"Dark Apprentice," by Kevin J. Anderson [Bantam, 1994]

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

Synopsis:

"As the New Republic takes devastating losses in the ongoingwar with the scattered remnants of the Empire, the galaxy's future depends on three small children -- among them the Jedi twins -- born to incredible powers and perils, as an extraordinary new saga unfolds...
while the New Republic struggles to decide what to do with the deadly Sun Crusher -- a new doomsday weapon stolen from the Empire by Han Solo -- the renegade Imperial Admiral Daala uses her fleet of Star Destroyers to conduct guerrilla warfare on peaceful planets. And now she threatens the watery homeworld of Admiral Ackbar. But as the battle for a planet rages, an even greater danger emerges at Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy. A brilliant student delves dangerously into the dark side of the Force and unleashes the spirit of an ancient master of the evil order that warped Darth Vader himself. Working together, they may become an enemy greater than the New Republic has ever fought... more powerful than even a Jedi Master can face."

 

[edited]

dp4m Edit: Removed author bashing.

 

It was a good story, but [edited].

dp4m Edit: Removed author bashing.

 

A solid book that showed that Luke wasn't going to find it easy in establishing a Jedi Academy.

 

Good story, but it disappointed me after Jedi Search. I gave it a seven out of ten.

 

Another one of my favorite books I have read. 10
I love how Kyp is coerced into darkness through curiousity.
I think this book deals with some actual psychological issues, while maintaining it's captivating sci-finess

 

I agree in all aspects with Kyp. I would give it a 9.

The Jedi Academy Trilogy were the first SW novels I tackled in the Expanded Universe. IMO Dark Apprentice topped both its predecessor in the trilogy, Jedi Search and the last enstallment Champions of The Force.

This must have been hard because generally the middle additions of a trilogy are the tuffest to write based on the fact the first one introduce's and the last wraps up, leaving the middle to fill in everything else. I enjoyed especially the Yavin and Daala scenes. From the razing of Mon Calamari to Kyp's descent to darkness. Exar Kun being one of my favorite characters made the twisting of Kyp's mind believable.

The only drawback is the blatent similairities between young Luke and Kyp that I admit did make the final confrontation after Durron resurrected the Sun Crusher more climatic.

A very underrated series and book.

<[-]> Saber

 

Oh how this book disappointed on so many levels. I gave it a 2. Kyp could've been one of the coolest characters in the StarWars Galaxy, and probably would've been, if done by another author. However, gratuitus use of SuperWeapons, mixed with nearly unbeatable James Bond type Super Villians makes this book about as interesting as an Audit Report. You want a real StarWars read, skip this author.

 

Decently written, but I didn't think the story continued the arc as well as it could have...

 

On to the review. Another perfect 10. This trilogy is fantastic. Anderson has lighthearted writing style that still manages to cover very dark subject matter. Excellent.

Try and limit yourself to reviews rather than personal commentary and author bashing.

 

8

Thought it was pretty well written, a good story about how Luke struggles to get a Jedi Academy started up. KYp & Daala were a little bit too crazy though.

 

Another KJA Kyp Durron love-fest. Nothing special here, folks.

On a note to the forum, please explain how writing a negative review of an author's work can NOT be seen as "author bashing"? Of course it's bashing the author! The point of being a critic is to CRITICIZE and call someone on their bad points, while congratulating them for the good work they do.

If you choose to censor any negative remarks, then I fail to see the point of encouraging readers to write "reviews". You're basically limiting the negative reviews to saying something akin to "No sir, I didn't like it!" and leaving it at that. People want to know WHY it wasn't enjoyed... And the reason is USUALLY because the author dropped the ball and didn't do a good job.

If that doesn't call for a bit of criticism, then I don't know what does.

I will grant you, though, that a reviewer must back up the negative remarks a bit- Deleting reviews that only say "KJA is a poopy head" makes sense... but if someone takes time to point out where the author failed and CONTINUALLY FAILS in writing Star Wars books, I don't think that's necessarily "bashing" the author.

But do what you will. Personally, I think KJA needs to know where he fails the Star Wars fans so he can improve on his next attempt... But if you'd rather just keep the posts patting him on the back, and delete the ones that take him to task for his failings, then so be it.

 

Kyp reminds me of a street person. Not at all trusting. You're hoping he won't fall to the Dark Side, just planning to use Exar (sic), but beyound that he just seems limited. Like the book needs a naive person to do wrong but become good in the end. Will he return to the Light Side in the third book?

Hope I'm not confussing this book with another, but the whole twins lost underground, and it goes like that childrens story, is too much. Still it's nice to have Leia and Hans' family life talked about in some way.

I give it a 6.

 

This was the first EU novel that I ever read, so it will always have a special place in my heart.

9/10

 

This was one of my first EU novels. I really enjoyed it and I liked seeing Kyp and his struggle with the Dark Side. I'll give it a 9/10.

 

8/10.

This was my favorite book of the JAT. I liked seeing the Academy, I liked the segments with Jacen and Jaina getting lost in the Underworld, and a panicked Threepio and Chewie looking everywhere for them. I didn't care much for the whole Lando-loves-Mara subplot (I did like Mara's response to him, which was basically, "Shut up, Calrissian."), or the Qwi Xux/Wedge storyline (I did like Kyp's unexpected attack on Qwi, though). I enjoyed the Mon Mothma subplot, and Daala's attack on Calamari (the only time she does any actual damage to the New Republic). Gantoris's grisly death was well done.

Didn't care much for the Sun Crusher, though. I'm sick of seeing the Ultimate Superweapon used as a plot device in these books.

The addition of Cilghal was good, and I liked Kyp's character and his slow but steady descent to the dark side. Exar Kun was also an interesting character; too bad he was defeated so easily in Champions of the Force. I also liked how this book ended on a cliffhanger, with the Jedi students finding Luke's comatose body.

 

I gave this book a 7.

GeithJiseo said a lot of what I thought. I enjoyed seeing more of the academy. I also liked seeing Jacen and Jaina get lost. It was a nice side-story. And this is the only time where Daala does much damage to the Republic, so if you want to see her actually being "evil", if she can be called that, read this book. It had a good ending, too.

 

This book was very hit and miss for me, but mostly miss. Kyp was, quite frankly, boring. He did not captivate me, nor did I find him to be a very original character. A bright protege that rebels against his teacher is not an original or new idea, and quite frankly it's been done better.

Admiral Daala has to be the worst villian I've ever read. I think my dogs have better tactical ability than she does. To think that she's even a threat considering not only her own ineptness, but that the New Republic had survived Thrawn's best attempt, is laughable.

Exar Kun was another shallow villian. He was, in essence, a clone of Palpatine, one that even knew his dialogue word for word. I yawned at reaching his parts.

The running sabaac games during the trilogy were annoying and distracted from the story. They were made even worse with the dialogue.

The B-plot (or is it C-plot at this point?) with the twins was also uninteresting. It also didn't fit with the rest of the story.

The only redeeming part of the book was his description of life in the Academy itself. Unfortunately, KJA pushes this aside to 'develop' his other hokey plotlines.

In the end, Dark Apprentence is a sloppy, ill conceived piece of work. KJA's villians are, at best, one dimensional, and seem to be the cheesiest of comic super villians. His main protagonist-turned-antagonist is boring and unoriginal. I felt nothing for him or his plight. Finally, KJA tries to cram so much into this book that all of his ideas seem scattershot. His over-reliance on dialogue from the movies is awkward and in the end makes it seem as though his book is actually a clever bit of satire aimed at mocking the Star Wars franchise rather than the interesting and harrowing adventure he no doubt intended it to be.

1/10

 

Another excellent addition by Anderson, great story line, adding to where Jedi Search left off. After reading this (whether you ve author bashed or not, i dont care who you are!) I was dying to know what happens to luke etc..

9/10

 

"Hmmm...
Admiral Daala's forces have appearently been destroyed, and Luke has turned Kyp from the Dark side.
I'm only on chapter 5 of the second book...

Well: Admiral Daala's forces survived! They only lost one star destroyer. And Kyp hasn't been saved completely! No! He's slipping back to evil again! That'll buy me another 3 chapters..."

That is quite literally how this book reads.
Awful.

 

I'll give it a charitable 2/10. I haven't read a couple of the ~1995 era books, but this has to be close to the nadir for the EU. In short, it is a simplistic, juvenile, shallow farce---the most plodding of all the trilogy "bridge" novels.

I'll note that while another series is criticized for making Luke too weak, this trilogy does something far worse: it portrays Luke as unceasingly idiotic. Indeed, perhaps the most engaging aspect of the book is to list the many ways Luke could be sued in tort: simple negligence, negligent entrustment of a vehicle, . . .

 

I like Jedi Academy Trilogy.

 

i thought it was pretty, good, i thought it was pretty funny when Jacen took on those bird things, i think that was the second one, i haven't read them in a while

 

id give it a 10/10. the only thing that disappointed me was there wasnt a lot on the training from the holocon