First, I'm glad it is over. Second, the last book was probably the best of the six. Third, was reading this series as part of my goal to read all Legends books, worth it? Ummmm probably not, but at least I got to see the Ark of the Covenant Easter Egg illustration, which I guess made it worth it! Good for chuckles anyway!

This is getting two stars only because it was marginally less ridiculous than the last couple books.

Star Wars Legends Project #320

Background: Prophets of the Dark Side was written by [a:Paul Davids|20276453|Paul Davids|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and [a:Hollace Davids|30365|Hollace Davids|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and published in April 1993. It is the sixth and final book in the Jedi Prince series. The Davids are responsible for the whole series.

Prophets of the Dark Side picks up immediately after Queen of the Empire (my review), a year after the Battle of Endor (5 years after the battle of Yavin). The main characters are Ken the Jedi Prince, Luke, Leia, Han, Artoo, Threepio, and Chewie, plus Triclops, the evil Kadann, et al. The story takes place mostly on Yavin IV.

Summary: Kadann's final dark prophecy is about to come to fruition as he closes in on the location of the Lost City of the Jedi, which will give him ultimate power in his bid to control the galaxy. Meanwhile, the Alliance struggles with whether they can trust Triclops, and how to deal with his unintentional transmissions of their greatest secrets.

Review: This isn't a review so much as a post-mortem. In keeping with the theme of taking the same amount of time to write these stories as it takes to read them, it really seems like the last half of this series was done with no plan beyond the next page. After freezing the series' main villain in carbonite at the end of book 3, and seemingly destroying him in book 4, they brought him back at the end of book 5, only to kill him off immediately at the beginning of this book. So we're stuck with the rhyming villain to bring things to a final conclusion, and it feels perfunctory at best.

There's something poetic (and I'm going into spoiler territory here, though I can't imagine why anyone would care in this case) about the reveal that Ken, the Jedi Prince, is the grandson of Emperor Palpatine. It's oddly appropriate that when JJ Abrams was making the worst Star Wars movie of all time, he stole his main plot point from the worst Star Wars books of all time. Incidentally, we finally have an answer as to why Ken is specifically a Jedi Prince! See, it's because his mother was a Jedi Princess . . . I didn't think it was still possible for the Davids to disappoint and fall short of expectations, but damned if they didn't do it one last time here at the end. Incredible.

And the absolute audacity of these people to write a wedding scene for Han and Leia here! As if! In what universe would these two clowns be entrusted with filling in that major event in the timeline?! I'm trying to think of what I hope the consequences were for anyone and everyone involved in this project seeing the light of day, but it's an injustice of too great a magnitude. Some wrongs are too great to ever be made right.

But it's over. Thank the Force.

F

This series is full of narrative gems like, "His face wore a bitter scowl, the look of a soldier who had long served the Empire and now felt betrayed by the new Imperial leader" to describe a soldier who who already know had long served the Empire and now felt betrayed by the new Imperial leader.

This is not the worst of the series, but it is the last and I am thankful for that. The end seems to set up potential for a follow-up series; I don't know if it exists or not but I have no interest in reading it. As for this last entry... well, Luke, if you will take a child on a mission you deserve what you get when they act like a child, don't listen, and fuck everything up, leaving you hostage, without your lightsaber, and covered in spider web. You have no-one but yourself to blame.

Sadly, that's not the worst of it. Irritating as the above is, you can sort of excuse it as this series is meant for kids so the child character is going to be front and centre, even if it means to get him there every adult loses every bit of common sense they ever had. No, what's worst is the parentage reveal. It was hinted at pretty heavily in book five, and I had hoped to be wrong because what's the point of writing the same damn story over again? Alas, I was not wrong. If you imagine the laziest, most unoriginal, repetitive ancestral reveal you could possibly have for young Prince Ken you would be right, and then you would rethink your life and reading choices, as I am currently doing.