It’s amazing how time gets by from you. I last read a Star Wars book in May 2021, and I read the first installment of Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy in March of 2021. It’s now the end of 2024!

But diving into the next Star Wars novel in publication order, Dark Apprentice, the second novel in the Jedi Academy Trilogy, it felt like I never left that galaxy.

Anderson tells a fast-paced story that flits across the galaxy, checking in with all the major and minor characters we’ve know to love. There’s some silliness, like Chewbacca and Threepio losing the Solo twins Jacen and Jaina in a holo-museum and Lando and Han playing sabacc and losing the Falcon back and forth between them, but there’s also some great sweeping action beats.

And to be far, even the sillliness feels very inline with Star Wars we know and love. Anderson clearly loves the universe as much as the rest of us and clearly had fun telling his tale.

Imperial Admiral Daala is on the warpath, following the events of the first book. She is taking her star destroyers on the offensive and after a destructive attack on Ackbar’s homeworld of Calamari, comes up with a plan to strike at the heart of the New Republic.

Luke Skywalker continues the training of a new breed of Jedi knights on Yavin 4, but when one of his students discovers a foreboding temple, the Dark Side threatens to take his best and brightest students, including Han Solo’s young friend Kyp Durron.

Mon Mothma continues to suffer from poor health, and with Ackbar helping his world recover from Daala’s attack, the ruling of the New Republic may fall to Leia, who is trying to balance governing with her family life – their youngest, little Annakin, is still hidden away on a distant world.

Anderson securely ties his story into the established canon of what was the Extended Universe, but is now relegated to Legends. And it’s a fun, fast-paced ride. Sometimes it feels like you don’t have enough time with certain characters, but it works like gangbusters.

It’s also nice to see something romantic happening with Wedge. He’s fallen for the scientist that was rescued from the Maw Installation, along with the destructive Sun Crusher ship, in the first book of the trilogy.

But because this is only the second book in a trilogy, you know it has to end with some serious problems. And it does!

Kyp has the Sun Crusher, he’s wreaking havoc on Daala’s forces even as he falls to the Dark Side, and Luke Skywalker is comatose after an encounter with Kyp and the Sith Lord Force Ghost guiding him Exar Kun!

I definitely don’t want to wait three years before I pick up the next novel, but it’s weird how life happens. Still, if you haven’t read them, Anderson tells a great tale, and there are some very familiar beats here, so much so that you can hear John Williams’ triumphant score with each scene .

Looking forward to rediscovering the next book, Champions of the Force!