David's Review of Children of the Jedi

1/5 Rancors - I tried to like this book. I really did, but I did not succeed. I did not think that Ms Hambly did a good job. The plot is convoluted. Her descriptions are too lengthy and flowery. There are too many characters I had never even heard of, and I got extremely tired of reading about how banged-up Luke was. I can’t wait for a book in the series that might have the audacity to show Luke as a truly powerful Jedi Master brimming with confidence.

Many of our old friends have main roles in this tale – Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2, Threepio. As always, they can still be fun to read about. Leia, Han, and Chewie are searching for the long-lost children of the Jedi on the frozen world of Belsavis. Luke has discovered a previously unknown enemy dreadnought Eye of Palpatine and he must find a means of destroying the ship before it can complete a mission programmed into its artificial intelligence. The two missions take place separately until the end of the book when they come together.

Luke receives unexpected help in his mission when he discovers the spirit of Callista still living on the Eye of Palpatine purely as a form of consciousness. Callista managed years earlier to stop the dreadnought’s original mission, and now she helps Luke in his effort to stop the ship’s current mission. This is all well and good except that, in a plot twist that simply never holds together, Luke and Callista’s spirit fall in love. So now we get to read about Luke not only limping and just barely being able to function but also mooning for Callista during every spare moment. It is just not believable.

I kept waiting for the author to simply get on with it. She spends entirely too much time filling space.