Rating: 
Summary: Star Wars
Review: While this book does not stick out in my mind as one of my favorite Star Wars books, it is an important part of the expanded Star Wars Universe. It is a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: Anderson treads a well-worn path here, with yet another superweapon that must be destroyed. Can no-one think of a more original plot? This novel descends into farce, with the Darksaber project undone by Durga the Hutt's cheapskate mentality, Bevel Lemelisk's gratuitous recollections of his previous executions, and the Darksaber finally being destroyed by accident without ever firing a shot. What was the point? If this book was supposed to be comic, it fell very flat indeed.
Anderson unfortunately cannot resist the temptation to populate the story with the characters and settings from his Jedi Academy Trilogy. They are no more interesting, or better drawn, than they were in those books. The same poor plotting, bad writing, and cringe-worthy dialogue also make the transition ("We're the Champions of the Force!"). How Anderson ever got a book contract is beyond me.
Many other features of this book grated. Anderson's continual references to the movies and previous books sit so awkwardly in the dialogue and the characters' thoughts that they come across as a deliberate attempt to show off the fact that he's done his homework. Crix Madine's appearance is absolutely pointless. His character is so lacking in depth and does so little that his death had no impact. It could have been another character altogether - no-one would have noticed the difference. The sequence on the surface of Hoth was embarrassingly bad, and nothing more than meaningless filler. Would the supposedly-progressive New Republic really execute Lemelisk, as threatened by Wedge? Why can all the trainees on Yavin be referred to as jedi knights, even though (with the exception of Kyp and Dorsk 81) they are obviously still in training? Callista's abrupt character change in this book is jarring, compared to her personality in Children of the Jedi. And why has Callista got it in for Daala? That is a feature of the story that makes no sense whatsoever. Another thing that makes no sense is how one person is able to cripple a Super Star Destroyer.
And Daala? Ah yes, Daala . . .
I've never been able to decide whether Anderson truly intends us to believe that Daala is a military genius whom prejudice and circumstances have always conspired against, or whether he has always meant us to think that she is, as she herself comes to realise at the end of Darksaber, an incompetent with an over-inflated sense of her own abilities and significance. If it is the former, this is a serious indictment of Anderson's writing abilities. Whatever the answer, it's not difficult to believe that Grand Moff Tarkin whisked her off to command the Maw Installation because he could thereby keep her out of the mainstream of the Fleet, and her total lack of command experience would barely matter in an installation that was pratically impregnable anyway. And the idea that Pellaeon would be frightened of her, after all he's been through, is ludicrous.
Darksaber is embarrassingly bad. You will miss nothing by not reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Ok so now Luke has a lovelife
Review: As mentioned in other reviews you can ignore that part. The action sceans both on with the Hutts and the Imperials are very good. I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A pretty bad book
Review: As a reader before said the Callista/Luke thing is pretty sick. Why should Luke fall for Callista when there are plenty of other women out there? He shouldn't thats why. Over all if you skip the Callista/ Luke stuff the action is pretty good.
Rating: 
Summary: Darksaber is okay, but could have been a lot better.
Review: This will probably be the last book I read written by Kevin J. Anderson. The title emphasizes a great superweapon built by the Hutts, and when you get into reading it, eventually this becomes a small part of the real story. "Wrath of Daala" would have been a better title, because that's what this book is really about. The Darksaber gets destroyed half way through the book anyway. Anderon rushes through everything, too. Instead of spending some time with characters at one place, he rushes around and by the time you get used to what's going on the characters are up and gone to somewhere else. Also Luke is portrayed as a wimpy guy.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea, poor execution
Review: When I read the plot summary for this book, I was, despite myself, excited. While I had found Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy far, far from enjoyable, I had to admit that it sounded like he was on to something with Darksaber. The idea of combining all the aspects from the SW literary universe up to 8 years after Endor was a good idea, and the Darksaber--a Death Star laser without all the excessive bother of shaping it into a small moon--was solid. I also liked the idea (in concept) of turning Children of the Jedi, this, and then Planet of Twilight into a sort of Callista trilogy.However, as usual, Anderson fails horribly when it comes to fleshing out his ideas. He does not do anything resembling justice to the original characters, nor are his new characters realistic, believable, true to SW, or enjoyable. Humor, once again, is childish, slapstick, and (how do I put this?) stupid. Also in the fine Anderson tradition, most characters are whiners, such as Callista, who spends her time whining when she's not giving a half-hearted attempt at pretending she loves Luke. I was also largely annoyed with Anderson killing off an original trilogy character. Note to all authors: do not make such a drastic move unless it enhances the plot! I can assure you, in this instance it certainly didn't. I felt this was only done to shock me, but since the character wasn't really important to SW anyway, I didn't really care. I really wish there was something good I could say about this. Save for a potentially good idea, there isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely cool!!! A lot of fun reading it
Review: I really liked this book a lot. It was actually the first SW book I read because I haven't become such a fan of SW until Feb 1998. But anyways, "Darksaber" is totally thrilling and it got me into reading more and more SW novels. Ok, the story is not the most extraordinary or intelligent I have ever seen but it keeps the reader excited throughout the whole book. I guess every SW author has his or her own way of writing and presenting things and Anderson's is definitely ACTION!! But don't worry if you are someone who prefers reading things about the Jedi Knights, the Empire, or good characterizations - you'll get that, too, in "Darksaber". However, I recommend reading "Children of the Jedi" by Barbara Hambly prior to this novel because Darksaber is actually kind of the "sequel" to Hambly's book. But you should go and read this, it'll definitely thrill you!!!
Rating:
Summary: Not my style
Review: First of all, let me note that I am a fan of the Empire and of Mr. Tim Zahn's works. That being noted it should be fairly obvious why I detest this book so much. I had read Anderson's triolgy and thought it was a decent premise, if lacking in follow-through, especially in the character of Admiral Daala, who never lived up to the expectations on her, given her rank and gender. But I would let bygones be bygones and try his new book. Never again. Daala was hopelessly incompentent, and Pellaeon was nothing more than a shadow of a compentent man. Neither of these characters deserve this treatment, and the heroes are sullied by their defeat of such caricatures of decent villians. Go read the Zahn or Stackpole books or _Truce at Bakura_ for decent _Star Wars_. Don't bother with this.
Rating:
Summary: I'm in love with the huts!
Review: I like this book because of my beloved characters called... The Huts. Durga is my all time favorite hut character indeed. This book is absolutely cool, as well as adventurous. I'm in love with the huts because not only of Jaba or Durga, but both of them. I also like how Admiral Daalah gets defeated again and again. Now! back to the huts. I like how Anthony Heald does the voice of Durga The Hut. I like how he made all the characters come to life in this audio book. It's too bad the huts were defeated without a fight in this book by the Darksaber getting crushed by the Hoth Asteroid Field. Oh what a shame that Durga and his minions had died. I would have wished I'd be on that Darksaber to watch the reactions of Durga and the impirial general. I love the way Mr. Anderson would involve the huts in this book. I love there new secret project. It's also too bad the project didn't get completed right. Also! It's too bad the Darksaber got sabotaged. I highly recommend this book to any future star wars fan, and to someone who is in love with the huts as I am.
Rating: 
Summary: Quoting the Movies is NOT Writing a Book.
Review: This is the most unimaginative Star Wars book I have yet read. It's almost like Mr. Anderson was afraid to develop the characters beyond the original trilogy. They don't even use original dialogue half the time! Also, Mr. Anderson has a problem with killing off characters: namely, he can't. Admiral Daala survived against all odds one too many times for me to care anymore, and the way Callista attacks her is crazily improbable. Read the New Jedi Order instead, one of the characters might actually die.
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