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A review by blancwene
Dark Apprentice by Kevin J. Anderson
1.0
For 2020, I decided to reread (in publication order) all the Bantam-era Star Wars books that were released between 1991 and 1999; that shakes out to 38 adult novels and 5 anthologies of short stories & novellas.
This week’s focus: Dark Apprentice by Kevin J. Anderson.
SOME HISTORY:
A mere two months after [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|161540|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326717007l/161540._SY75_.jpg|806845] was released in hardcover, Bantam dropped the second volume of the Jedi Academy trilogy in June 1994. Dark Apprentice simultaneously did better and worse than [b:Jedi Search|760110|Jedi Search (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327958212l/760110._SY75_.jpg|863900]. It made it to number two on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of June 26, 1994, and ultimately stayed on the NYT list for 6 weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I mistakenly thought that...more...happened in this book. Luke’s academy is definitely a highlights-only reel; I guess I assumed that we saw more of how everything functioned before it fell apart, but actually we didn’t! At least Leia had something to do this time around.
PRINCESS LEIA COSTUME CHANGE COUNT:
Other than the futuristic organic tech wetsuit that she wore on Calamari, we once again have a book with few descriptions of her costumes. However, Han goes skiing, and gives Kyp a rad black cloak!
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Luke Skywalker opens his Jedi praxeum on Yavin IV and begins to instruct the next generation of Jedi, but an evil shadow lurks nearby. Admiral Ackbar quits after his personal involvement in a deadly accident. And Admiral Daala starts her one-woman guerilla campaign against the New Republic.
THE CHARACTERS:
I did not like Anderson’s portrayal of Luke in the first book, and I really didn’t like how he built on that here. Luke is remarkably ineffective and indecisive as the Master of this new Academy. Gantoris constructs a lightsaber and challenges him to a duel, and Luke barely intervenes. Gantoris then apparently self-combusts and Luke doesn’t contact any one?? Kyp Durron is giving off loads of warning signs but Luke also does pretty much nothing. He’s also very reliant on the Jedi Holocron, another carryover from the [b:Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy|8287494|Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy|Tom Veitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403200157l/8287494._SX50_.jpg|14421180], and we get few examples of him actually teaching. He seems to mostly just set around and let his students instruct themselves. By the end of the book, he’s barely alive, and after all his idiocy it’s a little hard to sympathize with his fate.
After having very little to do in [b:Jedi Search|760110|Jedi Search (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327958212l/760110._SY75_.jpg|863900], Leia actually has an interesting plotline in this book! Leia is a direct witness to Ackbar’s accident—which we as the reader know was a setup, but no one else does—and is feeling especially stressed by all the responsibilities Mon Mothma is offloading on her. Once she learns about Mothma’s illness, though, she heads to Ackbar’s home world to beg for his return; and in turn, she becomes a bystander during Daala’s attack. I think I prefer when Leia can mix diplomacy with action, so I enjoyed her scenes here.
Remember how I praised Anderson’s portrayal of Han in the previous book? Unfortunately, that didn’t continue into this book. Han gets irrationally annoyed at Lando in the beginning of Dark Apprentice, which leads to them playing sabacc THREE times to decide who owns the Falcon. It’s particularly pointless because the only reason that Han has the Falcon in the end is because Lando wanted to impress Mara Jade with his generosity.
Lando once again has little to do, other than gamble with Han and flirt with Mara Jade. Mara, in turn, is less nuanced than Zahn’s depiction of her, and I feel like this is the first appearance of “sexy Mara,” a characterization we will unfortunately see other authors adopt as well.
Of Luke’s potential Jedi: Gantoris clearly chose poorly in the end. Kyp’s fall to the Dark Side is so abbreviated that it’s hard for me to buy it. Luke has a dozen students, but Anderson only gives us the names of half of them, which will be very useful when Michael A. Stackpole decides to retcon Corran Horn into the Jedi Academy.
Leia and Han’s twins run away from a zoo and wander the lower levels of Coruscant. I hate this! They’re two and a half! Why is Anderson devoting time to this subplot?
Admiral Daala started off this trilogy with four Star Destroyers. She lost one at Kessel, and then loses two more in this book. Would she have ever made Admiral were it not for some weird romantic form of nepotism? And why does she continue to be a presence in later books? (I’m looking at you [b:Darksaber|513210|Darksaber (Star Wars The Callista Trilogy, #2)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718683l/513210._SY75_.jpg|1178996]!) She’s a strategic moron.
Exar Kun is a shadowy presence in more ways than one. His goal is evil dominance, I guess. But his evil is restricted to Yavin IV. Why he didn’t show up while the Rebellion was based there, and why Luke didn’t remove his students at the first sign of trouble is anyone’s guess.
ISSUES:
Not an issue, but an actual praise: I like how Anderson developed Calamari! It’s interesting and alien and felt new. I also like Ackbar’s accident on Vortex, and the aftermath.
On the whole, though, Anderson’s writing style is just aggressively clunky. It’s almost like he knew the main points he needed to hit, and then just never bothered to sufficiently flesh them out. Things don’t flow, more lurch from subplot to subplot.
Take Kyp’s descent into darkness: we get one scene of him on Yavin IV, pushing himself to learn more than anyone else. Then immediately afterwards he’s listening to Exar Kun and learning hidden knowledge (which is 100% hidden to the reader too). There’s no time to build or for his impatience to grow, because Anderson makes him go from 0 to 60 in one chapter.
Anderson also introduces some interesting romantic pairings to the GFFA. We have Wedge Antilles and Qwi Xux, which...why? What do they see in each other? And while I can buy Lando trying to schmooze Mara Jade, I can’t quite see her reciprocating.
IN CONCLUSION:
Dark Apprentice is second book filler of the worst kind. Characters cycle in place, none more obviously than Han and Lando with their endless card games, and it ends on a cliffhanger—or rather, a pyramid-summit hanger. Hopefully there will be a little more action in the third book.
Next up: [b:Champions of the Force|513207|Champions of the Force (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #3)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327008722l/513207._SY75_.jpg|501182], the conclusion to the Jedi Academy trilogy.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/CM2Aj-uz86c
This week’s focus: Dark Apprentice by Kevin J. Anderson.
SOME HISTORY:
A mere two months after [b:The Courtship of Princess Leia|161540|The Courtship of Princess Leia (Star Wars)|Dave Wolverton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326717007l/161540._SY75_.jpg|806845] was released in hardcover, Bantam dropped the second volume of the Jedi Academy trilogy in June 1994. Dark Apprentice simultaneously did better and worse than [b:Jedi Search|760110|Jedi Search (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327958212l/760110._SY75_.jpg|863900]. It made it to number two on the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the week of June 26, 1994, and ultimately stayed on the NYT list for 6 weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I mistakenly thought that...more...happened in this book. Luke’s academy is definitely a highlights-only reel; I guess I assumed that we saw more of how everything functioned before it fell apart, but actually we didn’t! At least Leia had something to do this time around.
PRINCESS LEIA COSTUME CHANGE COUNT:
Other than the futuristic organic tech wetsuit that she wore on Calamari, we once again have a book with few descriptions of her costumes. However, Han goes skiing, and gives Kyp a rad black cloak!
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Luke Skywalker opens his Jedi praxeum on Yavin IV and begins to instruct the next generation of Jedi, but an evil shadow lurks nearby. Admiral Ackbar quits after his personal involvement in a deadly accident. And Admiral Daala starts her one-woman guerilla campaign against the New Republic.
THE CHARACTERS:
I did not like Anderson’s portrayal of Luke in the first book, and I really didn’t like how he built on that here. Luke is remarkably ineffective and indecisive as the Master of this new Academy. Gantoris constructs a lightsaber and challenges him to a duel, and Luke barely intervenes. Gantoris then apparently self-combusts and Luke doesn’t contact any one?? Kyp Durron is giving off loads of warning signs but Luke also does pretty much nothing. He’s also very reliant on the Jedi Holocron, another carryover from the [b:Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy|8287494|Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy|Tom Veitch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403200157l/8287494._SX50_.jpg|14421180], and we get few examples of him actually teaching. He seems to mostly just set around and let his students instruct themselves. By the end of the book, he’s barely alive, and after all his idiocy it’s a little hard to sympathize with his fate.
After having very little to do in [b:Jedi Search|760110|Jedi Search (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #1)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327958212l/760110._SY75_.jpg|863900], Leia actually has an interesting plotline in this book! Leia is a direct witness to Ackbar’s accident—which we as the reader know was a setup, but no one else does—and is feeling especially stressed by all the responsibilities Mon Mothma is offloading on her. Once she learns about Mothma’s illness, though, she heads to Ackbar’s home world to beg for his return; and in turn, she becomes a bystander during Daala’s attack. I think I prefer when Leia can mix diplomacy with action, so I enjoyed her scenes here.
Remember how I praised Anderson’s portrayal of Han in the previous book? Unfortunately, that didn’t continue into this book. Han gets irrationally annoyed at Lando in the beginning of Dark Apprentice, which leads to them playing sabacc THREE times to decide who owns the Falcon. It’s particularly pointless because the only reason that Han has the Falcon in the end is because Lando wanted to impress Mara Jade with his generosity.
Lando once again has little to do, other than gamble with Han and flirt with Mara Jade. Mara, in turn, is less nuanced than Zahn’s depiction of her, and I feel like this is the first appearance of “sexy Mara,” a characterization we will unfortunately see other authors adopt as well.
Of Luke’s potential Jedi: Gantoris clearly chose poorly in the end. Kyp’s fall to the Dark Side is so abbreviated that it’s hard for me to buy it. Luke has a dozen students, but Anderson only gives us the names of half of them, which will be very useful when Michael A. Stackpole decides to retcon Corran Horn into the Jedi Academy.
Leia and Han’s twins run away from a zoo and wander the lower levels of Coruscant. I hate this! They’re two and a half! Why is Anderson devoting time to this subplot?
Admiral Daala started off this trilogy with four Star Destroyers. She lost one at Kessel, and then loses two more in this book. Would she have ever made Admiral were it not for some weird romantic form of nepotism? And why does she continue to be a presence in later books? (I’m looking at you [b:Darksaber|513210|Darksaber (Star Wars The Callista Trilogy, #2)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326718683l/513210._SY75_.jpg|1178996]!) She’s a strategic moron.
Exar Kun is a shadowy presence in more ways than one. His goal is evil dominance, I guess. But his evil is restricted to Yavin IV. Why he didn’t show up while the Rebellion was based there, and why Luke didn’t remove his students at the first sign of trouble is anyone’s guess.
ISSUES:
Not an issue, but an actual praise: I like how Anderson developed Calamari! It’s interesting and alien and felt new. I also like Ackbar’s accident on Vortex, and the aftermath.
On the whole, though, Anderson’s writing style is just aggressively clunky. It’s almost like he knew the main points he needed to hit, and then just never bothered to sufficiently flesh them out. Things don’t flow, more lurch from subplot to subplot.
Take Kyp’s descent into darkness: we get one scene of him on Yavin IV, pushing himself to learn more than anyone else. Then immediately afterwards he’s listening to Exar Kun and learning hidden knowledge (which is 100% hidden to the reader too). There’s no time to build or for his impatience to grow, because Anderson makes him go from 0 to 60 in one chapter.
Anderson also introduces some interesting romantic pairings to the GFFA. We have Wedge Antilles and Qwi Xux, which...why? What do they see in each other? And while I can buy Lando trying to schmooze Mara Jade, I can’t quite see her reciprocating.
IN CONCLUSION:
Dark Apprentice is second book filler of the worst kind. Characters cycle in place, none more obviously than Han and Lando with their endless card games, and it ends on a cliffhanger—or rather, a pyramid-summit hanger. Hopefully there will be a little more action in the third book.
Next up: [b:Champions of the Force|513207|Champions of the Force (Star Wars The Jedi Academy Trilogy, #3)|Kevin J. Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327008722l/513207._SY75_.jpg|501182], the conclusion to the Jedi Academy trilogy.
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/CM2Aj-uz86c