Lords Of The Sith Review: All Quiet on the Ryloth Front.

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Pomojema here with another advance review of a Star Wars novel. This time we’re looking at Lords Of The Sith, written by Paul S. Kemp (best known for his work on several Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms novels). Make the jump to see how the Vader/Sidious-led novel turned out in this spoiler-free review.

 

Lords Of The Sith concerns itself with the story of a daring plan of the Free Ryloth movement led by The Clone Wars character Cham Syndulla (father to Hera from Rebels) to carry out an assassination attempts against Emperor Sheev Palpatine, Darth Vader, Senator Orn Free Taa, and (unwittingly) Moff Delian Mors in the hopes that it will encourage rebellion in other systems. The first stage of the plan – to trap all of the Imperials on the planet – is a resounding success, but matters complicate as time goes on… And not only will the freedom-fighters have to face Darth Vader in combat, but also his master, who has deemed the situation dire enough to take action himself.

 

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I will say that, in spite of what the title suggests, the narrative of Lords Of The Sith is actually evenly split between the narrative of Darth Vader (alongside Emperor Sheev Palpatine and other Imperials) and the Free Ryloth Movement. This disappointed me a little in the sense that I was hoping that Kemp would take the opportunity to discuss the past of the Sith more (Darth Bane and Darth Plagueis have hardly been established in spite of both characters being canon) and how their teachings were passed on. Instead, it focuses on the Emperor Palpatine/Darth Vader dynamic, and to that effect it succeeds as an interesting master-and-apprentice story. Both characters have a degree of distrust for one another, yet both know that neither are in a position to betray the other – all while maintaining the façade of a friendship.

 

It also works well as a way of bridging the Anakin we knew from The Clone Wars and Revenge Of The Sith to the Darth Vader we’ve come to love (to hate) in the Original Trilogy. Darth Vader has buried his past on Mustafar, but memories of it are occasionally triggered throughout the novel. He remembers the person that he was, and ultimately decides to regard his past actions and heroics with utter contempt. He has long since passed the point of grieving over his pain – any sorrow he had felt in the past has slowly built up into a hateful rage that is embodied in his role as a Sith Lord.

 

The way the story expanded on Cham’s character was well-done. The character only appeared twice in The Clone Wars as a revolutionary that was initially reluctant to help the Republic, and he lives in a world where his worst fears have been realized. He is quickly established as a clever tactician and manipulator, and an individual who is capable enough to put the Empire in danger in spite of limited resources. While I wasn’t as invested with the other Twi’lek characters as much, they were all still interesting to read about, given that their perspective provides a look into what the oppressive state of the Empire has done to common individuals.

 

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The book’s action is definitely a highlight. The book opens up with a scene of Darth Vader leading a bombing run on a Twi’lek ship in orbit, destroying all of the ship’s guns, using his own TIE fighter as a guided missile to create an entrance, jumping out of his ship in the nick of time, and guiding himself with the Force to enter the ship and slaughter the crew within. (Side note: What else could you ask for in a Star Wars story?) While the rest of the fight scenes aren’t quite as thrilling to read as that particular passage (admittedly a tough act to follow), the escalating nature of the conflict makes the story a page-turner – even keeping the forgone conclusion in mind.

 

Lords Of The Sith is has a lot of build-up in the first third of its text, but once you get past it, you’re in for an action-packed story about the Star Wars equivalent of Operation Valkyrie, and one of the first insurrections against the Galactic Empire. The second half of the book is a blast to read as the chaos of the story comes to a head in an explosive series of battles. Overall, it’s an interesting look at how the Empire works in the worst possible situation – and an interesting look at how effective a Rebellion may be in the face of insurmountable odds.

 

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the text. Lords Of The Sith will be released on April 28.

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

26 thoughts on “Lords Of The Sith Review: All Quiet on the Ryloth Front.

  • April 15, 2015 at 3:00 am
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    Who wrote it, Kemp or Hearne?

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:31 am
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      Kemp.

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:54 am
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      Kemp. Sorry about that, I made a little mistake.

  • April 15, 2015 at 3:27 am
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    Look at dat kerning. Done by a sith, no doubt.

    • April 15, 2015 at 4:05 am
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      RIGHT? so bad. so.. so bad.

      • April 15, 2015 at 5:58 am
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        It should be fixed now.

  • April 15, 2015 at 3:59 am
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    “against Emperor Sheev Palpatine” Do they call him that in he book? Could mean DP novel will be made cannon.

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:56 am
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      No, they don’t call him that in this book, but “Sheev” is canonically his first name.

      Also, the Darth Plagueis novel never called him Sheev. The Tarkin novel did. (Both written by the same guy, but only the latter is officially Canon – though the Canon novel has an allusion to the Legends novel.)

      • April 15, 2015 at 11:15 am
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        allusion or reference?
        not a ‘picky’ question – genuinely asking

      • April 15, 2015 at 4:09 pm
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        Sorry to be a bit off topic, but I really hope the plagueis novel becomes canon, somehow. It was actually the first Star Wars novel I read, and I was rather impressed. Given that the existence of plagueis is canon (from ROTS) we need his backstory to also be canon. Also, if rumours are to be believed, Ep 7 will involve Plagueis.

        • April 15, 2015 at 5:48 pm
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          Yeah, I think Plagueis is canon- THAT’S WHY THEY’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT HIM…. —mystery box —

          • April 16, 2015 at 2:09 pm
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            I hope it’s the mystery box. I thought he was a pretty cool character in the novel, and palpatine’s background was also really well explained. If plagueis is in TFA, I wonder if they’ll keep him as a Muun? If not, then I guess they’ll have to retcon or rewrite the novel before making it canon. We shall see!

      • April 16, 2015 at 2:12 pm
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        Pomojema, could you tell me if there is anything vital in the Tarkin novel that you think will link to TFA?

  • April 15, 2015 at 6:17 am
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    Actually Trakin was writtern by J. Lucerno. Mr Kemp has written Crosscurrent, Riptide and the Old Republic’s Deceived in the Star Wars universe.

    • April 15, 2015 at 6:27 am
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      That’s not quite was I was saying, but I get that my wording was a bit odd. I didn’t mean to say that Kemp wrote Luceno’s work.

  • April 15, 2015 at 8:07 am
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    Author: Paul S. Kemp wrote an amazing star wars book The Old Republic: Deceived.Sadly this one sounds more boring with the shitty story group at lucasfilm forcing him to write about Herras fater and a bunch of twi’leks.Universe gets smaller and smaller with each new bad novel

    • April 15, 2015 at 2:58 pm
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      I’m reading Deceived right now. I agree – great book. I had never really read the Old Republic novels before, although I have read all the post-ROTJ novels (excluding material from the New Jedi Order on). But with the new canon coming into play I thought i’d get into the OR since it probably won’t be touched for a while with new material. The more I delve into the lore of the OR, the more I love it. I hope they keep a lot of it intact when the time comes to touch on that era.

  • April 15, 2015 at 9:33 am
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    Sure, you CAN call Palpatine “Sheev.” But… why WOULD you??

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:03 pm
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      I *wouldn’t* you? The name is growing on me.

      – Pomojema

  • April 15, 2015 at 2:38 pm
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    I’m a light-sider usually, but being a blogger I just got this through from Penguin and CANNOT WAIT to get to it!!

  • April 15, 2015 at 2:54 pm
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    “Both characters have a degree of distrust for one another, yet both know that neither are in a position to betray the other – all while maintaining the façade of a friendship.”

    Very eloquently put Pomojema. I am excited for this novel. Can you verify it’s spot in the timeline from your read through? Like how many years after ROTS for ex.?

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:04 pm
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      Eight years after ROTS.

      – Pomojema

      • April 15, 2015 at 8:32 pm
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        Thanks. 🙂

  • April 15, 2015 at 3:42 pm
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    adding to the previous commenter’s question: you say it’s one of the very first insurrections against the empire. You mean that, according to how it seems from reading, that there have been insurrections before or does it seem much more as the first one after revenge of the sith?

    • April 15, 2015 at 5:06 pm
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      They don’t say, but it’s treated as though this is the first one that the Empire is actually worried about.

      – Pomojema

  • April 15, 2015 at 8:05 pm
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    This novel does sound interesting, but I can’t help but lament what could have been: Kemp’s hardcover duology that was teased back in 2011. It was supposedly ultra-secret and “mindblowing”; I highly doubt that this, a tale that we already know the ending to, would have been a part of that project. These new canon novels seem fine, but they’re playing it safe by giving us insight into characters we already know, characters that by necessity cannot be fully realized on page: Vader, Palpatine, Tarkin, Luke, Herra, Kanan. The old “Legends” novels gave us a galaxy’s worth of adventures; these new ones just feel like “tie-ins.” Oh well….guess I’ll get excited for the new trailer tomorrow instead.

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