Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight

Finally finished the first installment of the Coruscant Nights Trilogy by Micheal Reaves.

I bought this book the day it was released in June. It took me longer than I expected to get though it. As I had mentioned before, it started out strong, and I quickly became sucked into the story. However, it gradually seemed to slow down for me, and getting through it became a chore. So I put it aside for a while.

When I came back to it, I was hoping it would pick up again. And it did! All the various story plots converged nicely into an exciting conclusion. I zipped through the last 100 or so pages in a couple days.

It was refreshing to follow a story that didn't include the major characters. Although Vader made some appearances, which is always exciting. Just his presence, even when he was not part of a scene, added an element of suspense and foreboding.

I also really liked how the novel explored philosophical issues of the force and the subject of droids and sentience. The droid, I-5, and the Paladin Jedi, Laranth Tarak, were two of my favorite characters, along with the main character, Jax Pavan.

I will definitely picking up the next book in the series, Coruscant Nights II: Street of Shadows, when it comes out later this month.

For now, however, I have moved on to the Young Jedi Knights Series

I've started with the Jedi Shadow paperback, which contains the first three novels of The Rise of the Shadow Academy story line.

All the novels from this series are pretty short--probably because they were geared toward a younger audience. And while they are a little sappy and overly-optimistic at times, I would hardly call them "kiddie" or "simplistic".

I am already more than halfway through the first novel in the series, Heirs of the Force, and I am really enjoying it so far. It is very interesting to see how many of the new generation adults Jedi were as teens and how they developed as characters.

My goal is to read the whole series before Invincible comes out on paperback in December, especially since that book frequently references the series.