Jedi Twilight (Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I)

"Even without the Force, you are still a Jedi" Don't confuse this book with the other "Twilight" book! In this new edition to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Jax Pavan, former Jedi Knight, is scumming around in the Coruscant underbelly, trying to keep out of the limelight and Darth Vader's target sites. But when his former master, Even Piell, asks him for one last mission, how can he say no? I Liked: I opened this book with some trepidation. The last two Michael Reaves books I read (Death Star (Star Wars) and Batman: Fear Itself) didn't impress me. In fact, I rated both two stars. I was so sure that Reaves had lost his touch, that the magic of Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul) was gone. Boy was I wrong! Michael Reaves brings back his amazing characters from Darth Maul, the Medstar Duology and more. We get to learn more about I-Five and ponder sentience. Are droids slaves...or are they property? Can a droid attain sentience? We see what happened to Den Dhur, reporter of the Medstar Duology. The Sullustan friend of I-Five makes some of the snappiest remarks, he is impossible to hate. Then we have Jax Pavan, Lorn Pavan's Jedi son. He has pretty much lived a bounty hunter-ish life in the underworld of Coruscant. You see him struggle with living alone, without the Jedi and then without the Force. Nick Rostu of Shatterpoint (Star Wars: Clone Wars) fame is back. I feel for him, his struggle with his limited Force ability and his desire to save his home. Also starring is Kaird, a Nediji (think bird-man), who is a part of Black Sun just to get to his own homeworld. Of those listed (there are a few others, but I found them more periphery), my favorites are Nick and Kaird. I really grew attached to Nick, felt his struggles and understood his past. Kaird, I loved how he wasn't your typical, "I want to be a big shot for the power" kind of guy. Nope, all he wanted was to go home. So a bunch of great characters don't mean a whole hill of beans. You can have a bunch and still have a lousy story (*ahem* Death Star). Not so here. The story is fantastic! There are just enough weaves, twists and turns (I figured out the end, but still, it was pretty darn interesting!) to keep you on your seat! And how Reaves puts all the characters together at the end...well, let's just say that THAT is how Death Star's ending should have been written. And the ending! Wowee, talk about a ride! You will want to read the last 100 pages in one sitting. Trust me, I did! I didn't want to be torn away, not at that ending! I Did Not Like: I really have to pick here to get negatives. Jedi deflect lasers but to shoot lasers out of the sky with blaster bolts? Uh huh, sure. Light is neither particle nor wave, so firing a light into a light does nothing, sorry. The middle is kinda slow and almost padded. I can't even quite remember what happens in it! Fortunately, you don't seem to notice it when you are reading, only when you get to the end do you think,

I bought this book and loved it. I could not put it down the charecters where well developed and the story left me wanting more.

Interesting storyline based on characters known and unknown in the Star Wars Universe. It expands the universe with characters you can care about, yet only gives you the one book to wrap up the tale in. Am looking foreward to more in this new series.

After the horrible dissapointment that the "Legacy" series was to me I almost didn't pick this one up. But alas it IS Star Wars and therefore after putting it off a couple of weeks - I bought and read it. I wasn't expecting too much - but I actually loved this book. The writer did a great job of keeping the plot intriguing and I found myself getting sucked into the story from the very beginning. To me this book brings with it something that the expanded universe has been sorely lacking in lately - and that is new characters, setting, and and a fresh new perspective. I particularly liked that this story takes place so soon after the dreaded order "66" - only three months. It is uncharted territory for Star Wars and the writer does an excellent job of depicting a new galaxy under the new regime. I'm also happy to see a story centered on Coruscant - another uncharted area in my opinion. To me this book had the feel of a "Dark Horse" comic series - like "Dark Times" - and anyone who has read those knows they are excellent. The characters are all extremely likable and the author has left a lot of room for growth. One reviewer didn't particularly like some of the heavy vocabularly - but I thought it was sparse - and as a father I am all for it in a series like this in which kids are reading. The one 14 year old reviewer loved the book - and I say good for him and I support the author throwing some tough words in there. I hope that 14 yo broke out a dictionary. Now let's just hope this start out excellent and end flat like the last SW series did.

I got this book thinking that I was picking up another boring unreadable prequel novel. I was very wrong. This one of the greatest Star Wars novels ever written, and I have read quite a few. A good thing is you have a reasonable amount of main characters (unlike the Legacy of the Force books that had WAY too many characters and had to wait 60 pages to read about the interesring ones). The book hardly gets boring and their are many surprises. The only problem is that i'm only 14 so the many big words had me reading the dictionary every 15 minutes. Other than that tiny problem I loved this book and will get the next 2 in the trilogy as soon as they come in.