“Teach me more about the ancient Sith ways…” (229).
Admittedly, Part II of Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy trilogy was a bit underwhelming in my view. It takes place about a month or so after Book I (Jedi Search), and Luke is building his new Jedi Academy on Yavin IV among the ancient temple ruins left behind by a mysterious race known as the Massassi, but a strange mysterious dark presence seems to be lurking in the shadows. Luke’s twelve or so students include: Gantoris and Streen (both of whom were introduced in Book I), Kirana Ti (one of the youngest and powerful witches of Dathomir who left her other force-wielding, rancor-riding women on Dathomir to better control her power and help Luke recover an ancient space station, the Chu’unthor which held many Jedi records), Dorsk 81 (a bald, green and yellow skinned cclone-defect from a world of genetically identical clones), Kam Solusar (an older man and son of a Jedi whom Vader had slaughtered long ago, and Solusar was once tortured by a Dark Jedi), Tionne (a silvery-haired historian with a passion for the ancient Jedi, and she plays music on a string music, like a song called “the ballad of Nomi Sunrider” about one of the historical Jedi Knights, a pivotal character in the ancient Sith War). They are later joined by a Mon Calamari ambassador named Cilghal, and also Mara Jade (from the Thrawn Trilogy), as well as Kyp Durron after he and Han Solo wrap-up a somewhat odd turbo-skiing trip on Coruscant (Han apparently feels a certain degree of paternal care for Kyp). Unsurprisingly, Gantoris is seduced by the dark side –and he even challenges Luke to a duel—before he is later found burnt to a crisp by a strange dark force. How is this possible? Why would Luke not immediately conclude Gantoris’s training after fighting one another? Why would Luke simply return Gantoris’s lightsaber after the fight? Wouldn’t Luke pause his Jedi Academy on Yavin IV if there is a mysterious dark force plaguing his students? Could he possibly be this so clueless? This whole narrative arc strikes me as entirely out of character for Luke.
“If he successfully completed their training, these candidates would form the core of a new order of Jedi Knights, champions of the Force, to help protect the New Republic against dark times” (68).
Meanwhile, the book starts with a rather unpleasant scene. Leia and Admiral Ackbar are sent to the planet Vortex –a moonless world with a notoriously tempestuous atmosphere populated by a species known as the Vors who are “hollow-boned humanoids with a rack of lacy wings on their backs.” They celebrate the high winds on Vortex with a cultural festival renowned throughout the galaxy, and they have constructed an ethereal building called the Cathedral of Winds which has resisted the fierce winds for centuries and is filled with giant musical pipes winding up its spires which have recently been unsealed after the fall of the Empire (I imagined the Cathedral of Winds to look something like Antonio Gaudi’s famed Spanish architecture, such as La Sagrada Familia). At any rate, on their diplomatic mission, the strong winds on Vortex seem to send Ackbar’s B-Wing crashing into the great Cathedral, killing 358 Vors and devastating many (Leia is ejected from the ship before she can become party to the crash). In solemn shame, Ackbar blames himself and retires to his home planet of Mon Cala, though we later learn he was set up and his ship was tampered with by Terpfen, a Mon Calamari mechanic who was brainwashed by the Empire while on Carida (he also later reveals the secret location of Anakin Solo on Anoth to Ambassador Furgan, Imperial Ambassador on Carida).
The departure of Ackbar (and the stripping of his rank as admiral) leaves the fledgling New Republic in a difficult spot, especially as we later learn Mon Mothma is dying of “wasting disease.” Admiral Daala still lingers out in the galaxy, despite losing the Sun Crusher to the New Republic (as well as one of her Star Destroyers, which was destroyed in Book I). In Book II, black-gloved Daala and her associate, Commander Kratas, intend to inflict as much as damage as possible on the New Republic, whether through disruption of shipping lanes or full-scale outpost destruction. For example, on Dantooine they obliterate the newly-founded refugee community for those fleeing Eol Sha from the first book. “No, Commander, I have no intention of putting in my bid for what is left of the Empire. That’s not a job I would relish. Well leave that to the petty dictators. I just want to cause damage. Lots of it” (55).
There are several side-plots in this novel. General Wedge Antilles is running deliveries and serving as a personal bodyguard for the pale, blue-skinned Qwi Xux (pronounced “kwee-shush” I believe), the lead engineer of many Imperial super-weapons like the Death Star and the Sun Crusher, who has since defected to the New Republic. They head to the pristine planet of Ithor, and its floating city of Tafanda Bay where they meet Momaw Nadon, a friend of the republic who was once banished to Tatooine by the Empire where he witnessed the famous moment where Obi-wan and Luke Skywalker first met Han Solo in the cantina. Meanwhile, Han and Leia’s twins –Jacen and Jaina—run amok under the care of Threepio and Chewbacca. They constantly whine about their favorite children’s book, “The Little Lost Bantha Cub,” and later reenact the story while escaping from Threepio and Chewbacca at Coruscant’s holo zoo, where they are accidentally captured by an underground kingdom of people living below the city –former Imperial bureaucrats who fled underground and led by Daykim—but the children are quickly returned to Han and Leia (this section of the book is extremely tedious). The young Anakin Solo still in hiding on the secret planet of Anoth under the care of Leia’s assistant Winter. And throughout Dark Apprentice, Han and Lando continually squabble over ownership of the Millennium Falcon –almost to the point of parody—as they face off in various games of sabacc.
Perhaps the most intriguing of these side-plots concern the former Admiral Ackbar, who stops by Anoth to check-up on Winter and baby Anakin –Winter seems to have romantic feelings for Ackbar as she invites him to stay, but he simply leaves anyway on the pot-thread in never again revisited. Later, Leia travels to visit Ackbar, hoping to convince him to return to the New Republic leadership, as a fellow moderate voice, but he decides to remain in Foamwander City on Mon Cala. Here, we are given a fascinating depiction of Ackbar’s water-born homeworld –a place filled with floating cities and underwater towers, while tension persists between the Quarren and Mon Calamari:
“Starved for raw materials on their marshy islands, the Mon Calamari had not been able to build a civilization until they joined forces with another intelligent species that lived beneath the oceans. The Quarren, a humanoid race with helmet-shaped heads and faces that looked like a fistful of tentacles sprouting beneath close-set eyes, had excavated metallic ores from the ocean crust. Working with the Calamarians, they built dozens of floating cities. Though the Quarren could also breathe air, they chose to remain under the sea while the Calamarians designed starships to explore the bright ‘islands in space’” (163).
We also meet the Calamarian ambassador, Cilghal (who later joins Luke’s Academy), as Leia dons a tight-fitting wet-suit and a water jet pack with a unique breathing apparatus –a soft gel membrane known as “symbiote filters oxygen from the sea” which can last for weeks underwater. She finds Ackbar’s dwelling module rests amidst wild seatree forests, as hulking mollusks point the way –and they also spot krakana monster—while Ackbar investigates the unstable planet crust. Suddenly, they find an old imperial probe droid tangled in the seatree tickets. It sends off a message and then self-destructs. Shortly thereafter, Daala’s Star Destroyers arrive and begin assaulting the planet. In this scene, Ackbar finally comes alive and organizes a defensive strategy, and the battle only ends when a Calamarian ship, the Startide, embarks on a kamikaze mission, crashing into the Manticore Star Destroyer. This was an exciting scene to be sure, but when it ends, Ackbar still refuses to return to the New Republic. Was there a point to all of this?
As mentioned above, Luke’s new Jedi Academy is plagued by a mysterious dark force –the shadowy, silhouetted ghost of an ancient Sith Lord named Exar Kun—who teaches Gantoris how to build his own three-crystal-based lightsaber which can extend to double its length. How does Luke allow Gantoris to simply get away with this? Luke also has troubling dreams of his father, Anakin, warning of lies told by Obi-Wan and encouraging him to study the ancient Sith heritage, and become benevolent ruler of galaxy –but it turns out to the be the doing of Exar Kun. And when Gantoris tries to refuse Exar Kun’s teaching, the Sith simply burns Gantoris alive from the inside out. All that is left is a pile of ashes on the ground. However, Exar Kun has more success seducing Kyp Durron to the dark side. He lures Kyp to his other ancient temple, a remote ruin with a statue atop the temple in the middle of a placid lake, as we learn about Kun’s history –four thousand years ago during the reign of the Old Republic, Exar Kun was a Jedi who betrayed his master and revived the Brotherhood of the Sith. Or as Kun tells it: “The Brotherhood of the Sith could have ruled the galaxy, could have squashed the doddering Republic and turned the other Jedi Knights into mere parlor magicians –but I was betrayed” (228). The Massassi race were apparently enslaved by Exar Kun many thousands of years ago, and forced to construct vast temples as focal points for the dark side of the force. Again, why would Luke not sense this danger lurking on Yavin IV? Are his Jedi powers truly that feeble in the face of an ancient Sith?
Kyp Durron explains more of his backstory which might help to address why he is so easily seduced by an ancient Sith Lord:
“The Empire ruined my life… My parents were political resisters. They marked the anniversary of the Ghorman Massacre, and they protested the destruction of Alderaan –but by that time the Emperor had lost all patience with political objectives… Stormtroopers came in the middle of the night, battered their way into our home on the colony of Deyer. They took my parents, stunned them in front of our eyes, leaving them paralyzed and twitching on the floor… The stormtroopers dragged him and my mother out… My brother Zeth was five years older than me. They took him. He was only fourteen, I think… I found out later that they took Zeth to the Imperial Military Academy on Carida. They put my parents and me in the Correctional Facility on Kessel, where we had to work in the spice mines. I spent most of my days in pitch darkness because any light straying into the mine shafts spoils spice crystals. My parents died there after only a few years… I had to take care of myself even when the prisoners overthrew the Correctional Facility ad took over. The crime lord there, Moruth Doole, tossed the captured Imperials down into the spice mines. Doole let some of the prisoners out –but not many and not me. Our masters had changed, but we remained slaves” (222).
In the end, Kyp Durron betrays Luke alongside Exar Kun. Luke’s Jedi holocron is disrupted –a holocron is a common vessel for ancient Jedi to impart their knowledge for the future. This particular holocron is a small translucent cube containing secret information Leia stole from the resurrected Emperor in the Dark Empire comic series, and it contains the teaching of a stubby creature named Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, who speaks of a Great Sith War four thousand years ago caused by his student Exar Kun who brought about the downfall of the Old Republic with a warlord named Ulic Qel-Droma –but Ulic Qel-Droma eventually betrayed Exar Kun. Why would Luke continue using this holocron, knowing that a dark presence can influence it? Wouldn’t he plan to evacuate this planet until it is safe? How does any of this make sense? At any rate, Kyp Durron and the silhouetted ghost of Exar Kun easily disable Luke’s lightsaber and subject him to a barrage of force lightning, before Kyp steals Mara Jade’s Z-95 Headhunter and briefly visits the remains of Darth Vader’s funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor (where he pledges to succeed where Darth Vader once failed) and then he returns to Yavin IV and commandeers the Sun Crusher device (since it is apparently just sitting unguarded on Yavin IV?) and he flies it directly at Admiral Daala’s fleet inside the nebula at just the moment Daala is planning to launch a surprise attack on Coruscant. The Sun Crusher only manages to destroy one of Daala’s two remaining Star Destroyers (the Basilisk is destroyed, while Daala narrowly escapes aboard the Gorgon). In doing so, Kyp believes he is actually liberating the galaxy –he secretly tracks down the former Imperial engineer, Qwi Xux, and erases her memory so that no one else can operate volatile weaponry like the Sun Crusher again (and apparently erasing one’s memory is now a force power?) The novel ends as Luke’s students discover his lifeless body lying discarded inside the Massassi temple on Yavin IV. He still has a faint pulse but will he ever be the same?
“Every living thing must continue to learn until it dies” (68).
In conclusion, Dark Apprentice is another slightly jumbled, somewhat clunky novel in the Jedi Academy trilogy. Like its predecessor, Dark Apprentice has some compelling ideas and a few fun adventures, but it was a bit of a mixed bag in my view with plenty of filler material. The central struggle over the future of the New Republic continues in Dark Apprentice. But with Mon Mothma’s illness and Admiral Ackbar’s resignation, will the New Republic fall prey to its internal war-hawk voices? The future remains uncertain. At least Dark Apprentice apparently connects well with other works in the Expanded Universe, such as Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, the Thrawn Trilogy, and The Courtship of Princess Leia.
Anderson, Kevin J. Dark Apprentice – The Jedi Academy Trilogy: Book II. Del Ray, New York, NY, 1994 (republished in 2015).
Great 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
What happens next?! NOOOOO!!!
It sounds good, but i have to know what happens next…