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

Oho? Interesting.

 

A lot of the early Tales were "non-canon until canonised"

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

 

I just finished reading the book a couple of days ago, and I thought it was pretty good. My opinions:
-My favorite point of view was definitely Vader's. Sure, I liked everyone's else's well enough...but Vader's view was the most fun to read.
-I liked the two red guards. Especially Deez. I kind of found it funny that even though the red guards are supposed to protect the emperor, they would have died pretty quickly if it hadn't been for Vader or Palpatine. I like how Deez is kind of left in awe of the two Sith lords after the lylek battle. And his uncertainty on what to do after Vader stops the emperor from killing Drua.
-I didn't like either Belkor or Mors, much. I was kind of expecting Mors to die by force choke. I think she should have been kicked out for a new Moff, personally.
-I think they should have mentioned Hera's mother, especially since they had the romance between Isval and Cham. It kind of felt weird that Cham never mentioned her in his thoughts. I mean, what ever happened to Hera's mom? I'm guessing she probably died or something....I think it was a wasted opportunity not to go into it.
-I was (pleasantly) surprised that Cham didn't die. I really thought he was a dead twi'lek. Nice to see him live to fight another day. I liked his motto: Not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter. And I felt like the book did a pretty good job of showing that Cham stuck to his morals and tried to do what was right. Really liked his quote: "We all lose ourselves sometimes, Isval. We just have to find our way back again."
-I thought Vader and Palps vs. the lyleks was pretty impressive. Nice to see the two powerful Sith lords doing some Force and fighting stuff. I also liked how everyone (especially Imperial officers and the rebels) seems terrified of Vader and the emperor. Finally, the respect they deserve!
-I wonder if Orn Free Taa survived the explosion....I thought it might mention him at the end, but I guess it just leaves us guessing. I suspect somehow he got off that star destroyer, though.
-Oh, and while I was reading the book in one of Vader's flashbacks, when he remembering names: Rex. Cody. Sixes. Echo. I was like, wait, Sixes? It's supposed to be Fives! I know it's just an error, but I thought it was funny.
-Also thought the relationship between Vader and Palpatine is interesting. They seem to be constantly threatened by each other. They are both aware that they're the most powerful beings in the galaxy, and that they could quickly turn on each other.
-I thought the end was kind of sad....really too bad about Drua. I liked her. She was so innocent and harmless.

 

One of my favorite bits was the revelation that one of the guards was a clone and the other was a fresh recruit to the Empire. I've always been interested in the post Clone Wars clone/stormtrooper dynamic. I know Rebels will tackle this with Rex, but seeing it from a pro-imperial clone's point of view would be interesting too..

 

Re reading this book now and it's just painful how the epic Vader/Palpatine sections are put on the back burner while I go through pages and pages of annoying twi lek rebels. Normally I like the rebel characters in star wars but in this book I see them as evil and IMO they deserve everything they get! Long live the empire!

 

Really? Did you miss the part where the Imperials made sex slaves out of the Twi'lek people or the corruption and decadence of the imperials on the planet? The Twi'lek have good reason to rebel imo.

 

they had good reason to rebel, but they were not very convincing heroes, as i still rooted for Vader

 

It's kinda hard to compete with Darth Vader, he is one of the most popular characters in fiction.

 

Painful? I doubt the book is assaulting your hands with an array of paper cuts during those sections.

And if it is? Well, you know what Papa Palpatine says about weakness....

 

It's the twi leks fault for being such a sexy race

Seriously though Isval's behaviour in that segment appalled me and I wanted her dead so bad from that point on.

Would you still root for Obi Wan if in ANH after they'd sold Luke's speeder he went back to the cantina to cut off the legs off the guy's whose arm he'd cut off earlier while going "If you ever go near Luke again....."

 

Not really the same is it? Ponda Baba isn't going to seek out Luke, who's off planet and off into the galaxy.

That Imperial officer, however, would likely have found the Twi'Lek and done whatever he wanted to her, after all, to him she's alien scum.

 

Isval even knows herself that it is sick to kill every imperial officer who makes advances at Twi'lek women. But the book made a point that she became that way because of the horrors that were inflicted on the Twi'lek population.

 

Just to twist it further: Who set up the Empire and determines how it is run, with a tacit encouragement for its members to cater to their worst and most base aspects? One Darth Sheev Sidious.

Who just so happens to enjoy most a session of mass murder, manipulation and torture of others for the lolz. Thus, he would find Isval's actions utterly delicious, both what she did and why. Watching people damn their self piece by piece until that's all they are would be immensely satisfying to Sheev.

If you're a fan of the kinder, more reasonable Empire Legends sketched, I can't see you liking this book at all because the Empire it depicts is utterly brutal and irredeemable.

 

I recall a lot of Legends works painting the Empire as "even worse than in the movies" - with extreme oppression of aliens, various alien species being wiped out by xenocidal Imperial officers, and so forth.

"Kinder and more reasonable" only really applied to the post-Dark Empire period, as I recall.

 

Which tends to be the one that gets remembered.

Never really got the pro-Empire outlook. Wanting a Star Destroyer? Yes. Supporting a vile system seriously, even as a role-play? Nope.

 

I agree that Vader is more powerful at Telekinesis, but Maul isn't a pushover either, I doubt he would dominate Maul with the force because as I said Maul is a extremely powerful TK user as well.



- Choking and throwing Obi-Wan with the Force
- Surviving from being cut in half only because he was extremely powerful at the dark side of the force.
- Manipulating a ETA-Class Shuttle with the Force
- Destroying a group of battle droids with ease

That being said, Vader is more powerful at TK, and he has pretty good Force feats in this novel as well (such as changing the rotation of frefighter small space ship and using a powerful force blasts) but Maul has speed and agility advantage if they would fight and that is a big problem for Vader.

 

What's the "largest scale" TK feat we've ever seen each of them do? Might be a good way to estimate the gap in power between the two.

 

Yep. And that was only after Daala purged the warlords in Darksaber and Pellaeon took control.

 

Zahn paints Thrawn as kinder and more reasonable than the Emperor or Vader - but this is not at all a hard standard to reach.

 

True, but it depends on which Thrawn. Zahn seemed to paint Thrawn as "the kinder/gentler Imperial" starting with the Hand of Thrawn duology, but in the Thrawn Trilogy he was willing to be as brutal as Tarkin or other Imperial commanders if necessary.

 

Mostly it's TTT in which characters (including neutrals, like smugglers) contrast Thrawn favourably with Vader - and it's in his treatment of his own men.

 

I think one point of the book really is to ask a moral question: What is the line between a Heroic Freedom Fighter and a Terrorist? When does one stop being one, and begin as another?

 

What I find interesting is that Cham's backup plan is somewhat closer to terrorism than his primary goal of killing the Emperor and Vader. Killing those two would bring about a lot of tangible good across the galaxy. However, Cham seems to think that taking down the Star Destroyer alone would be a decent victory, even if the Emperor and Vader survive. What is potentially troubling about this is that destroying a Star Destroyer is merely a symbolic victory. It doesn't significantly hurt the Empire beyond giving hope to rebels and actually terrorizing Imperials.

On a slightly different note, the moment I thought Cham possibly crossed a big ethical line was when he had Belkor send civilian support craft to the Star Destroyer. He used a lot of innocent lives as pawns in an extremely dangerous game. Their deaths fall on his hands as much as they do on the Empire.

 

I think it's demolishing an AT-AT and crashing a flying ship for Vader or force choking Ozzel from a great distance.

For Maul it would be pulling that ship off the cliff.

But what gives Vader his greatest edge over Maul is that he has far more varied force skills, from reading minds to absorbing energy blasts, while Maul's abilities seem pretty basic. Did we even see him do anything other than TK with the force?