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

I wish I lived in space.

 

It always comes back to emperors with you.

 

That at least we have democracy and don't have Death Stars.

 

Yeah but they got Lightsabers and K'khruks hat. So we still lose godammit!

 

The announcement of Moff Mors described her as being an unusually competent Imperial commander. If so, I kinda hope she sticks around, because I'm a big fan of Imperial leaders like Tarkin and Thrawn who manage to be dangerous without needing the force. Given the timeline, if the character does end up being popular she could even show up as a villain on Rebels.

I'm also curious to see how her orientation is handled by other character in-setting.

I can't imagine people like the Rebels caring one bit about it, and I think that for people like the Emperor and Vader they only care if you can do your job well to help them take more power..but the Empire (much like the real-world dictatorships that inspired it) does tend to attracts its share of small-minded bigots, so it'd be very interesting to see if Mors has had to fight against prejudice in her climb to the top. That was always one of the most fascinating things about the Thrawn character (who, btw, I still hope makes it into the new canon in some fashion at some point), that he'd risen so high despite many of his peers being prejudiced against him, and I wouldn't mind seeing them explore that a bit with this Mors character as well. OTOH, if they decide that in the Star Wars universe homophobia isn't even really a thing (in the same way that traditional skin color-based racism doesn't seem to be much of a thing), that would be a plausible interpretation as well.

Basically, I like Imperials who are good at their jobs, and who have more layers to their character than a knack for sneering and a british accent. Hard to say if this character will fit the bill, but I hope she does.

 

Yeah, I don't really expect it to be an issue--if nothing else, making her overcoming prejudice a plot point just makes it easier for people to say the book has a political agenda, rather than just choosing to acknowledge these people exist. Would you want to read a book about Lando fighting off racists to become Baron Administrator?

 

Black slaves working Tatooinian moisture plantations? Or... the Empire hunting down Hebrew Jedi?

 

I certainly wouldn't want a whole book about it (that sounds like it would get extremely tedious), but if Lando had been like Han and started as an imperial, I wouldn't be that put off if they mentioned he'd run into some especially idiotic bigots among the imperial ranks (running into them among the rebels or underworld wouldn't have quite the same thematic reasonance). No matter the galaxy, there are always going to be knuckleheads who look down on others for superficial reasons that don't actually matter, and probably a decent number of them end up working for the empire, whether as low-level grunts or pretty bureaucrats, making life just a little bit more unpleasant for anyone they meet who happens to be the slightest bit different from themselves. The bigwigs like Vader and Tarkin have much more important things to worry about, but the average petty bully who joins up to feel tough and finds himself bossing civilians around on the Outer rim or whatever is exactly the sort of person I'd expect to treat those who are different like crap, whether they be aliens, droids, or just humans who don't happen to look or act like he thinks they should.

 

If it was done in blaxploitation style?

Absolutely.

 

Honestly, I would have no issue with it. I'd read it.

I feel like the farther we get removed from real world issues the less brave the Star Wars universe actually is. I enjoy the social commentary in fiction, maybe thats part of the reason why I enjoyed Traviss's work so much. I think it is absolutely alright to not shy away from difficult subjects. I dislike the idea of pretending that real world problems don't exist in our fictional fairy utopias. That doesn't mean they need to be the central focus of a story, but the idea that humanity can get completely past itself given enough time doesn't strike me as incredibly realistic. We haven't been able to do it yet and in some areas(if not most) of the world it has actually gotten way worse than it ever was before, not better.

And you will say, thats the point - it isn't meant to be realistic. Thats fair, but it doesn't relate to me personally as a reader. If it relates to you, great, your time is now.

Like it or not, what we read relates back to our own lives. Simply including or not including this or that type of person makes a political statement, intentional or not. No need to shy away from subjects that may be controversial.

 

On the contrary: I don't think it's very courageous at all to write fiction about characters overcoming prejudices that are no longer really an issue in the modern world. While racism and sexism are absolutely still forces in society today, open and straightforward discrimination of the sort the Empire has been shown engaging in against aliens or women in Legends isn't really the sort of thing that's acceptable anymore. (It's true that this certainly isn't the case worldwide - but while Star Wars may have a global audience, it's fair to say that in its origins it was and remains primarily Western). So I feel like stories about characters dealing with that sort of thing - especially since they invariably end with their success - are sort of cheap and self-congratulatory. And while works dealing with real history can at least try and serve a purpose of overcoming our tendency to remember things in feel-good terms, fictional settings can't even offer that.

 

Vader and Sidious apparently on a quest for Sith artifacts in an action packed survival story and people are focused on who a side character sleeps with?

 

This is a genre that needs to be explored in the Star Wars setting. Forget horror and wannabe noir.

 

Bond did it, dammit!

Is Donald Faison too old now to do that young Lando show he always wanted to do? Probably. Damn.

 

Speaking of which....

 

I have to say that I'm a little concerned about this book, after reading Kemp's Decieved. He's certainly not a bad writer, but he does seem a bit too focused on, for lack of a better word, emotional punches. For almost every other subject, I wouldn't care that much, but this being a book about Darth Vader and the Emperor makes me hope that he doesn't try to do that with this one. It was already bad enough to see Darth Malgus get treated as such a weak and sappy guy in contrast with the hardass he was in SWTOR.

 

Emotional impact should be encouraged in scifi writing particularly penned by men. Being emotional does not equal weak. Having a message or intent in a work is not wrong.

 

I think the issue is more that, people have had enough of the more emotional side of Darth Vader since Revenge of the Sith came out. Almost every story between then and now has had him mourning Anakin's failures and Padme's death in some way. People just want to get back to the towering sentinel Vader from ANH and ESB where emotions were his tools to manipulate others, not something that ruled him. Of course, this story being set very close to RotS doesn't make that likely. I did really like the excerpt from the sampler, though, I'm definitely willing to give Kemp a chance.

 

Exactly, that was the point I was trying to convey. I do encourage characters that stray away from the emotionless cynic cliché, but the other extreme isn't very appealing either. I do hope Kemp realizes this too.

Regarding the weakness I mentioned, it was not that the emotion itself what made Malgus weak in that book, but the way in which he got carried away with it every time, which wasn't very much in line with future characterizations of the character.

 

Vader is absurdly emotionally clingy to the few people he cares about, prone to outbursts of murderous anger, and completely obsessed with Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Seriously, count the number of times he mentions Obi-Wan out of nowhere in a completely unrelated conversation.) And that's going off of just ANH and ESB.

A lot of people seem to have missed that having one facial expression does not make him stoic. He could not be any less stoic. But crappy Vader characterizations are even more widespread than crappy Obi-Wan ones. (Looking at you, Karen Miller)

 

I definitely agree that some authors (like quite a few of the comic book ones) haven't been able to balance "emotional" Vader with "badass" Vader. They make him too sappy. The missing ingredient, I think, is pride. Vader's emotional clinginess can be understood if we listen to how obsessed Anakin sounds when HE wants to be the one to stop people from dying. Not somebody else. HIM. He wants Palpatine's recognition. He wants Council recognition. He wants to be the "Hero Without Fear." Most of all, he wants to control the fate of his friends and family.

It's exactly like Obi-Wan said -- he's arrogant. He's one of those guys that doesn't want to be told when he's wrong. If you're going to make an emotional Vader, you gotta work on the pride. If he's upset about Padme it's because "it's all Obi-Wan's fault!" Certainly not his.

 

Yep. The lengths Vader will go to in order to blame anyone but himself know no bounds.

 

Im fine with the Lesbian Moff, but I think it's detracted from the whole point of the Novel, which I'm really really really looking forward too!! We need an awesome Palpatine and Vader story here, let's really see why these two Titans of the Force are The Lords of The Sith!!!!!
I'm really hoping both have a decent amount of screen time and that the plot isn't watered down by useless characters we don't gave two banthas about!