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fisk42's review against another edition
3.0
Review for the Jedi Academy Trilogy (Overall trilogy rating 4/5):
This was one of my favorite series set in the Star Wars universe growing up. After a re-read it's still near the tops for me* in terms of the ideas it covers, but it's flaws are more obvious to me now.
This trilogy covers an amazing number of great scenes and world building:
- We get to see the planet Kessel and get introduced to The Maw (a series of black holes near the planet). That world and the spice within get very fleshed out. We also learn how Han was able to brag about making the Kessel run using a unit of distance instead of time.
- Blob Races!
- Good development of Admiral Ackbar, his homeworld, and people.
- A race of aliens with a tower sized glass cathedral with the only purpose of being a building sized flute.
- We finally get introduced to Han and Leia's twins.
- Luke makes his first fumbling attempts at reestablishing the Jedi.
- The Sun Crusher! There is a new big bad weapon in town and it blows up stars!
Overall these books are fun and have a lot going for them. The purported villain is pretty weak (though you could argue that the real villain is an anti-hero within the book). Also for some reason Kevin J. Anderson has some *really* weird issues with time and space. For example, it felt like the books took place over the course of a couple weeks (which made it feel very cramped in terms of what happened) but apparently it was actually months if not longer.
* (In terms of overall Star Wars Legends recommendations I think the Thrawn trilogy is top. I'm not really a huge fan of a lot that was written around the time of the prequels. The X-Wing series as I've written before is also amazing. And I'll get to it in my re-read later on but the New Jedi Order series is also fantastic. But the NJO isn't as significant if you haven't lived with the characters and books like these contribute heavily to that.)
This was one of my favorite series set in the Star Wars universe growing up. After a re-read it's still near the tops for me* in terms of the ideas it covers, but it's flaws are more obvious to me now.
This trilogy covers an amazing number of great scenes and world building:
- We get to see the planet Kessel and get introduced to The Maw (a series of black holes near the planet). That world and the spice within get very fleshed out. We also learn how Han was able to brag about making the Kessel run using a unit of distance instead of time.
- Blob Races!
- Good development of Admiral Ackbar, his homeworld, and people.
- A race of aliens with a tower sized glass cathedral with the only purpose of being a building sized flute.
- We finally get introduced to Han and Leia's twins.
- Luke makes his first fumbling attempts at reestablishing the Jedi.
- The Sun Crusher! There is a new big bad weapon in town and it blows up stars!
Overall these books are fun and have a lot going for them. The purported villain is pretty weak (though you could argue that the real villain is an anti-hero within the book). Also for some reason Kevin J. Anderson has some *really* weird issues with time and space. For example, it felt like the books took place over the course of a couple weeks (which made it feel very cramped in terms of what happened) but apparently it was actually months if not longer.
* (In terms of overall Star Wars Legends recommendations I think the Thrawn trilogy is top. I'm not really a huge fan of a lot that was written around the time of the prequels. The X-Wing series as I've written before is also amazing. And I'll get to it in my re-read later on but the New Jedi Order series is also fantastic. But the NJO isn't as significant if you haven't lived with the characters and books like these contribute heavily to that.)
fantastiskfiktion's review against another edition
3.0
http://fantastiskfiktion.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/star-wars-iii-jedi-academy-trilogy/
juperez's review against another edition
1.0
Some truly juvenile drivel here. If I were a Disney exec, I too, would have thrown this one out.
kb_208's review against another edition
4.0
A good end to a really solid trilogy. I enjoyed reading through these about as much as the Zahn Trilogy. I know most like the other much better, but these stories hold their own. It's worth the read through if you're still interested in the "non-canon" stuff.
artemisreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
i feel like this series had so much potential but it just fell so flat and it’s like barely about luke and his academy even though that’s the literal name of the series and what it’s meant to be about 😭😭
twilliamson's review against another edition
2.0
It's hard to judge the quality of a book like Champions of the Force on its own merit, as it essentially has none. It's not a book with good prose, it doesn't have robust characterization or deep philosophical themes, and it isn't even particularly well-plotted. It's a novel tie-in to a corporate media franchise, and is essentially as soulless as that sounds.
Nevertheless, something changed in me as I read through Champions of the Force. Whereas Anderson's previous two novels in the Jedi Academy Trilogy were absolute garbage, I found myself oddly nostalgic for the garbage as the trilogy concluded. This book isn't good--I'd barely even call it a book if it weren't for the fact that it is printed on pages bound into a single volume and contains a story about characters doing things--but it's kind of sweetly innocent. Maybe I'm just less cynical about the book being so desperate to have its cake and eat it too, but I felt like I had given up trying to resent Anderson for trying to write his terribly plotted trilogy and just accepted that nothing I can do will change this steaming pile of trash into a fragrant mound of sweet clover. The book will be what it will be, and perhaps I can accept its many flaws for the benefit of moving on with my life.
Luke Skywalker, again the Jedi Master of this trilogy, features in this book for approximately 15% of its length. His Jedi apprentices become full Jedi Knights at the end of the book. I'm unsure of how or why they are able to do so, considering that Luke is barely in this whole fucking trilogy and not even a third of the trilogy's total length so much as focuses on their training, but in a trilogy featuring blob racing, extreme downhill skiing, and a prototype Death Star piloted by committee, I've learned to just give up hoping it could be good.
The result of my reading of Champions of the Force is that I simply give up trying to think of this book as anything other than a terrible, terrible novel, and the thought made the book so much more fun for me. Rather than seeing its absolute stupidity as its weakness, I came to recognize its fundamental idiocy as the whole point of its charm. This is a stupid book for stupid people like me who don't know how to value their time, and that's really, really funny to me.
Honestly, I'll be fine if I never read Champions of the Force, or any of Anderson's trilogy, again. I know I will read it again, because I have no taste, but I would be fine if I never read it again. I'm fine even having read it, because life is meaningless and these books don't fucking matter. There's peace in that, a tranquility in idiocy that becomes a soothing balm for the burning dogshit of the rest of the world. Sometimes, it's fine to let a bad book just be a bad book, and embrace that it could still be fun--whether ironically or not.
So good job, Champions of the Force. You didn't ruin Star Wars for me. You didn't help me love it any more, but you didn't ruin it. You kept me involved for a week of reading at a stupid, no good time in the world, and that makes you better than I expected.
Now stop making fucking Death Stars and other superweapons, it's already a fucking tired trope.
Nevertheless, something changed in me as I read through Champions of the Force. Whereas Anderson's previous two novels in the Jedi Academy Trilogy were absolute garbage, I found myself oddly nostalgic for the garbage as the trilogy concluded. This book isn't good--I'd barely even call it a book if it weren't for the fact that it is printed on pages bound into a single volume and contains a story about characters doing things--but it's kind of sweetly innocent. Maybe I'm just less cynical about the book being so desperate to have its cake and eat it too, but I felt like I had given up trying to resent Anderson for trying to write his terribly plotted trilogy and just accepted that nothing I can do will change this steaming pile of trash into a fragrant mound of sweet clover. The book will be what it will be, and perhaps I can accept its many flaws for the benefit of moving on with my life.
Luke Skywalker, again the Jedi Master of this trilogy, features in this book for approximately 15% of its length. His Jedi apprentices become full Jedi Knights at the end of the book. I'm unsure of how or why they are able to do so, considering that Luke is barely in this whole fucking trilogy and not even a third of the trilogy's total length so much as focuses on their training, but in a trilogy featuring blob racing, extreme downhill skiing, and a prototype Death Star piloted by committee, I've learned to just give up hoping it could be good.
The result of my reading of Champions of the Force is that I simply give up trying to think of this book as anything other than a terrible, terrible novel, and the thought made the book so much more fun for me. Rather than seeing its absolute stupidity as its weakness, I came to recognize its fundamental idiocy as the whole point of its charm. This is a stupid book for stupid people like me who don't know how to value their time, and that's really, really funny to me.
Honestly, I'll be fine if I never read Champions of the Force, or any of Anderson's trilogy, again. I know I will read it again, because I have no taste, but I would be fine if I never read it again. I'm fine even having read it, because life is meaningless and these books don't fucking matter. There's peace in that, a tranquility in idiocy that becomes a soothing balm for the burning dogshit of the rest of the world. Sometimes, it's fine to let a bad book just be a bad book, and embrace that it could still be fun--whether ironically or not.
So good job, Champions of the Force. You didn't ruin Star Wars for me. You didn't help me love it any more, but you didn't ruin it. You kept me involved for a week of reading at a stupid, no good time in the world, and that makes you better than I expected.
Now stop making fucking Death Stars and other superweapons, it's already a fucking tired trope.
ofclumsywords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
pakebrokenshire's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25