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A review by novelinsights
Champions of the Force by Kevin J. Anderson
4.0
This was the third and final installment in the Jedi Academy Trilogy, and though not ingeniously plotted, I thought it tied up the series pretty well.
Though I disliked the way that Anderson handled Kyp's descent to the dark side in the second book, I thought that the character's growth occurred more naturally and logically in this book. I also thought that the development of other characters, such as Ackbar and Terpfen, proceeded logically, as well.
Another thing that pleased me about this book was the manner with which it handled the topic of amnesia. This is a topic often depicted with extreme inaccuracy in the media, but here, it was done well. The character in question experiences retrograde amnesia, the type of amnesia where memories of the past are forgotten. Most stories depict characters which obtain this type of amnesia from brain damage, but this is unrealistic, as physical damage usually causes a different kind of amnesia. However, in the case of this novel, memories are forcibly (pun intended) ripped from the character's mind, justifying the result. The book also considers the fact that not all memories are lost in amnesia and that muscle memory is not affected.
All that said, this book wasn't perfect. In fact, it had a very glaring flaw in the basic plot. At the start of the book, Luke is in a coma and the spectral remains of dead Sith Exar Kun is trying to kill him. Because he is merely a spirit, he must resort to tricks to try to kill Luke, manipulating organisms in the environment to do the work for him. This made sense at first, but eventually, Luke's Jedi students stand up against Exar Kun, and he quickly begins Force choking them all into submission. That was where the whole thing fell apart for me, because there was no reason he couldn't have just choked Luke to death from the beginning.
I also didn't like how Anderson handled the mass of Jedi students. Apparently, there were 12 total students, but he only bothered to describe about half of them. He gave these students names, races, and basic personalities, and every time all 12 students got together to do stuff, he would describe what these named students were doing, then generically mention that there were other students there doing stuff, too. It fell very flat and really just left the impression that those extra students weren't there, at all. I would have preferred if the students were handled in a more Hunger Games-ish fashion, where you could tell the author at least knew a bit about every one of them, even if some got more attention in the narrative than others.
Overall, I gave the book 4 stars because it felt like a solid conclusion to the trilogy, even if the writing of this series in general was never perfect.
Though I disliked the way that Anderson handled Kyp's descent to the dark side in the second book, I thought that the character's growth occurred more naturally and logically in this book. I also thought that the development of other characters, such as Ackbar and Terpfen, proceeded logically, as well.
Another thing that pleased me about this book was the manner with which it handled the topic of amnesia. This is a topic often depicted with extreme inaccuracy in the media, but here, it was done well. The character in question experiences retrograde amnesia, the type of amnesia where memories of the past are forgotten. Most stories depict characters which obtain this type of amnesia from brain damage, but this is unrealistic, as physical damage usually causes a different kind of amnesia. However, in the case of this novel, memories are forcibly (pun intended) ripped from the character's mind, justifying the result. The book also considers the fact that not all memories are lost in amnesia and that muscle memory is not affected.
All that said, this book wasn't perfect. In fact, it had a very glaring flaw in the basic plot. At the start of the book, Luke is in a coma and the spectral remains of dead Sith Exar Kun is trying to kill him. Because he is merely a spirit, he must resort to tricks to try to kill Luke, manipulating organisms in the environment to do the work for him. This made sense at first, but eventually, Luke's Jedi students stand up against Exar Kun, and he quickly begins Force choking them all into submission. That was where the whole thing fell apart for me, because there was no reason he couldn't have just choked Luke to death from the beginning.
I also didn't like how Anderson handled the mass of Jedi students. Apparently, there were 12 total students, but he only bothered to describe about half of them. He gave these students names, races, and basic personalities, and every time all 12 students got together to do stuff, he would describe what these named students were doing, then generically mention that there were other students there doing stuff, too. It fell very flat and really just left the impression that those extra students weren't there, at all. I would have preferred if the students were handled in a more Hunger Games-ish fashion, where you could tell the author at least knew a bit about every one of them, even if some got more attention in the narrative than others.
Overall, I gave the book 4 stars because it felt like a solid conclusion to the trilogy, even if the writing of this series in general was never perfect.