Customer Reviews

The Shadow Academy (Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights, Book 2)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not a big hater of Mr. Anderson like a lot of people are. These were written to a younger audience and he achieved it. They are still interesting and these stories play a big part in the following books. I would recommend this book to Star Wars fans young and old. I'm sorry I waited to read these but it makes them more interesting knowing what happens to them later.

This story is about the Dark Jedi apprentice starts his own school of training Dark Jedi-the Shadow Academy. Luke Skywalker had once tried to turn him, but the evil training of the Empire proved to be firmly placed inside him. He had disappeared...only to reappear now.
Meanwhile, the twins and Lowbacca are visiting their adopted "Uncle" Lando's GemDiver station, the job of the place is to capture valuable Coruscan gems. Suddenly, an Imperial fleet appears and attacks the station. The Imperials shoot all the workers, including Lando, into unconsciousness and kidnaps the twins and Lowie.
Tenel Ka, who didn't go along with them because she had to have a meeting with the Ambassador Yfra, and Luke Skywalker race to find them. They find out that the Nightsisters of Dathomir, who had been all destroyed, was rising up again and were making alliances with the Empire. They also find out that the twins and Lowie had been taken to a Shadow Academy...to be trained into becoming Dark Jedi Knights for the rising Empire.

What will happen to the twins and Lowie? Will Luke and Tenel Ka be too late?

This book is great, I love reading it! I'm sure you will too, and the next book, "The Lost Ones" is just as good so you will want to read it as well!

Written by the terrific husband and wife team, Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, the Star Wars Young Jedi Knights series are not to be missed! These series of books center on the young twins of Han Solo and Lei Organa, Jacen and Jacen, and their friends, Lowbacca and Tenel Ka, as they journey on the road to becoming Jedi Knights.

The second book, "Shadow Academy", begins where the twins and their friend Lowie journey to Lando's new venture, GemDiver Station. Unfortunately, Tenel Ka couldn't go with them since her grandmother, the Matriarch of the Royal Hapan Cluster, had sent her ambassador, Yfra, to visit her. Tenel Ka has still not confessed to her friends about her true identity, the heir to the Royal Throne of Hapes. But little does anyone know that an evil force is growing stronger all the time, this same evil force with evil plans for the young jedi knights...

"Shadow Academy" is so much fun, one of my favorites of the first part of the first six books of the series. But "Lightsbaers" and "Jedi Under Siege" comes pretty close. The five main characters of the books are well likable because each of them have their own personalities, characteristics, and quirks.

JACEN: He loves all living thing from plants, animals, to insects. In his own room he has his on menagerie of them. He has a special talent in using the Force to communicate with living creatures.
JAINA: An almost complete opposite of her brother, she takes after her father, Han Solo. She is a mechanical whiz and just loves taking apart and putting together droids, machines, and just almost anything. Also like her father, she is very spirited and has a self-confidence which makes her a natural leader.
LOWBACCA: Called Lowie by his friends, he is a Wookie and the nephew of Chewbacca. Very courageous and strong, he loves his friends very much. But sometimes he can't but just help missing his home planet Kashyyyk.
EM TEEDEE: Very much like C-3PO (almost to a fault), Em Teedee is a miniature translating droid who is always kept on Lowie's belt. Though talkative and annoying at times, Em Teedee is a member of the five friends.
TENEL KA: My personal favorite character, Tenel Ka is the daughter of Teneniel Djo, one of the witches of Dathomir, and Prince Isolder of the Royal House of Hapes. Loyal, a little humorless, brave, and strong, she is a warrior and most of all a true friend. Though strong in the force, she tries not to rely too much in it so she is very athletic.

So I highly recommend you read all of the fourteen books in order. The series are divided mostly into three parts. The first six books are about the rising force of the Empire and its Dark Jedi Knights. The next five books are about how the Jedi's must stop the Diversity Alliance. And the last three books are how the Jedi's deal with Czethros and Black Sun. Another Star Wars series I very much recommend are the "Jedi Apprentice" series. Don't miss them!

I know Anderson is a better writer than this book, and that is taking it into consideration that this is a book for young adults, but this book was not up to his usual standards (read the first in the series, and you'll see he can write a young adult fiction well). First of all, I cannot believe that with the twins being kidnapped, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando (and remember, he is somewhat responsible) sat back and did nothing. That doesn't even fit with their character at all. I think the idea of the Shadow Academy is something Anderson should have used for his next trilogy...there was so much more that could have been done with this idea that just wasn't. I am greatly disappointed that ANderson let such a good story idea fall so flat.

I especially liked this Book because it really starts the Jedi/Sith relation ship and it begins the actual story because it introduces the real enemy to the Jedi: The Shadow Academy.

In this book, Luke tells the Young Jedi knights that he encountered spies in his acedemy long ago, sent by the Second Imperium. Luke came across one truely talented young man by the name of Brakiss. Instead of banishing him like the others, he decided to keep him and train him. Luke made an attempt to turn him from the dark side.

One day, while Luke was giving the young man lessons, Brakiss left the Jedi acedemy and fled. Luke had failed to turn him and later will encounter him in a more deadly form.

The Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, and their friends, Lowbacca and Tenal Ka, have been given permission by Lando Calarissian to come to his Gem diver station located on the Gas Giant Yavin. They all decide to go, except Tenal Ka. She imforms her friends that she thinks that the experiance would be boring and that she had seen rainbow gems on Gallinore.

When the twins arrive at the Gem diver station, Lando shows them around and tells them how his company mines a very rare gem known as Corusca Gems. When Lando is done showing them how to capture the gems, an unknown fleet appears. Lando tells them that nothing could get past their heavily armored walls, but the fleet had a speacial mechanism that got through. They later relise that the ship was using Corusca Gems to cut trough. When the ship docked with the station, and Dark women walked into the station with a squad of strom troopers. Jaina, feeling a distrubance in the force, somehow knew that they were after her and her friends.

The dark women stunned all the guards and captured the young jedi knights and took them to the Shadow Acendmy where they would be trained as Dark Jedi to assist the Second Imperium.

I really enjoyed this book and it was a very good addition to the Young Jedi Knights series.

This is probably one of my favorites in the Young Jedi Knights sereis.
Jaina, Jacen, and Lowie go to Lando's GemDiver station. While they're there, a group kidnapps them. They are taken to the Shadow Academy to be trained in the Dark Side of the Force.
Meanwhile, Tenal Ka and Luke learn of the kidnapping and set out to find the twins and Lowie.
Will Luke and Tenal Ka find Jaina, Jacen, and Lowbacca? Or will the Shadow Academy succede where the Emperor did not(turning the heirs of Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force)?
Grab this book and find out! You won't regret it!!![.]

Any Star Wars fan out there must read this book. The Solo children are some of the best Star Wars characters ever and they are really good in this book too. This was sooo exciting; I couldn't put it down. Jacen, Jaina, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Luke are really cool. Nobody went out of character, and this book was never boring. The plot was very original. A MUST-read for any fan. Do yourself a favour. READ THIS BOOK!!! Also, read the other Young Jedi Knights books too, because they're awesome!

Jacen and Jaina and their friends find themselves swept up into a larger plot. The Empire's back and gearing up for a confrontation. To that end, they're seeking recruits among the willing and the unwilling. The twins and Lowie get kidnapped to be turned into Dark Jedi, only they're not so pleased about that prospect. They find themselves facing more than rhetoric, rocks and daggers to be precise.

Meanwhile, Tenel Ka joins Luke Skywalker on the hunt for the kidnappers.

What results is a decent YA book. Taken as part of the whole YJK series, it's a pretty exciting chapter.

Jedi twins Jacen and Jaina Solo and their fellow Jedi Academy trainee Lowbacca are delighted when Lando Calrissian invites them to visit his GemDiver Station. No one expects an attack on the station that mines gems harder than diamonds from Yavin, the gas giant planet orbited by the moon where the Academy is located. But that's what happens, and it doesn't take long for both the twins and Lando to figure out that the three young Jedi were the only reason for that attack. They've been kidnapped by a new kind of Nightsister from Dathomir, the Force-strong planet that is home to the mother of Jedi trainee Tenel Ka. Who teams up with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, the Solo twins' uncle as well as their teacher, to figure out exactly where the missing trio has been taken and why.

They have been taken to the Shadow Academy, a cloaked space station on which Brakiss - a former student of Luke Skywalker, who was always a spy for the Empire - has set up a school for the training of dark Jedi. Brakiss wants more Force-talented students, and one way to get them is by kidnapping Skywalker's students.

A quick, enjoyable read, although I agree with the reviewer who notes that the plot device used to keep Han and Leia from rushing to join the search for their children - and Chewbacca from trying to find and rescue his nephew - does not work well enough to suspend disbelief. Still, a good entry in the Young Jedi Knights series. I especially enjoyed its solid continuity within the overall Star Wars universe as the books have developed it.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of 2005 science fiction EPPIE winner "Regs"

I read the first one and I loved it and couldn't put it down. I thought it was very well written, but felt almost opposite about this one. I didn't like the plot or the way it was delivered. I might have had too high expectations for this book, but I didn't like it at all.