Rating: 
Summary: Terrible, Bad characterizations, simply poor quality
Review: Kevin Anderson might be a very enthusiastic about writing for the Star Wars universe. I happen to be on a project reviewing all the Star Wars book that have come out and since I have read and own all of them, I reread them in anticipation of these reviews. The first book in the Jedi Academy Trilogy is not the worst of the series, but it is poor and simply put it gets worse with every read. I was in junior high when I first read this book and it did not seem too bad, but now I review it as a college graduate and it's simply terrible. Wedge Antilles piloting a contruction droid instead of a starfighter? Ok perhaps Wedge needed some time off but come on. Lando Calrissian reduced to poverty? No. Princess Leia, who was quite advance in her Jedi training during the Thrawn Trilogy is now a barely compatent apprentice. I mean the characterizations of the classic characters are all out of whack (technical term). Useless characters are constantly being introduced: Admiral Daala, the most incompatent Imperial officer ever written. She was supposed to be a feared tactician but all she looks like is totally pathetic commander. Gantoris and the whole "dark man" idea, just a little bit predictable. Kyp Durron, the Luke Skywalker clone. While Durron has evolved into a solid character in the New Jedi Order books, most Star Wars authors for the pre-NJO simply avoid him because he is a poor character. Qui Xu, why have her? A scientist who invented the Death Star didn't know what it was used for? Ok brainwashing is understandable to a point but come on. Then Wedge has to fall in love with her, yeah makes perfect sense; and last but not least, another superweapon. One as big as an X-Wing and more powerful than the Death Star: The Sun Crusher. Bad name, bad idea, simply a bad story. Book 2 is even worse, before book 3 comes back a little
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, and Lando made a Fortune Gambling (again)...
Review: This book is set 7 years after the Return of the Jedi. It was interesting, Han Crashes the Falcon, He's sent to the Spice mines of Kessel, that sort of thing (He reeeally was, this time {no kidding}) Then they find a fleet of star destroyers in a black hole, and go back to Coruscant.Luke is looking for jedi people to train. Oh, and Lando made a Fortune Gambling (again). It's a little bizzare, but that's all in the fun Kevin J. Anderson. I recommend this book greatly.
Rating: 
Summary: Jedi
Review: This is the 1st book of the trilogy that deals with Luke finding and then training new Jedi at his new academy. The story is set around the same time as I,Jedi. This is a must read for Star Wars fans. It is important to future stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Pace and Characterization Flaws the Book
Review: Jedi Search by Kevin J Anderson is the first of book in the Jedi Academy Trilogy. It is in this book that the famed Jedi Academy is recreated by Luke Skywalker. It is unfortunate that the narrative voice and poor characterization slow the pace of a story that has so much potential.First, a poor narrative voice hurts the novel. There is a saying among writers - "Show, Don't Tell." While the story is being shown to the reader, Mr. Anderson unfortunately continuously delves back into the past films and other novels as reference to what is currently occurring. These comparisons, or secondary thoughts, do not help to move the story along. As a matter of fact, it slows the novel down to a very slow pace. The novel is 353 pages long, but when all the unnecessary description is taken out the novel could have been told in 250 pages. What hurts the narrative the most is the constant reference to the Dark Empire comic series. If the reader didn't read the comic series, he or she would be lost for several pages in the book. The narrative voice also is hurt by some of the language that Mr. Anderson uses. One example would be that Lando goes to see a blob race in order to identify a man who could have Jedi Power. When the race begins, the narrative voice calls the blob's racetrack a "Blobstacle Course". I don't know if it was the author's intention to make the reader laugh at the term, but I certainly laughed. Poor characterization is also shown in the book. The dialog in several cases didn't seem natural to the characters. Also, when Leia is confronted with situations, it didn't match her normal reactions. When Han disappeared for a long period of time, she showed no emotion except her inner anger. Han is her husband, and she should have naturally felt worried and would investigated his disappearance sooner. So with all these comments, why was it given 3 stars? Some plot lines and the character of Kyp Durron save the book. If the reader can look past the poor characterization and narrative, the plots of Luke trying to find the students academy, Han caught in the spice Mines of Kessel, and the story of Kyp Durron all help to keep the story alive. Though most of the main characters seemed to be one dimensional, the character of Kyp was far from that. From the first moment he was seen, he showed his potential at being a great character in the Star Wars universe, and I look forward to seeing what happens to him.
Rating:
Summary: Just feed anderson too a Rancor already, will ya lucas.
Review: Well, there are three types of readers out there for star wars novels. Hard core fans that want too see how the charachters have grown and developed from the sometimes hot,sometimes not, movie series. Even more hardcore fans that wear star wars undewear and will read anything with its title, and those that dont really care bout star wars, but like Sci fi and want something good too read. For Those that love the charachters and series, and those that want a quality novel, just stay away. Far away. See that Star wars novel written by Zhan? Read that instead. For those that must read star wars, why are you even bothering reading this? You know your going too read it despite what others think or say. Just go ahead and buy it. Going by the other reviews, you will see why so many dislike Anderson as a writer. Lame plot points. Lame characters. Silly events, dialouge, and flashbacks. Really interesting characters from previous series (winter and wedge from X-wing) are now just really really irritating. And why is the supposed brilliant Admiral Daala so insanely incompetent? Oh, get this... Wedge antillies, the guy that has lost friends and family fighting death stars and World devastators, Falls in love for the scientist that invented them. For an historic note, Future writers of the series spent time writing novels that undid the rediculous plot points that took part in Andersons Novels. Too much applause from the fans I might add. And as for people that wonder why hasnt he written for the new jedi order? Rumor is that Lucas himself asked him too stop writing for the star wars series. And if you dont believe me, Try reading the once great Tales of the Jedi Graphic novels. Once ripe with wonderful Jedi action sequances and spiritual and moral turmoil for the characters... (those were written by Tom Veitch by the way) When anderson took over the series... they eventually became VERY unpopular. This book is a prime example of andersons horrible writing skills. Which is a shame because it was obvious he enjoyed writing for the series. But Not one hard core star wars fan misses his books. Do not read unless you really want too waste your time with a book you will not enjoy in the least. there is just so much better out there.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, good use of the force, and good family morals.
Review: Jacen and Jaina-I enjoyed reading on their remarkable journey in the underworld. Sticking together until they were found by their worried parents.
Kyp full of remorse for the loss of his brother in the hands of the empire.
And Luke's experiences with the 4 Jedi potentials.
I personally like it when authors use the Empire in some form, but I was kinda [angry] at how Admiral Deliah was never successful in anything. The author perceived her a genuis, so why did she always fail? Luke was'nt really on the battle grounds against the Empire, nor were Han & Leia all in space battles. So who was she really fighting?
Overall I did enjoy the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Huh?
Review: Huh? That is about the synopsis of my opinion on this book... What happened? First... The Story. What was original about this? The only thing that kept me reading was Luke Skywalker's atempt to build a Jedi Academy (Which I admit was Anderson's One Brilliant Touch). Han Solo, enslaved in the Spice mines of Kessel? Come on, Get real. And of course we have to have ANOTHER super weapon? It was really impossible to tell which was worse the unexplainable increativity of the novel, or the redundent references back to previous occurances. Anderson took it upon himself to give us the whole Star Wars history. He constantly refers back to the original trilogy as well as reminding us what happened previously in the book. I nervously approach the next book telling myself it can't get worse. I hope I'm right!
Rating:
Summary: Yeah, it sucks
Review: This is some of the worst dialogue I have ever seen in any novel. Not to mention that the plot formula is EXACTLY the same as the movies. Take a death star; only this time make it smaller and indestructable. Instead of blowing up planets, why not have it wipe out entire systems, (so much for originality) and you get the Suncrusher. And its up to none other than Han Solo to save us (once again) from the (defeated?) empire. My bottom line here is that the plot is VERY predictable and the corny dialogue is an atrocity.
Rating:
Summary: The worst of the trilogy.
Review: I will make two sets of remarks. The first regards this book specifically, and the second regards the trilogy as a whole.
1) Jedi Search is the weakest book in this trilogy. You feel like you've seen most of it before, and that what isn't old is just plain silly or stupid. You gain next to nothing new from it, and you wonder, "Why did I read this waste of time?" Jedi Search is an utterly shallow book. Way too large a portion of the dialog is taken directly from the movies, as are descriptions of how people are feeling, etc. One is forced to wonder how mind-numbingly boring the 8 years since Return of the Jedi would have had to be for Luke to have no other points of refrence than, for instance, how he felt in the garbage compactor on the Death Star or the rancor pit at Jabba's palace. The original episodes Kevin J comes up with are even more shallow. It's Star Wars, right? So there have to have alien worlds and seedy venues and such..."Okay," thinks Kevin J, "I know, let's have...BLOB RACES!" Yes, this is in a Star Wars book: multi-colored slime racing around obstacle courses like in a Nickelodeon show!! This is the kind of stuff the book is chock full of: silly, depthless additions to the Star Wars universe that frankly make no sense. At the core of Star Wars is a deep sense of culture, which in part comes from the well thought-out use of bits of our own cultural heritage; Lucas constructed the Star Wars universe as rich, elaborate tapestry of human tradition in which his audience could find deep resonance. Perhaps Mr. Anderson thought "You Can't Do That on Television!" was deeply enough ingrained in human thought patterns to count as a part of this cultural tapestry. Ahem. I think he was wrong. In short, then, this book is unimaginative and unintelligent. The bad guys are pathetic, the good guys are like cardboard cut-outs of themselves in the movies--with no dynamism, no personality, and no likeability. For instance: Leia's entire role consists of fretting about dividing her time between politics and her family. Just fretting. And the twins...they're like bad stereotypes of 2-year-olds...totally unrealistic and totally obnoxious.
2) The essence of what I have to say about Jedi Search applies to the trilogy as a whole: lines taken from the movies, unoriginal and ridiculous episodes, awful treatment of the characters. The overall plot is pretty bad, if only because it hasn't got a shred of credibility. An Admiral losing her fleet so easily? The existence of a weapon with the Sun Crusher's capabilities? Kyp's use of it and the relative lack of consequences for his actions? A 4,000 year-old ghost at "the school" holding Luke's spirit hostage? A two-year old possessed by his uncle's spirt lightsaber-fighting a mutant dragon-thing? It's all so poorly thought out that it's half frustrating to read, half humorous. But the characters are the worst part. It's not just the way Kevin J makes our favorites from the movies totally unlikable, it's also the totally lame new cast of characters he introduces: Streen, the batty old man; Tionne, the dreamy girl with a guitar; Gantoris, the grumpy dark guy...they're all charicatures of themselves, and are totally one-dimensional. The only character with any hint of substance in this trilogy is Kyp Durron, the main contribution Kevin J makes to the Star Wars universe. I'll preface this by saying I like Kyp, a whole lot, in fact. He's a sympathetic character in the book (why, I will never know, seeing as he's a mass-murderer and nearly kills Luke), but mostly I like him because he's been made dynamic in the New Jedi Order. I feel like Kevin J had a potentially good idea: a massively powerful Jedi who disagrees strongly with Luke. This could create some interesting dialog and tension among the Jedi (as it does in NJO). Unfortunately, KJ went and totally sensationalized this idea, making Kyp into a "dark" version of Luke and having him act in a totally incredible way that often seems inconsistent with what little character Kevin J gives him. With all this in mind, the Jedi Academy trilogy is really only worth reading if 1) you are really, really bored, like you're stuck in a very small room for a long time or something; 2) you are a hard-core Star Wars fan and want to read everything; or 3) you care to meet Kyp Durron as he was initially conceived. Fortunately, if you just want the basics of the plot you can read Michael A. Stackpole's infinitely better book, I, Jedi.
Rating:
Summary: wait a minute, Kevin J. Anderson can *write*?
Review: (this is in reference to the entire Jedi Academy trilogy) well, I sure was shocked. my previous experience with Mr. Anderson was the ...-on-print of "Darksaber" and the decently-enough-edited-I-guess-though-I'm-not-really-sure-what-editing-is-when-it-comes-to-anthologies Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina/Jabba's Palace. this was actually...not bad. I can't believe it. the villains are rather one-dimensional, and the conflicts tend to resolve themselves a little too neatly, but it was actually a pleasant (and easy -- I finished each book very quickly) read.
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