[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 13 May 2026 - 05:32 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 02:38 PM, said:

Abyss, on 13 May 2026 - 02:15 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 13 May 2026 - 11:57 AM, said:

DARK APPRENTICE (Book 2 Jedi Academy Trilogy) by KJA is really good. Again, I love how much you can mostly align this stuff with Prequel era stuff...but subtle things are different like how before The Clone Wars TV show force users could use any crystal available to craft their lightsaber and focus the beam...Kyber Crystals didn't really become the defacto (type) of crystal for lightsabers till the Clone Wars made it so...I prefer the old way as it doesn't confine things. That said, it still aligns with new canon as places like Illum where the padawans go to find their crystals just has a mountain that is filled with crystals so it still kinda jives.

Or Kirana Ti (one of Luke's first students) being a Dathomiri witch (Nightsister) she's wearing (in the old art) a sort of helmet thing....which looks kinda weird....but if you change that material to various types of cloth hoods, she DOES align with the eventual Nightsisters look.

One thing I love is that Luke's Jedi academy (Praxeum) is on Yavin 4 utilizing the old Rebel base there from ANH, and old Massasi temples make a REALLY good spot to train his students (some canon reasons exists too, in that one of his students [Streen] is an older man who hears everyones thoughts too loud and Coruscant would have driven him insane, but I think it's Leia who points out that Luke can train Jedi far from the prying eyes of the main hub of the New Republic...It's not until the Yuzaan Vong destroy the temple on Yavin 4 that Luke moves the Jedi to the Temple on Coruscant proper.

There are little dashes of things that also align with post-prequel info, like Ackbar is sitting outside the main council chambers for the New Republic and the doors and walls are still decorated in the bas relief's the Emperor had installed that were subtle nods to Sith history and hieroglyphs...and if you watch the prequels Darth Sidious actually did this, with the Four Sages of Dwartii statues, The Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief, and Sith chalice and spirit urns in his office. So that jives too, and it makes me wonder how much of the prequels is informed by stuff the old Expanded universe authors came up with.

Anyways, great book and I'm blasting through it so I'll probably dive into the 3rd right after.

Does this bk have one of Luke's apprentices get possessed by Exar Kun and whip out a double-lightsaber decades before Darth Maul ever did?

Yep. Gantoris...and it's interesting to read because he's trying to gainsay the speed at which Luke is teaching them, thinking he can make a lightsaber and all that before Luke is ready to teach it and that's how he gets into it.

And yeah, the one downside about using Yavin 4 is that Exar Kun's grave is literally there AND the Holocron that Luke has from an Old Republic Master talks about him, but never mentions him by name, so none of them realize till it's too late and Gantoris is already caught in the shit.

I remember reading that and then a few years later Dark Horse does Exar Kun and company's story and my brain starts making all kinds of wild connections. U\

...unfortunately then the DH SW comics started to suck and i bailed yet again.

IIRC when they were doing the KOTOR stuff, they deliberately nabbed the Jedi master and Exar Kun from these books as they wanted some solid connective tissue, so now it feels like the KOTOR games were made before this...and it works.

[QuickTidal]

Last night I grabbed 3 more Bantam-era Legends novels:


THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA by Dave Wolverton, which I've always heard mixed things about, but it informs SO much of the small details of the old EU that I feel like I need to read it, if anything it's the backdrop for where Tenel Ka (who is and was one of my favourite Jedi from the NJO) grew up, in the fucked up Hapan Consortium (which let's be real the New Canon kind of ported into Chandrila with their weird ass rules and nobility and arranged marriages ect.), and I've heard that Luke is AMAZING in this one and he's worth the price of admission.

CHILDREN OF THE JEDI and PLANET OF TWILIGHT by Barbara Hambly....other than the Vonda Macintyre book that comes a bit later, these are two of the MOST maligned books in the Bantam era of the old EU...but there are important details here too in Callista, and one that apparently pays off all the way forward in the Fate of the Jedi series, so you know what? I'll read them and make up my own mind if they are as bad as everyone says.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 14 May 2026 - 11:45 AM

[QuickTidal]

Finished DARK APPRENTICE and yeah it was not Gantoris that went bad for the full time, he dies pretty quickly as he rejects the possession by Exar Kun after a day or two, it's Kyp Durron who goes bad with it and it lasts for the next book and a Half

The back half of that book is interesting as you get the genesis of how Calamarian Cilghar becomes a Jedi as her force use is evident to Leia, and Kyp pulling the Sun Crusher out to use against Daala was cool too.

I barrelled right into CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE (the final book in the Jedi Academy series; these books are all from the Bantam era and therefore pretty short...like these three could be one big book really) and read it during the back half go the holiday weekend, and it was good. Fun, but doing not too much special and the ONLY thing that annoys me about this trilogy is the Death Star Prototype....like do we need a skeletal DS with just the laser for Daala to fire? Nah. It feels tacked on as if to say "Look, recognize this?!" which was not usually what KJA did with SW material. But overall I enjoyed the third book most for Leia's defense of Anakin (her youngest child), and for Ackbar's resurgence into hero. Han and Chewie (aside from convincing Kyp of his missteps) feel less used than anyone else.

Next up I'm jumping back in the timeline a bit to THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA, after which I will go back to the post-Jedi Academy part of the timeline with CHILDREN OF THE JEDI.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 19 May 2026 - 12:09 PM

[Garak]

The Death Star prototype was just "huh?" but I honestly find the Sun Crusher totally silly. Not the blowing up suns part, that's fine, the invulnerable shup part which is just silly. I find it an ok trilogy, KJA as a writer just comes off a bit flat. Idk. Courtship is ... interesting. Definetly had a big impact but it also has a weapon that's dumb as hell and an entire thing with Han and Leia that is just ..... eeeeeeew. Really eeeew.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Garak, on 19 May 2026 - 04:42 PM, said:

The Death Star prototype was just "huh?" but I honestly find the Sun Crusher totally silly. Not the blowing up suns part, that's fine, the invulnerable shup part which is just silly. I find it an ok trilogy, KJA as a writer just comes off a bit flat. Idk. Courtship is ... interesting. Definetly had a big impact but it also has a weapon that's dumb as hell and an entire thing with Han and Leia that is just ..... eeeeeeew. Really eeeew.

Agreed, I'm glad they didn't repeat the threesome with Chewie in any other books after Courtship!

[QuickTidal]

 Garak, on 19 May 2026 - 04:42 PM, said:

The Death Star prototype was just "huh?" but I honestly find the Sun Crusher totally silly. Not the blowing up suns part, that's fine, the invulnerable shup part which is just silly. I find it an ok trilogy, KJA as a writer just comes off a bit flat. Idk. Courtship is ... interesting. Definetly had a big impact but it also has a weapon that's dumb as hell and an entire thing with Han and Leia that is just ..... eeeeeeew. Really eeeew.

I know about it, the "eww" stuff, I've just never read it. And I've heard Luke is awesome in it.

Meh, I'm trying to also be open minded about my read of these (whether I've read them before or not), so I'll go in with the most open mind but I know of the things people complain about in this one ahead of time, so that will soften the blow.

EDIT: oh and the "giant weapon" thing in SW books doesn't go away yet either as I know the DARKSABER book is named that after a ship that's a weapon...LOL. They eventually left that stuff behind by the late Bantam-Spectra era, but yah the early EU was filled with new "planet killer weapons".

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 19 May 2026 - 06:31 PM

[Garak]

Darksaber is less bothersome because of spoiler reasons.

If you know the eew but yeah it won't be as "wtf did I just read" as it was for me.

[QuickTidal]

Garak, on 20 May 2026 - 04:29 AM, said:

Darksaber is less bothersome because of spoiler reasons.

If you know the eew but yeah it won't be as "wtf did I just read" as it was for me.

Fun fact, I JUST learned that the author of COURTSHIP is Dave Wolverton, who also goes by the name David Farland (!), who was Brandon Sanderson's teacher in Uni...and who is a Mormon too, and thus the weird shit in COURTSHIP begins to make MUCH more sense...

[Garak]

That is wild.

[Chance]

QuickTidal, on 20 May 2026 - 11:19 AM, said:

Garak, on 20 May 2026 - 04:29 AM, said:

Darksaber is less bothersome because of spoiler reasons.

If you know the eew but yeah it won't be as "wtf did I just read" as it was for me.

Fun fact, I JUST learned that the author of COURTSHIP is Dave Wolverton, who also goes by the name David Farland (!), who was Brandon Sanderson's teacher in Uni...and who is a Mormon too, and thus the weird shit in COURTSHIP begins to make MUCH more sense...

Farland's runelord books share a bit of stuff with Sanderson not least in the mechanic take on magic, they are also deeply weird and if I remember right has probably aged pretty badly.

This post has been edited by Chance: 20 May 2026 - 03:02 PM

[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 20 May 2026 - 03:00 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 20 May 2026 - 11:19 AM, said:

Garak, on 20 May 2026 - 04:29 AM, said:

Darksaber is less bothersome because of spoiler reasons.

If you know the eew but yeah it won't be as "wtf did I just read" as it was for me.

Fun fact, I JUST learned that the author of COURTSHIP is Dave Wolverton, who also goes by the name David Farland (!), who was Brandon Sanderson's teacher in Uni...and who is a Mormon too, and thus the weird shit in COURTSHIP begins to make MUCH more sense...

Farland's runelord books share a bit of stuff with Sanderson not least in the mechanic take on magic, they are also deeply weird and if I remember right has probably aged pretty badly.

I'm unsurprised. Sando's work can't hide the mormonism very well either, so his predecessors would be worse.

[Abyss]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 19 May 2026 - 05:53 PM, said:

Garak, on 19 May 2026 - 04:42 PM, said:

The Death Star prototype was just "huh?" but I honestly find the Sun Crusher totally silly. Not the blowing up suns part, that's fine, the invulnerable shup part which is just silly. I find it an ok trilogy, KJA as a writer just comes off a bit flat. Idk. Courtship is ... interesting. Definetly had a big impact but it also has a weapon that's dumb as hell and an entire thing with Han and Leia that is just ..... eeeeeeew. Really eeeew.

Agreed, I'm glad they didn't repeat the threesome with Chewie in any other books after Courtship!

EWWWWWWWW

QuickTidal, on 20 May 2026 - 11:19 AM, said:

Garak, on 20 May 2026 - 04:29 AM, said:

Darksaber is less bothersome because of spoiler reasons.

If you know the eew but yeah it won't be as "wtf did I just read" as it was for me.

Fun fact, I JUST learned that the author of COURTSHIP is Dave Wolverton, who also goes by the name David Farland (!), who was Brandon Sanderson's teacher in Uni...and who is a Mormon too, and thus the weird shit in COURTSHIP begins to make MUCH more sense...

This is one of those anecdotally interesting facts i knew but perpetually forget.

Chance, on 20 May 2026 - 03:00 PM, said:

Farland's runelord books share a bit of stuff with Sanderson not least in the mechanic take on magic, they are also deeply weird and if I remember right has probably aged pretty badly.

And now that you prompted me to think about it, also shares the problem of philosophy and an attempt to add levels of lore and 'bigger picture' backfiring. It was far worse for RUNELORDS, essentially ruins the series, and Brandon is a far better author, but the roots are there.

QuickTidal, on 20 May 2026 - 04:38 PM, said:

I'm unsurprised. Sando's work can't hide the mormonism very well either, so his predecessors would be worse.

I think he did, initially. There are hints, sure, but it's hardly visible in early works, barely at all in MISTBORN and early STORMLIGHT, but somewhere around RHYTHM and into WIND it starts to peek through i think. It's not a big negative to me, in general i don't begrudge authors their beliefs or how they impact their work as long as they aren't preaching hate/intolerance/etc, the parts of those books i did not enjoy lie elsewhere.

[QuickTidal]

update:

Finished COURTSHIP....the complaints are....accurate. The (for lack of a better term) "Do What I Want You To Do/make you do what I want Gun" is already a pretty despicable and authorly-gross narrative device...but when you add in Wolverton's Mormonism (which is fundamentally both repressed-sex AND polyamorous for men) it quickly gets squickier...and the existence of it is not only not required, but the use of it by Han Solo on the woman who clearly loves him is not just out of character, but deeply deeply character assassinating. Han would never.

Luke's plotline in the book is a much cleaner, and I enjoyed it for the most part.

I know people complain about the Dathomir getting a Filoni-specific upgrade in The Clone Wars from how it's introduced and presented here...but The clone Wars Dathomir is SO much more interesting....the one here is "Bog standard planet with warriors who call themselves witches"...and the Nighsisters are not as deliberatrly filled out as they become later. They feel like standard villains here, nothing special. But at the very least tis was fun to read about, even though Luke's friendship with Isolder is...problematic too.

This also gave me the reason why Tenel Ka rejects and tries to distance herself from the Hapan Consortium...as they are a fooked up society filled with nonsense, and avarice, and sex, and greed...nothing about them is laudable. That Leia even NEEDS them to join the NR is a travesty based on how much space they control.

Han and Leia's marriage is fine, but man it's not a pretty road to get there.

I didn't hate this, but it's WAY down the list for me in enjoyment as I only really enjoyed the Luke bits and the meeting of Tenel Ka's parents.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 02 June 2026 - 04:19 PM

[Garak]

Yeah so you see what about this book bothers people. It's OOC, gross and utterly stupid. I'm glad stuff was salvaged from this book and made into cool things, I just wish the Gun of Command wasn't a thing. Heck even the X-Wing series took from this book, the entire Wraith squadron trilogy was made as a prequel to this book, dealing with the conflict with Warlord Zsinj.

[Chance]

Abyss, on 02 June 2026 - 03:05 PM, said:

Chance, on 20 May 2026 - 03:00 PM, said:

Farland's runelord books share a bit of stuff with Sanderson not least in the mechanic take on magic, they are also deeply weird and if I remember right has probably aged pretty badly.

And now that you prompted me to think about it, also shares the problem of philosophy and an attempt to add levels of lore and 'bigger picture' backfiring. It was far worse for RUNELORDS, essentially ruins the series, and Brandon is a far better author, but the roots are there.

Brandon is a much better author but I think there are some striking similarities both of strengths and weaknesses. Runelords is based on a pretty great magic system which genuinely strong/horrific implications for story and which form the world. Kind of like every book Brandon has ever written and much like Runlords most of Brandon's series start out fairly simple stories and then as you say add lore and 'bigger pictures'. While a lot of people just want to see protagonist accomplish their goals / end up in a good place at the end, not have the universe explained to them. Not that it can't be combined but I think that takes a better author than either Brandon or Farland.

Its pretty clear that Farland influenced his student and probably their shared values influence how they think about the world.

This post has been edited by Chance: 02 June 2026 - 08:34 PM