Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy #3 - Champions of the Force (1994) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday afternoon. I'm back with my review of the third and final book in the Jedi Academy Trilogy series by Kevin J. Anderson, Champions of the Force. I actually finished it on Wednesday, but I did groceries on Wednesday and I was at an appointment yesterday, which is why you're getting the review today. And there will be spoilers because most of what I want to talk about here I can't talk about without spoilers. So, you know what to do if you've never read the book before. Let's get into it.

Remember when I said that Dark Apprentice was the weakest book in the trilogy? Well, I was wrong. Champions of the Force is the weakest book in the trilogy. The main storyline of Luke establishing the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, at the site of the old Rebel base seen in A New Hope, and the fight against the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord, Exar Kun, ended halfway through the book. As a result the rest of the book is stumbling through Kyp Durron's redemption, which comes way too quickly, Admiral Daala failing at her attempts to destroy the New Republic's military forces, and Han, Lando, and Mara taking Kessel for Lando's new spice mining operation. Not to mention wrapping up whatever Ambassador Furgan was trying to do with Anakin Solo.

That's not to say that I don't like The Jedi Academy Trilogy, because I do. But, I can see why alot of people don't. It's not a story that warranted an entire trilogy to tell. But, having read interviews with authors and editors, I suspect that Bantam needed to fill the 1994 schedule, and with the success of the Thrawn Trilogy from 1991 to 1993, they knew they needed another trilogy to fill the schedule since 1993 only had two books come out, the first being the final book in the Thrawn Trilogy, The Last Command, by Timothy Zahn, and the other being The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers. And with 1994 being the year that George Lucas announced he was making the Prequel Trilogy, and the Special Edition of the Original Trilogy, Bantam needed at least three more books to come out along with The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton, and The Crystal Star by Vonda N. MacIntyre. Of course, this simply speculation on my part, based on information I've gotten from various interviews, where certain books or certain trilogies of books were published simply to fill the publication schedule because another book fell through or not enough books were on the schedule in a particular year to begin with.

The thing is though is that Anderson isn't Zahn, and, as I mentioned in my review of Dark Apprentice, he had alot of projects going on in 1994. Not only was he working on The Jedi Academy Trilogy, but he was also working on his only standalone Star Wars novel, Darksaber, several Star Wars anthology novels, including Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, and the Young Jedi Knights series with his wife, Rebecca Moesta, as well as his second original novel, Climbing Olympus, AND he was working with Tom Veitch on the Tales of the Jedi comic book series for Dark Horse. And with Bantam's insanely tight publication schedule, Anderson had to crank out these three novels pretty quickly since Jedi Search came out in March, Dark Apprentice came out in July, and Champions of the Force came out in September. So I can understand why these three books aren't the best Star Wars novels from that era. 

One of the things I like about this book is that it is Anakin Solo's first full appearance in the novels, as well as his first full appearance overall as Dark Horse didn't publish Dark Empire II and Empire's End for another couple of years following the publication, and he had a brief appearance in Dark Apprentice. Kinda like how Jacen and Jaina had a brief appearance in The Last Command, but Jedi Search was their first full appearance.

I also like the interactions between Han and Lando in this book better than I did in the last one. I felt they were too antagonistic with one another in the last book, but here, they're definitely more where they were in Return of the Jedi. What I didn't like was Lando's interactions with Mara Jade. They felt too sleazy for my tastes. Lando is supposed to be charming and suave, not creepy. I dunno, Lando just felt off to me when he was interacting with Mara. Especially since he didn't trust her at all in The Last Command, and there's no story that happens between Zahn's books, and this trilogy, where Lando could've changed his mind. And there's no way he'd actively hit on her even when he wasn't actually hitting on her. 

I don't understand why Kyp Durron was chosen to appear in The New Jedi Order either. He has only two other appearances in other Bantam era novels, one of them being Darksaber by Kevin J. Anderson, and then he appears in the twelfth book of the Young Jedi Knights series prior to his appearance in 1999's Vector Prime. So he's not really a prominent character during the Bantam era. He's a character I've never really liked either.

As I mentioned earlier, his redemption came way too quickly, considering he blew up an entire star system, killing billions of people with the Sun Crusher at the beginning of this book. Yes, he was under the influence of Exar Kun, but, Kyp's targets were his own. He chose to fight the Empire, rather than to destroy the New Republic and the new group of Jedi Knights at the academy, despite Kun's plans for him. He willingly destroyed Carida. So I'd say he got off lightly.

I wish we got to spend more time at the Jedi Academy given the name of the trilogy, but I have a theory as to why we didn't spend more time there. George had never wanted the novels to do very much with the Jedi, the Sith, or the Force because if he decided to make more Star Wars movies anything the authors came up with in the novels would be overridden by what George chose to do in the movies. Especially around the time that Anderson was writing this trilogy, since George knew by then that he was going to make the Prequel Trilogy and that focused heavily on the Force, the Jedi and the Sith. Which is why he kept the novels and comics away from the Prequel era, only allowing Tales of the Jedi to exist because it was set thousands of years before the Prequel era. 

 As with the previous books in the trilogy, I first read Champions of the Force when Garrett lent it to me in 1998-1999. I eventually got my own copy sometime in the 2000s. The copy I have in my collection now is the original 1994 edition with the embossed STAR WARS logo on the front cover. The book would be re-published with the Legends banner across the top of the covers and spine in 2015 with the rest of the trilogy. 

Overall, this wasn't a great trilogy of Star Wars novels, nor was this a good Star Wars novel. I still enjoyed reading it though. Even though they aren't good books, I think I enjoyed reading them because they're familiar to me since I read them several times over the years as I've never had the biggest Star Wars collection so I tended to re-read the ones I did have over and over again. It is hard to recommend this trilogy to people though because, while it is important because it introduced alot of things that became staples of the Expanded Universe, like Luke's Jedi Academy, it's also a pretty skippable trilogy of books. But, if you really want to check them out, I recommend you do so.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for this week. It was kind of a write-off week for me because I was out on Wednesday morning and then out yesterday afternoon and I hadn't actually planned to review Champions of the Force this week for that reason. Nor did I plan other blog posts either. I'll be back next week with some cool posts. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy #2 - Dark Apprentice (1994) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? Did you all have good weekends? Mine was pretty quiet. I'm back with my review of the second novel in The Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson, Dark Apprentice. I honestly don't have a whole lot to say about this book, because despite some important events happening in the book, the majority of it is more setup for the third book, Champions of the Force. As usual, there will be some spoilers for this 30 year old book, so be aware of that. Let's get into it.

Originally published on June 1st, 1994, Dark Apprentice is the weakest book in this trilogy. It introduces a few characters who will be long lasting characters in the Expanded Universe novels, but, otherwise it does little else in terms of story or character development. 

Han and Lando spend the entire book playing Sabacc for ownership of the Millennium Falcon. Which is the least interesting part of the book. Leia barely has anything to do too. In fact, despite Luke having the most to do, between dealing with the death of Gantoris and the fall of Kyp Durron to the Dark Side, it's not that interesting. I think it's because they abandoned the whole Kessel subplot from Jedi Search entirely, but failed to replace it with anything interesting.

As I mentioned in my review of Jedi Search, Admiral Daala is a bit disappointing as a villain. But I think part of the problem is that she came after Thrawn, the resurrected Palpatine, the Ssi-ruuk from The Truce at Bakura, and Warlord Zsinj from The Courtship of Princess Leia. She didn't do much in Jedi Search, since she wasn't introduced until pretty late in that book. And even here she doesn't really do anything to differentiate herself from other Bantam era EU villains. Even the ones to come after her like Ysanne Isard. 

The stuff with Admiral Ackbar was pretty interesting, but we didn't get enough of it in this book. I've liked Ackbar as a character ever since I read the X-Wing series. Of all of the supporting characters from the Original Trilogy, Ackbar is the most prominent during the Bantam era. He's in just about every book from 1991 to 1999, even if it's just a quick appearance for a mission briefing, with the exception of a few of the standalone novels, the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, and The Han Solo Trilogy. So to have him have a character arc in this trilogy is great, but, like I said, Anderson didn't do enough with it.

I'm going to talk about this in my review of Champions of the Force, but I think The Jedi Academy Trilogy suffers from Kevin J. Anderson not having enough time to flesh things out. At the time this trilogy was coming out, and likely when Anderson was writing it, he was working on Tales of the Jedi with Tom Veitch, editing the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales from Jabba's Palace, and Tales of the Bounty Hunters anthology books, AND writing the Young Jedi Knights series with his wife, Rebecca Moesta at the same time. While the comics had started coming out in 1994, the books wouldn't start coming out until 1995, so he was still working on a bunch of projects at once, all with deadlines that were pretty close to one another given Bantam's publication strategy for the novels coming out at the time.

On top of that he tried to include alot of story into only three books. As a result, alot of them feel less interesting and less developed than they would've been otherwise. Like the Han and Lando stuff. That could've been extremely interesting, given their history, which would originally be fleshed out in the Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin, and then be realized onscreen in Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. But because Anderson has so much going on in these books, it doesn't work quite as well as it should've.

Same thing goes with everything going on at the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. That should've been way more captivating than it was, given that the trilogy is called the Jedi Academy Trilogy. But, because Anderson pulls off in every direction rather than focusing on one or two storylines, it ends up not working because not enough time is devoted to any one storyline. Which is something that Anderson is much better at than this book makes him seem like he is. 

Don't get me wrong, this book is well written and Anderson does a great job at introducing the various storylines that make up this book, he just doesn't seem to be able to finish any of them. I've already started reading Champions of the Force and so far the book seems to be focusing on Kyp Durron and his fight against the remnants of the Empire and what's happening on Yavin IV with the other characters, including Luke's Jedi students, and Luke himself. I just wish that Dark Apprentice could've done that better.

Dark Apprentice was republished in 2015, most likely at the same time as Jedi Search and Champions of the Force as Del Rey seems to have re-published each book in each Bantam era book trilogy togetrher, so all three Thrawn Trilogy books together, all three Jedi Academy Trilogy books together etc. The Wookieepedia page for Dark Apprentice specifies when this book was republished with the Legends banner, under the cover image for the Legends banner edition in the cover gallery. Even before seeing that though, I figured it had been re-released with the rest of the trilogy in 2015, since the copyright info in the Legends banner edition of Jedi Search says 2015 in it.

I actually have a copy of the original 1994 paperback release for the book in my collection. When I was younger I had the reprint from the late '90s or early 2000s, whenever Bantam re-released it without the embossed lettering for the Star Wars title at the top, but now I have the original edition from 1994 with the embossed lettering, which is pretty cool. 

Like with the rest of the trilogy, I read Dark Apprentice in early 1999, when Garrett lent it to me when I was in grade 6 and he was in grade 5. I honestly don't remember what I thought of the book when I first read it. Not entirely anyway. I remember not liking it as much as I did Jedi Search, but that's it.

Overall, it's an okay book. I would only recommend reading it if you're reading the entire trilogy, not as a standalone book as you won't get much out of it. And, like I said, none of the storylines feel very interesting given how much Anderson tries to tell in this one book.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more reviews and other blog posts. I'm not sure what else I'll be writing about this week, but I have some ideas. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Transformers (1984) TV Show Discussion

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I'm back with another blog post. Today I'm going to be talking about the 1984 animated series, The Transformers and my history with the show itself, rather than my history with the entire Transformers franchise. So let's get right into it.

Airing in first run syndication from September 17th, 1984 to November 11th, 1987, The Transformers is a show I had no connection to when I was a kid as it ended before my first birthday, and it didn't appear on any of the channels I got when I was a kid that I can remember. I remember seeing the commercials for the Generation 2 toyline in the early to mid-'90s during Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and other shows on YTV and Global, but I never actually watched the show. Not even the Generation 2 repackaged versions that aired from 1993 to 1995. That version aired on YTV in 1994, but I wasn't able to watch YTV all that much because we had an antenna and rabbit ears at home at the time, not cable. So I really only watched YTV when I was in the hospital or at my grandparents's houses. And with Rugrats replacing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on The Zone in the fall of 1994, I was really only watching YTV for The Zone and shows like The Big Comfy Couch and PJ Katie's Farm. So I didn't really have much access to YTV from 1993 until 1996. And being that I was watching shows like Ghostwriter on the TVO Kids block on TVOntario after 6 o'clock in the evening, as soon as Rugrats was over I'd change the channel, I really wasn't watching YTV later in the evening when I was in the hospital. So The Transformers completely passed me by when I was a kid.

Sometime between 2009 and 2012 I picked up the first season of the show on DVD, as the 25th Anniversary DVD sets had just been released by Shout! Factory in 2009. I don't remember when I bought it exactly. It was either after I'd seen Revenge of the Fallen in theatres in 2009 or after I saw Dark of the Moon in 2011. It was actually the first two or three live action Transformers movies that made me interested in watching the original cartoon series. So when I found the season 1 DVD set from Shout! Factory for a reasonable price at either Walmart, Futureshop or CD Warehouse (I'm pretty sure it was at Futureshop), I bought it and watched the entire season. I thought it was good, but being that I was an adult by the time I saw it, it didn't catch me the way it might've had I been alive when the show first aired in 1984, while the toys were initially coming out. I'd watched Beast Wars when it was on in the late '90s. I ended up not getting the remaining DVD sets for the series either and eventually gave away the season 1 DVD, because I'm not a big Transformers guy, and I knew I was probably never gonna rewatch the first season anyway. So I got rid of it.

Then sometime in 2019 I picked up the original 2000 Kid Rhino DVD release of The Transformers: The Movie (1986) for $1 at the Ottawa Geek Market. I eventually watched it, but, again, because I didn't see the movie when I was a kid, I ended up not getting why people love it so much, so I eventually got rid of the DVD as well, because I knew I was never gonna watch it again. Especially because I bought it for a dollar, so it's not like I spent $20 to $30 on it like I would've if I'd bought a newer edition, or if I'd bought the 2000 edition when it first came out.

That's my brief history with The Transformers. Just a quick, short, blog post for a Friday where the sun is shining brightly here in Ottawa. I'll be back next week for more blog posts, including my review of book 2 in the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Dark Apprentice. So until then, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all again soon. Take care.

Batman #416 (1988) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with another review. This time I'm taking a look at one of my favourite comic books. So let's dive in and discuss Batman #416, which was published in late 1987, but has a cover date of February 1988, which is why I put the year of the cover date for the issue. There will be some spoilers, so let's get into it.

Despite having been collecting Batman comics from the '80s and '90s since the early to mid 2000s, I didn't get this issue until probably 2013 or 2014, maybe 2015 at the latest. It wasn't an issue that I read when I was growing up. It became my favourite though because, not only was it the first post-Crisis On Infinite Earths meeting of Dick Grayson/Nightwing and Jason Todd/Robin, but it's also Dick's first post-Crisis appearance in a Batman comic as Nightwing as the last time he appeared in a Batman comic, at the beginning of Batman #408, he was still Robin. Not only that but it fully establishes Bruce and Dick's relationship following their fallout in Batman #408. 

After Jason botches a takedown of a Cocaine lab and Dick has to save him from getting killed at the hands of the criminals, he visits Bruce in the Batcave and fills him in on his life following his departure from Wayne Manor. Dick also isn't happy that he had to find out about the new Robin from the newspapers rather than from Batman himself. Bruce reveals that he brought Jason on as Robin, despite dismissing the older, original, Robin, because he missed Dick and needed a partner. Dick and Jason go on to take down the bad guys from the beginning of the issue.

One of the things that I like about this issue is that it does establish Bruce and Dick's relationship now that Dick is no longer Robin. Especially for those who read this in the '80s and weren't reading The New Teen Titans/The New Titans ( the comic changed names in 1987 or early 1988), and hadn't been introduced to Nightwing yet as Dick was absent from Batman from issue #408 until this issue. Unlike in the pre-Crisis continuity where Dick was around to guide Jason in his new role as Robin. It's this new relationship between the two that has this ongoing behaviour from Bruce, which prevents him from calling Dick when he needs help, as what happened in Knightfall after Bane broke Bruce's back. Dick had to find out about the new Batman from the newspapers as well, rather than from Bruce, Tim or Alfred. 

I also like the relationship between Dick and Jason. Dick knows what it's like to be Robin and to grow up fighting crime alongside Batman. After seeing Jason in action, he takes it upon himself to help the new Boy Wonder as he grows up and learns the craft from Batman. Basically acting as a sounding board for Jason since Bruce is so emotionally distant and indifferent. However, I know that Dick doesn't appear in Batman again until Batman: Year Three, which is the telling of Dick's post-Crisis origin as Robin, and Jason only appears in The New Teen Titans in issue 20 of the second volume, which came out in 1986, as Crisis On Infinite Earths was wrapping up, and he doesn't appear again in that series outside of flashbacks and his image on a computer screen in the Titans Tower, so we don't actually see Dick and Jason interact with each other after this issue, like we had in the two years before Crisis On Infinite Earths altered the history of the DC Universe entirely. Or how we'd see Dick and Tim interact after this.

I think that's my biggest problem with this issue and this era of DC's publication history in general. Jason Todd was really shafted hard after his character was altered for the post-Crisis DC Universe in 1987. Because of that his relationships with the other members of the Bat Family didn't really have time to develop and grow before he was killed off in A Death in the Family. Even when we had flashbacks to this period in books like Batman: Gotham Knights, like the one where Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) teams up with with Jason for a mission, all that story does is establish their relationship since Barbara was absent from this period, since this issue came out right before The Killing Joke did. Even by the time Jason returned as the Red Hood in the late 2000s, the DC Universe had already been altered by both Zero Hour in 1994 and Infinite Crisis in 2005, with new retcons being added or changed or removed after each event. 

Jim Aparo is the artist on this book, and he, along with Norm Breyfogle, were the first Batman artists I ever experienced since they were both working on the Bat titles when I started reading Batman comics in 1993, during Knightfall. So I always enjoy seeing his earlier work on the Batman books.

This issue is collected in Batman: Second Chances, which is a trade paperback that was published in 2015. The book collects Batman #'s 402-403, #'s 408-416, and Batman Anuual #11. While I own this trade paperback I actually have 416 in single issue form as well. That's how I read it for this review.

This issue also formed the basis for the 17th episode of The New Batman Adventures, "Old Wounds", in 1998. Instead of Jason Todd, Nightwing teams up with Tim Drake, and Bruce doesn't appear in the wraparound story, only in the flashbacks to when Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) discovered Batman and Robin's true identities and Dick quit being Robin. I hesitate to call it an adaptation though, because there's very little of the original story in the episode and Dick is telling Tim about the end of the original Dynamic Duo, rather than Dick filling Bruce in on what he's been doing since he quit being Robin and left Wayne Manor.

Overall, this is a fantastic issue. It's self-contained, on both ends of the issue, it sets up alot of the new dynamics between Bruce and Dick, and Dick and Jason, and it's a pretty emotional story to read. Especially for this era of DC Comics. I recommend giving it a read if you can get your hands on it. It's not really a key issue, in terms of important Batman milestones, but it's also not a throwaway issue either. So a copy of the individual issue should still be pretty cheap, despite the issue being nearly 40 years old at this point. Like I said, it's also available in the trade paperback edition that I mentioned, and that book should still be in print even though it's now nine years old at this point. So you should be able to find it in some format pretty easily.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. I might do either a movie review or a TV show post next. I haven't quite decided yet. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy #1 - Jedi Search (1994) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. I had a Dungeons & Dragons session with my friends on Saturday and that's been alot of fun to do. Today I have yet another book review for you. I know I've been doing alot of those lately, but that's what I'm kinda into right now. I'm taking a look at the first book of the Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson, Jedi Search. There will be spoilers, despite the fact that this is definitely a setup book. So let's get into it.

First published in February 1994, Jedi Search is one of the first Star Wars novels that Garrett lent me after the X-Wing series. This book was also the first look EU fans ever got of Kessel, which had only been mentioned by both Han Solo (the Kessel Run) and C-3PO (the spice mines of Kessel) in A New Hope, and was mentioned in Heir to the Empire and The Last Command, both by Timothy Zahn. 

After arriving at Kessel in the Millennium Falcon to open diplomatic relations with the system, Han Solo and Chewbacca are attacked by Kessel's defense forces, and are taken captive by the person who ran the spice mines, Moruth Doole, a member of the Rybet species, a former associate of Han and Chewie's during their smuggling days. Meanwhile, while Leia is awaiting the arrival of the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, who are coming home now that they're two years old, she must also contend with the ambassador from the Imperial Academy world of Carida, who refuses to see the New Republic as the legitimate government, despite the Empire having been defeated multiple times, including during the brief reign of the resurrected Emperor Palpatine the previous year (as shown in Dark Empire). 

At the same time, following his brush with the Dark Side of the Force at the hands of the resurrected Palpatine, Luke Skywalker has chosen to set up a Jedi Academy and to start training the next generation of Jedi Knights, acknowledging that he can no longer keep peace in the Galaxy alone. While on Kessel, Han, Chewie, and fellow prisoner, Kyp Durron, stumble upon the facility that created the Death Stars, the World Devastators, and the newest Weapon of Mass Destruction, the Sun Crusher, the Maw Installation, during their escape from Kessel. We also meet the latest Imperial warlord, Admiral Daala, Tarkin's lover, who'd been hidden away inside the Maw since before the Battle of Yavin. 

The Kessel stuff wasn't as interesting to me as Leia's interactions with Ambassador Furgan, and Luke's search for his first Jedi students, Gantoris, and Streen. I think that's because Luke's storyline in this book has far more lasting results for the Expanded Universe as a whole in terms of the return of the Jedi Order. Yes, while Daala does appear from time to time, she really doesn't become that prominent within the EU until the Legacy of the Force series and the Fate of the Jedi series in the late 2000s and early 2010s. So while she's introduced in this trilogy and has one more appearance in Anderson's standalone novel, Darksaber, she doesn't show up again until 2008.

I think the reason I like the politics stuff with Leia is because I love seeing Leia be so diplomatic and dedicated to bringing as many worlds into the New Republic as she can. She also struggles to balance her work for the fledgling New Republic government, and taking care of Jacen and Jaina now that they're home from Anoth, where baby Anakin is still staying, under the protection of Winter and the defenses put in place by Luke and Admiral Ackbar when they discovered the planet. 

I've never been a fan of Qwi Xux, the scientist who helped create the Death Star, mostly because, she's not that interesting of a character. Outside of being mentioned in Death Star and one appearance in The New Jedi Order, Qwi is pretty much confined to the Bantam era, as she has no more appearances in the post-New Jedi Order books. While she does help Han, Kyp, and Chewie escape the Imperial forces in the Maw, she's mostly here as plot convenience rather than an actual character. Especially with where we see her in the next two books in this trilogy.

I've also never been a huge fan of Kyp Durron, even before his behaviour in the New Jedi Order series. I think Luke was a bit too lenient on Kyp at the end of this trilogy, but I'll get to that more when I review Champions of the Force. Basically, I don't really care for the character, but he is one of the characters that has a lasting role in the Expanded Universe from this point on. Though Kyp doesn't get a major role to play after this until the New Jedi Order series.

 While I did eventually get my own copy of the original 1994 paperback edition sometime in the early 2000s, along with the other two books in the trilogy, I got rid of it in 2015 or 2016, along with a good chunk of my Star Wars book collection, when my parents and I were getting ready to move. A couple of years ago though I picked up the 2015 Legends banner edition paperback that Random House published when the original EU became the Legends continuity. While Wookieepedia doesn't provide the year for the Legends banner reprint, because I have a copy in my collection, I was able to see that it was published in 2015, around the time that the canon novels, A New Dawn and Tarkin were coming out in paperback, having been published in hardcover the year before, and just before Heir to the Jedi was either coming out in hardcover (early 2015) or just coming out in paperback (late 2015). All three books are advertised inside the front cover of the Legends paperback of Jedi Search, but it doesn't specify whether they're paperback or hardcover.

Overall, Jedi Search still holds up pretty well. I know that the Jedi Academy Trilogy isn't one of the more well regarded novel trilogies from the Bantam era, but I've always enjoyed it. And I loved going back and reading it again after nine years or more, as I don't actually remember the last time I read it. If you've never read it before and are a fan of the original Star Wars Expanded Universe, I recommend reading it as it does establish characters who show up again, particularly in Del Rey's line of novels from the 2000s and early 2010s, AND it establishes Luke's Jedi Academy, which will be a staple of the EU until the New Jedi Order series.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts throughout the week. So until then have a great day and I will talk to you later. Take care.