StarWarsClassics

  Heirs of the Force That fringy stuff is supposed to be shiny gold. Very 90s. I have to read 8 more of these. :( Summary: Jacen and Jaina are at the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. They meet Tenel Ka (Isoldore and Teneniel Djo's daughter) and Lowbacca (Chewbacca's nephew). And then they fix a TIE Fighter, get held at gun point, and don't do anything. Introduced: A couple of the things I already covered in Junior Jedi Knights are technically introduced here, since this book came out a few months sooner. We start to see the inner workings of the Academy. We get a bunch of new characters who are going to be important later. Jacen and Jaina start to get fleshed out more. We're back to Jaina as the impulsive twin and Jacen as the calm one, after a brief detour in JJK. Tenel Ka is Jacen's love interest, and stock honorable warrior woman. You can't expect the Andersons to actually introduce a new character with any personality. Lowbacca (who is referred to as "Lowie...

Kenobi's Blade   Did Anakin just kill a guy? He doesn't, he just cuts off the wizard remotes on his robe. End of the line for this series. After kind of imitating Richardson's style in the fourth book, she's more in her own in these last two. That means more plot, but tons of the painfully awkward description we're used to from her and her husband. Anakin is largely free of his Dark side concerns, but has also seemingly regressed several years here. In Richardson's books, he reads rather mature for his age, but now he sounds like a five year old, over explaining everything (presumably for the reader's benefit, but it just makes him annoying and everyone else seem like an idiot.) I could easily fill this whole entry with things like carbon dating radar?, mix ups between Dagobah and Dathomir, and questionably designed emergency docking bays, but I'd probably wind up with a blog almost as long as the book itself. I do appreciate that she keeps fuzzy dice ha...

 Vader's Fortress Anakin has some sweet dance moves Anakin's Quest  is kind of a transition book between the Richardson Trilogy and the final two books. It introduces Uldir, but Vader's Fortress and Kenobi's Blade  almost read as two halves of one book. Tionne takes a much larger role in the final two books, and we're introduced to Orloc, a fake Force mage who will play a larger role in the next book. Moesta writes some really odd descriptions throughout her books, including this one. "The air was comfortably damp and warm." Not a thing. No one has ever been comfortable, damp, and warm and the same time. The phrase "It was a dark and stormy day," is used, presumably unironically. There's a weird bit where Luke has Ikrit open a door in the academy that he presumably could open with the Force. There's a scene where they activate some laser traps where they seem to forget that Tionne has a lightsaber (or that most of the group has Force powe...

 Anakin's Quest genericcover.jpg With the Golden Globe subplot wrapped up in about a page at the end of the last book (oops, forgot to mention that) the series gets handed off to Rebecca Moesta (Mrs. Kevin J Anderson) for a somewhat less connected second trilogy. Anakin has more bad dreams about turning into a Sith, so he talks to Luke, who sends him to Dagobah so he can go to THE CAVE. A new character shows up, Uldir, a slightly older boy with no Force talent whatsoever. Evidently, the Academy has so many extra teachers and resources that Luke can afford to waste them on a kid with no Jedi potential. He stows away, and generally is annoying (though he occasionally manages to not be a complete douchenozzle, in a pretty impressive depth of character for a 90s kids book.) In the end, Anakin makes it to the cave, sees that he could go with the light or dark side, and Ikrit reveals he was trained by Yoda himself hundreds of years ago. I'm pretty sure this is the second piece of con...

 Promises One of the first (and completely inaccurate) depictions of a live Krayt Dragon I don't have a ton to say about this one. Tionne is the babysitter this round. The kids have to go on a quest for Tahiri to learn about her past and decide if she'll go back to the academy or stay as a Tusken Raider. She was adopted by them after they killed her parents "by mistake." They basically just grab Tionne and keep her when the kids go off. I feel like she could've tried a bit harder if she cared. More sand monologue: "The grit of the desert filled Anakin's mouth and eyes. There was no way to keep the sand out." And he does the mind control thing again when Tahiri is about to fall in the Sarlacc pit. His eyes even flash. I've talked about how I'm rereading these partially since I read them as a kid. There's one particular scene in this book that stuck out in my head, Tahiri using the hubba gourd to make a dressing for Anakin's wound. I do...

  Lyric's World Fighting giant snakes with not very giant spears goes about as well as you'd expect. I don't think there's really enough going on in these books to do my usual write up, so here's all of it in one chunk. Anakin and Tahiri go to one of Yavin's other moons to help one of the other Jedi candidates (padawan won't be invented for a couple more years) go through mermaid puberty at 20. While there, they find some Massassi writing that almost matches what was in the temple, and are able to (with help) translate it. It's written vertically, but an exact cypher for Basic. Peckhum makes his first Junior Jedi Knights appearance (he was in Young Jedi Knights first, but I'm putting those off). He's a freighter pilot who makes deliveries to the academy, ferries the kids around, and fails to supervise them (he leaves because he left some medical supplies behind). This feels a little more like an actual novel than the previous book. Some parts are...

  The Golden Globe Every one of these covers is great Here we go with the second round of middle grade books. Since these are all of about 40 ereader pages long each, I'm not sure I'm going to cover each individually, but I figured I'd at least hit the first one. Summary: Anakin Solo meets Tahiri Veila at Luke's Jedi Academy. They have dreams (and Anakin hears voices) about going rafting into the jungle. They sneak out of the academy, head down a river, and find a Massassi temple. They explore inside and find big magical GOLDEN GLOBE, and a furry mascot Jedi Master. They head back to the academy to get chewed out by Luke, but vow to find more about the globe later. What it introduces: Tahiri Veila: Anakin meets his new best friend shortly after arriving at the academy. In classic 90s kid lit tradition, she's the loud/impulsive one to his quiet nerdiness (almost the same dynamic as Jack and Annie from Magic Tree House .) Ikrit: A Kushiban (dog-rabbit) Jedi Master who...

 Wrapping it up. Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer’s Tale by A. C. Crispin: 4/5  A more uniform naming scheme would've really been a good idea. Some of them are "The Tale of X" some of them are "X's Tale" most of them have the character's name, but not all. So when you get "The Fat Dancer's Tale" it seems kind of judgmental and mundane. At least make it, "The Six Breasted Dancer's Tale" or something. Either way, this is the best (and longest) story in the collection. Decent writing, actual characters, and an ending that isn't "And then I couldn't kill Jabba cause he was already dead and the B'Omarr took my brain." Instead, we get some light romance, a trip across the Dune Sea, and some good old space wandering. Hopefully Crispin's Han Solo trilogy lives up to this when I get there. Overall: 2/5  There's a couple good stories here, a few bad ones, and a whole pile of meh. I usually poke around online when ...

Might take me three days to get through all these now that I look at it. And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard’s Tale by William F. Wu:   1/5 HAHA PIG ALIEN DUMB!  Old Friends: Ephant Mon’s Tale by Kenneth C. Flint:   4/5 One of the few stories we see where a non-Jedi character interacts with a Jedi in a way that actually makes sense. He knows about them, but is awed by Luke. Also, one of the few characters in the anthology not actually trying to kill Jabba, and thus not doomed to fail. Good job. Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees by Deborah Wheeler: 2/5  This is probably the biggest example of a story hurt by the fact that it has to be about a failed plot to kill Jabba. Ree Yees is crazy AND brain washed. There are bomb components hidden inside a frog-dog! But he can't actually kill Jabba since Leia has to, and then he dies when the sail barge explodes. And he dreams about boobs. And the Band Played On: The Band’s Tale by John Gregory Betancourt: 2/5 Another s...

  Tales from Jabba's Palace Sweet Collage! Decided another short story collection would be a good palate cleanser before I jumped into the kid books that round out 1995. My plan is to plow through those, do a little break at the end of 1995 for "extras" (RPG books, video games, etc.) and then take it a bit slower on the X-Wing and Shadows of the Empire stuff. 1996 is really the year the EU kicks into high gear. Speed round on the individual stories, followed by my overall thoughts on the collection as a whole. I'll probably do about half tonight and half tomorrow. A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper’s Tale by Kevin J. Anderson:  3/5 You know, Anderson has really been improving these last couple outings. A little light horror, explaining how the Rancor got to Jabba's palace (the Jawas found it on a crashed ship). Chapter titles are cute. Goes a little long and gets off into the weeds a little a few times, but overall fun enough. Taster’s Choice: The Tale of Ja...