Rating: 
Summary: A good Star Wars story if you're looking for a light read.
Review: "Soldier for the Empire" is an entertaining and fun Star Wars story on its own, but it's really geared toward those who are already fans of the "Dark Forces" computer game. While I enjoyed this book, I felt that the (often odd) illustrations hampered my experience as a reader. The book would have been better served using the artwork as chapter breaks, rather than having it so often disrupt your own mental picture of the story. Also, and more purely from a continuity point of view, "Soldier for the Empire" takes some liberties with established Star Wars characters, which may be annoying to those readers who are fans of the "Dark Forces" games and the Star Wars universe in general.
All in all, "Soldier for the Empire" is an entertaining piece of Star Wars fiction, but it is not particularly well-written or especially well-illustrated.
Rating:
Summary: A good Star Wars story if you're looking for a light read.
Review: "Soldier for the Empire" is an entertaining and fun Star Wars story on its own, but it's really geared toward those who are already fans of the "Dark Forces" computer game. While I enjoyed this book, I felt that the (often odd) illustrations hampered my experience as a reader. The book would have been better served using the artwork as chapter breaks, rather than having it so often disrupt your own mental picture of the story. Also, and more purely from a continuity point of view, "Soldier for the Empire" takes some liberties with established Star Wars characters, which may be annoying to those readers who are fans of the "Dark Forces" games and the Star Wars universe in general.
All in all, "Soldier for the Empire" is an entertaining piece of Star Wars fiction, but it is not particularly well-written or especially well-illustrated.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like an intriguing Star Wars story, this is the best.
Review: At first, when I knew this book and its two companions were based off of video games, I was a bit cautious to read them. I received Soldier for the Empire as a gift on my birthday and immediately began reading it that night. I was pleasantly surprised to find a deeper plot than the game and fully developed characters that seemed almost alive as I read about them. I reccommend this book and the other two, do not let a video game title fool you. -Jesse Hutchinson
Rating:
Summary: The saga of Kile Katarn continues...
Review: Dietz surely knows the Star Wars universe and in this novel he does a good job novelising the video game Dark Forces. Unfotunately the ilustrations are not so good as Soldier for the Empire or Jedi Knight The apearence of Boba Fet, Luke Sky Walker, and Princes Leia in some pages makes the novel more fun.
Rating:
Summary: Dietz could help to write Episodes 2 & 3
Review: Great book, actually, a great trilogy, if you get the hardcover editions they also make a great display for any respectable collection. The writing is down to earth, yet descriptive and complete, leaves you wanting to know more, especially great is the step by step narration Dietz makes of the first Dark Forces level. The illustrations are great, but i found a couple of errors in this book: Acording to JK game, Kyle doesn't get his lightsaber until level three of the game, this book refers to Dark Forces, so why is he painted with a saber in the cover and other 2 illustrations? Also, when he meets Jan, the description tells us he's wearing a Stortrooper armor, yet in the drawing he's not...great book, nevertheless...
Rating: 
Summary: Too many jumps, too short.
Review: I didn't enjoy this book. None of the characters have any development. I didn't care who lived and who didn't. The premise for the story was epic but it's never realized. The book is a couple hundred pages too short and what is there seems like it's written as a junior novelization. The artwork that's included is amatuerest, at best.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a bullet, and leaves nothing out.
Review: I had this book for a year before I actually read it. Since I primarily bought it for the great, poster quality, painted, full page illustrations it didn't matter. Besides I was under the impression that it was a "juvenile", a kid's book. Yeah, right, this is about as much a juvenile as is Heilein's _Starship Troopers_. There are some very gritty combat scenes here- and very well developed characters of depth. This is amazing in a novella of less than 120 pages (after you subtract the illustration pages.) There are hack writers out there that would have told this same story in 300 or 400, or more, pages, but Dietz does it in less than 120 without ommitting any detail, atmosphere, or continuity. That's the mark of a very skilled writer. Combined with the cover quality illustrations this book is practically a cinema quality experience all by itself. Moreover, I had not read the first two books of the trilogy, nor played the games, yet the book held together on its own.
Another thing, for a book that is so good on the combat and technical atmosphere, the metaphysics are also very satisfying. The tale of Lord Hoth and the Army of Light is truly worthy of the best of the Star Wars mythos. Indeed, it could almost be a grand finale in itself.
As a measure of how "in" to this I got, I finally ordered that universal remote shaped like a light saber for the TV. Hey, I needed a new remote anyway....
Rating:
Summary: Not one of the better Star Wars stories.
Review: I listened to this book on audio cassette. Having a large collection of Star wars books and cassettes, I found myself dissappointed with this particular story. It was well read with excellent sound effects and cast. The story itself, lacked much of a beginning or a satisfying end. All and all I would not recommend this book to audio book fans.
Rating:
Summary: Love Star Wars....love this book.
Review: I really enjoyed this book AND the illustrations. These beautiful paintings are really imaginative. It is an exciting adventure with new characters and some really amazing images. It made me want to know more and more about Kyle Katarn and the other characters they introduced. Although I don't get into the computer games, if they are anything like the images in the book, I bet they're really cool looking. I'm looking forward to reading the other books in THE DARK FORCES series while I wait for the new film.
Rating: 
Summary: A good SW Book
Review: If you played the game, you will definitly like this book. It gives a great spinoff of the game. But since it uses the new game coming out in a couple of moth's you kinda loose some off the ideas as they mention caracther's you haven't still meet. But it gives you a great new caracther for those off us how are SW fan's.
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