What's so bad about Jedi Academy Trilogy?

First of all, I'm sorry if this should be in the Literature Review forum, but why are Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice, and Champions of the Force considered the worst of Star Wars Literature? I mean, they obviously weren't as good as TTT, and you can get much of the gist of it from I, Jedi, but they were well written and told a good story, and believable within the SW universe (except a Star Destroyer surviving a supernova)

What's wrong with them?

 

Well writen? You've got to be kidding me.

The childish and irritating prose was by far the worst thing about the books. It's the whole reason that I couldn't stand to read them after I turned 15 (which was quite a while ago).

 

What's wrong with them?

I dunno, I don't really see a problem... seriously.

But heck everything has flaws, and I don't seem to see as many in JAT as most people do. But I tend to like everything in Star Wars, just learning everything... it's nice. Hard to explain, I'm easy to please I guess. Unless it's Courtship of Princess Leia... RAWR! lol

 

I think "worst" can be saved for some of the other works, however it does have several things going against it.

-Uber Jedi powers
-uninspiring Villianess
-whiny Jedi wannabes
-not one, but two superweapons (Suncrusher and DS prototype).
-ultra powerful Sith ghost
-bad location for Jedi Academy (because of Sith ghost).
-Luke having to be saved by a tottler

Maybe I'll throw some more in later.

 

The reason why I'm not a huge fan of the Jedi Academy Trilogy has to do with the story arch involving the Imperials. Reviving the threat of the Death Star (yet again) was a bad move. Also Admiral Daala is a weak villian. She seemed to be an insignifcant threat after the fall of Thrawn.

Anderson's love of super-weapons went even further with the introduction of the "Suncrusher". Did we really need another one of these doomsday weapons? I don't think so.

The author also tried to fill in the year gap between TTT and JAT. By doing so, he mentioned elements of the DE graphic novels. Although his attempt at creating a cohesive EU may be admirable, these references seemed out of place.


I do, however, like how the novels began to tell the story of Luke's resurrection of the Jedi Order. The books also introduced many characters (e.g. Kyp Durron) that would be important to the contiuning saga.

 

Now I read JAT pretty recently, and I will tell you how I saw all these things:

-Uber Jedi powers
Having seen Clone Wars, anything is possible

-uninspiring Villianess
I had seen Isaard, Thrawn, and Zsjing: All great. Daala had out-dated weaponery, and she had pretty much gotten her rank because of who she knew. I was not expecting to be impressed by her at all, and I wasn't.

-whiny Jedi wannabes
Whiney Jedis? From what I can tell, whiney Jedis eventually become the most powerful, lucky Skywalkers. And the only really whiney one was Kyp, but once again, after Luke and Anakin, whiney = Jedi god.

-not one, but two superweapons (Suncrusher and DS prototype).
Too many superweapons!? What is this, STAR WARS!? oh wait... it is.

-ultra powerful Sith ghost
Exar Kun is probably one of the one things most people LIKE about KAJs stuff, and if you find fault with him... I think you're gettin a bit nit picky.

-bad location for Jedi Academy (because of Sith ghost).
uhm... yeah, bad location... but uhm... why does that make the book suck? lol

-Luke having to be saved by a tottler
During that scene all I could think of was Yoda fighting Dooku. It was ridiculous, but not out of line in a Star Wars book

 

-whiny Jedi wannabes
Whiney Jedis? From what I can tell, whiney Jedis eventually become the most powerful, lucky Skywalkers. And the only really whiney one was Kyp, but once again, after Luke and Anakin, whiney = Jedi god.

Kyp is the only whiny Jedi wannabe? Are we forgetting a little clone named Dorsk 81? "Oh, this isn't processed enough for me to eat. I'm not perfect because I have access to the Force. Gantoris is being mean. I don't like going on patrols with Kyp; he's scary."

Also, on the topic of JA Trilogy, as I'm now reading I, Jedi does anyone recall if Kieran Halcyon was mentioned in the JA Trilogy?

 

I didn't see the big problem, either. I thought the books were fast paced and felt right. I also loved the Tol Sivron stuff. I'm a sucker for Dilbert-style humor.


Sure, it does have its faults as others have pointed out, but I think revisionist history has burnt the JAT more than the books themselves.

 

Also, on the topic of JA Trilogy, as I'm now reading I, Jedi does anyone recall if Kieran Halcyon was mentioned in the JA Trilogy?

Nope, he was invented by Stackpole, and Stackpole wrote his stuff a few years after JAT.

 

i have the jat have not read them yet but from what i heard its a decent trilogy not as good as ttt but they say its intresting in seeing luke take the first step in rebuilding the jedi order

 

i have the jat have not read them yet but from what i heard its a decent trilogy not as good as ttt but they say its intresting in seeing luke take the first step in rebuilding the jedi order

Might I recommend staying far from this forum until you finish it? Get your own thoughts on it and come back with your opinion. It'll be much better.

 

actualy i trust their opinion since he works at books a million and spends most of his days off there

 

Granted, I haven't read them in several years, but I remember the JAT (and Darksaber) as being among the best of the bantam novels. Certainly better than "Children of the Jedi", "Planet of Twilight", "The Crystal Star", "The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy", and the "Corellian Trilogy"; and arguably better than "The New Rebellion", "The Truce at Bakura", and the "Courtship of Princess Leia". A lot of the criticisms people give are actually staples of the Star Wars saga . I do admit that KJA gives the jedi an insane amount of power, but then again, the Clone Wars cartoon had Mace Windu taking out entire droid armies with his bare fists! In other words, it hardly ruins the story, and KJA isn't the only one to do it.

 

These books aren't really bad, they're fun. Although I have to admit that I was 14 when I read them...

I mean, if you take the word of every forum user, there isn't one good book left. I honestly can't remember one which didn't get flamed by at least a single person (oh, wait - Ruins of Dantooine comes to mind ).

To me, these novels are SW fun. Also, it's about the characters (at least their two dimensions, like we love our Star Wars). And with superweapons and the promise of a new Jedi order, it might even be a better sequel than TTT. Might.


-"The reason why I'm not a huge fan of the Jedi Academy Trilogy has to do with the story arch involving the Imperials."
You're not a huge fan of anything post-ep3 except the New Jedi Order, aren't you? Oh wait, that one had Imperials in it, too.

-"The author also tried to fill in the year gap between TTT and JAT. By doing so, he mentioned elements of the DE graphic novels. Although his attempt at creating a cohesive EU may be admirable, these references seemed out of place."
Tell that to James Luceno... Or to any random EU purist on these boards. I mean, come on, everyone is crying out for continuity to the point of it becoming ridiculous (aka including Glove of Darth Vader - there, personal opinion again ). Now this novel had the very birth of EU continuity (as TTT and TaB didn't refer to other fictional work except the Holiday Special) which made it, well more epic to me and made me go buy Dark Empire (although I don't know anymore how I found out the story was told there - what was life like without the internet?). And before we start with that, I seriously liked and like Dark Empire, too.

Modern EU is a bit too serious from time to time, if you ask me. Of course, Shatterpoint was a great novel (personal opinion...), but I wonder how much fun the original Stover cliffhanger adventure would have been.

 

The fact that Anderson decided to make one of his creations the 16 year old Kyp Durron appear more powerful then Luke.

 

For me the only real reason I dislike them is the fact they are badly written thought out books.

 

To be fair, at the time Kyp was created Luke wasn't the son of The Chosen One, who was created by the Force itself to bring balance and yada yada yada... he was just the powerful son of a powerful former Jedi, there was no reason to think anyone else couldn't be nearly as strong or stronger than him.

And if I recall correctly, Kyp's only more powerful in his own mind, it's was never stated in black and white with no wriggle room that Kyp is undeniably stronger.

 

When I first read the Jedi Academy Trilogy and it mentioned not only "Leia's 3rd child, Anakin Solo" and "Luke's brief brush with the dark side" and the "Emperor Reborn" I was like . I hadn't heard of Dark Empire at all being a book reader and not a comic reader. (to this day I only read the novels - the exception being the UNION comic).

I didn't mind the books but then I had to wait forever to see if Luke would recover (the guy who defeated Vader can't defeat a teenager possessed by a sith? . And a 2 year old being "possessed" by his Uncle's trapped spirit using a Lightsaber? It just didn't seem right.

And why Luke would chose Yavin in the first place is beyond me........ You'd think he would have made sure there wasn't any possibility of a dark side presence. Plus, I think training one or two at a time would have been better. That's how I would have written the JAT.

 

Of course, Shatterpoint was a great novel (personal opinion...), but I wonder how much fun the original Stover cliffhanger adventure would have been.

It was originally going to be a Duology?

 

To be honest, at the time that KJA wrote the books, Luke Skywalker was considered the central figure of the Star Wars universe. With the prequel movies Luke's importance in the world has been decreased, not increased.

So KJA making Kyp more powerful than Luke is even worse a sin, in my humble opinion. And he goes through multiple ways of showing that Kyp is more powerful. Untrained Kyp has a more powerful reaction to test Luke discovers than the effect Luke creates. The fact that Leia creates a weaker effect than Luke shows that its not his training controlling it.

Zahn annoys me in a similar way. Reading his novels gives the impression that Thrawn is more important in a galatic sense than Vader and Palpatine.

I don't think that JAT is the worst of them all (it doesn't introduce Callista for a start). Other books have things that annoy me more, Black Fleet Crisis (just about everything except for its treatment of Chewie) and Darksaber (another failed attempt at making Daala not pathetic) for example.

 

"Oh, this isn't processed enough for me to eat. I'm not perfect because I have access to the Force. Gantoris is being mean. I don't like going on patrols with Kyp; he's scary."


Um...he's a genetically engineered clone, of course he's going to have exacting nutritional requirements.

Hey, that's his personal opinion about the Force. Not a plot point by any means.

Well, considering Gantoris tried to kill Luke a couple pages later, I'd say Dorsk's complaints about him were quite well-justified.

Ditto for Kyp. The boy destroyed multiple planets in the name of justice. I'd rate him as scary too.

 

I have some issues with the writing, KJA is really not my cup of tea. The superweapons stuff too is something I don't like.

But the worst sin is uninteresting villains, especially Daala who is not only uninteresting, but pathetic. Perhaps Lucas was inspired by Daala when he created crappy PT villains like the Trade Federation and General Grievious!

But hey, it's still not the worst KJA work. Alas, no! There's worst stuff out there...

*shudders*

 

Superweapons......that's what I see so many people griping about. Superweapons??


Hello, McFly! *Tap Tap Tap*



Superweapons have been a part of Star Wars since A New Hope. They've been in the EU as far back as Marvel. Hell, they're mentioned or seen in four of the six movies. KJA including a couple superweapons does nothing to hamper the plot, and if you read his reasoning behind it, where he uses real life r and d facilities as an example, the guy makes a good point. Hell, the Katana Fleet was a superweapon in disguise, and no one gripes about it.

 

Thank you, I don't get the too many super weapons arguement! Superweapons are a staple of Star Wars as much Jedis, Lightsabers, and Skywalkers. Toss in a Death Star here, another there, BAM instant Star Wars!