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Barbara Hambly
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Star Wars: Children of the Jedi Hardcover – 11 May 1995

by Barbara Hambly (Author)
One of the series of novels which continue the "Star Wars" adventure. Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca set out for the once-vibrant stronghold of Belsavis, on a mission vital to the survival of the fragile New Republic. They are searching for the long-lost children of the Jedi.
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  1. Part of series
    Star Wars - Legends
  2. Print length
    352 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Bantam Press
  5. Publication date
    11 May 1995
  6. ISBN-10
    0593037642
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0593037645
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam Press (11 May 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593037642
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593037645

About the author

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Barbara Hambly

Barbara Hambly

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"Barbara Hambly (b. 1951) is a New York Times bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction, as well as historical novels set in the nineteenth century. After receiving a master’s degree in medieval history, she published The Time of the Dark, the first novel in the Darwath saga, in 1982, establishing herself as an author of serious speculative fiction. Since then she has created several series, including the Windrose Chronicles, Sun-Cross, and Sun Wolf and Starhawk, in addition to writing for the Star Wars and Star Trek universes.

Besides fantasy, Hambly has won acclaim for the James Asher vampire series, which won the Locus Award for best horror novel in 1989, and the Benjamin January mystery series, featuring a brilliant African-American surgeon in antebellum New Orleans. She lives in Los Angeles."

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  • Paul Bedard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Unfairly Judged!
    Reviewed in the United States on 2 June 2017
    Verified Purchase
    I'm not sure why this wonderful book has been so harshly reviewed. It is certainly the best Star Wars novel I have read; it has more of the emphasis on character and spiritual issues and less of the "military" focus of the (also excellent) Zahn books. Many reviewers focus on the perceived flaw of "too much description." Perhaps the issue here is that many Star Wars readers really want a movie and not a book. And many Star Wars novels attempt to satisfy this desire. So, don't pick this up unless you enjoy books as literature. The descriptions are beautiful and really carry the reader to truly alien places. The subplots about what it means to be authentically who you are weave together without feeling like they were constructed to do so. The characters of Cray and Nichos are well-drawn and their dilemma creates both existential and romantic angst. The vanished Jedi children, visible as "ghosts" to Leia, in their happiness and freedom, contrast with the terrible, pitiable " creatures" in the tunnels. Luke's "mission impossible" aboard the asteroid spaceship, and the humor and horror of the mind-altered aliens aboard, is exciting and memorable. The characterization of classic Star Wars alien races like Jawas, Sand People, and Gamorreans is very good. Overall, the dreamy and often depressing style which put so many other reviewers off is remarkably effective and does not make the book any less Star Wars-like.
    For me, one of the big flaws of the Expanded Universe has been that many of the adventures seem like mere trivial episodes which don't have lasting implications, don't show us anything new about the characters, aren't truly thought-provoking, and just don't need to have happened. Children of the Jedi feels like a series of really significant events in the lives of the characters. I feel I know more about even C3PO and R2D2.
    I'll close this review with a debate topic for Star Wars novel fans. Was it a good idea to link all the novels into one universe, so that each author was required to take into account the events of all the other books? While it's nice to have a continuity to follow and see new characters like Mara Jade pop up, it also seems to hamstring the authors, limiting what their imaginations can show us. No big changes can occur because the drawing board has to be left open for other writers. What if, instead, there had been no imposed continuity? Then each author would be beholden only to the movies, and could do whatever they wanted without fear of contradicting other authors or changing the universe to much for future authors. The the readers would truly not know what to expect- Luke could die, Vader could turn out to be alive, Earth could be discovered, and so on. Then when the book ended those ideas wouldn't ruin future novels.
    Perhaps even if the large continuity was maintained, there could have been "imaginary" stories, the way the old DC comics used to do - stories where Superman and Lois got married or Batman died, that were outside the continuity.
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  • Kindle Customer Robin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
    Reviewed in the United States on 3 September 2024
    Verified Purchase
    I really liked the premise of this story. It had humor, romance, and plenty of action. I would love to have an update about deprogramming the Affytechons. Those scenes are some of my favorite. I would recommend this story to any reader who enjoys Star Wars fiction.
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  • Jeff F
    4.0 out of 5 stars Solid and fast-paced read that genuinely feels like Star Wars.
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 November 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Many of the Expanded Universe novels reused the same story tropes, quickly transforming them into cliches. In Children of the Jedi, author Barbara Hambly thankfully avoids using a kidnapping of Han and Leia's children as the central plot (Luke actually forbids their tagging along on the adventure). Although Hambly does use forgotten Imperial agents as the central villains, there is at least an attempt on her part to turn the villains into fully realized characters. As for the Star Wars staple of deadly superweapons, Hambly does utilize that well-worn plotline; however, the automated battleship Eye of Palpatine, staffed by all manner of bizarre alien creatures and controlled by a malevolent A.I. called the Will, provides a unique take on the superweapon trope, and I found myself genuinely enjoying the adventures of Luke and his Jedi students Cray and Nichos (both of whom could have used greater characterization, especially considering their actions at the novel's conclusion) in attempting to stop the ship from completing its mission. Also introduced in Children of the Jedi is Callista, a Jedi from the era of the Old Republic who has survived as a ghost aboard the ship and is Luke's love interest; Callista is another intriguing character whose potential is perhaps not fully realized in this novel. However, the author does show a gift for depicting the characters we all love from the movies; there's plenty of soul-searching and ruminations on the past from both Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and while Hambly's Han Solo is a bit weakly characterized, she is also able to make C-3PO vital to the plot. Despite the use of too much technobabble in the early chapters of the novel, I found Children of the Jedi to be a fast-paced and entertaining read, and a much better Star Wars "love story" than The Courtship of Princess Leia. It's not The Thrawn Trilogy, and Hambly is second to Timothy Zahn when it comes to getting inside these characters' heads, but it is light years ahead of most of the other Expanded Universe novels.
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  • Mark
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not as bad as everyone says, but not great either.
    Reviewed in the United States on 16 October 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I don't think that this book is horrible. I think that it is fairly comparable to one of Zahn's books, which I also only think are okay, neglecting the romance with Callista.

    I think that Hambly has a good grasp of the characters. She writes Han well, her Luke is the Luke that has defeated Thrawn, fallen to the Dark Side and defeated the resurrected emperor, and established the Jedi Academy on Yavin, having watched Gantoris die under his watch and Kyp murder billions with the Sun Crusher. As such, Luke is a brooding and experienced character.

    He is rendered incapable much of the book due to an injury. This is a very Zahn-like trope, for in Heir to the Empire Luke is also rendered incapable due to the ysalamiri. As such, his effectiveness is greatly diminished as a Jedi. Provided that I want to see Luke blazing in glory as a mighty hero, I am sort of annoyed that he is so frequently put into narrative circumstances where he is a weak character. I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence or because the writers are hesitant to develop him as a Jedi as jarringly as Veitch did in Dark Empire, but it's not something I particularly appreciate.

    Hambly's Leia is a character strong and confident in the force. She is able to physically separate from her body through the Force, just like Luke in the Jedi Academy trilogy. She is also able to use the force kinetically, drawing towards her a blaster with the Force.

    Unrealistically, she is the Chief of State of the New Republic traveling without ANY state-supplied bodyguards. For being such an important galactic figure, this strains credulity. Think about the movement of kings in the Middle Ages or how the president travels on Air Force One surrounded at all times by highly trained operatives. I know that Leia is allowed to be free of these things wholly owing to narrative caprice, but I would like to see her in more of an overt political leadership role rather than continuing as a "rebel princess" as she functions as here.

    It is nice that Hambly includes Mara and further develops the Emperor's Hand(s) concept, but it is unfortunate that she forgets how Thrawn taunted Mara Jade by alluding to the fact that are likely other Emperor's Hands. That Hambley didn't make this connection is unfortunate.

    Finally, Luke's romance with Callista. This happens rather suddenly, but I do think it is consistent with Luke's character development. Up to this point he has gone through a lot of darkness, stress, and strain, and it seems plausible that he would be particularly receptive to romantic companionship, especially from another Jedi. I think the writing of the romance could have been done a little better, but I'm genuinely happy for Luke at this point, ignoring the romantic developments that occur further down the road.

    Stylistically, I think that Hambly focuses too much on flowery description while ignoring geometrical, cardinal, and placement descriptions. Compare to Stackpole, who, if you really take the time to build his descriptions in your mind, you can really picture where everything is in relation to everything else, what the building looks like, what's in the room, what spacecraft look like, how far things are apart from everything else, etc. I appreciate this. Hambly on the other hand is describing a world as foreign and exotic as Morrowind and uses descriptive adjectives that are just puzzling enough to prevent me from cinematically seeing what she's trying to show me. I had to rely on Wookiepedia to try and picture some of the strange creatures she describes (like Affytechans). I don't appreciate that she almost intends to make it frustrating for the reader to really see the scenes she is describing. I really struggled to visualize the scene with the flower-bed gondolas with vines and catwalks, as well as the scene with Luke ascending a shaft with a trackball with some balloon-sled trailing him with trackers overhead shooting at him while he deflected the bolts with some handheld mirror -- it's just too many strange variables that aren't well-enough described to allow me to picture it all cinematically.

    I'd categorize this as an average book. I don't hate it, as others do, but I feel that Hambly's style of writing isn't comparable to the cinematic clarity of Stackpole's.
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  • Cam T.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Children of the Jedi - A Hard-To-See Gem
    Reviewed in the United States on 14 July 2007
    Verified Purchase
    When I first picked up a copy of the book, one thing that struck me was the excessive DETAILS contained within its pages. While it's nice to know some of what's considered normal in the Star Wars galaxy, there's such a thing as Too Much Information, which is, IMHO, Ms. Hambly's failing as an author.

    On the other hand, the plot, while not a fast-paced action-packed story that most Star Wars fans have come to expect, still contains a lot of 'history', including the never-launched "Eye of Palpatine" dreadnought, the Jedi Knight Callista who gave her life to stop it, and Luke's second (or 3rd, if you count Jem Ysanna in "Dark Empire II") love interest, while Leia and Han investigate Imperial dealings on a planet where a former concubine of the Emperor and her (and the Emperor's?) son Irek (Cool name!) are plotting a coup with the leading Houses of the Senex Sector. It's kind of a refreshing change from endless confrontations with the Empire.

    The main problem is that Ms. Hambly, while gifted with loquacity for detail, did not develop quite enough of a storyline to justify the full-length novel, which she seems to compensate for with the extensive detail, which made following the book rather difficult for me.

    When I got this cassette set, and listened to it, a lot of things in the story finally began to coalesce for me, and the plot flowed much more smoothly. I also enjoyed the performance by Anthony Heald, who I've been a fan of since I first saw him on (was it "Silence of the Lambs", Law & Order, Boston Public, or the X-Files?). Sound effects, music, and audio effects such as echoing voices in the caves, help make this story a good adventure, which not enough people seem to think was a good one.

    I am not one of those people. Are you? Decide for yourself!
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