Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read, read it in 1 day
Review: This book is full of action from the start, real-life emotions, realistic characters and a great plot. I love Anderson's descriptions, making you able to picture the book happening in your mind like a movie. Get this trilogy, you'll enjoy it if you're any sci-fi fan.
Rating: 
Summary: (no title... just what the series deserved)
Review: One of the problems of the Star Wars story is that it is created among two universes. The movie universe, for which it was originally made makes for some great action on screen. None of the movies, however, made for a remarkable novel. A few of the writers, notably Timothy Zahn, have managed to write superior books, though the stories might suffer were they adapted to film. Kevin Anderson tells the story as though it were a movie. He includes plenty of action scenes, but he ignores the subtle suspense (the kind that keeps you from putting a book down) that can only be expressed in print. What starts with a some interesting ideas quickly fizzles. The characters and dialogue were shallow and overly cliche. Luke, the great jedi master, seems only a master of theatrics in that he must address the assembly to convey his intention to start a jedi academy. Couldn't he just go and start one? I don't think it would be against the law, though it might have been after the disaster he created there. Luke pulls himself off like a rookie. The end was atrocious. How Luke can convince the Republic to let Kyp Durron go free after the crimes he commits is beyond belief. I honestly believed that this was somehow part of Kyp's test. That Luke would turn to him and ask him to choose his own punishment which might be a lifetime of service or creation of refugee camps for the few surviving families of his victims. Interestingly, Michael Stackpole tells portions of the same story in "I, Jedi" from a different perspective and does so quite successfully. His explanation that Luke was simply too inexperienced and still unwittingly guided by the dark side might make it appear that this is what the "powers that be" had in mind for the Star Wars universe all along. More likely it was to patch up the holes left behind by Kevin Anderson. I would like to thank Mr. Anderson for a bit of inspiration. He has given hope to me and many other would be amateur writers by showing that "anyone" can make it in the writing business.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, this trilogy sucks
Review: This trilogy brought my enjoyment of Star Wars books to a screeching halt. Anderson apparently took a little look at the bios and didn't go further in his research. The story line is incredibly contrived, the cast of villains is a bad joke. How anyone can reach the rank of admiral (even by sleeping her way there) and display Daala's incredible lack of strategic, tactical AND logistical ability is beyond me. Vader would have strangled her for incompetence after five minutes. Thrawn would have had her executed within the hour. Don't buy these books
Rating:
Summary: WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THIS BOOK? IT IS AWSOME!
Review: I personally think, that this is one of the best sci-fi novels ever written, I am sure that the other books are going to be better! I still have to get them! It starts out when Han and Chewie are trying to establish connections to Kessel. They get captured, and are held prisoners. Luke comes up with the idea of forming a Jedi Academy to train a new order of Jedi Nights. Leia's children come home, and she is mad at han for not coming back in time to great them. Luke goes out searching for new Jedi canidates, and finds some, after some extreme challanges. Lando also tries to help him find Jedi canidates. Leia soon gets worried and sends Luke and Lando to search for them. Han escapes after a series of adventures. They get sucked into the maw system and finds that there is a fleet of Imperial troops hiding out there for 10 YEARS!Admirial Daala is leading the troops, and has a weapon of mass destruction. The sun crusher, a weapon that can not be destroyed, and destroys whole solar systems. Do not regret buying this book, it is awsome.
Rating:
Summary: Why in space did Lucas allow this?
Review: Every scrap of print that takes place in the Star Wars universe must cross the desk of George Lucas, and yet somehow this festering boil got published. I can't see how.In this first book we will see the Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker exhibit less control over the force than he had in "The Empire Strikes Back" as a TRAINEE. Indeed, in this book Luke can barely make a two meter leap, despite the THREE METER leaps he was making in "Empire". We will see the development of a new Imperial superweapon... and see it FLOWN THROUGH the command bridge of a star destroyer without so much as a scratch (and without, I might add, so much as giving a bruise to any of the inhabitants. All without an air bag in sight. Wish my car could do that!) We will see the strong willed Princess Leia reduced to a whiny brat when things don't go her way, and the quick witted Han Solo trapped and captured in less than three pages. (I thought of four potential escape ideas in the first few seconds, and I certainly have never flown the Millenium Falcon!) Frankly, I had to force myself to get through this book. I have the others in the series, and after my stomach settles I'll try them, but I'm not anticipating anything great. Mr. Anderson should be banned from the Star Wars universe.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining read, but something is missing.
Review: The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first major effort to follow the outstanding-beyond-words Timothy Zahn trilogy that relaunched the Star Wars frenzy in the early 90s. As such, Kevin Anderson had a VERY tough act to follow and there is inevitably a bit of a let down for readers coming straight from the Zahn books. That said, Anderson is a pretty decent author who does a good job keeping the books exciting with interesting story lines and good action scenes. So if you're looking for an entertaining way to pass some time, read no further - this book is for you. But unfortunately, Anderson also had to contend with another hurdle other than following in Zahn's footsteps. Lucasfilm has a policy that all Star Wars spinoff literature has to be consistent and not contradict each other. This meant that when Anderson was almost done with his first drafts, he was suddenly informed that he had to make his story fit in with the a comic book just released by Darkhorse - the rediculously implausible "Dark Empire." This means that Anderson had to rewrite into his story crazy stuff like the emperor getting resurrected and Luke turning to the dark side. This has gone on to become a weakness of the whole series - whenever an author makes a mistake and includes something stupid in a book or comic, it becomes canon and every other author has to accept it. Over time the series has come to feel less and less like Star Wars and more and more like an independent, separate universe. The Jedi Academy trilogy was the first of these books that didn't quite feel like Star Wars. Zahn was the only one not constrained by these requirements since he was first, and consequently, his original trilogy is the most internally consistent and the most Star Wars in feel. Anderson's books and a few of the later books might be worth reading, but be warned that they may put you on a path to the Dark Side.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a really good book. When I first got this book, I couldn't stop reading it. I have read some other Star Wars books by authors such as Aarron Alston, Michael A. Stackpole, Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson. This, by far, is my favorite Star Wars book because the plot is fast paced. It was really exciting when Han was trapped on Kessel. Meanwhile Luke is gathering Jedi students to restore the Jedi Knights and Leia's twins Jacen and Jaina just came back from the planet Aanoth. Han, Chewie and their new friend, Kyp, escape from Kessel and go into the Maw, a cluster of black holes. They find a hidden imperial laboratory and find a new enemy...
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly ANY bang for your buck...
Review: Thank HEAVENS this book didn't come out in hardback firstotherwise I would have ... to get my money back. This series startsoff with great promise, and a premise that is actually a greatidea...however Anderson has no talent to pull it off smoothy. Idisagree with one of the reviewers that tells you to wait until you'veread all the other Star Wars books before getting into the JediAcademy Trilogy...IF you are insisting upon reading this series, getit overwith FIRST before you read ANY other Star Wars books...it'sbetter to go UP rather than read some of the good books only to be letDOWN by THIS series. IF you have LOW expectations, Anderson is yourguy. I agree with a previous reviewer that Anderson's unforgivableannoyance of referring back to previous stories that HE had a hand inwriting was totally distracting. When I first read this I couldn'thelp but wonder what in the world he was referring TO. When in thepast had Luke been drawn over to the Dark Side???? Anderson keptreferring to it as though it was in another novel but as I FINALLYfound out it was in a series of comic books he wrote as well as anaudio book he helped write and produce. What a joke! With that said,the very 'essence' of Star Wars is totally missing in this entireseries. I can think of just 3 maybe 4 authors who have written StarWars books that are worth reading, Dave Wolverton, Steve Perry &the KING of Star Wars, Timothy Zahn. Like I said, if you MUST readthese books, do it BEFORE you start 'Heir To The Empire' and, wellmost ALL of the others out there, otherwise you might be soured onStar Wars for good. Now that I have totally thrashed this series, IHAVE to admit that Anderson DID create a fast-moving series with lotsof action. I have read some other novels by Anderson and he isn't abad author at all, but Star Wars ISN'T his area of expertise you ifget my drift...
Rating:
Summary: I don't understand why people dislike this book....
Review: I really enjoyed this new addition to the Star Wars series. It jumped right to the action in the first chapter. Han and Chewie go to Kessel as representatives of the New Republic and get shot down and subsequently enslaved in the spice mines, where they meet eighteen-year-old Kyp Durron, who has spent the last ten years there. Luke has recieved permission from the New Republic to set up a Jedi academy, and he goes off to search for potential candidates. Now that the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, are two, they have returned home to Coruscant, and Leia must juggle the responsibilities of being a mother and being Minister of State of the New Republic, while trying to discover why Han has not returned home yet. I just started the second book in this trilogy, and I like it so far as well. I would reccomend the trilogy to Star Wars fans.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book!
Review: This book is the bomb when it comes to Star Wars! Action, Adventure and sci-fi all twisted together in a special mix this book has, makes it the best I've read(and I've read a lot of SW books!). Not for those who havn't read earlier, like Courtship of Princess Leia, but for experienced, in-depth readers. All the others in the trilogy are great, too!
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