Jedi Search: Volume One of the Jedi Academy Trilogy

Some books can’t be beat. And then sometimes there are books that are written well, but lack a really good story line. And then, on the other side of the coin there are books that are written poorly or not so well, but at least have a good story to fall back on. And yet there is another group of books that are just plain bad. Luckily for Kevin J. Anderson, "Jedi Search" doesn’t fall into this last category. But unfortunately, it doesn’t fall into that first category either. "Jedi Search" has a neat story line, which helps lift up the sagging weight of Anderson’s sophomoric writing (I’m no Shakespeare, but I’ve read much better things).

Before I go off into a rant, I should probably tell you what the basic setting of the story is. The Empire is scattered though out the galaxy in this time after the rise and fall of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s fleet, and the following fall of the resurrected Emperor. Luke is taking the first steps toward re-establishing the Jedi as a peacekeeping force in the galaxy, by searching for potential Jedi candidates and attempting to set up a Jedi Academy. Meanwhile, Han and Chewie find themselves in a bind when they are taken prisoner on Kessel, and forced to work in the mines – only to escape later and get tangled up with an Imperial fleet and research facility that was stationed in the Maw. Luke and Lando later take off in an attempt to find out what exactly happened to their friends when they went to Kessel…. The action goes on and on.

As I said, the saving grace of this book is the story, it certainly doesn’t lack much in the way of action – and there’s enough of it to make up some of the ground that is lost in its poor writing. Just one question I would like to ask Anderson: Why does he insist on telling us at every given moment, the entire history of why a character decides what they finally decide to do because of the various events in their past? He brings up every conceivable event from ANH on when it simply is not necessary, especially when your writing to an audience that is essentially filled with SW fans who know all of that background information anyhow. I’d swear, if he cut out all that miscellaneous (non-important) information from the past, "Jedi Search" would only be about half as long. In other words, I felt this book was full of fluff (much like my writing – so I should like it a lot, right?!). And just as an afterthought, while I was reading this book, I felt as though Anderson tried to pull every cliched expression from the Star Wars movies that he could possibly come up with. What’s more, he screwed up outright when referring to Darth Vader’s revelation to Luke that he was his father: "Luke, I am you father!"??? Try "No, I am you father!" Mr. Anderson, but then again I might just be getting overly technical here.

If you occasionally like to read a Star Wars book from time to time, "Jedi Search" wouldn’t be the first book that I would recommend. But it is action packed, and still gives the reader a sense that what they’re reading is all a part of the Star Wars Universe.

Sean's Rating