Star Wars

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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Jedi Academy Trilogy: Do I still love KJA??

In Japanese! Admiral Daala is a cheerleader?
I belonged to the Kevin J. Anderson fan club when I was a kid. No, I mean literally. There was a fan club. I got special postcards sent to "Tessa Elizabeth Williams" (these were the days before I loved my first name as-is and had no proper middle name so I made up my own).

To be honest, I was a fan because of the Young Jedi Knights. Having reread them as an adult, I can say with certainty that they feel very, very different. On the one hand, I'm like, "Yikes!" On the other, I gave them to a very challenging student of mine last year who gobbled them up (up to the point where there was romance - then he got upset and demanded to know why I would give him a kissing book).

From "Darth Vader and Son" - everyone should own this book!


My hope is that I won't have the same adult reaction the the Jedi Academy Trilogy that I did last year to Young Jedi Knights. I hope that Luke doesn't seem like a moralizing and pedantic moron (my favorite Luke is the Farmboy, not the Jedi Master). I hope that I love Kyp Durron as much as I did then (mmm, there's trouble!). I hope that Mara's spontaneous arrivals and departures are as exciting to me now as they were when I was younger ("Look, look, it's Mara! Look, there she is!").

Fingers crossed! Let's get this party started, Yavin IV!

4 comments:

  1. Heaven forbid a KISSING BOOK!!! Poor guy probably didn't even know what hit him. Just kidding. ^_^ I'm also a bit apprehensive about reading Kevin J. Anderson again. I worshiped him as a girl. I thought his writing was first-rate. As an adult, that changed quite a bit. Talk about a terrible writer!! I'm hoping that doesn't hold true for the Jedi Academy trilogy, or for Young Jedi Knights, but I'm not holding my breath... Maybe there will be lots of kissing? One can only hope... ^_^

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  2. What's super embarrassing for me is that I used his writing as a kind of template for my fan fiction. Not that I copied it or anything (cuz why bother writing?) but his expression and the way he used words. I thought, as you did, "Hey, first rate!" Ahem. Not so much. Still, hoping it'll pick up as the series progresses.

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  3. It doesn't. It really doesn't. In fact, I was so angry about his portrayal of Mara Jade, and every other classic Star Wars character, that I had a hard time finishing the third book. Not to mention it seems he climaxed the book too early, and has a ton of filler at the end to make the book "full length."

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  4. Another thing I'm struggling with is his recaps. Yikes. Dude, assume that I'm not stupid and was actually paying attention when I read the preceding books. For real, I'm so tired of recaps. I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

    GAH!

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