Jedi Prince

Jedi Prince is the informal name given to series of Star Wars young reader novels that "take up where Return of the Jedi left off." The title "Jedi Prince" refers to Ken, the twelve-year-old hero of the series who teams up with Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance to fight the Empire.

The Empire, led by Grand Moff Hissa and Supreme Prophet Kadann, attempt to install Trioculus as Emperor, claiming that he's Palpatine's son. Palpatine's real son, according to the series, is a madman named Triclops. It is for this reason that the series is also sometimes called the The Trioculus Saga or the Son of Palpatine series. Both Trioculus and Triclops are mutants who have three eyes.

The books were written by a married couple, Paul and Hollace Davids, and illustrated by Karl Kesel.

Books in the Series

 * The Glove of Darth Vader
 * The Lost City of the Jedi
 * Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
 * Mission from Mount Yoda
 * Queen of the Empire
 * Prophets of the Dark Side

Characters

 * C-3PO
 * Kadann, Supreme Prophet
 * Ken
 * Hissa, Grand Moff Bertroff
 * Organa, Leia
 * R2-D2
 * Skywalker, Luke
 * Solo, Han
 * Triclops
 * Trioculus
 * Zorba the Hutt

The reaction of fans to the series
The series is generally not popular with fans of the movies, who consider them to be silly. Fans have accused the series of being preachily politically correct, with every book having a "save the environment" theme. Fans also believe the film characters don't appear very often and, when they do, act out of character. The books are also of arguably low literary quality with largely sophomoric dialogue:"'And stop kshhhing in my ear,' Ken added. 'You do that every morning, too. Just once I wish I could hear the bark of a dog, or the meow of cat, instead of the kshhhhh of a mooka.'"

In response to the negative critique, Paul Davids points to the popularity of the series among student readers and their sales of millions worldwide.

Jedi Prince and the rest of the Expanded Universe
Despite the unpopularity of the series, its places, situations, and technology are frequently referenced in other Expanded Universe sources, though its characters themselves seldom appear.

The series has been retconned in many ways. For example, according to Paul Davids, the series takes place over the course of five years, but the the Star Wars timeline lists all the events as taking place within the same year and as being generally of little importance. Another retcon is that Kadann and the others were trying to steal power away from Ysanne Isard. Isard is never mentioned in the series--in fact, it's frequently implied there is no Imperial leader other than Trioculus--but this retcon was created to fit the series into the established timeline.