Customer Reviews

Shards of Alderaan (Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights, Book 7)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recommendation This book takes place in the Tatooine. I would recommend this book for People between the ages of 11-14 because it presents a wide of survival events in Tatooine that were both exciting and intense. A reason that this book was exciting was the things that Jacen and Jaina ran into in space. "Jacen said that this is the best trip to Alderaan because they did something for their mother. Then they went to their mother to give her the rock she said what is this they said a rock from Alderaan. I recommendation this book to people who likes to read Star Wars because if you do not like Star Wars you will not like this book. "Dad," Jaina said. "Jacen and I have been trying to come with just the perfect gift for Mom's birthday. That means that they love their mother a lot "Then Leia said that if Jacen and Jaina don't work together they will not get back." That means that they will not get back at all.

I loved this book it is very suspendful. But the book wasn't as good as all the other Young Jedi Knights. The book I think u should read would have to be Jedi Under Siege. This book has a descent amount of action in it. I especially like the part when Zekks friend dies.

Although I have always read the Star Wars books, I thought that this book really, truley sucked. First of all, you don't just go out into space and expect to find a hunk of a planet that blew up twenty years ago. Second of all, isn't Boba Fett fifty by now? And how did he get his armor back? In tales from Jabba's palace, he was found naked in the sand. And last but not least: What about Luke's birthday. I hate neglegence to the main character in side books. First they make him seem like a wuss; then they forget his birthday! If it was an adoption thing that they were celebrating, they could of at least said something about it. If you're nine years old or less, fine, read it. But anyone over ten might as well just wait for another Star Wars book to come out. This one just didn't have the usual Star Wars spunk.

So it wasn't the BEST way to begin a new story arc. Okay, okay, okay, so it was a pretty BAD way to begin a new story arc. But hey. Look who co-wrote this thing. KJA. What can 'ya do?

In reference to the previously mentioned "birthday flaw," I have a theory for why this happened. We all know our buddy KJA's rather... well... let's just say NEGATIVE attitute towards Luke. I mean, if you've read KJA's "Jedi Acadamy" Trilogy, y'all know what I'm talkin' about. He made the poor guy a total wussie there. So I don't know why any of you people actually EXPECTED KJA to remember that Luke and Leia are twins and therefore that they should share the same birthday. Pity, too. I was hoping that he would actually have a bit of heart an' acknowledge that for once... but it never turned up. And you wonder why Luke's so darn depressed all the time...

Jedi twins Jacen and Jaina, children of Leia Organa and Han Solo, are working with their fellow Jedi Academy students on repairs as the story opens. The academy has suffered heavy damage in a recent battle with the Dark Side. Eventually, though, the twins have a chance to set off on a shake-down cruise when their classmate Tenel Ka is given her own ship by her royal grandmother. Jacen and Jaina know exactly where they want to go: to the debris field that's the remains of Alderaan, their mother's girlhood home world, after the Death Star destroyed it. They're hoping to find one special fragment to present to Leia as a birthday gift. Of course the trip doesn't go that smoothly...things never do, when you're a Jedi.

Hmmm. Luke and Leia are twins, which means they have the same birthday. Even if their different sets of foster parents changed one's recorded birth date in an attempt to better hide them from their father, by now they both know when that real birthday is; so why is Leia's being celebrated, and Luke's ignored? That glaring error does nothing for an otherwise enjoyable although rather light-weight and often "talky" adventure.

The Young Jedi Knights books come in exactly two flavors: there are the wild adventures that lose emotional impact by virtue of their undisciplined exuberance...and then there are the slower books with more emotion and less story. SHARDS OF ALDERAAN falls squarely into the second category. Despite its lack of narrative direction, it's one of the most memorable of all the Y.J.K. books.

The plot is slow but never dull: its languor is a result of emotional sensitivity rather than lack of enthusiasm on the authors' parts. Anderson and Moesta don't plunge immediately into the next galactic crisis, but instead examine the aftermath of the previous book's climactic battle. Their melancholy treatment of adolescence contrasts starkly with the series' typically jolly tone. Most importantly, the reader feels that the characters have actually developed over the course of the series; they don't hyperspace jump between puberty and adulthood, but grow realistically.

One of my greatest frustrations with the subsequent New Jedi Order series was the assumption that war could instantly transform the characters into numb killers. That's a cheap justification to make the Young Jedi Knights "grimmer and grittier" - hence, more marketable. Anderson and Moesta, on the other hand, aren't concerned with sex appeal. They sympathize with the confusions of young life.

In other stories, Anderson and Moesta too often descend into exposition. Not so in SHARDS OF ALDERAAN: it's sleek prose from beginning to end. The authors intersperse every paragraph with atmospheric details, so that the description never overpowers the narrative but nevertheless builds a complete world. Mood is palpable, a thunder cloud hanging over the story.

It's fortunate that mood occupies most of the reader's attention: the plot is so lightweight that it flutters for entire chapters and finally just blows away on the breeze. Actually, the entire storyline revolves around a desperate quest for a...birthday gift. Thankfully, the idea is not as farcical as it sounds - in fact, it conveys a better sense of family ties than most of the Y.J.K. books. But it's stage dressing for characterization. After Anderson and Moesta have spread the emotional subplots thinly across every page, they resort to repeating the same scenes over and over again. Still, their voice remains rich to the close, which more than compensates. The conclusion approaches sentimentality but finally settles into comfortable warmheartedness. No worries: that descent looked a little rough, but the landing was right on target!

SHARDS OF ALDERAAN isn't the sort of book you can sell on plot summary alone. But every story needs this sort of calm intermezzo between adventures. Of course, there are always storms on the horizon - savor the introspection while it lasts!

Not a very exciting book Jacen and Jaina are off trying to find a birthday present for Leia by heading towards the ah..remains of Alderaan.

At first I was thrilled this was the first time I've read a Star Wars book that's celebrating Leia's birthday but what about Luke? Their uncle, their master and Leia's twin brother. Its his birthday too. How could Jaina and Jacen forget? The twin part makes it easy to remember. Doesn't he deserve a birthday present too? A party? Something that acknowledged it was his birthday too? That just distracted me from the entire story and the reason for the one star I mean that's kind of a big detail for the authors to forget. Its not like they were going to have one party for Leia and one for Luke or anything.

I thought that this version of the young jedi knights was very good. I liked how the family had a reunion with at the Jedi Training center. I also think it was kinda unrealistic that Leia, had teh time to go to the train center to see her children for such a long time. (She is the person in charge of the New Republic). I was wondering why teh bounty hunter became so violent at the end. Fett was known for his cunningness, and agilty. I dougt that he would have took off as quickly as he did when Zekk attacked. I don't understand why Han Solo and Chewie were so happy in the end of the story. They were excited to see the children , but I don't think they would be as happy as when they blew up the death star. I liked how the young jedi knights didn't panic in a tough situation. It was cool that they got themselves out of the mess. Overall, I feel taht it was a exciting, though sometimes unrealistic story. ( But, heck, this is science fiction--whatta you expect!

Our main cast of Jacen, Jaina, Lowbacca, and Tenal Ka return. Zekk sets out on his own. Rayner finally gets his story expanded and we learn more about a character who previously hadn't done much. We start to learn about the Diversity Alliance. Then Boba Fett shows up (some have said it's actually his daughter masquerading as him, but I see no evidence to support it). As always with the Young Jedi Knights, there is action, humor, and it's a fairly easy read.

I'll admit, this is probably one of the more boring books in the series, but it was still well-written and had good, true-to-life characters. Part of what makes this such a good series is that the same plots are not recycled over and over again, and each book has it's own particular dilemma to solve that all adds up to the intertwining plot of the whole series. In this particular story, Jacen and Jaina go to the Alderaan system to get a small piece of the planet to give to their mother, Leia for her birthday. As you can probably guess, things do not go as planned and they have several adventures along the way which I won't elaborate on for those of you who havn't read it yet. One of the good points of this book, and this whole series actually, is that the kids in them are so nice. They are always polite and respectful and are never cruel and nasty to anyone. And yet, the authors accomplished this so flawlessly that it doesn't make them seem like goody-two-shoes either, since they can be bad sometimes too, it's just pleasant to read that kind of a book sometimes. One of the major flaws in this book, which several people have already mentioned, is that the everyone forgets that it isn't just Leia's birthday, it's Luke's too. I mean, the whole point of the story was that the twins get a present for their mother, and then, even in the ending birthday scene, everyone completely forgets about Luke, including Luke himself it would seem! If what they celebrate is their adoption dates then they at least should have said something about that instead of just ignoring him. I think that would kind of hurt his feelings. Well, at least he got to come to the party. Like I said, this is an excellent book in the series, if you ignore the flaws I just mentioned.