David's Review of I, Jedi

4/5 Rancors - Mr. Stackpole made the unusual choice with I, Jedi of writing it in first person, the first time this has happened in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. It takes a little while to get used to but it does clearly put you in the shoes of the main character Corran Horn. We have read about Corran before. He got his start on Corellia as a well-known part of CorSec and then moved on to join Rogue Squadron as an X-wing pilot. He has Jedi genes from his grandfather and much of this book concerns his struggle of whether or not to become a full-fledged Jedi by attending Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy.

The story begins with the disappearance of Corran’s wife Mirax. The question then is how best to find her and rescue her. Should Corran rely on his CorSec investigative skills or should he accept Luke’s offer to attend the academy and then use his more-developed Jedi skills to help Mirax? In the end he does a combination of both. His time at the academy will feel very familiar to any readers who are familiar with Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy, only this time you are seeing the story develop through the eyes of Corran Horn.

I have to admit that I sometimes grow weary of philosophical discussions of the Force, and there is a great deal of that in the first half of the book. However, the second half makes up for any shortcomings. Corran leaves the Academy, infiltrates the pirates being used by Leonia Tavira, and goes hard after Mirax. The book turns into a real page-turner. Tavira is an interesting character who has managed to hide her forces from the Republic. She wreaks havoc on Republic planets as her fleet pops up unexpectedly time after time, and she also has help from Force-sensitive characters.

All of this ties together very well as Luke and Ooryl (Corran’s X-wing pilot buddy) join together with a few others to take on Tavira’s forces in an attempt to rescue Mirax. The action is excellent, and the characters are ones we will remember. I very much enjoyed the book after getting bogged down slightly during Corran’s time at the Jedi Academy.

David's Review of Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force

5/5 Rancors - Patterns of Force is the excellent third book in the Coruscant Nights trilogy by Michael Reaves. I liked this one the best of the three. We have the same basic cast of characters, plus an extremely interesting addition. Jax Pavan, one of the few remaining Jedi, is still the lead guy. He struggles to avoid Darth Vader’s attempts to capture him, and he continues to lead his unusual band of individuals – Den Dhur, I-5YQ, Rhinann, Laranth Tarak, and the Zeltron Dejah Duare. Readers of the first two books will be very familiar with all of these characters.

The interesting addition is Kajin Savaros, a teenage boy who is on his own in Coruscant and is adept in the Force but completely untrained. The boy has tremendous Force skills, so he manages to stay alive. However, he has limited control over his use of the Force and continually calls unwanted attention to himself and his location. Jax becomes his mentor and tries to help him get control of his skills.

A number of things reach a head in this tale. Jax continues to struggle with what his late father would have had him do. I-5 seriously considers making an attempt to assassinate the Emperor, and we all suspect that such a move is likely not a good idea. The group also has to be constantly on guard to avoid giving themselves away to the Inquisitors, Force-sensitive henchmen who have been tasked with finding the remaining Jedi.

I greatly admired the way Mr. Reaves maintained a high level of suspense until the end. You might think that after two books and most of a third that a reader could predict the outcome. I did not find that to be the case. Yes, certainly I knew that they would not succeed in killing the Emperor or Darth Vader. However, I did not know which characters would survive a final face-to-face confrontation with Vader or what kind of shape they would be in at the end. I hope that in the future Mr. Reaves will let us share in the adventures of these characters again.