The Crystal Star

  The second generation of the New Republic is now taking flight. This is the first time real personalities are given to the Solo Twins. A story was dedicated to them in the trilogy of Jedi Academy but not much was reviled of their personality. Actually I didn’t even quite understand why it was even written but that’s part of a different review...

  Part of this story is told through the view point of Jaina after her and brother’s imprisonment after their kidnapping. It was hard starting this one cause I got so wrapped up in Planet of Twilight! The odd thing is this book was written BEFORE Planet of Twilight but happens afterwards! Therefore the author could not include that into her story. The Crystal Star was written by Vonda N. McIntyre which according to the cover has won a number of awards. This book was pretty good. She seemed to have some unique views of the main characters personalities. Luke is portrayed as be moodier then normal which I guess you can can use your imagination and attribute it to his loss of Calista in the last book but like I said that had not happened when this book was written but it sort of works. One thing I found interesting it she is the first author pre The Phantom Menace that questions whether Jedi were suppose to marry are not.

Waru and C3P0

  When reading other reviews, some like parts of this story to something from the Star Trek world not Star Wars... while unlike some Star Wars fans I am a Star Trek fan as well but I have to agree some things were kinda weird, Waru being one thing!

  They also, like in The Courtship of Princess Leia got Luke’s light saber color wrong! How hard is it to remember that he has a GREEN light saber? Why wasn’t this caught before it was published? Back some years ago when the Clone Wars cartoons were out they were selling light sabers for Halloween and I wanted one. I went to by one and all I could find was red and blue! I was puzzled! It was suppose to be green by what I remembered! (At the time I was just getting to watch the second set of movies and hadn’t seen any of the Clone Wars stuff) I ended up buying a blue one and finally realized that they were selling Anakin’s light saber and I was remembering that it was Luke’s that was green. Come on! Even I knew it was green! anyway...


Hethrir

 Some of the things she added to the Star Wars universe sorta bugged me. Where did she ever come up that green streaked hair looks ordinary on a human female? I just don’t know where she got that. Also I don’t understand why some authors must come up with character names that can’t possibly be pronounced!

   But that leads me to the villain of the story, Hethrir. This is where the story most interested me. It didn’t take me long to figure out what inspired a lot of the story and this villain's name. It was clearly a parallel to the Hitler and his Hitler Youth. And so I see where the name Hethrir originated! I actually like the way this was done. I have done a lot of research through a good part of my life on Hitler and that side of WWII. Children were started at a young age to be true to their country and leader. It is a saying I have often quoted be it in my work as an Historian or looking at the current politcs of today "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"... even in the Star Wars Universe!

"My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes...That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication...That is how I will create the New Order." – Adolf Hitler, 1933.

For more about the Hitler Youth visit... THIS SITE

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I will also note quickly that The Crystal Star ends abruptly... most abrupt end I have seen yet. I don’t care for abrupt endings... with that said on to, Before the Storm...

Darksaber

Darksaber was written by the same author as the 3 book Jedi Academy trilogy. As I said about Children of the Jedi, I hoped it would change the direction of how Luke would be portrayed and it did.

It's hard to tell who is going to live and die in this one and I'll try not to give anything away but at least one Jedi dies. The biggest flaw is that the body did not disapear like Jedi always do and no explanation was given to say why it didn't happen so all I can guess is that it was a mistake in the book?
I just looked this book up on Wookieepidia and it claims some say this is the worst Star Wars novel! I have to disagree! The Courtship of Princess Leia is the worst one writen by far! I would say Darksaber is not that bad at all. Over all I enjoyed it. Another interesting bit of it was a look back in time at the building of the first Death Star.
There is a lot to keep up with this one being it jumps back and forth like scenes from a movie which I like the approach. It was nice when at the begaining of a chapter the location was given as to where the events were taking place.
It's to a point in the series now that if you want to start reading these you need to read them in order starting a few books back at least, because so many characters are no longer from the original movies and you're gonna get lost! :-)
Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the next book, Planet of Twilight! Untill I get my hands on a copy what should I read?! Thinking of going back in time and read the next book after Attack of the Clones which I do have... (and that is not Revenge of the Sith. One was written in between)

Champions of the Force

  At last the last of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. This is the book that never ends…
 Haha, ok It’s not that bad :~) It’s just different that this author finishes off his story rather then having an abrupt ending which does kinda bug me when a story just stops like they ran out of ink :-/I don’t think this author is great with characters. He seems to get some yet others are one dimensional. He did better with Luke then in the last book but still some of it I just had a hard time visualizing some of the stuff said. I think the title of this one is a bit cheesy.
  All in all I would recommend someone read these three. Though the middle book was slow the third made up for it.

Jedi Search

 This is actually the first novel I finished a while back. I'm posting it hear for the sake of having these somewhat in order and I did re-read this one before going on to the next to refresh my memory. I found this book in a Goodwill in Astoria Queens along with 9 others! So that 1 mile my mom didn't want to walk paid off after all! Lol... Below is my review from the first time I read it. The second time through was as good as the first plus I knew better who everyone was! That is why it is a good idea to read these in order.
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Finished reading this a few days back. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the second one so I guess it was pretty good :-) It mentions the Dark Empire comic books a bit. I luckily read those before I got this book. That's actually what got me reading this. The character of Han's is well written. The author seemed to capture him the best. Luke on the other hand comes across as being a little one dimensional :-/ But all in all I really enjoyed reading it!