"Darksaber," by Kevin J. Anderson [Bantam, 1995]

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

Synopsis:

"Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, cloaked by the Force and riding with the hostile Sand People, have returned to the dunes of the desert planet Tatooine in hopes of finding what Luke so desperately seeks: contact with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke is hoping the old Jedi Knight's spirit will tell him how to help his love, Callista, regain her lost ability to use the Force. Tormented and haunted, Luke cannot rest until Callista is a Jedi in the fullest sense, for only then will the link between their minds and souls be restored. Yet brewing on Tatooine is news that will shake Luke and Han and threaten everything they value.

The disturbing piece of information is that the evil Hutts, criminal warlords of the galaxy, are building a secret superweapon: a reconstruction of the original Death Star, to be named Darksaber. This planet-crushing power will be in the ruthless hands of Durga the Hutt -- a creature without conscience or mercy.

But there is worse news yet: the Empire lives. The beautiful Admiral Daala, still very much alive and more driven than ever to destroy the Jedi, has joined forces with the defeated Pellaeon, former second in command to Grand Admiral Thrawn. Together they are marshaling Imperial forces to wipe out the New Republic.

Now, as Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Artoo and Threepio regroup to face these threats, they are joined by new Jedi Knights and Callista. Together they must fight on two fronts, outshooting and outsmarting the most formidable enemies in the galaxy. In Darksaber the Jedi are heading for the ultimate test of their power--a test in which all the temptations of the dark side beckon. And Luke Skywalker must draw upon his innermost resources to fight for a world in which he can not only live, but dare to love."

TheForce.net Book Review for Darksaber.

 

8

Thought it was a pretty good stand-alone title. I especially enjoyed the little glimpses of Palpatine's cruelty, especially dealing with failure.

 

8

I liked it, but the superweapon thing is pretty overused.

-Evan

 

10. This is a SW movie in a novel.

 

How many times can a superlaser be constructed in secret?? The exploration into Callista's inablility to use the force was alright, same with a revisit to the base on Hoth.

ONe of the things I liked was seeing Durga again, I'd read the Han Solo Trilogy already, so finding out about his kadjic's return to power was pretty cool.

Why kill Madine though, for god's sake why??

 

People bust on KJA all the time, and a large number of people seem to think he's absolutely talentless. Bear in mind, those people are the ones who voted "Poor" in the poll above and didn't post a review. My opinion? We need more Star Wars books like this. The light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek feel is just what I like in my EU, and it's a nice read when you're depressed with the current NJO plotline. Personally, I can't wait for KJA to return to the GFFA.

10

 

Kevin J. Anderson has a tendency to write long, involved books that focus on one big bad thing. His narrative is lacking in proper characterizations of the main cast, painting them as automotons that always do what is expected from their history, and the resolutions to his stories always involve something bordering on deus ex machina. He seems better suited to writing Star Trek fiction than Star Wars fiction.

Having said all that, the basic IDEAS in the book are good, superweapon notwithstanding, and he keeps things moving, at least. All in all, I'd say read it if you have any interest in the current crop of new Jedi, such as Kyp Durron. Otherwise, it's probably better to ask a friend to sum it up for you and move on to another book in the series.

 

This is one of the first EU books that I've ever read, and I like it a lot. One of my favourites. It has everything a Star Wars novel should have. 10

 

...bah, KJA is the absolute worst writer in existence, from a technical standpoint...

The reason he's so bad: cause he starts his books off with concepts that are actually QUITE promising, and then (without fail!) he wraps things up in the most ridiculous, most cliche ways possible..

His star wars stuff has never approached the level of horridity that his DUNE stuff has, however..At least he appeared to know how to utilize a Thesaurus in his Star Wars stuff..

As far as this book goes: i voted a 1, purely out of principal.. HOnestly don't remeber a whole lot about the book, other then i wound up disliking it at the time.. Mostly cause the way Darksaber went down was pretty silly... (poor construction? Please.. I think that if you're going to build a superweapon, a bit more care would be taken!)

 

KJA is a very good writer. Bashers can tell us over and over again how terrible KJA is, but after reading 10 novels written (or cowritten by him), I believe he writes excellent books time after time again.

I actually just finished DARKSABER this evening. I liked it a lot. KJA weaved several interesting plotlines together quite nicely. From the construction of the darksaber, to the consolidation of the Imperial remnants, to the Luke/Callista romance.

I liked the ideas such as the comet resort, the collective Taurill species, and the clone planet of Khomm. Some great innovative uses of the Force during the battling.

Dialogue was very true to the movies.

All of this was packed into a brisk, fast-paced adventure.

Oh, the DUNE prequel books (5 in total so far) by KJA and Brian Herbert are great. I would take them over 90% of the DUNE books Frank Herbert wrote any day of the week.

 

Darksaber is one of the worst books ever printed with the name "Star Wars" on it. I'd rather watch the "Holiday Special" again than read this book again.

"Daala, you're such a pain." --Han Solo

Can anyone picture Han Solo saying this? Neither can I. KJA not only butchers the established characters, he feels the need to have Luke play Galactic Tour Guide and and visit Tatooine, Yavin, Dagobah, and Hoth all in this book! Isn't there any other planets to visit in the GFFA? You wouldn't think so if you read KJA books.

Continued....

 

MCP Review Continued...

There's so many technical and logical mistakes in this book, I'd be here all night counting them off. One that comes to mind is Callista piloting a TIE fighter without a pilot suit on. (Since TIEs have not life support of their own)

Daala's orders are completely inconsistent as well. First she wants Yavin to be reduced to a "smoking cinder", THEN she has plans to "occupy the Rebel base permanantly!!!"

I hope KJA isn't allowed into Borders book store again, let alone be allowed to pen another SW book!

 

8

I really don't understand the bad rap this book gets. It is very fast-paced and exciting, and it flows extremely well.

 

4.

Once again, KJA presents us with another big-bad-superweapon-that-can-blow-stuff-up (but this time, he adds a "twist"; said superweapon doesn't even work! Wow, how creative...not). Once again, he makes all his villains utterly incapable of doing anything right. Once again, he makes Daala an incompetent idiot who doesn't even deserve to be an Imperial janitor, much less an admiral.

Everyone in this book is butchered, especially Pellaeon and Callista. Durga and Daala suck as villains, the Darksaber was stupid, and worst of all was Bevel Lemelisk and that whole Palpatine-brings-him-back-to-life-seven-times subplot. I mean, the whole thing with him getting eaten alive by beetles? Please, that was dumb.

I did like the Tatooine segments in the beginning. And the deaths of Dorsk 81 and General Madine took me by surprise. But other than that, this book was a huge disappointment, especially since I enjoy most of KJA's EU work.

 

KJA simply butchered Pellaeon and most of the NR military characters almost beyond recognition.

To say nothing of Bevel Lemelisk's character.

At least the Darksaber could have blown up when trying to fire, instead of doing nil. (more pyrotechnics that way)

It would have made passable fanfic, though.

The one redeeming part I could find was that there was virtually nothing boring about it, just only mindless. Unfortunately, I couldn't get even that in the Dune Prequels (another story)

 

I gave this book a 10/10. I thought it was awesome. It held my attention from the first chapter to the last, and not many of the Star Wars books have done that. I didn't really mind the super-weapon theme, even though it has been done a bunch. It wasn't the original death star so I didn't feel like I knew everything about it. I also liked seeing Durga again. (The first Star Wars books I read were the Han Solo books so it was nice to hear what happened to a familiar character.)

 

This book got a 10/10 from me.

It was really fast paced and had loads of action.

 

I thought Darksaber was fantastic haven't read it in so long but I liked this book.it got a 10/10 from me.

 

6.

I like KJA. I like his style of writing and his sense of humor. But this book has got some serious issues.

First of all, I don't see the point in naming a book after something that never becomes more than a subplot. KJA tried to write a big epic - unfortunately, it's too big. He's having some trouble wrapping it all up in a believable yet exciting way, and some plots are just haphazardly thrown away. I really would've liked to see more of the Darksaber - it could have been a cool weapon, but instead it's just a piece of lousy construction.

Which brings me to another thing. WHY would a Hutt be so stupid that he would let his ultimate tool of opression and power be destroyed because of insufficient building material? They're supposed to be the criminal masterminds of the galaxy!

Which brings me to yet another thing. KJA's ability to create different villains is little to none, since all his villains are incompetent losers. (But I have to admit, I feel sorry for Daala. She's always got the worst of luck...).

And as a sidenote, there is some inconsistency with SW canon, most notably the stories of Callista's becoming a Jedi, where she begins her training at an adult age, rather than at infancy. But since this book was written a few years before the PT, I'm going to let it slide.

Callista's stupid. Her character is whiny, repetitive and altogether unbelievable. I would like to see less of her.

However, there are some good things with this book.

* The return to classic settings. This novel takes us back to, among others, Tatooine, Hoth and Dagobah. Meeeeesa like.
* Bevel Lemelisk and his reminiscing. I like Lemelisk. He's a fun character, sort of a mad scientist. Also, it's nice to see some Pre-ANH things.
* Dorsk 81 and Khomm. It's very nice to see this character develop , and the Clone World of Khomm is a genuinely creative creation.

And one final thing: On the back it says "Luke Skywalker returns to his home planet of Tatooine [...]". Well, he does, but only for three friggin' chapters! What a rip off!

 

palpatoon, u have to except change/ this was a step that was took into a much larger world. this "epic" was awesome. 10/10 read the kja thread for my thoughts.

 

it's a nice book, gave me livelier impressions of how all the generals etc. continued existance after the empire was defeated...

 

Eh, I give it a 6. Pretty good, especially the flash back, but the Jedi at the end were way to powerful. I'm sorry, but make the Jedi a little less then gods please. Throwing TIE bombers and AT-STs around? And how do you throw an entire fleet trillions of miles instantly.

Just didn't like the unrealism, but the story it's self was prtty good, but some of the dilog got on my nerves.

And dad blast it, let Daala win against those kriffin' Jedi!!

 

10 -- It is my favorite Star Wars novel and one of the few that felt like the movies they were based on. It gave us epic romance, epic adventure, epic locations and some really fun villains. Yes, the resolution of the Darksaber itself is weak but the ride getting there was exciting.

One of the few books worthy of the name Star Wars!

 

Haven't read it in absolutely ages, but I did enjoy it. Good action & a nice fast paced read. And some of us aren't bothered by the whole superweapon thing, because not everyone has read every single EU book out there!