The JC Lit Reviews Special: DARTH BANE: PATH OF DESTRUCTION (Spoilers)

Well I finished reading this book about 6 days ago, and I have been debating my feelings on it ever since. First off I have never posted on these forums, but I really feel I need to express my opinion about this book as it has been nagging me a while.
BASICALLY I HATED THIS BOOK... for the following reasons

1. The mention of Vaapad in the book was a huge mistake. There is no way this book should have made it past editing with the mention of this lightsabre tecnique in it. Even very part time fans of the star wars universe know that Vaapad wasn't invented for another 1000 years past the existence of Darth Bane. It bothers me to no end to know that an author who doesn't know this very simple fact can accually write a book about the star wars universe.
2. The Author (who wrote much of the KOTOR and KOTOR2 story) just couldn't stop his narcissistic tendancy of refering to Revan at every available oppertunity. WOW YOU WROTE REVAN'S STORY!!!! BIG DEAL! Mentioning him once would have been fine when Bane found the Holicron, but oh my god it just got sickening after a while.
3. The battle scenes were dry and it was hard to understand what was going on half the time during lightsabre duels and the sith vs Jedi large scale battles. I just couldn't get that image in my mind of the conflict as I was reading. I guess RA Salvator has spoiled me.
4. Bane was just an unrealistic character. Half the time he was good, half the time he was bad. He couldn't make up his mind, and I think the author couldn't either. Sure there was supposed to be turmoil as he fully accepted the dark side, but other than Bane's father there was no real motivation behind his character... In the end I just found him simply unbelievable.
Those were my feelings on the book. For those of you who accually liked it I say congradulations! you have seen past mistakes that I cannot. I guess I like my authors to accually research topics before they write about it.

 

Karpyshyn didn't write KOTOR II, Chris Avellone did.

 

Yes, you are correct on that .. my mistake.. anyway my rating on the book was a whopping 4.

 

Average score: 242.65/33 = 7.35

 

Pretty late, but... The book itself is not as such more than an average SW novel when it comes to the plot, characterization etc but the subject - Sith Lord as the main character, Sith playing the major part overall, finally - and the moving away from the old timeframe and old characters was refreshing, which in the end in my mind weight more. I would have wanted to see more flesh on the bones of the plot, deeper characterizations, less hastiness in the last part of the novel, following more closely JvS in places where there was no good reason to contradict it - but I liked the modernization of the era, no more silly starships and bows - and such, but as this is a kind of pioneer book, opening a new era for the novels I felt - and feel - that the good things in the novel far overweight the problems. I hope to see a sequel which would build on the strenghts of this novel.

I give it 7.9.

 

Average score: 250.55/34 = 7.37

 

Pretty good read. It seemed to pack in quite a bit for just over 300 pages. Seeing Bane's progression further toward the Dark Side was interesting but could have been done better. I liked it when the story started overlapping with the comic but I didn't see why he felt it necessary to deviate from the continuity. Maybe to take the focus off of the kids. It was still nice to get into the head of a Sith as he progressed, the duels were described well and still left room for imagination, and I think that having read the comic beforehand helped appreciate the characters that had been described there since they seemed to get a lot less development.

Overall, I'd give it a 7.5

 

Average score: 258.05/35 = 7.37

 

Are we allowed to change our scores in this thread? Because, straight after reading it I gave it a score based on my enjoyment factor (9/10), which I now think is much, much too high.

It was fun, but not really "hardcover" stuff and having re-read it (and not allowed my inner fanboy to have geekgasms over the Revan references) I've noticed more flaws and annoying bits... and the rushed nature of its final act annoys me a lot more now than it previously did.

So, yeah, I'd like to change my score to 7/10 if I could?

 

Average score: 256.05/35 = 7.32

 

I already commented elsewhere on this book.

7/10

 

I like this book a lot. The path of the Sith didn't look so bad after reading this book. I like the fact that it was done from a different POV. Bane seems pretty honorable compared to even some of the jedi in the book. His characterization was done really well. I remember the Jedi Vs. Sith graphic novel and I thought that was too kiddie for me. I wish more books would come out of this era.

I give it a 8.5/10

 

I had to buy this in the gap between bloodlines and tempest to quench my thirst, and when it arrived finished it in one evening...with the prior wikipedia based knowledge of the thought bomb/lord hoth story it felt like the comic books were being transcribed, but better, which i like. so, on with the review.

Vaapad, Hammerhead cruisers (a 3000+ year old design?!) -0.25
Constant KOTOR references tacked on -0.75
Too short for a hardcover (Allegiance & Betrayal as well - whatever happened to TUF/SBS sized epics) -0.25
Lightsabre "sequences" as opposed to actual duels (bane vs kas'im) -0.25
Hammer the point home he's EVIL cos he murders CHILDREN -0.5

there are other aliens. zabraks and twi'leks are all i hear nowadays.

I felt it could have been longer in better places.
I wasn't sure if he was a brutish psychopath or a palpatinesque manipulater
He didn't seem to notice that Revan had been redeemed imo
His decline could have been more subtle (ie length again) so stuff like "he had decided, because of what X told him, that Y had to happen" didn't have to go in.

knock off another 1.5

it's easier to complain than to praise, and otherwise it was a good debut, good to have a pre-sequel era novel. outer rim seemed expanded because of it as well.
Missed out on the wooden hulled ships and these pesky kids ive heard so much about about
thought kopecz and farfalla exchange was well done/bane's trouncing of sirak in the arena and in fact all the arena fights were enjoyable

give it back another 1.1

overall in terms of sw lit rankings, 7.6

and excuse my idiotic marking system it didnt quite work like i wanted it to

 

Well, he did, since he mentioned it in an inner monologue

Regardless, Revan's redemption is a special case that - I feel - can be ignored by the later generations of Sith. Why? Because he damn well wouldn't have been redeemed had it not been for the intervening memory loss/mindwipe. His is hardly a redemption of Vader-like proportions: he got "reset".

 

I actually only got round to reading this a couple of days ago. It wasn't brilliant, but I'm not surprised. Karpyshyn may be able to write very well for a videogame, but writing a novel is a different discipline altogether.

YodaKenobi pretty much sums up my feelings about the prose. It's tedious. I was eleven when our class was taught about using 'show not tell' writing techniques. Karpyshyn must have skipped that lesson, because the book is all 'Bane felt this and Bane did that and Bane walked fifty metres and did this again".

But what of the story itself? The backstory of Darth Bane, founder of the Rule of Two. Well, as backstories go, this stinks.

Firstly, my understanding of JvS was that Bane had originally been a leader of the Sith, but was backstabbed and left for dead, before returning to find that his rival Kaan had seized control. In PoD there is a completely different spin on things. Fair enough. JvS was vague and open to several interpretations.

What I don't like is the fact that this great Sith Lord has such a boring path to power. He gets to an Academy (where, bizarrely, the next step up from wet-behind-the-ears apprentice is Dark Lord of the Sith) engages in a few predictable confrontations and eventually decides to change the Sith Order. We get barely anything about his motivations except for some brief mentions at the start of how his father beat him.

As for the changes to JvS- a few are okay, but some have not been justified, IMHO. I just struggle to understand why he changed details like the time of Pernicar's death.

But my biggest problem is the constant stream of references to Revan. As a recovering Revan fanboy, I am starting to look at him more objectively, and it is cringeworthy to read some of this stuff. It's so contrived. The Sith talk so much about what happened 'three thousand years ago' that you wonder if they studied any other era of galactic history whatsoever. The previous nine hundred and something years of the New Sith Wars must have been pretty dull considering it never gets a mention.

There is absolutely NO need to drag Revan into this part of the timeline, but Karpyshyn does it regardless, reaching out shamelessly for the comfort and security of his big SW success.

So anyway- I give this book a 5/10.

 

Yeah, that was the worst. The NSW were literally treated like they began with Kaan.

 

Average score: 284.15/39 = 7.29

 

Actually, that's something that does sort of jibe with previous material. POTJ Sourcebook mentions that Hoth essentially "restarted" the war from what had become a series of skirmishes by trying to capture the Sith leader, to the extent that some of the Jedi even derided it as "Hoth's war".

Of course, there are a few other, er, complications between that story and the SWDBLONGTITLE one, so with no offense to Mr. Karpyshyn (if there's one plus in this whole continuity kerfuffle, it's that I finally learned how to spell that), I'm guessing that it's just a coincidence. But it does at least sort of work.

 

Yeah, the fact that it died down and restarted were fine. However, basically Ruin and all the NSW Sith do not exist in the context of this book. It goes straight from Revan to Kaan. Numerous statements are made to that effect.

 

First, add my name to the "didn't read the comics, didn't play the game" crowd. But even if I did, continuity isn't an issue for me unless a) the story contradicts itself and b) it's central to the plot.

I found Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic (dear gods, is this really the full title?) an enjoyable read. I particularly liked Bane's character developement after his first duel with Sirak. The internal politics of the Dark Side Academy was nice, if a bit simplistic.

The dark side Force powerz were . . . um. I don't like superpowers in SW. Frankly, I thought the lightning in RotJ was going too far. On the other hand, I felt Bane's use of the Thought Bomb was inspired. Not only does it wipe out the entire Sith Order, it lets the Jedi know what happened and inflicts enough casualties to ensure they aren't automatically suspicious. Brilliant.

I kept expecting the Gloom Walkers to reappear in Part Three. I think it would have been interesting to see them ask for Bane's help in a tight spot, after which he swats them aside with hardly a ripple of conscience. If nothing else, it would have had more of an emotional impact on me than his casual murder of children near the end of the book.

The thing that really bugs me is the poisoning/healing sequence. Actually, the poisoning itself - Githany's double layered duplicity - that, I like. But the way Bane survives the synox seems too convenient and shoehorned into the story for my liking. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen in Part Three, but . . . well, Force powerz again.

So, start off with 8 points for an enjoyable read, -0.5 for the Force powerz, +0.5 for creative use of said powerz, -0.5 for not having a Gloom Walkers reprisal, and -1 for the suspiciously convenient poisoning/healing sequence.

Total score: 6.5/10.

- lazy

 

What a great ending. And I liked the JvS ending, too.

 

I thought it was enjoyable, for the most part. I've never read the Jedi vs. Sith comic, so I don't know about the continuity issues. I agree that the Revan worship was getting to be a little too much; I'm a big KOTOR fan, but geez, come on. Revan was not the end-all, be-all of the Sith.

Karpyshyn's writing isn't particularly memorable, but it's pretty quick-paced and easy to read. Bane's rise to power was a little dull, and I'm still not a fan of the whole "Sith academy" idea. I hated that the Sith had an academy in KOTOR, and I hated that they had them in SWDBPODANOTOROMGWTFBBQ. But maybe that was kind of the point--Kaan's Sith had lost their way, after all.

My biggest problem is that the story seemed to be moving along at a decent, gradual pace for the first 3/4 of the book, and then it seemed like Karpyshyn realized he was running out of time and pounded out the last 1/4 in like a week. Everything from the Unknown World to the end of the book was just incredibly rushed, and I think the book would have been better served if Karpyshyn hadn't rushed the final section.

Still, it could have been worse. I enjoyed it more than Sacrifice. And if nothing else, I hope this book was successful so that we can get more ANOTORs ( ).

7/10

 

No, it's actually Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: A Novel of the Old Republic. Can't forget your franchise.





Average score: 297.65/41 = 7.26

 

I don't have time to post a proper review right now (as in my brilliance I knocked beer all over my labtop), but I give the novel an 8/10. Central thesis is that despite some faults reading a much more active and dislikable protagonist in Bane is a very good change. I cannot comment on the whole Jedi vs. Sith ordeal since I've never read it. None the less good job by Drew K. I'll post more on it when I have time.

 

Average score: 305.65/42 = 7.28