Separatist Admiral Pors Tonith has attacked Praesitlyn, home of the communications hub of the Republic. Palpatine sends Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan, and Nejaa Halcyon, a shamed Jedi Master (he lost a ship to Zozrider Slayke, who coincidentally, happens to be defending Praesitlyn), to regain control of Praesitlyn and restore communications to the Outer Rim worlds.NOTE: Based on novel and audiobook.When I first reviewed this book several years ago, I said it was the worst Star Wars book. Of course, that was when I liked "The Crystal Star". So, I decided to go back and "reread" to see if it is as bad as I feared.It is.I had probably listened to barely a minute of the audiobook, when I made my first note, which was "Wow, the writing style is worse than Jude Watson, who purposefully writes for children". From there it went downhill.For its credit, "Jedi Trial" does a few things okay. There are some continuity nods, most notably using the communications center on Praesitlyn, which was first established in "Heir to the Empire", Armand Isard, and Nejaa Halcyon. Also, it's obvious that the authors are well aware of how the military functions.If you can't already tell, I am really grasping at straws, trying desperately to find any sort of "good aspects" to this book.This book is positively dreadful, a pain to read. I found I could only listen to a few minutes at a time; it was as if the book was giving me real, physical damage.What's wrong with "Jedi Trial"? Besides "everything"?Well, here goes nothing!1. Characters. From established movie characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan to Expanded Universe ones like Nejaa and Asajj to original characters like Odie and Reija, the characters are dreadful. They are one cliché built on top of another, barely characterized beyond one or two words.a. Anakin feels blank and under-developed. If it weren't for the fact his name is "Anakin", I would never have known that this is the man who becomes Darth Vader - or even the whiny teenager in "Attack of the Clones". He inexplicably becomes instantly attached to Reija, a transparent and blatant "Shmi" insert, so that he can become enraged when she is harmed in a cheap ploy for "drama". The whole thing feels out of character; Anakin has never seemed like the kind of person to become so quickly and indiscriminately attached to people.b. Nejaa Halcyon, Corellian Jedi with a wife and child of his own, could have been "Anyone Jedi" for all his character development. He spends one moment even thinking about his family; most of his other scenes are him planning, yelling, or doing a bad job commanding.c. Asajj Ventress, big and splashy on the cover, plays a cameo role, in which she does nothing but growl at Pors Tonith for no reason. (There must be a rule book where all people on the "bad guy" side must growl and yell at their underlings.) Oddly enough, Count Dooku appears more in this book than Asajj. So why is she on the cover? Did someone mix up this cover with the one for "The Cestus Deception"?d. Pors Tonith is a classic Cackling Villain. Most of his scenes center around him chuckling about how smart he is, how clever his plans are, and how he drinks dianoga tea that stains his teeth. It's a bad sign when one of the highlight characteristics of your villains is the color his teeth have been stained. It's also bad when the authors can't stop mentioning the color of the stain of his teeth every two seconds.e. Reija Momen was painted as this wonderful, perfect "everyone's mother" (so called by an alien, of all beings) that came off so clichéd and over done, you couldn't have made it more obvious if you had painted it on the cover of the book. If I had to heard one more time how "motherly" Reija was, I would have attacked my iPod.f. Odie Subu not only has a horrible name (be honest - you thought of Garfield as soon as you read that name!) but she is the most boring, bland, uninspiring, stupid woman ever. The authors tell us (something that you will find frequently occurs in this book) that she supposedly is the best recon pilot, but she doesn't do anything that intelligent. Instead, Odie does what any good traditional woman should and lets her man, Erk, make all the decisions.g. Erk Harmond is a horribly clichéd fighter pilot. It's like reading an X-Wing book and taking drugs at the same time. Take Han Solo, Dash Rendar, and Corran Horn, remove away any characteristics that aren't related to piloting, exaggerate all the over-confident, arrogant mannerisms, have him laugh at the most inopportune times and give him the personality of a robot and you have Erk. Whenever he entered a scene, I wanted to drive a drill through my head.h. What is with everyone worshiping Zozrider Slayke? The guy drove me bonkers, and if I had to listen to another of his "motivational speeches", I will strangle myself.2. "Show, don't tell". The authors must have skipped this lesson in Writing Fiction 101, because the novel is basically one long "telling scenes" and interspersed with a couple of "showing scenes". When Nejaa is first mentioned, Anakin talks about how Nejaa is great. Well, that's nice, but can't we see how Nejaa is such a good Master and swords-being? When Reija enters, we are told she's a good administrator and that she's kind, but we never see her being kind to her employees. Ditto for her being "everyone's mother". And one of the highlights of the book, one of the biggest reasons I had to read this book, to read how Nejaa and Anakin, both married men, relate to each other, is so hastily, sloppily, and pathetically done, it's embarrassing. Anyone, literally anyone, could have written a better scene where Nejaa and Anakin reveal their marital status and make it more stirring and impactful. The scene literally goes "Nejaa told Anakin about his wife and son...Anakin told Nejaa about Padme". AGH! If Stackpole or Allston were at the reigns, this easily could have been a chapter, instead of the paragraph!!3. Vagueness. Time and again, a scene is written as if it is a summary. When Anakin and Nejaa spar, their session is described in the barest of terms and lasts maybe three paragraphs. I have no clue what half the characters look like, besides vague descriptions such as "short, brown hair" (as for Odie) or "everyone's mother" (for Reija, and no, I'm never going to let that go). About the only time the authors aren't vague is when they are going into excruciating, mind-numbing detail about the tactics that will be used to fight the war (but, Force Forbid, never for the actual battle).4. Bad writing. Hold it, that should be "God-awful bad writing". Seriously, I've not listened to and read such bad writing in forever. As my first comment shows, it reads like a child's book...but this is sold in the adult's section! From questionable sentences like "Lan Moore was perspiring faintly" (he was close to fainting?) to "Someone cursed foully" (isn't all cursing technically foul?) to the grammatically incorrect list including "highly trained, highly motivated and equipped with armored vehicles", the pages are rife with writing that wouldn't pass in a fourth grade English class. I honestly don't know how the authors could have submitted this work. I would have been embarrassed. I was embarrassed as I listened to this.5. Bad Dialogue. Characters talk all the same, without any distinction between Outer Rim and Inner Rim, Jedi and soldier, alien and human, male and female. They also tend to spout off clichéd sayings such as "Surrender is not an option", "It has been a pleasure to fight along side you", and "Attack, attack, attack" (which, apparently is not uncommon for pacifistic Alderaanians say).6. Romance. Hang me up by the ears right now! I've railed against many an author who has written a bad romantic pairing, but none has come to the sheer awfulness that "Jedi Trial" has. Odie and Erk are barely one-dimensional characters. Throwing them together in a rough environment, inserting dopey dialogue, and having them "bond" ("Be my wingmate!" "Sure!") over the course of a few days does not a romance make. Callista and Luke's romance is better than this. Anakin and Padme's romance in "Attack of the Clones" is better than this. Edward and Bella's romance is better than this. I thank the Maker that whoever edited the audiobook excluded Anakin officiating their wedding. I've already abused myself enough over this book; I think hearing that would have taken me to the funny farm.7. Laughing. I am so glad that people in this book can laugh at the drop of a hat. Odie and Erk meet and two minutes later, they are laughing with each other. Anakin and Nejaa spar...and then share a laugh. Erk is in the middle of a combat zone...and laughs. Slayke makes a joke about not having a plan, and then everyone of his team bursts into gales of laughter. Does any of this sound, oh, I don't know, awkward to you? I don't know about you, but I just don't think people would be laughing and joking as much as they do in this book.8. Too much focus on battle plans. Yes, this is a Clone Wars novel. Yes, I expect a big, huge Clone Wars. No, I don't want to read the intricate, detailed plan of such an attack. I don't want to read about how much food they must supply, I don't want to read about where they are going to move this artillery and I certainly don't want to know what sort of retreat they have in plan. I want to read about the actual battle, the clones on the battlefield, the Jedi leading the way, spaceships flying and maneuvering.9. Too little Star Wars. Minus character names and some technology, this book could have been set in Earth's future (or "Any Planet's" future). Artillery, military rankings, and the gushing over how much an officer is loved by his men for getting his hands dirty (I lay odds that both of these guys are enlisted and have dream visions of what an officer is) feels out of place in the galaxy far, far away. Meanwhile, I still don't know how a Star Wars ship could be boarded without one of the bridge officers noting the drop in the shields. Other ignorance of Star Wars technology makes the book frustrating.When I first read this book, I hated it with a vengeance, like I've never despised a Star Wars novel before and since. And when I reread it, I found my opinion hadn't changed. This book is absolutely the worst novel in Star Wars Expanded Universe, worse than The Crystal Star, the entire Jedi Academy Trilogy, and the Black Fleet Crisis combined. While I am a bit perturbed at how the new Clone Wars TV series has changed continuity of this era, I will gladly accept it if it means that it totally retcons and throws this piece of bantha excrement from Star Wars EU. I have one thing to say: Avoid at all costs, unless you take enjoyment out of picking on novels MST3K style.
Star Wars: Jedi Trial is a fractured book. This was my primary feeling throughout the entire reading process, and now that it's over, I can't remember much about it other than how difficult to follow it was just because of how broken up the writing was. Apparently, it is about Anakin and Nejaa Halcyon trying to free a central communications hub on Praesitlyn from Separatist Control--and I had to look that up. Let me just say that this is not a book that will stick in the reader's mind for longer than an hour after the covers close. First of all, this central location sounds like a medication for ADD; second of all, this should have been an awesome chance for some characterization of and action with Corran Horn's grandfather. Unfortunately, Trial gets a verdict of FAIL on almost every count.Let's start with bad writing. What can I say that I haven't said hundreds of times about 8 out of every 10 Star Wars books written in the last ten years? It's written badly. Childish writing, staccato paragraphs, puffed margins, and short chapters alone nurse this crap up to 368 pages. If it were edited by a proper author, it would've reached 180, max. Characterization? Also a fail. The authors have the impression that sketching out a Gettysburg-sized cast will somehow result in a proper book, but all it does is produce confusion. The characters are little more than sock puppets, painted with broad-brush cliché. Dialogue is practically strictly catchphrase-based. Plot? So insignificant, I can't even remember what was going on, and that's after brushing up on a plot summary!Really it's no wonder this book is relatively poorly done so far as characterization and in-universe style. These two guys co-write a "military science fiction" series, which, for me, is already code for boring. The older of the two, himself a Nam vet, also writes Marines in Vietnam novels. The other was a sergeant major in the US Army and also writes Vietnam books, fiction and not, and is also a Defense Department analyst. Maybe these credentials get your blood pumping, but to me it just sounds like a recipe for another barely-canonical SW book whipped together like a bad Kroger cake and presented for the consumption of the masses who don't know better.In a canonical sense, the book does cover some actual events between E2 and E3. It doesn't make any really egregious errors--some territorial contradictions could probably be explained without much trouble--but I've read worse. I myself found it shallow writing resulting in tedious reading, broken up and abrupt in transition, and not deserving of more than two stars, but if you're interested in the Clone Wars, you could do far worse than by reading this. It's a stupid book, but not a horrible one. That being said, if you actually like Star Wars, my usual conclusion will do: stay away.This review via The Rebel Librarian
What do You think about Jedi Trial (2005)?
A book that takes place during The Clone Wars. This tells the tale of a battle between the Separatists and the Republic on one planet. In the course of this campaign Anakin proves his worth to the Jedi Council and becomes a Jedi Knight.If you are a fan of this universe I strongly suggest skipping this book. The only good aspect of this book was the battle campaign on the planet's surface. The author's definitely had experience in military actions and it was on full display in this book. But even that became tiresome as they harped on certain aspects like "friendly fire". I understand that war is not glamorous like it is portrayed in movies and other novels but it was repeated over and over.The reason that this novel received a low rating is the writing. It was amateurish. The characters were cardboard and full of clichés. The leader of the droid army was portrayed as the villain incarnate and if he had a mustache he would have been twirling it like we see in the silent movies. This happened with other characters that as soon as they were introduced you knew their path. I don't know if this novel is the author's first effort but it read like it. Another gripe I have is that the cover displays Asajj Ventriss but she had a total of three pages and she was never directly involved in the action.I could list other problems I had with this novel but I figure you get the idea. The only reason to read this book is if you would like to read every Star Wars novel but even then I would recommend to pretend that this one does not exist.
—Jim C
First: I won't deny I'm an Anakin Skywalker fan and that matters. But I'm also a big Corran Horn fan, and since this book brings up a character related to him, it adds as well. Nejaa Halcyon and Anakin Skywalker in an adventure together gives this a unique view of the war.Anakin may be trained as a Jedi, but learning to be a war leader is something else. Here we meet see how he learned how complicated it is and how many pieces it takes to put together a fleet - and we do too.Also we learn how Nejaa deals with the same issue Anakin does: having a forbidden family. There are several background characters who get fair attention and we also see the battle from their point of view.And last there is the evil overconfident villain. He's not particularly impressive but he is disturbingly smart. If your looking for rip roaring adventure this might not be your style, as it delves more into the war details, the high cost and the characters than that. But if you want to see Anakin taking more steps to the leadership of a fleet and the strengths and weakness that led to his fall, you'll find them here. You'll travel with him through the smoke of battle and death and get a better view of who Anakin Skywalker 'war hero' really was.
—Terri Paxton
How long have SW fans waited for a Halcyon novel? Too bad this one isn't it. Nejaa should have been a high point in the Clone Wars novels, and instead we're shown a foundering, outcast Jedi who can apparently only associate with a Padawan. The action in this book is not compelling; the strategies are basic at best; and some of the Expanded Universe knowledge is wrong. The authors imply, through Halcyon, that marrying among Jedi is rare, even for Corellians. However, the (much better) book I, Jed
—Lindsey
