Vol. 1) - Jedi Search (Star Wars - The Jedi Academy Trilogy

Kevin J. Anderson proves abundantly why his books are reviled by the Star Wars fan community. Everything Anderson attempts to write comes across as being unoriginal and a rip-off of some other part of the Star Wars saga. The Imperial Admiral, out of touch with the fallen Empire (Daala as compared to Thrawn), the superweapon (the Death Star prototype), Luke on some bizarre Jedi spiritquest. All these elements might work in a more skilled writer's hands, such as Timothy Zahn's, but in Anderson's prose the ideas fall flat. I would recommend staying away from the Jedi Academy trilogy, but unfortunately, the trilogy is the keystone of the Star Wars novels that follow, more so that Timothy Zahn's trilogy. Take my advise, get a friend that suffered through these novels to summarize them for you and then move on. You'll feel better in the end.

What is this guy thinking? The characterizations are lousy, the plot stumbles along, and, as everyone can tell from the cover, he crashes the Millenium Falcon into a planet. How can Han call a wookiee that is 250 years his senior "Lad?" I do believe that our author should go watch the original movies and read the original New Hope novel before writing anything else.

My expectations were not high, and this book exceeded them. I thought Anderson's writing was usually crisp, with just enough call-backs to the original trilogy to make a fanboy happy. As usual for me, the non-Jedi characters were the most interesting. Given that those characters -- Han, Leia, Lando, Chewie, and some new baddies -- are the focus of this book, it was right up my alley.

Comparing Zahn's Thrawn series to the Jedi Academy Series (this is the first book) is like comparing "Old Man and the Sea" to some random Superman fanfic.

Everything about this book and the reset of its trilogy is silly. This is exactly the kind of drivel that made Disney decide the books are non-canonical.

Comparing Zahn's Thrawn series to the Jedi Academy Series (this is the first book) is like comparing "Old Man and the Sea" to some random Superman fanfic.

Everything about this book and the reset of its trilogy is silly. This is exactly the kind of drivel that made Disney decide the books are non-canonical.

I think this is around when Star Wars publishing started to explode, and I gave up as it was looking to be not too interesting.

The Ambiguously Evil Woman vs Luke is a bit of fun, though.

As I have found out, Anderson writes things at a furious pace, so that he makes a nice living, so this is what you have to expect.

This book had a great beginning.But The characters are totally 1 sided. Don't you think Luke would be slightly ticked when Gantois tried to KILL HIM! want to see the characters at their peak? Read Vision of the future. LANDO GET YOUR EYES OF MARA! IT IS HER AND LUKE! BACK OFF!

Kevin Anderson, if you read this revew i want you to know that all the people that right bad revews about your books don't know what there talking about. Who rereads the thrawn trilogy when you books are out? i know i certatainly don't. the temperance with which he rights is just . . . incredible. theres no other word for it. i fully encourage massive star wars fans like me who wants to read every single book there is to start with jedi search as well as its sequels dark aprentice and champions of the force, both great books. so read up!

I really liked this book. I liked the part about the Maw installation best. Qwi Xux added a lot to the book. She steered it away from a typical Star Wars "bad guy, good guy" routine. Too many books get into that cycle. I also liked how you get to meet the twins of Han and Leia for the first time. Kids are always a welcome addition to a book. Anyway, I think this is another success by Kevin J. Anderson.

Another wonderful book about Star Wars! Leia finally gets Jacan and Jania back, but Han and Chewie are missing. Luke is looking for Jedi canidates and Lando makes 1 million credits, without really tring. All withen another great Star Wars novel! Bye now, I have to go look for the second book!

All a bit far-fetched and unbelievable. Why would Daala wait hidden in the maw for 10 years if she had heard no news from Tarkin? You would have thought she would have become a bit curious after a year or so and sent out some scouts to find out what was going on - I mean 10 years with no contact from the outside world!!! And an indestructible ship with quantum armour plating?! Not very realistic. Some redeeming parts but few and far between.

Good story, terrible writing.

Anderson's prose is trite, unimaginative, and, far too often, simply laughable. Which is a shame because the story is compelling.

This is a key part of the Star Wars extended universe, however. So, read it if you must. But you've been warned.

This trilogy brought my enjoyment of Star Wars books to a screeching halt. Anderson apparently took a little look at the bios and didn't go further in his research. The story line is incredibly contrived, the cast of villains is a bad joke. How anyone can reach the rank of admiral (even by sleeping her way there) and display Daala's incredible lack of strategic, tactical AND logistical ability is beyond me. Vader would have strangled her for incompetence after five minutes. Thrawn would have had her executed within the hour. Don't buy these books

It was wonderful! It shows how Han Solo can never be anything but a "scruffy-looking" pilot always getting himself in trouble and when he finally thinks he's in the clear, he justs ends up in more trouble. Leia gets worried and its Luke Skywalker to the rescue. A wonderful description of how Han Solo can never get away from smuggling.

To all those who recently read Kevin Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy and decided to tear it apart, I want to remind you; these are 5 years old. These books were in the beginning when the Star Wars universe became part of the Sci-Fi literature. I'm glad you've read the latest, but chewing up someone's work is wrong, especially when they didn't have the rich new background books have now to work with. Heck, Anderson created part of that background.

You just reading my review probably won't make you read the book. So if I were right next to you right now I'd shout it. READ THE BOOK! It's the best of the Star Wars books by far... almost as good as the origional movie trilogy. And I should know... I've read almost all of the Star Wars books. (Well, except #2 and #3 in this Jedi Academy Trilogy.

After reading Zahn's excelent Thrawn Trilogy, I expected the characters to remain about the same, but I was sorly disapointed. Luke has become a jedi master, just 7 years after becoming a Jedi Knight at all!!! The movie implied that to become a master took decades!! Anderson made it seem like Luke was the most powerful, most important, most benevolent person in the entire universe! Luke's suppose to be a protagonist, sure, but he's not some omnipotent master of the universe either. Everything he does in this book is pointless, especialy the "walking on lava" scene. In fact, to read about Luke's exploites, I find myself reminded of a certain Jedi master clone who Luke thought was corrupt. Leia seems to have become a full-time polotician, with no intrest in battle or her children's wellfare. Also, she is suppose to be just as force-capable as Luke, but in this book, she can't even lift up her lightsaber. Mara Jade was a key character in the Thrawn Trilogy, but in this book she is totaly usless. I though she and Luke were close! Yet Anderson manages to make Mara far more hostile to him than she was at the end of "The Last Command", and Luke compleatly ignores her. Perhaps Anderson didn't even bother to read that book, so he knows nothing about how it ended. Han Solo, who should be a far more interesting character, is nothing more than a side character. In fact, to read this book, you might almost thing that Anderson was trying to corrupt tha SW universe into his perverted conception of what it should be. Jedi Knights are the Mystic Masters of All Power and Glory, and everyone else is just a needless side character, who really can't accomplish anything useful. And where in hell did he get the concept for a Jedi Academy? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! I thought Jedi training was suppose to be a one on one deal! And aside from that, all Anderson does anyway is parot the lines Yoda used in "The Empire Strikes Back". HE CLEARLY HASN'T THE ABBILITY TO WRITE AN ORIGINAL STORY OF HIS OWN, so he just steals other people's ideas, twisting them into new and awful forms, much like a child given a beautiful sculpture, and then told to make any changes it wants. If you want to read a good seireis of SW books, stick to Stackpole and Zahn. They're the only ones who wrote anything worth reading.
All of the people who gave this book good reviews are probably under age 11. Anyone who wasn't has either never seen the movie, or is a phenominal fool (almost as big a fool as Anderson himself)

This trilogy brought my enjoyment of Star Wars books to a screeching halt. Anderson apparently took a little look at the bios and didn't go further in his research. The story line is incredibly contrived, the cast of villains is a bad joke. How anyone can reach the rank of admiral (even by sleeping her way there) and display Daala's incredible lack of strategic, tactical AND logistical ability is beyond me. Vader would have strangled her for incompetence after five minutes. Thrawn would have had her executed within the hour. Don't buy these books

Anderson used a great storyline by putting Luke's hopes for a jedi academy to good use. Another good use of the past was Han getting caught on Kessel. That really showed creative work. This book is worthy of my 5 star rating.