Having been swept up by the Luke-Callista romance introduced at the end of “Children of the Jedi,” it was with some optimism that I gave Kevin J. Anderson’s “Darksaber” (1995) another chance, despite my negative opinion of the “Jedi Academy Trilogy” (which I also recently reviewed). I especially looked forward to re-reading the Return to Hoth segment, a short horror story within this novel where Luke and Callista battle wampas, including the one-armed monster from “The Empire Strikes Back.”
That segment remains a fun read, and there are other smirk-worthy aspects to this book sprinkled about. We meet Bevel Lemelisk, one of the Death Star’s designers, and see in flashbacks how he gets repeatedly executed by Palpatine, who keeps using the Force to move Lemelisk’s essence into a clone body; Crix Madine goes from action figure to actual character; Admiral Daala gruesomely wipes out all the bickering ex-Imperial warlords in a sealed room; and we go to Tatooine, Dagobah and Yavin IV in a greatest-hits tour of the original trilogy.
The problem is that “Darksaber” is still written by Anderson, who after this book would go on to the 14-book “Young Jedi Knights” series for young adults, which was more in his wheelhouse. Truthfully, his four adult novels perhaps shouldn’t have been marketed to adults in the first place.
It’s easy to attack “Darksaber” for having yet another superweapon (the titular device, the planet-destroying superlaser from the Death Star, rebuilt by Durga the Hutt), for bringing back the sociopathic and stunningly-bad-at-her-job Daala (aside from that one scene), and for having the Jedi Knights hold hands and fling 17 Star Destroyers across a stellar system. But the biggest problem is that Anderson’s yarn is straightforward, contrived and boring, especially when stacked up against the likes of Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole. Even Barbara Hambly’s “Children of the Jedi” is flawed in a much more interesting way than this book.
Anderson is good at broad premises but bad with follow-through. For example, Dorsk 81, a Jedi who comes from a rigid society of clones, is a great character concept. But his story is still obvious — technically, it’s an arc, but you’ll know the ending as soon as you know the beginning.
I have mixed feelings about the Luke-Callista romance here. On one hand, “Darksaber” is the only book that features the relationship in a somewhat happy phase (If memory serves, Luke’s search for Callista is fruitless in Hambly’s “Planet of Twilight”). On the other hand, there’s no twisting and turning to the romance like you’d find in a Stackpole book. Instead of Callista reflecting on the great things about life other than the Force — perhaps chatting with non-Force-sensitives like Han or weak Force-users like Tionne — she just bitches and moans at various volumes about not having her powers anymore.
I’m not in favor of “throwing out” the bad books from the EU, because generally I think even the bad ones add to the richness of the saga, or at least the continuity. (Plus, it’s impossible — the books are already out there.) But I think it’s a crying shame that Admiral Pellaeon is made into a pathetic lapdog to Daala in “Darksaber”; his positive attitude toward the ridiculous warmonger doesn’t ring true from a crisp, professional military man who had served under the principled (albeit evil) military genius Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Anderson especially struggles to write believable villains. I suppose it’s a good trait as a human being to not be able to relate to evil, but it doesn’t serve him well as a “Star Wars” writer.
Comments
Yeah, this shouldn’t be read as adult novel, but a kids novel. Its a fun read, a good adventure tale only. Anderson never realy understood the capabilities of the force, also he made Pellaeon a simple doormat, instead of develop the character. But I liked Daala here, she is still incompetent, but at list this time she admits it. Her confrontation with Callista, is the moment when two of the most awful EU characters met!# Posted By Eric | 11/6/13 8:38 AM
Indeed, while all Imperial leaders are evil in some sense, that doesn’t mean they have to be portrayed as stupid, too. There is nothing about Daala that Pellaeon should admire. When she offered him leadership of the fleet, he should’ve taken it, knowing it was the best hope for the Empire he believed in, even if he didn’t quite feel up to the task. I like Callista in the sense that she’s Luke’s first serious love interest, and I think he deserves to have one. But she’s a horribly written character. Hambly introduced her well enough, but then for some reason wanted little to do with her in the next book. And Anderson isn’t up to the task. She lost one of her six senses, but she’s free of being trapped in a computer! She can walk and talk and see and hear and feel, and she immediately has a great guy as a boyfriend. And she’s complaining about it. Completely absurd. Looking ahead on my bookshelf, I have three hardcovers I remember being awful (Hambly, McIntyre, Rusch) and the Kube-McDowell and McBride-Allen trilogies, which I remember being mediocre. I might have to switch to comics for a while. I also have to revisit the Lando trilogy to complete my ’80s Del Rey rundown.# Posted By John Hansen | 11/6/13 4:47 PM