Written by: R.A. Salvatore

R.A. Salvatore has long been a fantasy favorite, so it was interesting to see him at the helm of a space adventure. Of course Star Wars has always been more fantasy than science fiction. And he succeeds. He takes almost of all the weaknesses in Lucas’ script and is able to flesh them out to give them the depth that the film never quite achieves.

Written by Terry Bisson

There are books aimed at younger readers and then there are just young reader books. Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest for example were both written to include younger readers but you never felt as if they were excluding an older audience. Not so much with these stories.

Written by: Terry Bisson

After getting over the stumbling block of defining everything and reaching out to the younger readers, the series takes a bit of a better spin.

Perhaps it helps to have gotten the exposition of a younger viewed version of Episode II out of the way, but watching the newly orphaned Boba Fett muddle around on his own is certainly interesting. Far from the perfect bounty hunter we originally met in Empire Strikes Back, Boba is young, somewhat naive, and certainly not up to task.

Written by: Elizabeth Hand

One thing I will say is that the difference between Hand and Bisson is so minute that you don’t notice that an author change has taken place. The writing styles are that similar. But that’s not a bad thing. Bisson got the series over the hump before turning over the reins to the capable hands of Hand.

Written by: Jude Watson

Jude Watson has done a great job exploring the Star Wars Universe culture by going to many different worlds and seeing many different galactic activities all the while trying to slowly bring Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi along on their journey towards where we see them in Episodes II and III. This story is no different as we see the galaxy far far away’s equivalent of the Olympics. Something that absolutely should happen but you don’t think much about it happening, until Watson brings it up.

Written by: Jude Watson

Anakin Skywalker’s education continues as we find out more about the mysterious Granta Omega…eventually. As Anakin gets older we need to see a bit more tension between Obi-Wan and Anakin but more importantly we need to see that Anakin is able to be seduced even if it is for the right reasons.

Granta is the first time we see Anakin interacting with a less overt and instead much more charismatic form of evil. Showing shades of Palpatine, Granta befriends Anakin (even if it’s under an alias) so that by the time he is revealed, Anakin has conflicted emotions.

Written by: Jude Watson

I’m surprised it took me this long, but I can be slow at times…This series is not about Anakin Skywalker and really more about Obi-Wan. If you connect the series with the earlier Jedi Apprentice series it is a long drawn out arc of how Obi-Wan got from a youngling in the Jedi Temple to the master of Anakin Skywalker that we meet again in Episode 2.

by: Jude Watson

Jude has been doing a good job with this series, far more consistently (through three novels) than he got detailing Qui-Gon’s training of Obi-Wan. Another step forward in the slow development of the team we see in the prequel trilogy.

It is a testament to the large spanning success that Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy was that a spinoff story of sorts detailing some of the events that led to that status quo is a thrilling concept. The Outbound Flight was mentioned a few times with little details during the Zahn trilogy but what was given was tantalizing. An old Republic mission with a few Jedi Masters going off into the unknown. All we knew was that the mission was a failure and the masters were killed.

We open with a flurry of action as Hobbes, Ryan, and Jack use some kind of bazooka to destroy a shuttle that was supposed to be carrying Vs. Amidst their celebration, Jack discovers that it wasn’t a V shuttle at all, but carrying humans.

We begin with Anakin and Mace Windu continuing their adventures, this time aboard a Republic ship with a batch of young clones learning the ropes.

Written by: Drew Karpyshyn

Now this is more like it! After stumbling a bit with the second volume, volume 3 takes it up a notch and is easily the equal of the first volume. The storyline is quickly paced and full of action and adventure. By the time the novel was wrapping up, I was surprised to see it was over.

The Zillo beast from the previous episode is brought to Coruscant but the problem with researching the impenetrable hide is the beast is the pain caused to the locked up monster.

Flashforward took a big step forward with a shocking twist ending. While Dyson Frost is on the loose and creating havoc, it has come to a head that the FBI Mosaic team has a mole. Frost is staying too far ahead of the game for there not to be. Benford and Vogel head up a task force to sequester and grill everyone involved in the investigation after they discover a listening device placed under the keyboard of Mark’s computer.