DARKSABER / STAR WARS LEGENDS / Kevin J. Anderson / Book Review / BrianLeeDurfee (spoiler free)

Wherein our hero Durfee reviews Darksaber a Star Wars Legends novel by Kevin J. Anderson. #StarWarsLegends #Darksaber #KevinJAnderson

[nathanielanderson]

Ive never heard of this one before. I may add the to my star wars collection. Thanks as always for the review!

[SixStringSamuri]

I watched the Mandalorian, and have the book on my shelf (but haven't read it yet), and was a little confused about the fact that there are two very different Darksabers. I guess the title of the book inspired the showrunners to use it in a more literal interpretation. … After reading some books with Mara Jade, I'm not quite sure what to think of her. I mean, she is probably the most late 80s, beginning of 90s thing you could possibly do – an irrestistable redhead that can use a space gun and will eventually become Lukes love interest. Like Red Sonja in a jumpsuit 🤣

[bigbird]

Admiral mikata and hidden gems YouTube channels both uploaded this unabridged audiobook and it’s awesome

[VictorDiGiovanni]

Sorry. Glad that you have a cool friend in Kevin J Anderson. But his Star Wars work was the WORST. It was all just so, so lazy. Every choice he makes for this book and the trilogy he wrote, and the comics, were always non-sensical and the prose equivalent of young Anakin randomly hitting buttons on his starfighter and saying, "I'll try spinning... that's a good trick!" Of the truly endless ways you could structure a Star Wars story, Anderson chooses every one of his stories to be about some stupid superweapon. Suncrusher. Darksaber. Yes, it's the curse of Star Wars, and everyone seems fated to introduce a superweapon in their story at some point, but the way Anderson tosses them off in his books is just so cynical and lazy. You can practically hear him saying, "Enh.. it's just a Star Wars tie-in novel. No need to put any effort into this. Star Wars fans aren't here for a well-written story, they just want to see some lightsabers, some call-backs to the movies, and a superweapon that needs to be destroyed. This is fine..." Anderson came along at the exact moment when Star Wars could have built off of the ground floor quality level of the Timothy Zahn trilogy and done something special, but instead, the rickety foundation of the entire Star Wars universe was laid bare. This step down from the Zahn books is something Star Wars publishing never truly recovered from. It went from being a true cultural event to stuff that only hardcore Star Wars fans would appreciate or ever need to read. Not just these books, but any Star Wars books from that point on. Since the Zahn books, there hasn't been another Star Wars book that anyone outside of dedicated Star Wars superfans talks about. But the Zahn books ARE still totally relevant. Thrawn is so relevant he's the big bad of the currently-airing TV series and will be the Thanos of the next few years of movies and TV. It's a guarantee we'll finally see a live-action Mara Jade at some point. But of the thousands of other characters created post-Thrawn, approximately (checks notes) ZERO characters or stories have any relevance. And I put that all on Kevin J. Anderson and the lazy story he chose to tell here. Sorry to be the downer, but it's true. Zahn's books (while not great works of literature, let's be clear and honest) were SO impactful that it's what clearly inspired Lucas to finally do the Prequels. Before Zahn's trilogy, Star Wars was DEAD (sorry, Dark Empire, no one was reading that garbage, not even me, a die-hard Star Wars nut), but I remember seeing Heir to the Empire EVERYWHERE, and even random non-nerd people mentioning its existence and saying stuff like, "...and Princess Leia is PREGNANT with twins and Han Solo is the dad!" Lucas realized there was still lots of juice left in this world and sat down to write. I wish he'd written something much BETTER, but that's a rant for a different day.