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Title: Jedi Knight (Star Wars: Dark Forces) by William C. Dietz, Dave Dorman ISBN: 0-425-17051-9 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.07 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Love Star Wars....love this book.
Comment: I really enjoyed this book AND the illustrations. These beautiful paintings are really imaginative. It is an exciting adventure with new characters and some really amazing images. It made me want to know more and more about Kyle Katarn and the other characters they introduced. Although I don't get into the computer games, if they are anything like the images in the book, I bet they're really cool looking. I'm looking forward to reading the other books in THE DARK FORCES series while I wait for the new film.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not as good as the others
Comment: The first Dark Forces "graphic story album," Soldier for the Empire, was a very good and beautifully illustrated book. Unfortunately, the sequel falls short in many ways.
Picking up the action again after the Kyle Katarn's exploits in the Dark Forces computer game, this book takes place somewhere between Return of the Jedi and the conquest of Coruscant in the X-Wing novels. It details the first half of the Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight computer game, instead of being more of an original story like the Soldier, with mixed results.
At times, the action is like the last chapter of Soldier, almost word for word out of the game. At other times though, it's hard to place what's going on. Also, for obvious reasons, the book can't parallel the game detail for detail. There are more characters and details filled in between missions.
While the first book was well and succinctly written, this one is far too much so; it would have benefitted immeasurably from another fifty pages or so of materiel. Kyle, even with the extra stuff going on not in the game, seems to jump from adventure to adventure, unevenly able to call on the Force, and sometimes the chapters and situations seem to lose focus, or switch POVs without breaks. It's kind of annoying.
And the ease with which Kyle takes out Pic and Gorc...straight out of Indiana Jones...just whip out the blaster and shoot the guy. It was kind of silly.
Probably the most dissatisfying bit about this book though is the quality of illustrations. While by no means bad, the art can't stand up with Dorman's literal renditions in Jedi Knight, and certainly isn't even comparable to William's beautiful renditions in Soldier for the Empire.
Despite all this, the book isn't that bad. It still has a bunch of cool action, evil enemies, witty dialogue, and even though it is very incomplete, the you know that there'll be a sequel to wind everything up.
This book ent so good, but I'm looking forward to the third one.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reads like a bullet, and leaves nothing out.
Comment: I had this book for a year before I actually read it. Since I primarily bought it for the great, poster quality, painted, full page illustrations it didn't matter. Besides I was under the impression that it was a "juvenile", a kid's book. Yeah, right, this is about as much a juvenile as is Heilein's _Starship Troopers_. There are some very gritty combat scenes here- and very well developed characters of depth. This is amazing in a novella of less than 120 pages (after you subtract the illustration pages.) There are hack writers out there that would have told this same story in 300 or 400, or more, pages, but Dietz does it in less than 120 without ommitting any detail, atmosphere, or continuity. That's the mark of a very skilled writer. Combined with the cover quality illustrations this book is practically a cinema quality experience all by itself. Moreover, I had not read the first two books of the trilogy, nor played the games, yet the book held together on its own.
Another thing, for a book that is so good on the combat and technical atmosphere, the metaphysics are also very satisfying. The tale of Lord Hoth and the Army of Light is truly worthy of the best of the Star Wars mythos. Indeed, it could almost be a grand finale in itself.
As a measure of how "in" to this I got, I finally ordered that universal remote shaped like a light saber for the TV. Hey, I needed a new remote anyway....
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Title: Star Wars - Dark Forces: Rebel Agent by William C. Dietz, Ezra Tucker ISBN: 1569711569 Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Pub. Date: 11 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Star Wars-Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire by Dean Williams, William C. Dietz ISBN: 1569711550 Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Pub. Date: December, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Survivor's Quest (Star Wars) by TIMOTHY ZAHN ISBN: 0345459164 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Fall of the Sith Empire (Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi) by Kevin J. Anderson, Dario Carrasco, Dario Carrasco Jr., Bill Black, David Jacob Beckett, Ray Murtaugh ISBN: 1569713200 Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Pub. Date: 06 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Unifying Force (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, Book 19) by JAMES LUCENO ISBN: 0345428528 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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