Jedi Search (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson
Summary: Two years post the Thrawn campaign (does the date jumping settle down later? I don't remember, but I sure hope so) and the year after Palpatine's last death, Luke is working to start a new Jedi academy. Leia tries to balance being a mother and a politician (Anderson is not good at women). Han goes back to Kessel to try to negotiate with the underworld there, but winds up getting captured. He escapes with the help of the Force-sensitive Kyp Durron, but only to get re-captured at The Maw Installation a secret Imperial laboratory in the middle of a nest of black holes. There, he finds the latest Imperial superweapon, The Sun Crusher. Admiral Daala, commander of the security force there, charges out to take revenge on the Rebellion for the Death of Grand Moff Tarkin.
What It Introduces:
The Maw and Maw Installation: The Maw is a cluster of black holes "near" (space distances are awkward) Kessel. The Empire has hidden a secret research station inside it, which developed some of their deadliest super weapons, including the Death Star.
Admiral Natasi Daala: Is totally a great Admiral. She's so much smarter than all the others. She just gets her ass kicked about 3000 times in this trilogy. Other authors handle her better, but at this point it mostly feels like Anderson wants her to look like she got her position by screwing Tarkin. It's weird. Also, she's really hot, so there's a bunch of descriptions like this, "Her hair was the color of hot copper and seemed to crackle with an electric life of its own. Her eyes were green and piercing, like turbolaser bolts." Great.
The Sun Crusher: An indestructible (except the parts that aren't) superweapon that can blow up entire stars. Or just ram stuff really good.
Glitterstim: It's referenced in A New Hope but this is the first in depth look at the production, effects, etc. It's made by giant murder spiders, and is destroyed by light.
Qui Xux: An alien super scientist. Dates Wedge Antilles and doesn't die! That's kind of impressive at this point in the canon.
Commentary:
Anderson is one of those authors you're pretty much stuck with if you're reading 90s sci-fi. He's most famous for his questionable Dune prequels, but he's got about 20 Star Wars novels, some X-Files, and some original stuff. None of it's particularly good. He's like a sci-fi version of James Patterson. He's written a ton of books, they're all best sellers, and I've never heard a single person actually praise them in any way.
He's generally in the right lane for Star Wars, but that can't save him. As I sat down to write this entry, I really struggled to write what the book was "about." The biggest chunk of the book is Han's capture and escape, but there's also an extended sequence of Lando going to check out some "blob races" that could probably be cut without any issues, some excavation on Coruscant that's being led by Wedge for some reason, Luke scouting for and finding Jedi candidates (most of whom will die/not matter after this trilogy), and a weirdly off the cuff rape scene. The oddest part is Leia showing around the Jedi candidates, when Anderson starts throwing out romance novel tropes like, "Gantoris had lived a hellish life, she admitted, but he seemed too intense, his dark eyes fiery pits of contained fury." She's already married to Han at this point, but there's a few chapters that read like this is going to be about a love triangle hinging on her. Really, any scene with a woman is probably going to be cringetastic. "Beneath their armor the two guards were well built and attractive; but Daala had not taken a lover since Grand Moff Tarkin. After him fantasizing had been enough." How do you write that sentence and not want to chop off your own hands?
Review: 1/5 The best in this trilogy, which isn't really saying much. Anderson's dialogue is awkward, his descriptions nonsensical, and his characters flat. At the risk of turning this into a tumblr blog, the way he writes women is gross, and the way the men interact with them is worse. The Sun Crusher is one of the more interesting lost superweapons, and the Maw Installation is neat, but I wish there were a better author writing about them.
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