Champions of the Force, Volume III of The Jedi Academy

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me present to you Exhibit C." That just about sums up my opinion of the third and final installment of Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy. After two sub par works, Anderson has finally hit rock bottom.

Champions of the Force picks up with Luke still remaining in a coma (of sorts at least), living on in the spirit realm - his fate uncertain, and resting in part with the students in the fledgeling academy. Leia is left on a desperate mission to save her youngest son, Anakin, from Imperial agents seeking to kidnap him. And Han is treading on the impossible by tracking down Kyp Durron and the Sun Crusher - in an attempt to appeal to Kyp's sense of reason. And in order to begin atonement for his evil ways, Kyp must pilot the Sun Crusher on a suicide mission against the Death Star prototype.

This is really not a great book. The story is pretty weak; Luke is practically non-existent as a central character to the story (granted it's justified - but come on!!); the heroics of the Jedi students tend to come off as very hammy at times. Imperials are once again posed as one of the antagonists in this story, and they yet again fall way too short. Part of problem with this book in general is the simple fact that it just doesn't have a constantly strong antagonist from the start to the end of this book. Champions of the Force simply lacks focus, and if it weren't part of a series I couldn't reasonably ask or recommed that anyone read this garbage.

Alas I must still recommend that some of you out there go out and read this book - only if you also read the previous two. Otherwise this book really isn't worth the time it takes to pick it up. But hey, if finishing any series of books isn't something that's all that important to you, well why not just skip this one and thank me later.

Sean's Rating