The great Jedi Master Luke passes out - Times Four!Han, Luke, and Leia are on Ithor, enjoying the beautiful Time of Meeting, when an old associate of Han's appears and leaves them with a cryptic message. This message leads Han and Leia to the mysterious world of Belsavis, and Luke and his students, Cray Mingla, brilliant scientist, and her fiancee, Nichos Marr, head to the Moonflower Nebula. Both quickly uncover a plot by a former Emperor's Hand to destroy Belasavis.NOTE: I read this book years ago and recently listened to the audiobook.I Liked:This time around I caught a small line that said that no one was quite sure who the Eye of Palpatine was created to attack, but it was a large enemy. Could that be the Yuuzhan Vong, whom Palpatine may have seen? Did he rise to power to prevent the galaxy from falling into their hands? No one knows, but it's interesting.Another tiny part that recurrs is the Emperor's Hand. In the Thrawn Trilogy, Thrawn tells Mara she wasn't the only Emperor's Hand. Here, we get to see another, Roganada Ismaren.Seeing Callista and Altis reminds me of the books by Traviss where they make cameo appearances. Kinda interesting to see how they have been tied in. I hope we get more stories of Callista from the prequel era.Lastly, Han and Leia's investigation of Belsavis isn't that bad.I Didn't Like:On one hand, I didn't feel the revulsion for this book that I had felt for it when I read it as a teen (surprise, I know!) or for the Jedi Academy trilogy. On the other hand, it doesn't mean it was an amazing book.The first thing I noticed was the pervasive flowery language. I've noticed audiobooks can cut out some of that (which I appreciate), but this book opened with a particularly flowery passage that I had to listen to more than once to get an idea what the heck was going on. There are several other parts where things are happening, and Hambly just stops to detail everything in the scene. And really, for this story, there is no need for over-describing.I appreciated how Hambly didn't try to shoehorn everyone into the book, but none of the characters quite felt themselves. One of Han Solo's first lines is a particularly nasty line about Cray, which comes out like "you mean the blonde with legs?" Uh, excuse me? What Han is this? Not the Han Solo that is happily married to Leia. Speaking of Leia, I don't think she would be particularly impressed with Han buying her a dress that cost 30% of most planet's incomes. Leia has never been that kind of woman at all. Luke Skywalker is nasty, honestly, but I want to talk about him separately. The choice to continue the Mara and Lando subplot is hideous (at least it is easily retconned by Zahn--thank you!!). Nichos Marr feels too much like Data--a man with his own hands and head, but everything else is robotic? And they couldn't transfer his personality so he acted like a droid? What about Darth Vader? That guys was almost all robot and he still could love and think and emote. Cray was a stereotypical scientist, hot and sexy, yet brilliant and Force-sensitive too! And Callista, while good...well, let me talk about her separately too.The concept of the Eye of Palpatine is one that has seen too much exposure in the novels of this time: the Empire creating superweapons. Number one, how did they have the money, after the TWO Death Stars, to build this? Number two, why so many superwepaons? If the Death Star was the ultimate power, why have the Sun Crusher, the Eye of Palpatine, the Galaxy Gun? And Number three, why make something as unwieldy as the Eye of Palpatine? Supposedly it is so big and secretive...only, how could something that big be so secretive? Why send your troops to random planets for this big, huge superweapon to pick up and attract attention to itself? Why make this thing so stupid it can't tell the difference between stormtroopers and Jawas, Gamorreans, and Tusken Raiders? If I were Palpatine, I would be getting my money back on this thing.Another big beef I have with this book is the Luke Skywalker plot. He goes searching in the Moonflower Cluster, at the beckon of the Force, and basically does nothing but hobble around on the superweapon, getting into fights between two opposing Gamorrean (!) clans, and having literal cybersex with a computer. Actually, not a computer. This is Callista, who was a Jedi, but somehow learns to get into a computer (I have never met anyone who was actually able to explain how the heck this happens in Star Wars, but it must be related to how Palpatine keeps coming back as a clone). Luke meets her and two seconds later, they are in lurve, and he can't bear to part from her, and he is calling her "Baby" (BABY?!?! Not even Han says that to Leia!). What. The. Heck??? Talk about love at first sight! Their relationship is so slapshod, so hasty, so chemistry-less that I was gagging whenever I had to hear these two together.Another part that really gets my goat is this: (view spoiler)[Callista imports herself into Cray's body and starts to CHANGE Cray's eye color and hair color to Callista's. I may have been able to believe Callista taking over Cray's body, but for her to change it?! No way! (hide spoiler)]
The book The Children of the Jedi, by Barbara Hambly, is a fiction book about the Star Wars universe. Overall, I did not overly enjoy this book because of the characters. However, there were some good aspects about the book. tThere are multiple reasons I didn’t like this book. One reason is that many of the characters seemed inconsistent then they do in other Star Wars books I have read. For example: at one point, Han Solo says, “You mean the blonde with the legs?” That is something Han Solo would never say, since in this book he is married to Leia Solo. Something else I didn’t like about this story was Luke Skywalker. At this point, Luke is the Grand Jedi Master of the Jedi order. Over the course of the book, he passes out multiple times, which seems unlikely considering his power. Another thing about this book was the way it was written. Hambly gets too descriptive at some parts, which is unnecessary for some sections of the book. For the most part, the book is confusing to read, but the reader can tell, for the most part, what is going on. tDespite the things I didn’t enjoy about this book, there were some good things about Children of the Jedi. All Star Wars books are good, but this one wasn’t the best for a Star Wars. It had a good story line, even though it wasn’t well written. There isn’t anything fantastic to say about this book, but there are a few good scenes in story that really feel like “Star Wars moments”, but that is all I really enjoyed about the book. tI wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. If you like to read Star Wars books,skipping this book altogether be be fine. If you have never read a Star Wars book, definitely don’t start with this, or don’t read it at all. I would give this book one and a half stars. Overall, this book wasn’t very good.
What do You think about Children Of The Jedi (1996)?
I can honestly say I did NOT like this book. I checked it out from my library to read on vacation, and did not like the whole storyline between Callista (I think that's what her name was) and Luke. I mean, doesn't he marry Mara Jade? Then why is he in love with Callista? Or, I guess it's more of in 'like', because Luke didn't know her that long. The 'Eye of Palpatine' didn't make much sense to me, and I walked away from the book feeling confused. My older brother who is 20 read it, and was confu
—Allie
Of the many Star Wars Expanded Universe novels I have read, Barbara Hambly's "Children of the Jedi" ranks somewhere in the middle. I've certainly read much better books in the series, but I've also read worse. Coming off the heels of reading Dave Wolverton's horribly cheesy "The Courtship of Princess Leia", this book was superb.Hambly is a talented writer who clearly has a knack for developing character depth. In this book, in particular, she gives the character of Princess Leia much more characterization and play within the story than other books I have read in the series. Hambly delves deeper into Leia's emotional life, especially in regards to her grief and mourning over the loss of her entire home planet, Alderaan, an aspect of her character that I have never adequately seen displayed in either the films or other novels prior to this.Set several years after the events of "Return of the Jedi", "Children of the Jedi" sees Han and Leia married, with three children. Leia is President of the New Republic. Luke has set up the Jedi Academy on Yavin, and has been scouring the galaxy searching for young recruits. They are all on a diplomatic mission to the planet Belsavis when one of Han's old smuggler buddies shows up with a strange warning. His message is almost indecipherable, as he has clearly gone mad, but he manages to elicit a few understandable words: "children of the Jedi" being the most clear.Apparently, long ago, several Jedi, after the Purge, brought their children to this planet to escape the Jedi Massacre that was led by Emperor Palpatine. Rumors of their settlement persist, but no one has any memory of them.Luke, in his separate investigation in another part of the galaxy, has discovered an Imperial Dreadnaught called the Eye of Palpatine, left to rot in a forgotten corner of space. Unfortunately, no one remembered to give the abort orders to the ship's computer, which seems to have developed into a powerful Artificial Intelligence calling itself the Will, that has a telekinetic control over the remaining life forms on board the ship. It is still intent on its original mission, which is the destruction of Belsavis.Meanwhile, Han and Leia's investigation uncovers the existence of a former spy of the Emperor's living amongst the people of Belsavis. They, unfortunately, aren't sure who the spy is. All the while, weird inexplicable mechanical "accidents" are occurring all over the planet. Overall, this was a decent and very readable Star Wars adventure.
—Scott Rhee
I noticed when I picked this up how many bad reviews it has received from fellow goodreads members. So, naturally I expected to utterly hate this, but I really actually enjoyed parts of it. I will admit it definitely isn't the best Star Wars novel ever or even close, but it wasn't utterly unreadable either like some Kevin J. Anderson books I've had to choke my way through. *cough*JediAcademyTrilogy*coug* Yes, it the Luke/Callista thing is a bit weird and makes me a tad uncomfortable, but it works for what it is. Now I'm curious to see what happens to them and their relationship. This trilogy, which is written mostly by Barbara Hambly, but for some reason has the middle book written by *gag* my fav author Kev, will not be my favorite. However it will not be my most hated for obvious reasons. I'm just trudging through until I can get to the next Timothy Zahn set of books. I adore him.
—Wicked ♥ (Wickedly Bookish Reviews) aka Bat-Jess
