The second volume of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Dark Apprentice, continues the saga of Luke Skywalker’s fledgling Jedi academy on Yavin 4. Luke’s most powerful student, Gantoris, flirts with the dark side and dies. Later, a new student arriving after Gantoris’s death, Kyp Durron, who’s even more powerful, is also seduced by the dark side.
The spirit of Exar Kun, a Dark Lord of the Sith during the Old Republic era, had established a base on Yavin 4. He brought along members of the Massassi race, who he enslaved. Once an esteemed Jedi, Kun slew his mentor, Master Vodo-Siosk Baas, and fled to Yavin 4 in order to pursue his growing interest in Sith teachings. He was defeated by the combined forces of the Jedi in a war, but he didn’t die. Rather, his spirit was entombed within the Great Temple, only one of many that the Massassi built under his rule, and where Luke gathers his students for lessons.
After Kyp acquires knowledge of dark side powers from the spirit of Exar Kun, he uses these to crush the remaining Imperial strongholds. The Empire ruined his life, having imprisoned him at the age of eight, along with his parents, and was sent to Kessel where he slaved in the spice mines. His fourteen-year-old brother Zeth was conscripted and brought to Carida to train at the Imperial Academy.
I understand how Kyp would want to avenge his parents’ deaths, his brother’s abduction, and his own enslavement, but the fact that Kun used the Massassi as slaves is overlooked. Kyp should have had a stronger reaction to the enslavement, and should have been repulsed by it because until recently, he spent half his life as a slave. How could he simply ignore this?
At the beginning of his conquest, he blows up stars in the Cauldron Nebula, where Admiral Daala and the two remaining ships of her original fleet of four hide out while planning their attacks against Republic worlds. Satisfied that he exterminated them, he then pays a visit to Dr. Qwi Xux, the scientist who unwittingly designed the Sun Crusher, a weapon that was supposed to be powerful and indestructible, for the Empire. Kyp enters her mind and literally tears the information stored in her memory about the Sun Crusher’s design.
The novel ends with Kyp on his way to the Imperial Academy on Carida in order to gain information about his brother.
There are two subplots irrelevant to the main plot: the flirtation between Lando Calrissian and Mara Jade, and Jacen and Jaina Solo’s adventure trekking through the bottommost level of Coruscant, lost.
Lando and Mara Jade are in contact because they’re negotiating a partnership over the Kessel spice mines. Though I suppose that Lando is a playa, so perhaps his flirtation with her isn’t out of character. But still, it doesn’t add to the plot because nothing happens between them.
Han flies to Mon Calamari to fetch Leia, who’s there to persuade Admiral Ackbar to return to Coruscant and resume his role as New Republic fleet admiral. Admiral Daala’s forces attack, targeting Calimari’s shipyards.
While the Solos are away, Jacen and Jaina are left in the care of C-3PO and Chewbacca. During an outing, the twins escape from their guardians and become lost in the decaying, lower levels of Coruscant. Most of the turbolifts have plates that cover the buttons leading to the planet’s depths, yet Jacen and Jaina happen to board a turbolift in which the plating was removed.
They encounter a variety of mutated beings before finally meeting up with humans who had exiled themselves to the city world’s dregs during the Emperor’s reign. The leader of this band brings the twins directly to their living quarters via air ducts.
Neither of these episodes enhance the main plot and are merely filler. I prefer to read a shorter, more focused novel than a longer one in which pointless events take place.
