“Dark Apprentice” (1994), the second book in Kevin J. Anderson’s “Jedi Academy Trilogy,” is quite a page-turner. About the only thing slowing me down was that I stopped to roll my eyes every chapter or so. For all the entertainment value of the book, there are also some incredibly stupid things in here.
Let’s start with the bad stuff:
- Han and Leia hide their baby, Anakin, on the super-secret planet Anoth with Winter rather than raising him in their Coruscant apartment like their older siblings (who they had also hidden for two years!). On Coruscant, he could be under the protection of his parents, Chewbacca and probably however many New Republic bodyguards Leia asked for. Jacen and Jaina wander into the underlevels of Coruscant (it seems insane that Chewbacca would allow them to even leave the apartment, but whatever), and they return safe and sound without anyone trying to kidnap them because of who they are. Meanwhile, the Empire is planning to kidnap Anakin from the super-secret hiding place. Clearly, by hiding Anakin, his parents put him in MORE danger while also depriving them all of family time.
- I mentioned in my last post that Admiral Daala is a mediocre villain, but that’s too generous. In this book, while constantly asking herself “What would Tarkin do?,” she goes on a terror spree throughout the galaxy, shooting up innocents on Dantooine and Mon Calamari. Tarkin ruled through fear, but not recklessly, and not without the goal of acquiring and solidifying his power. Daala is a flat-out sociopath, based on her behavior. Some sociopaths are fascinating to read about, but not this one. It’d be more interesting if she had a principled underling plotting to overthrow her, but they are willing to die for her. When I read the “Fate of the Jedi” series, where Daala is elected the chief of state, I had forgotten about the specifics of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. I know “Fate of the Jedi” was meant to parallel the crazy politics of modern America, just as the Rebellion echoed the Revolutionary War. But jeez: The galaxy electing Daala chief of state is like Americans electing Osama Bin Laden president.
- Han and Lando gamble the Falcon back and forth throughout the book, with the one who owns the ship never having anything to gain in the sabacc game. It’s out of character and illogical.
I think Anderson plots books the way kids play with action figures. He thinks of things that would be cool or funny (A secret planet! A humorous string of sabacc games!) — often inspired by but not quite copying movie scenes — but he doesn’t discard those ideas if they don’t fit with the plot. Another example: Ackbar and Leia come upon an Imperial probe droid tangled in the weeds on Calamari. This is certainly a cool image, and the idea of it coming to life and attacking them is scary, just like in “The Empire Strikes Back.” So the probe shoots off some information, Daala picks it up and decides, “Gee, I guess I’ll attack Calamari.” This is stupid because there’s no vital information in the message, just the fact that Calamari exists. But Daala should already know it exists and that it’s a bastion of Rebels.
Now, onto the good stuff:
- I like that Wedge finds a bit of romance with Qwi Xux. They make a cute couple, even though I know he’s destined to be with Iella, and Qwi getting a mind-wipe from Kyp is a great twist.
- I like the portrayal of the oceans of Calamari. It holds up pretty well compared to what we saw in “The Clone Wars.” The breathing membrane that Leia uses is a neat idea, although we now know from the TV series that there was no reason for Cilghal to use one: The natives can breathe on their own underwater.
- Kyp Durron is a great character here, and Anderson writes some provocative conversations between him and Luke. In a 180 from when I read “Dark Apprentice” as a teenager, I sided with Kyp this time. He wants to mobilize the Jedi students to attack the terrorist Daala, whereas Luke wants to spar, exercise and meditate on Yavin IV. Now, I’m certainly not pro-war, but in the real world, most threats are ambiguous. In this piece of fiction, Daala and her Star Destroyers blatantly murder thousands. It’s entirely appropriate for the New Republic to take her out, and it’s appropriate for Kyp — whose parents had been murdered by the Empire! — to want to lend his talents to the cause. Doing an about-face from his days as a Rebel hero, Luke — with vague, unsubstantiated fears about the dark side — stands in Kyp’s way, even considering killing Kyp to stop him.
Furthermore, Luke owes it to the people of the galaxy to at least consider how his superhero Jedi could help against a murderous threat. His academy is funded by their tax dollars. By no means should he have to do whatever the military council demands, but he should be open for discussion. If he only wanted to set up a center for religious study, he shouldn’t have asked for government funds.
Lastly, here’s one silly thing that ultimately cuts in “Dark Apprentice’s” favor: Anderson tells us that there are about a dozen Jedi at the academy, but he only introduces us to Kyp, Mara Jade, Cilghal, Gantoris, Streen, Dorsk 81, Kam Solusar, Kirana Ti and Tionne. This lack of exactitude left room for Corran Horn to be inserted into the class and for his POV to be shown in Michael Stackpole’s excellent “I, Jedi” (1998). Anderson’s approach is similar to what “Lost” did: That TV series always insisted there were about 20 more crash survivors besides the 20 or so that we got to know. But why have random characters in the background? It makes for a better, more intimate story when you can name every person in the small group of crash survivors or Jedi trainees.
Comments
Two words about this book: Exar Kun# Posted By Eric | 9/13/13 7:36 AM
Exar Kun hasn’t really aged well as a character, but he was a pretty good character in these books, albeit more of a plot device than a character. At that time, we hadn’t encountered a ton of Sith lords, and they weren’t a cliche yet. I thought his backstory in the TOTJ comics was a little thin. But heck, he’s a much better villain than Daala and an efficient device for accelerating Kyp’s fall to the dark side and providing a counterpoint to Luke’s teaching methods.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/13/13 8:44 PM
You are right, Exar Kun is just plot device and that is the problem with this entire series, besides him, there aren’t any interesting villains! Star Wars without great villains isn’t Star Wars!
About Kun, he is far from the greatest sith ever lived, but at least he is cool and a few of the sith whose existence in the post-Return of the Jedi era actually makes sense alongside Lumiya, Jacen, C’baoth and Krayt!# Posted By Eric | 9/14/13 1:59 AM