeds another problem in Pellaeon. His portrayal in Tim Zahn's Star Wars novels makes it very unrealistic that he would be serving under Daala since all I've rfead suggests him to be far and away a superior tactician, adding to my previous theory that KJA has no idea how to portray tacticians. Thirdly is the overplay of the force. As with KJA's previous Star Wars novels, the Jedi are vastly exaggerated in their abilities. Never is this exaggeration better exemplified than when the Jedi trainees hurl seventeen star destroyers across lightyears of space. Still, on a fast-paced action level, where the "good guys" always win and the "bad guys" always lose this is a fair read. Consider what type of story you are looking for before you buy this.

This novel (I hesitate to call it that) is such garbage that I am compelled to warn others: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! If you enjoyed any of the Star Wars movies or have the slightest affinity for any of the characters, please destroy this book on sight. I have not read any other work by Kevin Anderson, and after suffering through this filth I have no intention of doing so. The characters are perpetual irritants, the plot is ludicrous, and even the "action" scenes are vapid. I kept telling myself that no one would intentionally write a book this awful. Anderson writes like he's nine, repeating himself throughout the book. Maybe he thinks the reader cannot recall what he wrote just five lines ago. I hope BDD jettisons Anderson in an escape pod. After this book, he can never redeem himself.

The people who like this book are the same people who like anything with the name "Star Wars". If you've glanced through the Star Wars Encyclopedia, you've probably noticed how many bad stories/characters have been dumped into the Star Wars universe by people like Anderson. I remember before his Jedi Academy Trilogy came out and seeing a picture of him laying on the floor surrounded by West End Games Star Wars sourcebooks, digging for material. I had a bad feeling about it, and the books sucked. But Kevin Anderson proves that ANYBODY can write a Star Wars novel. Just use the easy to follow outline below: 1. Invent a new superweapon for the bad guys (or borrow a previously used one!) 2. Invent new, uninteresting characters (or borrow old ones and misuse them) 3. Devise idiotic plot twists (for example, Luke and Callista are surrounded by Wampas, led by the one who's arm Luke cut off in EMPIRE. Now come on! That is truly idiotic! The next thing you know, IG-88 will be transferring his escence into the 2nd Death Star to take it over and...oh, that's already been done.) 4. Describe your characters as being one thing, then write them in a completely different way (example: "military genious" Daala is incompetent.) 5. Write bad action sequences, abuse any and all characters, kill them, and have a disappointing ending.

I rest my case.

When I started Darksaber, I expected something that, if not wonderful, at least told a passable story! This was not even close to being passable! If it had half a plot it would be half deccent! The horrors of this book go on and on, but I will only list a few of them. 1)The superweapon that short-circuts. 2)Daala the destructible, who goes after the Jedi academy.(I mean come on! If you have superstar destroyer, why not go after Kuat, or Coruscant!)3) as another rewiewer put it, "The incredible dying man" 4)The myriad pointless things Luke and Callista did.(The inteligent wampas who create a masacre of pointless characters, the bat-thing on Dagoba, the stupid comet (comets are not nearly large enough for resorts or mining. Most are the size of houses.) 5)The complete and total buchering of Callista's character.(Similar to what hapened to Mara Jade in the Jedi Academy Series) 6)Introducing new and slightly intresting charachters, and proceding to kill them off. 6) Turning Leia into a simpering politician, and 7) killing Dorsk 81, after showing us more about his history than is normal for a doomed character.

If I didn't know better I would almost think that KJA was TRYING to write a bad story, as well as lose Luke another girlfriend (ie. Mara Jade in his other books.) This man should not ever be alowed to write again, as he obviously has the idea that a SW book should be silly and stupid, as well as pointles and bazar.

This is the worst SW book I have ever read, with the possible exception of the Black Fleet Crisis. Anderson should be put in a cage and droped from the Belly of a plane

I expected to hate this book, but I ended up really liking it for the most part. The plot is generally interesting, with a lot of imaginative details. I especially liked the flashbacks to things that happened during the movies, such as the stories about Admiral Ackbar being an Imperial slave and helping the Rebels steal the Death Star plans.

That said, this book has some serious flaws, the greatest of them being, of course, Callista's continued existence. Actually, it seems like she was okay in "Children of the Jedi" and "Planet of Twilight," but here she is a personalityless twit with the intellect of a six-year-old. All she does is cling to Luke--I thought I was going to be sick if I read anything else along the lines of "Callista gazed adoringly at Luke." And we're supposed to believe that a Jedi Master is in love with this idiot? In general, Anderson is not very good with characters, and he wisely sticks with action scenes for the most part. Among other problems, his writing style can be annoying--he uses way too many bad similes. Right on page 1 is one of the worst--"Waves of heat rippled like cloaking shields"--and it continues from there. He also has the annoying habit of referring to characters as "the golden droid," "the olive-skinned alien," and such--why not just use their names? The plot could be unrealistic at times--the good guys have way too easy a time getting into the Darksaber and the Knight Hammer. Don't these things have defense systems?

Overall, I would recommend reading this book, but you might not want to eat beforehand, as the Luke/Callista scenes can be rather nausea-inducing.

Um, Mr. Anderson I have a rather large bone to pick with you, actually I have several, where to begin, where to begin, lets just start at the begining shall we? First off, Callista was WHINEY! Not stressed out, not in the middle of that time of the month, just plain WHINEY. And she was like that for THE WHOLE BOOK, she was mostly upset she didn't have the Force, she should have been happy to get the #&!! out of The Eye of Palpatine. Second, where was Mara? She never hangs around when something she can help with is going on, it's not her style at all, yet I only saw her once, did anyone else get more than a glimpse of her? Third, why did you kill off Dorsk 81? Why did you kill off Crix Madine? I rather liked them both. Fourth, why did the Emporer keep Lemelisk? He hated failure, we can see how much he hated it in ROTJ("The Emporer is not as forgiving as I am")was I the only one who caught that? Fith, how many Death Stars and mocked up Death Stars must we endure? It's starting to get old, we don't need anymore of them, why couldn't you just make an origanal super weapon that other people can rip off? Like, maybe a Star Blade, or something like that, anything is better than that crap I just forced myself to read. Sixth, when did the Wampas become sentinent? When did that bat-things on Dagobah become violent? When did Leia become a polititian?(I mean she always was one, but she was also a fighter and willing to follow her own heart before that). Seventh , why was the thing that Leia was the most upset at the Hutts for the slave outfit she had to wear? Jabba froze the man she loved, almost killed him, send bounty hunters after him, tryed to kill her and her brother, and the only thing she is REALLY mad about is the bikini, well, does that make sence to anyone? And since when would she blaim an entire race for the actions of a few? Or in this case one; Jabba. Eigth and last, since when did the Empire hate women? I know that their weren't many in the origanals, but I'm fairly sure that Leia and Mara are women aren't you? Also he never had anything against women, he was Hitler in A galaxy far, far, away, nothing against women, just everyone who was different or had different opinions. Why Mr. Anderson, did you subject us to this? We truely could have lived without the book, but it would have at least been tolerable if you hadn't included the things a stated above, please, do us all a favor and stay far, far away from Star Wars, and keep the The X-Files where you can kill people off and make mockerys of them to your hearts content.

Kevin J. Anderson has crappy plots, weak characters, and he totally destroys characters created by other authors including but not limited to Luke, Leia, Han, Mara, Talon Karrde, and Paelleon. His portrayal of the Imperials as dottering, idiotic beaurocrats is stupid and implausible considering that they were ruling the universe only a few years before. Darksaber is the worst of the worst. I can't believe they're still letting this guy write and butcher Star Wars stories.

Fellow Fans, this Star Wars book is strictly for children. Kevin J. Anderson's previous work in the Star wars universe, the Jedi Academy Trilogy, was disappointing but this book was truly dreadful for any thoughtful, mature reader. It's characterizations were poor, it lacked any interesting detail that could bring the story to life and the plot reeked of slapsticky goofiness.

If you read the positive 'reviews' written below it is easy for the astute observer to realize that they are soley from children who are not likely to be leaving their teens anytime soon. Not exactly the most discriminating readers. I've even spoken to fans in their early teens who were outraged at this novel.

Read this book ONLY if you feel you must read all of Star Wars as it is absolutely miserable. There are so many better novels in this series. Anderson and LucasFilm should be ashamed.

Although I only marginally enjoyed the Jedi Academy books (mostly for the appearance of Exar Kun) I had decided after reading that trilogy that Kevin Anderson was going to be a major force for good in the Star Wars universe. All I can say now is I am glad I only paid 8 bucks for my paperback of 'Darksaber'.

Now that he has some SW material behind him, I think it's safe to say that he was one of the most unoriginal hacks keeping the SW universe afloat. After reading (and rereading) other great authors contributions to the field (Stackpole's 'Rogue Squadron' and Zahn's integral books) I feel that Anderson is doing nothing more than holding the series back from reaching it's potential.

In 'Darksaber' we are greeted with another shot at keeping the Empire as the main baddies, another super-weapon that can destroy a planet in one shot (hey, super-weapons began and ended with the Death Stars) another visit to worn out locations, and another adventure which refuses to create any interesting new heroes. I mean, I love Luke and the gang, but having them save the universe every time is getting ridiculous.

Anderson seems to ignore every other authors contribution to SW with the exception of Lucas. Has he ever used any characters or locations from other authors? And I don't mean the cheesy cameo of Mara in the Jedi Academy books. I have to admit, he did show some major bravery for killing off a majore main character, but it seemed to be for nothing, a total waste.

Get this one to complete your library of SW material only.