TAZÍ

Details

• Writer: Kevin J. Anderson
• Format: E-book
• Year of publication: 1994
• Genre: Sci-Fi

So, after reading the former book in the trilogy, Dark Apprentice, I was very excited to read this one. I had high anticipations for what Kyp would do and how the story would venture forward. Boy, was I disappointed with how everything went at the end. But let’s not go to that point just yet; let’s start with the review, shall we?

Premise

Kyp Durron continues his attack on Imperial bases in the suncrusher while Han tries to look for him. Meanwhile the Jedi students face the dark shadow of Exar Kun, while Leia comes to face her biggest challenge yet.

Analysis

Champions of the Force goes full-force on everything, in order to create an action-packed and emotional conclusion. But that’s the whole problem at the end: it does too much, making the whole thing feel convoluted. Whereas I liked the showdown between the light and the dark, it was the only highpoint for me in the book. After the dark is defeated (I believe it is no spoiler) it goes full force in well, madness (“This is madness”): A death Star prototype returns to steal the show (yes, once again a death star), we’ve got a pretty dull and disgusting intermezzo at the spice mines, a prominent character reappears only to disappear again and worst of all, some characters who could get a good pay-off are instead getting the light edition – staying alive, instead of dying or sacrificing themselves, keeping it safe instead of making some hard choices. I did however enjoy the fact that Mara Jade had a bigger part in this, but only ever so slightly. Some romance in there I enjoyed as well, even the more unexpected ones.

Moreover, the pacing is fast, but in the final act it dragged really on and simultaneously left no room to breath – it was quite underwhelming, because of the many subplots. The prose is nice and not too dense, (which could also be a good thing, I’m sure) but not too simple either.

Furthermore, the characters were in-character for the most part. Especially Lando was the surprise for me here – really in character. How Exar-Kun was handled I enjoyed, it is a nice end to his long story and especially satisfying if you’ve read the comics about The Great Sith War (which I did).

Lastly, I believe Anderson did not have a good  idea about how to wrap everything up nice and easy, so as a result the novel suffered from the famous third act problem – in this case also third act of a trilogy. Seeing some characters alive and well is of course playing it safe and I had wished that he killed of some of his or other’s darlings at the end (not the: “kill your darlings” that you learn as a writer, but the more literarly kind (instead of literary, that is)).

Final verdict

Champions of the Force is, in my honest opinion, a very flawed novel. It’s actually a convoluted mess. While the pacing is okay, there is too much happening here at once, including an intermezzo with the death star. It’s so far my least favorite SW-novel I’ve read – It’s bad to mediocre in my opinion. I give Champions of the Force a 1.5/5 ⭐️.

I recommend this novel for fans that want to finish the Jedi Academy Trilogy and for completionists.

Thanks for reading! How would you rate this novel? Please let me know below:

Yours,

Rain