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
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