"Champions of the Force," by Kevin J. Anderson [Bantam, 1994]

[image=http://www.theforce.net/books/images/jat_cotf.jpg]

Synopsis:

"Suspended helplessly between life and death, Luke Skywalker lies in state at the Jedi academy. But on the spirit plane, Luke fights desperately for survival, reaching out physically to the Jedi twins. At the same time, Leia is on a life-and-death mission of her own, a race against Imperial agents hoping to destroy a third Jedi child -- Leia and Han's baby Anakin -- hidden on the planet Anoth. Meanwhile, Luke's former protégé Kyp Durron has pirated the deadly Sun Crusher on an apocalyptic mission of mass destruction, convinced he is fighting for a just cause. Hunting down the rogue warrior, Han must persuade Kyp to renounce his dark crusade and regain his lost honor. To do it, Kyp must take the Sun Crusher on a suicide mission against the awesome Death Star prototype -- a battle Han knows they may be unable to win... even with Luke Skywalker at their side!"

 

I didn't think this was too bad, and the end (IMO) was written well. The only bad part was Daala. She was kinda a physhotic madwoman.

 

This book made me wonder if KJA had ever seen the movies. The feel of this book was all off.

 

I didnt think it was that bad, but Daala really was extremely psycho. But then, you would be too if you were Tarkins ex-lover.

 

"Suspended helplessly between life and death, Luke Skywalker lies in state at the Jedi academy. But on the spirit plane, Luke fights desperately for survival, reaching out physically to the Jedi twins. At the same time, Leia is on a life-and-death mission of her own, a race against Imperial agents hoping to destroy a third Jedi child -- Leia and Han's baby Anakin -- hidden on the planet Anoth. Meanwhile, Luke's former protégé Kyp Durron has pirated the deadly Sun Crusher on an apocalyptic mission of mass destruction, convinced he is fighting for a just cause. Hunting down the rogue warrior, Han must persuade Kyp to renounce his dark crusade and regain his lost honor. To do it, Kyp must take the Sun Crusher on a suicide mission against the awesome Death Star prototype -- a battle Han knows they may be unable to win... even with Luke Skywalker at their side!"


I rate it an eight, it was aimed at the middle audience and it seemed perfect for me. The redeeming of Kyp was nice, he had great potential and most of it has been developed. Tionne was a good character to make a reference to the old jedi(the great sith war) -- nice tie in with Exar Kun.

Couple of things I didn't like:
Daala and KJA's hints of Winter - Ackbar -- sick man.

 

I give it a 3. It is a bad final for a generally enjoyable series, if it was on the same level as the Jedi Search and Dark Apprentice, the JAT overall would have a fonder place in my memory. This book really ruined it. There was absolutely no plot to speak of, the villains were dumber than ever this time, and all the rushing between Maw Cluster, Kessel, DS Prototype, Sun Crusher and smugglers was annoying as hell.

But I'm glad that Daala survived. She's not as dumb as the other villains Anderson created-she's a bit too hot-headed and plain luckless. But at least she's a survivor, I like villains who don't easily go away.

 

8 - Still a great book, but not as good as some of the others.

 

Great book. 9 out of 10.

 

one of my favorite books of all time. 10
I love how well it shows Kyp's manipulation... I love how it shows how an essentially good person can do very evil things... I love Kyp's redemption, at the end... and how he was afraid to use the force...

 

A 8 easilly.

I'll wrap up my review tour of all 3 Jedi Academy novel's here fittingly.

The "final confrontation books" in a series are always awesome to read. Kyp goes bezerk blowing up Sun's with the dreaded Sun Crusher and accidently kills his brother Zeth. Very intriguing sidestory by the way. Han snaps him out his doomsday mission and our heroes square off againest bad guys from all sides.

I admit this book can be difficult to follow at many points with the dozen's of storys that grow off but all of them ended up meeting in the end. Loved when Furgan bit the big one and the whole action sequence on Anoth.

The end battle could off been done up a bit more but it was a very fullfilling end for the trilogy. Exar Kun gets vanquished from the spirit realm to who knows were and Daala gets ousted from a victory by a Nebulon B Frigate, 4 Corellian Corvettes, and her precious Sun Crusher.

Enjoyed when the Death Star prototype and the Sun Crusher tango'd as well.

Bravo.

<[-]> Saber

 

I give it a 3.

I didn't care for it at all, but it still saved me from an otherwise boring evening.

 

8

Found some parts pretty funny, especially Sivron and all the meetings/procedure stuff. Thought it was a good conclusion to the TJA series.

 

A book meant solely for Kyp Durron fans. All others need not bother.

Personally, I find Kyp Durron to be a bore. The whole "possessed by an ancient Sith lord" thing is just annoying, and KJA's tendency to go overboard with the superweapons is borderline silly.

Avoid it unless you're into Kyp and think Star Wars is only about Jedi and Sith.

 

Anderson delivers with the final chapter of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. The Solo twins become stars for the first time, which was a nice touch.

 

I love the trilogy, and this book was probably the best of them, in my opinion. I really enjoy Kyp and all his faults.

I give this a 10/10.

 

I give it a 7.

This was the weak link of the JAT. I didn't like how easily Exar Kun was defeated, didn't like Admiral Daala (but then, I never liked her anyways), didn't like Tol Sivron and his whole "Let's have another meeting during a big, giant battle!" attitude, didn't like how easily the Death Star prototype was destroyed, didn't like Qwi Xux or that whole romance with her and Wedge. In fact, I didn't like how KJA made all his villains so unbelievably incompetent. Come on, let them win at least ONE battle, for crying out loud!

But the rest was pretty good. I liked how Kyp's redemption was handled, certainly a lot better than Mara's. Kyp was probably the best thing about this book.

 

I gave it a 7/10. I also didn't like how Daala never won anything. She was so easily beaten that I felt sorry for her, and you aren't suppose to feel sorry for the villians. That was main problem I had with this book. So overall, I thought it was an okay finish for the series.

 

i really liked this book so i gave it an 8. the opening chapter was great so was the ending. some parts i thought were a little cheesy but overall it was a pretty good book.

 

10! This is one of my favorites.

 

It's been about a year since I read it but I'll list a few of the things I liked(ones I can remember at least). If I accidentally mention something from DA forgive me. Also my favorite element of the books as a whole is Kyp so many of the things I liked centered around him.

I loved the bit between Kyp and the imperial officer while he was trying to get Zeth off planet, I don't remember the specifics but I do remember it being interesting. I think the officer lied to him at first about Zeth...I can't remember.

Han Solo's confrontation with Kyp when the Millennium Falcon attatched to the hull of the Sun Crusher was nice.

Isn't it in this book where Kyp visits the site of Anakin's remains on Endor....? In any event that was aweseome to me.

I liked the action sequence at the end in the Maw. Especially when Lando and the others going into the Prototype DS and planting explosives, which brought the Stormies came out in their clunky Zero-G suits to defuse the bombs.

And finally, Kyp cramming into the little message pod thing at the end was so cool. I love how it talked about his limbs poping out of place as he squeezed in.

All in all it wasn't my favorite JA book but it is in my top 3.

 

I would give this book a 0 if I could. So bad it was painful.The time I used to read this book is time I will never get back.

 

Good conclusion to a excellent trilogy

 

I gave it an 8.

Good ending to a good trilogy.

 

Still pretty good, does a good wrapup of the entire trilogy. Kyp's redemtion was a bit tongue in cheek, I would think that the New Republic would procecute him for what he did.