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| - The Jedi Academy Trilogy is a set of books in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The three books, Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice and Champions of the Force, were written by Kevin J. Anderson starting in 1994; in 1998, Michael Stackpole of X Wing Series fame wrote I, Jedi, but we'll get to that in a bit. It should also be noted that in 1995 Anderson wrote Darksaber, a semi-sequel to the Jedi Academy Trilogy, which we talk about over here. The Jedi Academy Trilogy deals with Luke Skywalker and a couple of quasi-Jedi, with training even more incomplete than his, setting up a Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, seeking to train a selection of Force-Sensitives including, most promisingly, a prideful leader from a dying world, who ranted about a "dark man", attacked Luke, was not reprimanded, and then was found burned to death in his room. Meanwhile, Han and Chewbacca got sent to the prison world Kessel, where they picked up a lucky, prideful young man named Kyp Durron, escaped with him, and found their way to the Maw, a secret Imperial installation where superweapons were designed and made. There they stole the Sun Crusher, a tiny indestructible ship that can blow up stars, and broke out, in the mean time cluing in the Maw's carefully isolated defensive armadas to the fact that the Rebellion had won. The leader of the Maw's forces was Natasi Daala, characterized by being a rare woman in the Imperial military, by being prideful, by getting as far as she did by being Tarkin's lover, and by being wildly incompetent. While Daala waged war, Kyp was brought to Yavin to pitch the Sun Crusher into a gas giant, and it turned out he was Force-Sensitive. Extremely so, in fact. The dark man started training him. Turns out the dark man is the long-dead spirit of Exar Kun, Dark Lord of the Sith, who'd been trapped on Yavin for four thousand years. After snapping at a student who was filking about one of Exar Kun's Jedi opponents and generally being a jerk, Kyp waited until Mara Jade swung by, stole her ship, yanked the Sun Crusher out of its gas giant, and flew away in it, supposedly to fight Daala, destroying entire systems in the process. At some point Luke was put into a sort of coma, able to astral-project but not able to speak to anyone. Kyp, looking for his brother, swung by the Imperial training academy, a world with twenty-five million inhabitants, and made its star go supernova when they didn't immediately give in to his demand. Turns out his brother was still alive, was being the operative word. Oops. Han Solo tracked Kyp down and Kyp threatened him while Exar Kun moved openly, influencing one of the students to try to kill Luke. The other students stopped him, then apparently destroyed Exar Kun. Kyp surrendered to Han, then they went to the Maw and pitched the Sun Crusher into a black hole where it really couldn't be retrieved. Then Kyp was shuttled back to the Jedi Academy to continue his training. That's an abbreviated summary, of course. There were other plots in there, like a traitorous ambassador, Mon Mothma's illness, and Daala's various failures. All in all, while it has its defenders, the Jedi Academy trilogy is not exactly held up as the shining example of what the Expanded Universe should be. I, Jedi, as a novel, had a lot of firsts. First novel to be entirely written in first-person perspective. First novel to have as its hero a character who was never featured or even mentioned in the films. First novel to directly retcon events in a previously written book. I, Jedi starts just before the beginning of the Academy Trilogy, encompasses the events of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, and extends a bit beyond. Corran Horn, Rogue Nine, found himself with a psychic wound when his wife vanished while up against the Invids, an Imperial sect that includes Force-Sensitives. Luke coaxed him into being part of the new Jedi Academy, and Corran accepted after disguising himself, since as Corran he's mildly famous and doesn't want extra attention. At the Academy, he was dismayed by a number of things, including the very lax discipline, Luke's refusal to tell anyone if what they were doing was wrong, his commanding officer falling for the scientist who designed the Death Star, and his own inability to move things with his mind, though as it turns out he could make people think things had moved (and he's so good at it that he could probably persuade the thing itself it's moved). He was further dismayed by Kyp, and Luke's focus on his new most promising student. The destruction of Carida was made into something horrifying and traumatic, Exar Kun's actual demise was drawn out and given a bit of thought, and Corran left in disgust when Kyp was welcomed back. Then Corran went to his homeworld, Corellia, talked things over with his grandfather, and infiltrated some of the pirates who associated with the Invids, in the meantime picking up a Camaasi who was able to straighten out his morals. Eventually he chased all of the pirates off a planet with a campaign of intimidation, faced down the Sith-influenced Jedi sect called the Jensaari alongside Luke, and saved Mirax.
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