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txa1265's review against another edition
4.0
The book is good in most ways, but honestly the game handles the narrative pacing better.
jaredkwheeler's review against another edition
2.0
Star Wars Legends Project #321
Background: Dark Forces: Rebel Agent was written by [a:William C. Dietz|78736|William C. Dietz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550676046p2/78736.jpg] as the second of three tie-in novellas to the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight video games. It was published in March 1998. Dietz wrote all three novellas in the series.
Rebel Agent takes place 5 years after the battle of Yavin. The main character is Kyle Katarn, along with Jan Ors and the Dark Jedi Jerec. There are appearances by Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Boba Fett, Qu Rahn, and various others. The novel takes place on various planets, but mainly Nar Shaddaa, Sullust, and Ruusan.
Summary: Kyle Katarn, secret agent for the Alliance, is on a much more personal mission: To find his father's killer and avenge his father's death. But his search will uncover a secret sought by one of the most powerful evils in the galaxy: the location of the Lost Valley of the Jedi, with consequences that demand the attention of Empire and Alliance alike.
Review: This such a significant step-down from the first book in the series, and I can only speculate as to why. It's the same writer and the same characters, but it was an absolute slog to get through, and then it just suddenly ends very abruptly. Like, yes, it's the first half of a 2-part story, but there's probably a better way to conclude it than just picking a spot about halfway through and cutting, right? There's no resolution, and it's incredibly unsatisfying.
But anyway, my speculation: What makes the first book more successful that's a failure here is Dietz's lack of freedom to tell the story. The first book was a prequel to the Dark Forces video game, and it has to work within the confines of the character established by the game, but beyond that Dietz seems to have had a lot more freedom to tell a story in his own way. This is a rigid adaptation of Jedi Knight, the next game in the series, so Dietz is locked into just . . . describing a playthrough of the game. And as fond as my memories of playing that game are, this is a really dull way to experience that story.
The story is also riddled with weird inconsistencies of canon because it's from a video game version of Star Wars (and pre-prequels besides), but that's not that big of a deal compared to the lifelessness of watching Dietz trudge through a pre-determined outline. And I don't even remember the game THAT well, you could just feel how rote the whole exercise is. The only parts of the book with any life in them are the flashbacks detailing Morgan Katarn's discovery of the Valley of the Jedi. Dietz is a competent writer, it's just a shame he couldn't do better with this material.
C-
Background: Dark Forces: Rebel Agent was written by [a:William C. Dietz|78736|William C. Dietz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550676046p2/78736.jpg] as the second of three tie-in novellas to the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight video games. It was published in March 1998. Dietz wrote all three novellas in the series.
Rebel Agent takes place 5 years after the battle of Yavin. The main character is Kyle Katarn, along with Jan Ors and the Dark Jedi Jerec. There are appearances by Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Boba Fett, Qu Rahn, and various others. The novel takes place on various planets, but mainly Nar Shaddaa, Sullust, and Ruusan.
Summary: Kyle Katarn, secret agent for the Alliance, is on a much more personal mission: To find his father's killer and avenge his father's death. But his search will uncover a secret sought by one of the most powerful evils in the galaxy: the location of the Lost Valley of the Jedi, with consequences that demand the attention of Empire and Alliance alike.
Review: This such a significant step-down from the first book in the series, and I can only speculate as to why. It's the same writer and the same characters, but it was an absolute slog to get through, and then it just suddenly ends very abruptly. Like, yes, it's the first half of a 2-part story, but there's probably a better way to conclude it than just picking a spot about halfway through and cutting, right? There's no resolution, and it's incredibly unsatisfying.
But anyway, my speculation: What makes the first book more successful that's a failure here is Dietz's lack of freedom to tell the story. The first book was a prequel to the Dark Forces video game, and it has to work within the confines of the character established by the game, but beyond that Dietz seems to have had a lot more freedom to tell a story in his own way. This is a rigid adaptation of Jedi Knight, the next game in the series, so Dietz is locked into just . . . describing a playthrough of the game. And as fond as my memories of playing that game are, this is a really dull way to experience that story.
The story is also riddled with weird inconsistencies of canon because it's from a video game version of Star Wars (and pre-prequels besides), but that's not that big of a deal compared to the lifelessness of watching Dietz trudge through a pre-determined outline. And I don't even remember the game THAT well, you could just feel how rote the whole exercise is. The only parts of the book with any life in them are the flashbacks detailing Morgan Katarn's discovery of the Valley of the Jedi. Dietz is a competent writer, it's just a shame he couldn't do better with this material.
C-
hstapp's review against another edition
3.0
An exciting book that makes me feel like I wasn't paying enough attention to the story in Jedi knight. It does a good job of telling the story through a slightly different lens. Also the pictures are pretty.
chickennick's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
2.25
jediprincess's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This was really choppy
verkisto's review against another edition
3.0
I got confused at the start of this presentation, since it began with Morgan Katarn's story, told from his perspective. At first, I thought I had confused the father and the son, but no, I remembered Kyle Katarn is the character from the Dark Forces series. Then I thought I had mixed up the order of the audio dramatizations, but after checking, I saw I was going in the right direction. By that time, a good chunk of the first part of the story was done, and I had to go back and start over because I was too distracted to get anything out of it.
In actuality, this story takes place five years after the end of Return of the Jedi, though it starts in flashback before Soldier for the Empire. Katarn is still a not-100%-trustworthy member of the Rebel Alliance, which is unusual, since by now the Empire is on the decline. I mean, five years on, and Mon Mothma still doesn't trust the guy completely? OK.
Speaking of Mon Mothma, this series is lousy with fan service, since all the well-known characters from the movies show up. Yoda appeared in Soldier for the Empire, and now Luke, Leia, and Mon Mothma all show up, too. (If I'm remembering correctly, R2-D2 has a cameo, too, by way of Leia. It's been a few days since I listened to it, and I might be mixing it up with one of the other books in the series.) On the one hand, the Force can bring all these folks together; on the other hand, it makes the Expanded Universe that much smaller, since everything seems to revolve around these five-to-ten characters.
Since this is an audio presentation, it suffers from the same problems as other dramatizations: things being spoken aloud that people wouldn't normally say; things happening too quickly to stay under a certain time limit; dialogue that works well on paper, but sounds cheesy and insincere when spoken aloud. Dietz's original story might not have these issues, but the audio drama had me rolling my eyes at parts of it.
I'd like to say this chapter fills in more of Katarn's backstory, but nothing much happens. We hear again (and again) about his father being killed by the Empire, so narratively there's little progression. The showdown between Katarn and Jerec comes closer, but nothing much is resolved. It's a buildup to the third chapter, and winds up being so insubstantial that it tries to float away. The audiobooks are two hours each, so I'm tearing through them on my drive to work, but I'm not sure I would recommend these stories, even to fans of the franchise and the video game.
In actuality, this story takes place five years after the end of Return of the Jedi, though it starts in flashback before Soldier for the Empire. Katarn is still a not-100%-trustworthy member of the Rebel Alliance, which is unusual, since by now the Empire is on the decline. I mean, five years on, and Mon Mothma still doesn't trust the guy completely? OK.
Speaking of Mon Mothma, this series is lousy with fan service, since all the well-known characters from the movies show up. Yoda appeared in Soldier for the Empire, and now Luke, Leia, and Mon Mothma all show up, too. (If I'm remembering correctly, R2-D2 has a cameo, too, by way of Leia. It's been a few days since I listened to it, and I might be mixing it up with one of the other books in the series.) On the one hand, the Force can bring all these folks together; on the other hand, it makes the Expanded Universe that much smaller, since everything seems to revolve around these five-to-ten characters.
Since this is an audio presentation, it suffers from the same problems as other dramatizations: things being spoken aloud that people wouldn't normally say; things happening too quickly to stay under a certain time limit; dialogue that works well on paper, but sounds cheesy and insincere when spoken aloud. Dietz's original story might not have these issues, but the audio drama had me rolling my eyes at parts of it.
I'd like to say this chapter fills in more of Katarn's backstory, but nothing much happens. We hear again (and again) about his father being killed by the Empire, so narratively there's little progression. The showdown between Katarn and Jerec comes closer, but nothing much is resolved. It's a buildup to the third chapter, and winds up being so insubstantial that it tries to float away. The audiobooks are two hours each, so I'm tearing through them on my drive to work, but I'm not sure I would recommend these stories, even to fans of the franchise and the video game.
ehsjaysaunders's review against another edition
4.0
Adapting the first half of the second game, this novella grants some additional insight into the beginning of Kyle's training and helps to tie the events into the context of the wider universe.
3.5/5 Good artwork and serviceable accounting of the story.
3.5/5 Good artwork and serviceable accounting of the story.
ladymab's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is one that i definitely could have used more context for. The dramatization once again had it moving very quickly, but even without that context it had been five years of character development that wasn't seen on screen (maybe this is where the video game comes in?) And considering it's five years of Jan and Kyle supposedly falling in love whole Mon Mothma wants to ice his ass at a moment's notice, that's a long five years!
It's also interesting that in both book 1 and book 2 the concept of xenophobia and ingrained prejudices against non humans was brought up and shown as a flaw, but then never actually explored. Like saying "hey, I'm cool, i know it's bad" but then never giving a space to address it -- and considering that the only times we've seen this is in context with a bad guy (Thrawn and 88) it's not super helping the case any.
Still, a fun star wars romp if there ever was one, but i am having a very hard time taking a Jedi named Ron very seriously.
It's also interesting that in both book 1 and book 2 the concept of xenophobia and ingrained prejudices against non humans was brought up and shown as a flaw, but then never actually explored. Like saying "hey, I'm cool, i know it's bad" but then never giving a space to address it -- and considering that the only times we've seen this is in context with a bad guy (Thrawn and 88) it's not super helping the case any.
Still, a fun star wars romp if there ever was one, but i am having a very hard time taking a Jedi named Ron very seriously.
lmcox's review against another edition
2.0
The version of this book I read was an audiobook adaptation of the graphic novel adaptation of the game.
It was an okay story, but somehow Kyle Katarn acquired a lightsaber and later that day became officially a Jedi Knight. I'm kind of confused about that.
It was an okay story, but somehow Kyle Katarn acquired a lightsaber and later that day became officially a Jedi Knight. I'm kind of confused about that.
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