Book Review: Lords of the Sith

Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Darth Vader? Scary awesome when he was younger.

I need more Star Wars fiction like this that features Vader in his prime: piloting the heck out of his starfighter, using the Force to do crazy things without thought of failure, plowing through enemies with his lightsaber; you know, still doing the things Anakin Skywalker was doing during the Clone Wars, but blatantly evil.

I really enjoyed the introspection Vader had in his quiet moments, the seeming omniscience Palpatine showed of Vader's thoughts, and Vader's responses to his master questioning and testing him. There need to be more Vader/Palpatine stories!

Also? Palpatine unleashed! He and Vader become stranded together on a planet, and as they make their way to civilization they encounter wildlife and terrorists (freedom fighters) that are trying to kill them. Since they're pretty much alone, Sheev can use the Force without witnesses. I'm just glad it wasn't Jedi facing them when he and Vader both ignited their lightsabers. The lords of the Sith tore through the jungles and caves (and citizens) of Ryloth with a controlled fury.

Darth Sidious expertly manipulated the fledgling rebellion on Ryloth to his own ends, as always. And the sad Imperial presence there suffered as well under an inattentive Moff and a traitorous second-in-command. I really didn't care much about the Imperial characters beyond the Darths, though they served their parts well in the story. There are rumors Moff Mors may be a recurring character. If so, she had better stop being lazy and start serving her Emperor!

It would have been nice to get to meet a young Hera, the daughter of the leader of the rebels on Ryloth. She's mentioned briefly, but we know she becomes the leader of a rebel cell years later in the Star Wars cartoon Rebels.

Many characters die within these pages, and the Emperor achieves his goal; but an ember still remains for the rebellion.

Great space combat, awesome Vader scenes, and the Emperor being cunning. What's not to love?



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I received my review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Star Wars: Tarkin

Tarkin by James Luceno
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tarkin is the second novel in the new Star Wars unified canon. The novel tells a story featuring Wilhuff Tarkin, shortly before he's promoted from Moff to Grand Moff. It also tells a coming-of-age story for a younger Tarkin back on his home planet, depicting the events that shapes him into the man we know from the film and the cartoons.

There were two casts of characters set during the main story: Tarkin, Vader, and the Imperials; and a group of rebels that steal Tarkin's personal ship and set about attacking Imperial installations. I would have liked to have spent more time getting to know the rebels, and maybe see them turn up in previous or later stories (we might, I don't know). Vader's characterization... interests me. More on the that after I tell what I thought of the book. One little tidbit I found interesting that Luceno tells us in the narrative: Tarkin suspects and all but knows outright that Darth Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker.

I was excited to read Tarkin. The promotional material said Luceno was giving Tarkin the "Plagueis" treatment - the book he wrote about Palpatine's rise to power. I found Plagueis a fascinating read. Tarkin kept me entertained. It was enjoyable, but for the new canon books, New Dawn was better. I found myself wishing to spend more time with the rebels on Tarkin's ship, and with the Emperor on Coruscant (I wish he'd get rid of Mas Ameeda though, that overgrown horned smurf is just a Bib Fortuna wannna-be).

If you're a fan of the original Star Wars movie (Episode IV: A New Hope), Tarkin gives some insight and backstory into one of the main villains. If you're a Star Wars fan in-general, you will pick up Tarkin and happily devour it. It's a good Star Wars book and, so far, the first two novels in the new Star Wars canon are much better than the much of the later Legends novels.


Now, back to Darth Vader's portrayal within the pages of Tarkin. I think Vader must be a difficult persona to put into prose in-general, not just in this book; he's had several different portrayals on-screen that all must agree. There was the Vader in the original Star Wars that was practically screaming at his troopers to tear Leia's ship apart to find the plans, and almost demurred to Tarkin (which is a topic that kind of comes up in this book); there's the Vader from Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi which was quiet, foreboding, and almost terrifying, and an old man that seemed barely able to fight; then there was Anakin from the prequels, a whiny, bratty, Jedi with an overpowerful sense of entitlement and attachment; and finally there was Anakin from the Clone Wars cartoon, a hero, sometimes quiet sometimes bratty, powerful in the Force with an underlying tension, emotional and caring; and finally Darth Vader from Episode III, which was just Anakin from the previous movie turned completely to the Dark Side. How can an author successfully write a character that combines that combines all those differing characterizations. What we see on screen is just a few minutes out of a day, a few days out of a lifetime, for that character. From little Annie's "Yippee!" to Old Vader rasping "tell your sister you were right," we've seen the highlights of Vader's life, with many missing segments.

I can't put my finger on it, but Vader's portrayal felt slightly off. I'm not sure what I expected though. Maybe it's because we don't know him yet in this time period. We don't know how he's handled adapting to his new life, his new master, his new job description, his lack of friends and family. We haven't yet had a book about his new life in this era. The more I think about it, the more I see that maybe his characterization was a combination of all those influences I mentioned above. He was often quiet and foreboding, then explosively angry, at one point genuinely curious (I would love to see that scene on screen!). Darth Vader must be a complex character to pin down and write.

Star Wars: Tarkin is due to be published November 4, 2014. I received an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley for review.



I think I wrote more about Vader than I did about the book itself...



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Book Review: Star Wars A New Dawn

A New Dawn: Star Wars by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A refreshing change from previous Star Wars novels, Star Wars: A New Dawn has launched the new Star Wars universe that will include the new novels, the new and existing movies, the new cartoons and The Clone Wars cartoon, some new fiction from Star Wars insider, new comics, and anything else coming out henceforth. It essentially excommunicates almost all previous fiction to the realm of Legend.

A New Dawn does not rely on the bloated universe that existed in all that legendary material before, and while the author had written in that sandbox, this new novel - this new world is fresher. It's still Star Wars. It still expects you, as a fan, to know know what certain races, ships, weapons, and armor look like, it doesn't bother to describe them in much or any detail. The story itself is clearly meant as a setup for the new Rebels cartoon coming out in October 2015 and serves to introduce two of the main characters to each other before the show starts. It's a standalone story though, no need to have any knowledge, or interest, of the Rebels show.

The two main characters are a former Jedi student now grown into adulthood and hiding in the bottle between shifts at a mining operation, and a Twilek pilot looking for civil unrest she can potentially exploit at some point in the future to undermine the Empire. A strong cast of secondary characters also have interesting stories that all intertwine with the main cast and each other. Really, it's more of an ensemble cast that shares the spotlight than focusing mostly on the two mains, though the Jedi Kanan is pretty much the primary character.

If you're a Star Wars fan: read this and get ready for Rebels. If you're looking to jump in to the world of Star Wars novels, this is a good place to start - though I'd suggest you'd have at least seen Star Wars Episode III to share a frame of reference with Kanan's character.


Disclosure: I received an eARC of this novel for review from the publisher through Netgalley.


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Book Review: RIFTS-Sonic Boom

I've been wanting to read this trilogy since I first heard about it back in, what? `99?
But no local booksellers carried it, and I procrastinated actually ordering it. Ever.

I finally convinced my local library to order it.

The first book, RIFTS: Sonic Boom, came in just a few days after I suggested it. The other two are still on order.

This book is set in the world of RIFTS, a Palladium Books Role Playing Game. The story is pretty good. Interestingly, what I would consider the "bad guys" of the RPG are the main protagonists here. Showing that, even though the "Coalition" as a whole is the "bad guy", there are still people within that are perfectly normal and just trying to make a living in the world into which they were born.

As I said, the story is pretty good. Lot's of mecha combat, some magic combat, lots more mecha combat. Plus plenty of character interaction and back-story on some of the characters to make us care about them and make them more than just cardboard cutout military grunts.
However, the editing of the book is horrific. It's been said that Palladium Books suffers in-general from poor editing, but this is just plain bad.

In addition to misspelled words, there are entire words missing - maybe entire phrases. Words are capitalized that shouldn't be (someone was using a search and replace function and wasn't paying attention). Sometimes a paragraph will start with a space, a comma, and then the rest of the sentence. Characters names are left out sometimes where it's obvious they were supposed to be placed (almost as if the author wrote the book, leaving blank spaces for characters he had yet to name and intended to go back and edit them in, but missed some places), and the same thing sometimes happens with items also: "Dave used the to dig a trench" (to make up an example).

Scene transitions and character points-of-view transitions are frequently executed poorly within larger scenes, making it difficult to follow the action sometimes. In fact, in a few places it seems as if a paragraph or two of action was left completely out. I expect a few minor editing mistakes in any novel I read, but this is a poor presentation for a good product.

These books were not, I believe, released in main-stream booksellers, but were limited to specialty shops (hobby/RPG stores, maybe comic shops), and direct order from the company. I think the author assumes the reader is familiar with the mecha, weapons, devices, locations, and general world-setting of the RIFTS megaverse. The author does not spend much time describing many of these things, just calling them by name (NG-V10, UAR-1, X-1000, SkyKing). Sometimes the basic description doesn't even come until after the thing has been mentioned several times.

This isn't a bad thing if you're familiar with the setting, but someone picking this book up because it has cool cover-art (it really doesn't) might be at a loss. And the cover-art; it depicts a Coalition trooper (what most of the main characters are) wearing battle armor, backed against a wall, large rifle in each hand, one discharging. The art is quite cartoony, and seems slightly out of proportion, almost squished.

If you can make it past those (huge) shortfalls, the story more than makes up for them.

Oh... I wanted to mention my favorite character: "Kro Mar" the young dragon. This guy so wants to be a big bad, or even just a competent dragon with a hoard of cool things in his lair. But he always gets in way way over his head, or just make silly mistakes. It's quite entertaining. His plot-line is left for the sequel to wrap up. I hope it does so in a satisfying way.

Note: This review was originally posted on my personal blog.