You know, I remember when I first heard of the the Jedi Academy Trilogy...I couldn't have been more than 11 years old, and my friend had read all three. He described the book to me, particularly the Sun Crusher, and Exar Kun/Luke's disembodiment. I remember thinking the ideas were rather stupid. I still think they are pretty dumb, but I've learned to enjoy the EU better, as I've said many times on her before, by reading the books somewhat in isolation instead of part of a large continuity. I didn't like a dinky little ship being more powerful than the Death Star before, but when I finally read the trilogy mere months ago, I didn't mind it as much because I sort of let go of the idea that this had to exist in my personal Star Wars universe. I just let it be, and decided that I could like the Sun Crusher as its own plot device.
Since I'd rather discuss the Thrawn Trilogy, but never gave much of an opinion on the Jedi Academy trilogy before, I will mention my likes and dislikes, and hopefully I can steer back towards the previous conversation.
Things I liked:
The concept of Luke re-establishing the Jedi Order with an Academy
The general idea of Exar Kun, though I feel he was poorly executed
The corruption of a student, though again the execution wasn't fantastic, and his repentance was pretty lame...but I'll save this for the second part of this list
A rogue admiral with her fleet
Kessell
Kinda liked the Death Star prototype, though another Death Star is cliched
Grew to like the Sun Crusher
Things I did not like:
The Blobstacle Course--absolutely worst idea
Admiral Daala's ongoing charisma in spite of her repeated failure
Exar Kun's defeat
Another fallen Jedi who, in spite of repeated warning that "once you start down the dark path..." manages to return to the light, as well as the self-inflicted tragedy surrounding this character
The Maw administrative staff and the ridiculous 'humor' surrounding their escapades
The nature of glitterstim spice
The description of Sabaac, which I used to think was a game that required some level of skill
But for the Thrawn Trilogy, there was little I did not like. I don't want to make the same list as above because I think aspects of the story are harder to tease apart anyway. I love Thrawn (my very first online handle was thrawn_da_man, even before my previous handle that I've shared with some of you). Some take issue with his leaps in judgment, but I find it well explained and deliberately somewhat beyond our understanding (you have to understand art!). Heck, he even makes mistakes, and his confidence in his ability to outguess his opponents serves as a weakness. I used to think C'baoth was boring when I was younger, but this most recent reading was fascinating, as his menace was not his power and intelligence, but his power and instability. I really enjoyed the character development of the protagonists, really liked the Noghri and their culture, and thought highly of the more neutral characters, such as Talon Karrde. I thought the ysalamiri were fascinating, as were the vornskrs. I guess the main thing I did not like was the slow pacing at times and the New Republic's too frequent success (I would have liked to have seen them closer to the edge of defeat). This trilogy should be made into some sort of screen version, even if its a TV miniseries with other actors filling in the roles. I really love this trilogy.