Dynasty of Evil


Book Data
Type	Novel
Series	Darth Bane Trilogy
Era	Old Republic
	1000 BBY
Publishing Data
Author(s)	Drew Karpyshyn
Del Rey	08-Dec-09
Arrow	30-Sep-10

Synopsis

Darth Bane is beginning to suffer the effects of drawing heavily on the dark side of the Force for so many years. At the same time, he's beginning to doubt his apprentice, Zannah, because she hasn't yet tried to kill him and take his power. Is she weak? Unworthy of being his apprentice? When he learns of an ancient Sith artifact that might hold the secret to immortal life, he heads out in search of it alone. But Zannah is anything but weak, and now that she has glimpsed his worries, she knows that the time is ripe to take him on. The Forces of evil will clash in spectacular battle, with the future of the Sith hanging in the balance!

Lord Depravus Says

Only two there are... but how could they know? - 26-Oct-10

OK so the first book dealt with the destruction of the Sith making the Jedi believe they were extinct. The second book dealt with the creation of the Rule of Two, the Jedi discovering a Sith Lord still existed and ultimately being deceived into thinking they had killed off the last one.

This book simply dealt with the Sith finding a new apprentice while the Jedi still believed they were extinct. So based on that, how the hell could Yoda be so convinced in The Phantom Menace that “only two there are. A master and an apprentice” when there could be no way of the Jedi ever knowing about this Rule of Two malarkey? Forgive me for sounding like a nerdy fanboy but this quite obvious plot hole meant I couldn’t enjoy this book anywhere near as much as I should have.

Anyway, the story basically revolves around the search for a new apprentice and it is made obvious right from the start that there are 3 possible candidates. This makes the book more fun because the reader is left guessing which one will finally get the job. There are some really good subtle hints that will lead the reader to think it could be any one of them and I was surprised at the end. However, the subtlety was slightly over done in the climax of the book and it may not be clear to all readers who actually won the final battle.

Fundamentally it was a very good read. It was well paced and the fight sequences were very well written. Although I personally thought some of the Force abilities were a bit far fetched and more like something out of Harry Potter than Star Wars, it had enough excitement and suspense to keep me wanting to know what happened next.

So I would really like to give it 5 stars because it really was a good read. Sadly I am pedantic and the obvious oversight I mentioned at the beginning of this review is as silly as the concept of Greedo shooting first…