Dark Apprentice (Jedi Academy Trilogy #2) by Kevin J Anderson (1994)

 Dark Apprentice

Why is there an Invader jumpship from Battletech on the cover?

I gave KJA a lot of shit about the last book because... it as a shit book. So, I'll give him a little credit on Dark Apprentice for at least avoiding any kind of sophomore slump, middle book syndrome, whatever you call it. 

Summary: Luke officially starts the Jedi Academy, Exar Kun (moderately successfully) tries to corrupt his students, Kyp Durron steal the Sun Crusher (which the New Republic stashed inside Yavin), Admiral Ackbar goes into exile after crashing into a cathedral, Wedge and Qui Xux get closer, Mon Mothman is sick, Daala blows stuff up, Kyp blows more stuff up and puts Luke in a Force coma.


What It Introduces:

The Cathedral of the Winds and the Vors aliens. They're bird people.

Vodo-Siosk Baas: An Old Republic era Jedi Master who shows up a bunch in KJA's other stuff.

Wookiepedia says this is the first time Anakin Solo is named, though he showed up in Dark Empire first.

Commentary: 

Look at that summary! Jedi Search is like 60% Han Solo escaping Kessel, 10% Luke looking for Jedi students, 30% filler. This is a way better ratio. It's still bad, but at least a lot happens. Daala continues her temper tantrum, everyone gets really mad at Kyp for blowing up nebula (why did they dump the Sun Crusher in Yavin instead of a black hole or something?), Lando sexually harasses Mara Jade, and he and Han get into a pointless extended sequence of betting against each other. 


Review: 1/5 I dunno, maybe this is the best in the series. We're in a "best smelling Bantha poo doo" situation here. I think Jedi Search is mildly less terrible, but I do appreciate how much happens in this book. Honestly, if he'd crammed the whole thing into two books and trimmed some of the more egregious crap (90% of scenes involving women, since they're all gross) he probably could've had a passable duology. Skip unless you really like this period in Star Wars or have some other reason to read it.

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