Customer Reviews

Jedi Search (Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Vol. 1)

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first major effort to follow the outstanding-beyond-words Timothy Zahn trilogy that relaunched the Star Wars frenzy in the early 90s. As such, Kevin Anderson had a VERY tough act to follow and there is inevitably a bit of a let down for readers coming straight from the Zahn books. That said, Anderson is a pretty decent author who does a good job keeping the books exciting with interesting story lines and good action scenes. So if you're looking for an entertaining way to pass some time, read no further - this book is for you.

But unfortunately, Anderson also had to contend with another hurdle other than following in Zahn's footsteps. Lucasfilm has a policy that all Star Wars spinoff literature has to be consistent and not contradict each other. This meant that when Anderson was almost done with his first drafts, he was suddenly informed that he had to make his story fit in with the a comic book just release by Darkhorse - the rediculously implausible "Dark Empire." This means that Anderson had to rewrite into his story crazy stuff like the emperor getting resurrected and Luke turning to the dark side. This has gone on to become a weakness of the whole series - whenever an author makes a mistake and includes something stupid in a book or comic, it becomes canon and every other author has to accept it. Over time the series has less and less like Star Wars and more and more like an independent separate universe.

The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first of these books that didn't quite feel like Star Wars. Zahn was the only one not constrained by these requirements since he was first, and consequently, his original trilogy is the most internally consistent and the most Star Wars in feel. Anderson's books and a few of the later books might be worth reading, but be warned that they may put you on a path to the Dark Side.

Not something you'd want to read straight after Return of the Jedi.

I have the audacity to call myself a starwarsian, yet I made the fatal mistake of reading this novel before all others; D'OH!

It's not that this is a bad book. Anderson has done a reasonable job. The overall plot is good and the character development (+7yrs RotJ) is realistic. The writing may not be the most scholarly, but it is easy to read and the author doesn't waste any time. Having said all this, there is one colossal, unforgivable flaw:

Right from the word go, Anderson begins and continues to name drop from every book and movie made ahead of this. Now I realise there is continuity in SW novels (and rightly so!), but there was no purpose to these spoilers; they didn't influence this particular story. In turn, this affected my enjoyment of reading other Star Wars; in particular Zahn's Empire trilogy. Also, it took me a year to figure out this resurrected emperor theme and Luke's indulgence in the dark side, which Anderson kept making such a big deal of.

I very strongly recommend that you read all the novels which take place prior to this, including Dark Empire I and II. Then and only then, read this and the ensuing series.

After reading Zahn's excellent Thrawn trilogy in the early 90's, I was hungry for more and picked up this book. By the first chapter I knew I wouldn't even read the rest of it. Well, actually I did skim through it and read a few more scenes, but they were just as bad as the first.

Here's an important example...

On page 5 of "Jedi Search," Han and Chewbacca are flying towards a planet when two TIE fighters come up out of the atmosphere, begin shooting, and fly back to the planet. Now they see an old X-wing come up behind them and Han says, "Chewie, contact the X-wing and tell him we'd appreciate whatever help he can give us."

When I read that, I was like, "What? Even I'd know not to trust a strange ship." But Han just keeps looking ahead, gets blasted from behind, and yells, "We've got to get out of here!"

I mean, give me a break. This is C3PO driving the Falcon, not Han.

Now check out Chapter 12 of Zahn's "Heir to the Empire." Here Han is also flying towards a planet, and also sees an X-Wing come up beside him. It has Republic markings, and they even hear Luke's voice over the radio, but while Leia is relieved to see him, Han is still on guard.

"It was Luke's X-wing, all right. Or at least, it looked like Luke's X-wing. `So,' he said casually, swiveling the laser cannons around to target the other. Situated the way it was, the X-wing would have to yaw 90 degrees around before it could fire at them. Unless, of course, it had been modified... Somehow, they needed to make a positive identification, and fast."

He can see it's Luke's own X-wing, and hear his voice, but still doesn't trust it. Is even watching out for an unexpected attack. In short, here's a pilot I'd trust. And an author I trust as well.

Also, check out the language. In Anderson's book, Han says, "Chewie, get over here. I'm taking the laser cannon." Would Han really say that? In Zahn's book he says, "Chewie, take over; I'm going to fire up the quads."

Of course, the best Star Wars action writing is to be found in Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy. On the very first page of "Han Solo at Star's End," as they're about to be attacked, Han says, "Charge main batteries, Chewie, and shields-all." Quick and to the point - just what a seasoned pilot would say.

And Daley, too, knows well the art of deception in war. In fact, he's a Vietnam veteran from the 11th Armored Cavalry. Here's Han's advice to other pilots before a battle: "`Since we're protecting a ground installation, we'll have to ride our kills. Don't think just because he's nosediving and leaving a vapor trail that he's out of it. That's an old trick. If you get an explosion from him, fine. If you get a flamer, let him go; he's finished. But otherwise you ride your kill all the way down to the cellar.'"

All Anderson's Han is able to say is "Chewie, I think you'd better get our forward deflectors up," and "Turn it around!"

So while I hate to dump on any author, Anderson's book just doesn't make the grade set by Lucas, Daley, and Zahn. If you've read them all and want more, go for it. But there's no need to start here when there's so many better works to enjoy.

I really enjoyed this new addition to the Star Wars series. It jumped right to the action in the first chapter. Han and Chewie go to Kessel as representatives of the New Republic and get shot down and subsequently enslaved in the spice mines, where they meet eighteen-year-old Kyp Durron, who has spent the last ten years there. Luke has recieved permission from the New Republic to set up a Jedi academy, and he goes off to search for potential candidates. Now that the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, are two, they have returned home to Coruscant, and Leia must juggle the responsibilities of being a mother and being Minister of State of the New Republic, while trying to discover why Han has not returned home yet. I just started the second book in this trilogy, and I like it so far as well. I would reccomend the trilogy to Star Wars fans.

Rather than follow the Zahn trilogy with another strong offering, it seems that the powers that be offered us a lame effort by a man who writes as if his target audience is composed solely of young teenagers. It didn't take me too long to become frustrated with "Jedi Search" and realize that this series was going to be a great disappointment when compared to its predecessor.

Many of the best characters from the Zahn books, especially Mara Jade, are either mischaracterized, forgotten or used merely as tokens. Even the movie characters such as Luke are mistreated as he is portrayed as embarrasingly incompetent at times The humor, jokes and irony are written strictly for the younger set and will leave readers with any maturity shaking their head in disbelief that the book made it past Lucasfilm's editors. The (largely two-dimensional) plot devices are mainly dead dark Jedi and overwrought superweapons of unrealistic capabilities. Gone is any pretense at guile, subtletly and cleverness.

I'm guessing that the leadership at Lucasfilm that authorized Kevin J. Anderson to write this book and subsequently signed off on the final results figured that anything with "Star Wars" on the cover would sell fabulously. In actuality, sales figures for all the novels following the Zahn trilogy have never come close and KJA's juvenile effort is largely to blame for turning thoughtful fans off. It has taken years and numerous books by vastly superior authors to correct the mess this unthinking hack had created out of the Star Wars story line.

I read this trilogy when there wasn't any other Star Wars stuff out there I hadn't read. Even without the prequel trilogy invalidating the continuity of these novels, these novels had problems. I'm surprised that I made it to the end of Vol. 3.

We now know a lot more about being a Jedi Master than Luke did in these books, and his academy was not much like the Jedi Order as portrayed by Lucas. And the impossibility of a Sith retaining his identity beyond his physical death (when love is the key to doing so) destroys the main premise of this trilogy.

But there are a lot of rediculous things in these books like a Jedi baby in action to save Luke Skywalker (yes, you read that right, a baby) and a super weapon that destroys star-systems. And this story features yet another Jedi that takes the path of the Dark Side, but will he return to the good side? Yes, but who cares? We've seen this before.

I didn't think these books were that good at the time, but they are even worse in retrospect. Don't waste your time. Instead of this series, I highly recommend the following 5-star novels:

Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)
Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul)
Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel)
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars)

One thing that I have noticed while reading Star Wars novels is that the title only gives the barest of bare frames as to what the novel is about. This one is titled "Jedi Search" and so one would believe that the book is going to focus mostly on Luke Skywalker's search for some potential Jedi (or surviving Jedi, but given the timeline that's not nearly as likely). Luke's search for potential Jedi apprentices to reform the Jedi Knights is a part of "Jedi Search", but it isn't nearly as large of a part as I expected given the title.

Han Solo is sent on a diplomatic mission to Kessel where he is to make contact with the planetary administrators and see about bringing them into the New Republic fold. The Millenium Falcon is attacked and crashes on Kessel. Han and Chewie find themselves in the infamous Kessel Spice Mines, but Han's story takes several other big twists which would reveal a little bit too much of the plot and take something away from the experience. Meanwhile Leia is back on Corsuscant dealing with her diplomatic duties and awaiting the arrival of their two year old twin children. The Solo children have been in hiding during a period where they are especially sensitive to the Force and are returning home for the first time. Leia begins to realize that something must be more wrong with Han than "forgetting" about the children and sends Luke and Lando off to discover what happened to Han. This is after, of course, Luke discovers a couple of potential Jedi candidates.

"Jedi Search" is the first book in a trilogy so while there is a small sense of story resolution the ending opens up a bigger quest and issues to be resolved in the next two books of Kevin Anderson's trilogy. New threats from the fading Empire continue to emerge, and new weapons that may actually dwarf the damage potential of the Death Star are uncovered. The risk to the New Republic is as great as it was from the Empire or Thrawn. And what is this bit about a resurrected Emperor and Luke training under him? Something to do with a comic, I believe, but it seems random and very odd.

Was it any good? I was a little skeptical, but it was decent. I have a general complaint about many Star Wars novels and that is a lack of focus on a single (or even two) viewpoint. Because this novel jumped between Luke, Leia, Han, and even to Lando, the story felt a little choppy because each character was off doing something different somewhere else. It works, on one hand, to keep us caught up with everything, but on the other hand it is a little distracting. I like the technique from other authors, so maybe it just doesn't work very well for some of these authors. Still, there is just enough action to keep me interested and I wanted to know more about this "Sun Crusher" and this other band of Empire soldiers and especially about Luke's search for Jedi descendants and how he'll train them. I really hope that will be a much larger part of the next two books and this is, after all, the "Jedi Academy" trilogy. I didn't love the book, but it read fast and I enjoyed the time I spent reading. It doesn't rank among the best of Star Wars, but it's decently good all the same.

-Joe Sherry

Kevin J. Anderson is the guy that really got Star Wars comic books going, and it shows in a painfully glaring way in his writing. First of all, he seems to think that what he writes will have pictures accompanying it so that all he really needs is dialogue. The book (and entire series) is virtually devoid of decent, or even below average, graphical descriptions.
Secondly, as a previous reviewer pointed out, there are way too many superweapons in the series, which goes back to the comic book tendency; generally, for comic books to succeed, something monumental must happen in every comic, or there must be some impressive icon, such as a superweapon, to keep the reader involved. Anderson seems to think this is also needed in his novel. The last point I have to make is that Admiral Daala is a pathetic bad guy. Anderson spends all this time building up her character, and talking about how she overcame all the odds and how she's a brilliant tactician, and then she loses every battle she engages in throughout the series. This book is not worthy of your time.

The only reason I give this book two stars instead of one is because several of the characters which Anderson created in this book are well done. This is the ONLY reason.

Thank HEAVENS this book didn't come out in hardback firstotherwise I would have ... to get my money back. This series startsoff with great promise, and a premise that is actually a greatidea...however Anderson has no talent to pull it off smoothy. Idisagree with one of the reviewers that tells you to wait until you'veread all the other Star Wars books before getting into the JediAcademy Trilogy...IF you are insisting upon reading this series, getit overwith FIRST before you read

ANY other Star Wars books...it'sbetter to go UP rather than read some of the good books only to be letDOWN by THIS series. IF you have LOW expectations, Anderson is yourguy. I agree with a previous reviewer that Anderson's unforgivableannoyance of referring back to previous stories that HE had a hand inwriting was totally distracting. When I first read this I couldn'thelp but wonder what in the world he was referring TO. When in thepast had Luke been drawn over to the Dark Side???? Anderson keptreferring to it as though it was in another novel but as I FINALLYfound out it was in a series of comic books he wrote as well as anaudio book he helped write and produce. What a joke! With that said,the very 'essence' of Star Wars is totally missing in this entireseries. I can think of just 3 maybe 4 authors who have written StarWars books that are worth reading, Dave Wolverton, Steve Perry &the KING of Star Wars, Timothy Zahn. Like I said, if you MUST readthese books, do it BEFORE you start 'Heir To The Empire' and, wellmost ALL of the others out there, otherwise you might be soured onStar Wars for good. Now that I have totally thrashed this series, IHAVE to admit that Anderson DID create a fast-moving series with lotsof action. I have read some other novels by Anderson and he isn't abad author at all, but Star Wars ISN'T his area of expertise you ifget my drift...

This book is okay, not great, but okay.

The plot is good, but I would have liked to see more time spent on Luke and his trainees. With a title like, "Jedi Search" you'd think that would be the main focus, but Anderson spends much time on Kyp Durron and Han Solo on Kessel. It's interesting enough, and you can see why anyone would not want to be exiled there. Characters are written well: new characters are great, old characters remain true to the past. However...

Anderson's style is a bit patronizing. It seems as if this is a book written for kids, and the plot is very predictible. Plus, I always wonder WHY we have to keep having a superweapon in every story? Not only is there a new planet destroying weapon, but there's ANOTHER Death Star, which will see action further in the trilogy. It was bad enough that there was a second in Jedi, but now we have to have a third? Anderson seems a bit short on creativity and subtlety. And why must we have all those references to the just AWFUL comic books about the resurrected Emperor and Luke's apprenticeship to him? The comic books were bad enough, but to tie it in with the novels, all I can say is why?

This book is filled with more bad than good, but there's enough here to keep a devoted fan reading 'til the end.