Tuesday, March 23, 2010
A Caveat:
I do in fact plan to post my thoughts on some things that are not Star Wars here, just because there is only so much one can say about a fictional place. My next post will be Star Wars-related though; there is a character I want to talk about.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Review:The Darth Bane Trilogy
The first chunk of our centuries-years-long intergalactic saga is the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn. Set about a thousand years before the movies and about two-thousand years after the popular video game Knights of the Old Republic (much of which was also written by Mister Karpyshyn), the three books chronicle the life of Dessel, also known as Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith.
As book one, Path of Destruction opens, Dessel is in his late teens and working as an indentured laborer in a mine. You would think with all their technology, the Republic could automate their industry a little rather than rely on what basically amounts to slave labor (seriously, they have "protocol droids" and "battle droids" but no mining droids?) but whatever.
Within the first ten pages, Dessel has already bitten off some guy's thumb, indicating three things:
1. that this series is much darker than your usual Star Wars fare,
2. that Dessel does not let anyone push him around, and
3. that this is going to be awesome.
Then it happens....pazaak.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, pazaak first appeared as a tedious minigame you have to play in Knights of the Old Republic. It's a lot like blackjack except not as good and...uh....in space...?
This chapter is as tedious as the game itself was in KotOR, and you are forgiven if you just sort of skim over it. Anyway, through a weird sequence of events, the game ends up resulting in Dessel heading off to join the Sith army as a foot soldier to fight against the Republic. After a few displays of badassery on the front lines, the Sith notice that Dessel is Force-sensitive and haul him off to train at their academy, where he adopts the name Bane.
I know I've sounded critical so far, but other than the damn pazaak game, Dessel's rise from an enslaved miner to a badass Sith lord is engrossing and just plain awesome. It should be noted that even though this takes place in an academy for Force-users, Path of Destruction is hardly another Young Jedi Knights. This is an academy of Sith, which means both the students and teachers are all evil. There's plenty of interesting characters to be found here, and watching them plot convoluted schemes against each other is just plain entertaining.
Bane quickly becomes the most prodigal student at the academy and a suitable rival to any of the Sith lords. At this point, Bane has the potential to become a dreadful, irredeemable Mary-Sue, but Mister Karpyshyn is a skilled enough writer to keep that from happening: whether tearing down buildings with his mind or killing all his rivals so he can be the one-and-only Dark Lord of the Sith, you always have the feeling that Bane earned it.
That's not to say he or the side-kick he gets in book two are sympathetic characters. Darth Bane is as utterly evil as his name implies, and while the reasons he commits the monstrosities he does are well explained, the reader is never asked to agree with him. Bane kills all innocents and supposed allies who get in his way, and his end goal is nothing short of galactic domination. His apprentice Zannah is just as bad, but as her villainy tends to be more insidious and, well, shocking, so I won't spoil it for you.
This will be the deciding factor for many Star Wars fans on whether to read this series: do you mind that the "hero" is a child-murdering bastard? If having a protagonist whose moral compass is far removed from that of normal folks' bothers you, then you'd best resist the lure of the Dark Side and stay away from this series.
However if you don't mind, then give Darth Bane a shot. Since the books are set in a time period that is pretty much untouched by other Star Wars writers, Mister Karpyshyn was free from many of the continuity and setting constraints that sometimes hold back other expanded universe novels, and here he vividly paints an intriguing new cast of characters and a detailed era of galactic history that has not been much explored.
As book one, Path of Destruction opens, Dessel is in his late teens and working as an indentured laborer in a mine. You would think with all their technology, the Republic could automate their industry a little rather than rely on what basically amounts to slave labor (seriously, they have "protocol droids" and "battle droids" but no mining droids?) but whatever.
Within the first ten pages, Dessel has already bitten off some guy's thumb, indicating three things:
1. that this series is much darker than your usual Star Wars fare,
2. that Dessel does not let anyone push him around, and
3. that this is going to be awesome.
Then it happens....pazaak.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, pazaak first appeared as a tedious minigame you have to play in Knights of the Old Republic. It's a lot like blackjack except not as good and...uh....in space...?
This chapter is as tedious as the game itself was in KotOR, and you are forgiven if you just sort of skim over it. Anyway, through a weird sequence of events, the game ends up resulting in Dessel heading off to join the Sith army as a foot soldier to fight against the Republic. After a few displays of badassery on the front lines, the Sith notice that Dessel is Force-sensitive and haul him off to train at their academy, where he adopts the name Bane.
I know I've sounded critical so far, but other than the damn pazaak game, Dessel's rise from an enslaved miner to a badass Sith lord is engrossing and just plain awesome. It should be noted that even though this takes place in an academy for Force-users, Path of Destruction is hardly another Young Jedi Knights. This is an academy of Sith, which means both the students and teachers are all evil. There's plenty of interesting characters to be found here, and watching them plot convoluted schemes against each other is just plain entertaining.
Bane quickly becomes the most prodigal student at the academy and a suitable rival to any of the Sith lords. At this point, Bane has the potential to become a dreadful, irredeemable Mary-Sue, but Mister Karpyshyn is a skilled enough writer to keep that from happening: whether tearing down buildings with his mind or killing all his rivals so he can be the one-and-only Dark Lord of the Sith, you always have the feeling that Bane earned it.
That's not to say he or the side-kick he gets in book two are sympathetic characters. Darth Bane is as utterly evil as his name implies, and while the reasons he commits the monstrosities he does are well explained, the reader is never asked to agree with him. Bane kills all innocents and supposed allies who get in his way, and his end goal is nothing short of galactic domination. His apprentice Zannah is just as bad, but as her villainy tends to be more insidious and, well, shocking, so I won't spoil it for you.
This will be the deciding factor for many Star Wars fans on whether to read this series: do you mind that the "hero" is a child-murdering bastard? If having a protagonist whose moral compass is far removed from that of normal folks' bothers you, then you'd best resist the lure of the Dark Side and stay away from this series.
However if you don't mind, then give Darth Bane a shot. Since the books are set in a time period that is pretty much untouched by other Star Wars writers, Mister Karpyshyn was free from many of the continuity and setting constraints that sometimes hold back other expanded universe novels, and here he vividly paints an intriguing new cast of characters and a detailed era of galactic history that has not been much explored.
DISMEMBERMENT: Check
BIG NOOOOOOO: Check
A BAD FEELING: Check
The Saga Begins
A long time ago in front of a laptop far, far away....
If you have come this far, odds are good you are a Star Wars fan. Whenever there is a discussion about Star Wars these days, one subject always comes up and swallows up any hope of reasoned conversation, so I will try to put it aside first:
I was born in the 90's, and I enjoyed the prequel trilogy.
....
There, I said it.
In my own defense, hardcore and/or elderly fans, I did see the original trilogy first, on VHS. It was not the, er-hem, "special" editions either: Han shot first and the Ewoks used only acoustic instruments. Like the early-comers, I was already a fan before I saw The Phantom Menace. However, I did not have twenty years to mull over the original trilogy, conclude that it was insurpassable, and then be disappointed at the prequels. The Phantom Menace came out almost immediately after I watched Return of the Jedi for the first time, so it just seemed like a natural continuation. Plus, I was a child and therefore had no taste.
Okay, now that Most Momentous of Issues has been addressed, let me explain the purpose of this blog.
About a year ago, I happened upon a used copy of the PC game Jedi Academy. I played the single-player campaign and found it to be comprised of bullshit and finely-ground meh, but thoroughly enjoyed the multiplayer mode--and I still am.
I got involved with a roleplaying clan whose "campaign" was set two-hundred years after the films. It was fun, but the other members kept making references to things which had occurred in the Expanded Universe during the interim. I was lost.
I decided, then, to read the Star Wars novels. At this point, I was only dimly aware that there was a book franchise based on Star Wars, and I expected to make quick work of this task.
Ugh.
When I looked up a list of all the books online, I felt overwhelmed. Where to start?
I am a patient man, and I expect to finish reading all the books. However, I had no idea what to read first.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the very first Expanded Universe novel, published in 1978 and set a year after the original blockbuster. However, I was unable to find it within my county's library system, and was not yet certain enough that I wanted to read the books to track down a copy I would have to play for.
Internet forums informed me that THRAWN would be a good place to start reading, and low my local library had both books in a two-part series called The Hand of Thrawn.
Of course, those forum-goers were referring to the "Thrawn Trilogy," an entirely different series that just happened to be written by the same author and involved a character named Grand Admiral Thrawn.
I ignorantly dove into The Hand of Thrawn and found myself even more lost than before..
Sigh.
Well, I decided one foolproof way to keep things organized would be to simply read all the books in chronological order in terms of the fictional galaxy's own timeline.
A Star Wars saga told IN ORDER!? Unheard of! But that now is my project. Starting with Darth Bane and ending with Fate of the Jedi (or whatever books may be written after it in the future), I am experiencing the history of the galaxy in the way its inhabitants would: from beginning to end.
I am not going to be reading the comic books, simply because I do not like comic books, nor will I be playing every video game, due to the fact that most video games are very light on plot and of little consequence to the greater Expanded Universe.
As I go through the novels, this galactic travelog will be where I express my thoughts, feelings and opinions about the strange goings on in the galaxy far, far away.
If you have come this far, odds are good you are a Star Wars fan. Whenever there is a discussion about Star Wars these days, one subject always comes up and swallows up any hope of reasoned conversation, so I will try to put it aside first:
I was born in the 90's, and I enjoyed the prequel trilogy.
....
There, I said it.
In my own defense, hardcore and/or elderly fans, I did see the original trilogy first, on VHS. It was not the, er-hem, "special" editions either: Han shot first and the Ewoks used only acoustic instruments. Like the early-comers, I was already a fan before I saw The Phantom Menace. However, I did not have twenty years to mull over the original trilogy, conclude that it was insurpassable, and then be disappointed at the prequels. The Phantom Menace came out almost immediately after I watched Return of the Jedi for the first time, so it just seemed like a natural continuation. Plus, I was a child and therefore had no taste.
Okay, now that Most Momentous of Issues has been addressed, let me explain the purpose of this blog.
About a year ago, I happened upon a used copy of the PC game Jedi Academy. I played the single-player campaign and found it to be comprised of bullshit and finely-ground meh, but thoroughly enjoyed the multiplayer mode--and I still am.
I got involved with a roleplaying clan whose "campaign" was set two-hundred years after the films. It was fun, but the other members kept making references to things which had occurred in the Expanded Universe during the interim. I was lost.
I decided, then, to read the Star Wars novels. At this point, I was only dimly aware that there was a book franchise based on Star Wars, and I expected to make quick work of this task.
Ugh.
When I looked up a list of all the books online, I felt overwhelmed. Where to start?
I am a patient man, and I expect to finish reading all the books. However, I had no idea what to read first.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the very first Expanded Universe novel, published in 1978 and set a year after the original blockbuster. However, I was unable to find it within my county's library system, and was not yet certain enough that I wanted to read the books to track down a copy I would have to play for.
Internet forums informed me that THRAWN would be a good place to start reading, and low my local library had both books in a two-part series called The Hand of Thrawn.
Of course, those forum-goers were referring to the "Thrawn Trilogy," an entirely different series that just happened to be written by the same author and involved a character named Grand Admiral Thrawn.
I ignorantly dove into The Hand of Thrawn and found myself even more lost than before..
Sigh.
Well, I decided one foolproof way to keep things organized would be to simply read all the books in chronological order in terms of the fictional galaxy's own timeline.
A Star Wars saga told IN ORDER!? Unheard of! But that now is my project. Starting with Darth Bane and ending with Fate of the Jedi (or whatever books may be written after it in the future), I am experiencing the history of the galaxy in the way its inhabitants would: from beginning to end.
I am not going to be reading the comic books, simply because I do not like comic books, nor will I be playing every video game, due to the fact that most video games are very light on plot and of little consequence to the greater Expanded Universe.
As I go through the novels, this galactic travelog will be where I express my thoughts, feelings and opinions about the strange goings on in the galaxy far, far away.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)