Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: DARTH BANE: RULE OF TWO (Spoilers)

Maybe we did it twice then, the one I'm thinking of was definitely months and months ago....

 

I enjoyed the book. I'll give it 7 out of 10.

However, I kinda disagreed with how the Jedi are portrayed at the end when battling Bane & Zannah. I won't give too much away away for those who haven't read the book, but to me they were using stupid tactics against Zannah. For those of you who have read the book, you should know what I mean. I didn't know that Jedi were that careless. And, I would have taken a platoon of Jedi to Tython, not just 5. That was curious.

One thing is clear, if Bane had not had his 'special' armor, he would have been killed fairly early in the fight. The Jedi weapons master was more skilled. One can only speculate how Lord Hoth would have done against Bane. Oh well....

Of course, our Sith 'heroes' must survive until the next book, but I would have shown the Jedi giving more of an overall pounding to Bane & Zannah (although, yes, Bane does suffer injury)

 

Average score: 66/9 = 7.33

 

I, for one would give the story a 9/10. The story flowed nicely and was far more interesting to me than the Darth Maul novel had been.

Drew's style moves along nicely, and it was refreshing to have less of the boring way the political machinations have been going in the LOTF books. I loved the settings and action sequences, and his visual style of writing helped me picture things well.

I thought the characters were well-written, and that the references to other eras were great.

I've read and own all the Tales of the Jedi comics as well as the current KOTOR series, and strongly urge everyone else to do likewise. It fills out the Old Republic era and lends much weight to the histories of the Jedi and Sith. Just reading these two Darth Bane books is okay, but you aren't getting the whole picture.

In closing, I would say that the current Caedus-era novels could do with better pacing and more visual flair, like Drew incorporates here.

9/10.

 

Average score: 75/10 = 7.50

 

I give it 8/10.

Slow at first but awesome last half. The big battle towards the end was pretty awesome.

 

Average score: 83/11 = 7.55

 

After the horrible disappointment of Death Star Allegiance and even Sacrifice to and extent, I was thrilled to finally have a hardcover that I liked and I didn't regret buying in hardback. Though this was a short and fairly unsurprising novel, it was utterly enjoyable for me. And in lieu of my hatred of recent Star Wars hardcovers I'm giving Rule of Two 8.7/10. It was pure empty fun!

 

Average score: 91.7/12 = 7.64

 

It wasn't bad but continuity issues aside for both books, I liked PoD more.

Things in particular that I didn't like.....

1. The Orbalisks turned Bane into more of a mindless brute than a dark lord of the Sith. Watching the Dark Lord of the Sith throw any thought of actual lightsaber ability out the Window and just wade into a fight randomly hacking away and depending on some other thing to keep him from harm is what I have in mind for the Yuuzhan Vong, not Darth Bane.

2. Darovit's part in the tale seemed a little too contived for me. Not that a lot of things in Star Wars aren't, but still.....that and having the thing come full circle back to the healer....meh. Building the Jedi memorial on Ruusan...a place where nobody would really go...seemed like a "Huh?" moment.

3. Watching the man who is supposed to be responsible for the start of the Sith rise to power sit and fret over a Holocron and fail miserably time and time again was a little disappointing. In all reality, I didn't care if he got the holocron to work or not.

4. Zannah entering the Jedi temple seemed a little bit too "The Jedi are idiots" to me. If all one needs is a good dye job to be a Sith Lord and gain access to the temple archives.....you would think that Anakin Skywalker would have been able to get himself inside in RoTS.

5. Farfalla seemed like a pretty reasonable Jedi until it came to going after Bane. The way they went about it was pretty crazy. The Jedi thinking Darovit could have been the Sith Lord when they went and polished him off by the healer was a little silly too. Apparently, Darovit could no longer touch the force. Surely they couldn't have believed a half crazed force weakling took out five Jedi masters.....

Some things I did like....

1. I didn't know how the Bane-Zannah dynamic would be when Zannah was yet still young. I didn't really want to see Bane kicking the crap out of his little girl apprentice, but I think making her find her OWN WAY to Onderon was a good trial.

2. The entire bit where Bane and Zannah were setting up deals with people in positions of power so early on in the Sith career makes Palpatine's ability to get where he got more realistic. Havoc once mentioned that he would have liked to see Palpy's achievement be the culmination of 1000 years of Sith Lords gaining footholds in the corporate sector and government is appealing to me. It seems they got a good start.

Overall, I wasn't that excited. Could take it or leave it. I give it a 6.5/10.

 

See, I liked this because it provided a good justification for their removal. Bane's lightsaber skills have almost certainly atrophied in the ten years since his aquisition of the orbalisks (probably due to having not faught a real battle and also having no need of defence) and it shows. He goes into battle without *any* regard for defence and still can't overwhelm his opponents with any great speed?

Hopefully he'll be getting himself sorted out again by the next book.

It was a little contrived, but I appreciated that Darovit became a solidly good and likeable character. He was just a man in the end. A good man - who most certainly did not deserve the fate he got.

It seemed to me more like a "VALLEY OF THE JEDI! WOOO!" moment.

Though I'm still a little frustrated that there's no explanation as to how 100 Jedi = "the Force of thousands of Jedi", however.... Maybe it increased in power as time went on? Bane certainly doesn't seem to think the Nexus is anything that can transform him into a god.

Anakin was forbidden from accessing the "Master's Only" area of the archives... that's not where Zannah went.

I really need to get my own review written up. I'm just being incredibly lazy.

 

I found this book to be a lot better than path of destruction. I thought POD read a too much like a video game, i didn't feel that way about rule of two for the most part. I think some of the force powers were a little bizare and i didn't like having a chill in the book 1030 years before zahn introduced them.

7.9/10

 

Since its here, I'll just post this here:

Can we get the Ruins of Dantooine review thread unlocked/bumped so I can put my review in it? I just finished it. Thanks to whoever.

 

Average score: 106.1/14 = 7.58

 

I agree Farfalla could have planned the arrest a little better: when going after the last of the Sith Lords - why take a hand full of Jedi when you could take a legion? Of course, 1000 years later the Jedi still haven't learned this lesson. Mace Windu and Farfalla share an overconfidence in the light side's superiority over the dark side.

Perhaps Zannah augmented Darovit's power with her own like she did when they were children.

 

That's my assumption.

 

I have to admit that I never considered that.

Ulicus - You raise good points too. My rating still stands.

 

No worries, I wasn't trying to make you change the rating.

 

I accidently posted this on the "BDoD" thread, but now it has found it's home

_

I was really pleased with how the book ended and the mention of the possiblity that is was Darth Bane that begun the hidden politics that eventually put Palpatine as the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.

What I didn't like was how easily and quickly Valenthyne Farfalla was killed. I thought his character was unique enough to warrant further development in the EU. I also thought it was rather unbelievable how Darth Bane traveled from Dxun to Onderon.

I give this book a 8 out of 10

I'd rated slightly higher, but only if there's a 3rd book in the works. We need to see/read the final fate of Bane.

 

Average score: 114.1/15 = 7.61

 

Planet Of Twilight and Crystal Star were just bad. I would rate those 3 or 4 outta 10.

But this book is just offensive. I despise it. I detest it. So I'll give it 1/10.

 

7.5 out of 10

 

Average score: 122.6/17 = 7.21

 

For something thrown together in about six months, this was rather good. It really was Zannah's book more than anything, and her transformation from Rain to a Dark Lord of the Sith was handled exceptionally well. I too thought it weird that a fully trained Jedi would have that much trouble with a civilian, but it did mention later on during the battle how his skills were "mediocre" so I'll let it pass. The ending was especially fitting, and a perfect way to resolve what had almost seemed unresolvable. Overall, a very solid effort that kept my interest well. 8.5/10