Books STAR WARS: LORDS OF THE SITH by Paul S. Kemp

Just finished. It was a pretty fun read. I felt way more interested in the Imperial characters than those of the 'Ryloth Rebellion.'

Vader and Palpy's interactions were good and believable.

8/10

 

Got round to finishing this book yesterday - I enjoyed it, Vader/Palpatine's scenes more so than Isval/Cham's. I expected to find more inner conflict within Vader considering this takes place so soon after Revenge of the Sith. There were hints, but it seemed for the most part he was fully invested in the Dark Side.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say he was fully invested in the Dark Side but more along the lines that he was fully invested in serving the Empire and the Emperor.

 

So soon? It's years later.

 

glad you like it, but decent protagonist to speak of that could challenge Vader, and they spent too much time fighting bugs. 7/10 at best for me.

 

But who would this 'decent protagonist that could challenge Vader' possibly be in this timeframe?

I'm guessing that said new character would be offed at the end by Vader in their final fight, or by Sidious, but I can't see it working in the context of the book, which is that, at this point in time, the Empire really is victorious on all fronts. Thus no one is coming to save the galaxy, the galaxy is damned.... And even if anyone does turn up with a magic sword, either Vader or Sidious'll kill em!

 

That's why I said earlier that the author had the deck stacked against him. But he did the best he could probably considering that.

 

I agree with you, but I felt like Cham and Hera's relationship could've been expanded on at least a bit more in the book.

I meant tied up much more vaguely than that. I felt like this was a transitional story for Cham, moving him from TCW to something else. Rebels, hopefully. I want to hear about him again.

 

A few thoughts I had about this:

• The human pilot had been in battle and had been awake for, oh, about 36 hours at the end of the book. He said about 12 hours before that he was tired. Can someone explain to me why he didn't crash his ship from being exhausted?
• I read the same issue someone else mentioned about there being 4 bodies in the shuttle then, lo and behold, there's now 3 bodies. I sort of chalked that up to some predator dragging a body away, but it is a pretty weak unexplained hole.
• It seemed to me that ol' Sheev made an error when he said her pitiful movement had been snuffed out like his proverbial candle. Isval thought it. I could see it. If we're supposed to see Palpatine as all seeing until the end... meh.

Other than those problems, I liked the book. I especially like the discussion of Vader and his internal dialog. I've often wondered why he didn't turn his back on the dark side earlier. This helps explain things well. It reminded me of one of the comics where Vader battled Maul. Maul was saying Vader didn't have hatred of others to fuel himself since he loved others. Vader responded that he had better: hatred of himself.

To those that say that these books aren't big enough, deep enough, I'd say look at them all as part of one much bigger novel. The people putting together TFA are trying to give folks backstory they'll need. That's it. It's the individual stories that help you understand the bigger picture. That bigger picture is leading up to the ultimate picture of TFA. The only reason they're in individual books is because of the time between them and the lack of a real continuity between them... yet. Don't give up on them. Follow the story tellers down the path. You'll get there eventually.

If it helps, consider Pulp Fiction. When I saw that movie the first time, 3/4 of the way through the movie I was still scratching my head... What the heck does this have to do with that?? Then just toward the end, BOOOM!, it all came together in one fantastic movie.

 

I think Kemp made a point that Sheevy is anything but all-seeing. But what he can do very well is to pretend he is.

 

Ventress and Maul are more than enough to pose a challenge to Vader

 

Challenge maybe, beat never

 

Except I've seen Maul vs Vader and it didn't go well for the horned one! Great story though.

 

The short story Oreintation that is a companion to this novel confirms that Palpatine gets surprised like everyone else.

 

Thats what vader is for.Shev must focus on the Larger problems while vader does the "Petty work"But damn Orientation was sad.

 

That's why I included my comments about Vader vs Maul. Yes, it was not a "canon" story, but Vader did beat Maul because all Maul had was hatred of others. Vader had hatred of himself. That's some pretty serious stuff!

 

I'm guessing you missed the part where Maul was taunting him throughout the duel, cut off part of his helmet, had him on his knees, and Vader only won by cheapshotting him. Great story though

 

if that is the case, they greatly discrespected Vader in that comic. glad its not canon

 

Vader is still pretty formidable - and they spend the whole fight taunting one another - (so, not just Maul) it's just that, being non-cyborg, Maul has certain advantages in manueverability.

Vader's "cheapshot" is to stab Maul through his own body: and it has one of the more quotable Vader lines:

dying Maul: "What could you possibly hate enough to defeat me?"
Vader: "Myself."

 

that is an iconic line

 

Yeah, it is.

The story was never canon in the first place. And, initially, it sounded really bad - Maul vs Vader! But what it actually delivered was damn good.

And sure, Maul does have to get a few hits in to make it look like a fight. But while old EU had Vader as this slower, less mobile fighter, they also gave him battleship endurance. So Maul hits him, but the hits don't take him out and the success criterion isn't how many times you hit your opponent, it's last man standing.

So Maul wins battles, but Vader wins the war.

Or, to put it another way, Vader bypassed Finish Him and went straight to Fatality!

EDIT: Maul versus LotS-style Vader? It wouldn't even be a contest.

 

Dunno, the line was very cheesy even for Star Wars.

 

Fixed that for ya.

 

ROTJ Vader would probably dominate Maul via the force, and in terms of skill the two should be close as he got better according to Empire strikes back. There is no contest who is more powerful in terms of telekinesis.

 

Wasn't it eventually "canonised"?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Duel_on_Kalakar_Six