The Official Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader Discussion Thread (spoilers allowed)

the book was great...what a bunch of whiners.

 

Stunning contribution to the discussion.

Keep those insightful posts coming.

 

I was furious when Luceno confused Vader's blue armored 501st troopers as Palpatine's red-emblazoned shock troopers. Furious!

No sooner had the boarding ramp extended than a squad of elite troopers filed out, the red markings on their armor identifying them as Coruscant shock troopers.

BULL!

 

Has anyone else played as the 501st in Battlefront 2? One of the greatest moments is when you are leading them as Vader, I really could really relate to the book then.

 

Sorry I didn't read this whole thread. But from the last couple of post I guess people don't like the book. Maybe because I am a sucker for all things Star Wars, I liked it.

I liked the way that it told you what Darth Vader was thinking and how he thought about the situation that he got himself into.
One thing that I did not like, Was his transition fully into the Dark Side, it was like one minute he was quasi about it and then when he is fighting on the platform he is fully engulfed. I understand why. But it didn't do a good job of telling it.
I liked the ending with Obi realizing Anakin/Vader is still alive.

 

Anyone who did not enjoy this book is nuts.I read it in 2 days I never have done that before.Whats not to like?We got more wookies than the movie gave us.It also helped us appreciate the struggles vader had with his new armor and his failings.I appreciated the continued strife between palpatine and vader.The determination of the jedi to keep the order alive also was very powerful.More Tarkin as well.All books have to be approved by lucasfilm has been my understanding so obviously it was accepted.

 

No no, he wasn't saying that the red Clone Troopers were part of the 501st. But the red troops are present in the movie as Palpatine's crack squad (being with him after the duel with Yoda and accompanying on Mustafar).

 

The book was incredibly sattisfying read.... Some things sucked but it was overall the best eu book I've read in awhile.... And I'm also looking forward to the next book by Zahn.....

 

Got it, now to read it.

Can't believe how thin it is though.

 

HAHA, love Climber and how he's got the nerve to back talk Vader.

Wonder if he was killed?

 

you really wanna know?

 

Has this changed? A story in the Insider on the upcoming comics with him in it made it explicitly clear that he doesn't.

 

Everyone seems to like this book which is good, but what exactly is it about?.

Should I get it?

 

I'm sorry I didn't read the whole thread, but didn't anyone mention the mistakes in the book?

On page 237, there is a mistake when Vader's Star Destroyer is referred to as Executor. It should've been Exactor.

The Jedi, Jambe Lu, gets his name misspelled. Luceno starts calling him "Lambe" starting on page 266 and that continues for that chapter. Then it goes back to "Jambe" after that.

I hope these are fixed for the paperback edition. Anything else?

 

I thought Anakin's frustration's with his lack of mobility showed that Luceno gave careful thought to what it must be like for Anakin to be entombed in the suit. For a swordsman who is used a full range of mobility it must be incredibily frustrating to not raise their arms above their head. I also thought it was cool how Roan realized that Vader's fighting style was focused on defending his chest plate. Lucas has stated that the fights in the OT are slower because its half-robot men fighting old men, or young boys and not "Jedi in their prime fighting in the prime of the Jedi" (the title of an episode one webdoc that goes into further detail on this issue. The fight blew, BTW, because Prowse lied and said he was an expert swordsmen, when he was not at all, and they quickly had to come up with something.In TESB and ROTJ a different person played Vader during the duels)Luceno wasn't trying to defend the poor choreography of episode IV, but give insight into how Anakin feels trapped, and how he transitioned to Darth Vader. I this book could be renamed "Darth Vader Begins", akin to Batman Begins, becuase both are in the same vein. We start out with men who are very different from the characters we know and love, and by the time we reach the end we see how the characters have transformed to a more recongnizable state. I think its interesting to see how Vader instilled fear into the nascent Imperial Navy. I wish we had seen Vader crush someone's trachea, perhase Cash suffered such a fate. I also thought the intial dialouge between Olee and Vader at the start of their fight was right out of a star wars movie. Does anyone know if Olee makes an appearence in the Purge comic coming out this week? Also, I still don't understand what Vader tapped into durring his battle with Roan that brought him closer to the Dark Side. Was it that he relished the betrayal the Jedi felt b/c Anakin was the executioner? I read LOE and this book back to back, and I think that while his visual dictionary left A LOT to be desired, Luceno has done a very good job of capturing the spirt of ROTS. In my opinion these books are the closest things that come to the films.

I don't like the idea that it wasn't Order 66 that hardwired into the Clones, but a fierce loyalty to Palpatine's order's that turned the Clones. The film makes it pretty clear that Order 66 was hardwired into the clones. I think it was an interesting development for some of the clones to show novel thinking; they are after all, human.

 

Okay, I haven't read the book. I just realized it came out today, but the one thing I'm wondering is what or who does Vader think killed Padme? Does he think he choked her up? And generally, how does he ruminate on Padme's death?

I will be reading the book tomorrow and adding my views, but since I'm on duty and can't leave to go out and buy the book...I just have to know these things.

Anyone???

 

I just finished the book and loved it. But i have to know. WTH happened to Climber? is he now a on a slave planet? Dead or reprogramed?

 

A Clone reported that Climber and the remaining Commando were captured. Nothing mentioned after that..

 

Okay, so I got a chance to read the book and it was very good. The writing was tight, and the flow was smooth. However, my only real nitpicks was I wanted more internalization from Anakin/Vader and the Emperor. Though I thought Lucerno did a wonderful job with what he did show, there needed to be more. I was especially disappointed that there wasn't a lot about Padme. Considering that in Anakin's delusional mind, she was the reason/excuse from him going over to the dark side. I would have liked for him to ponder her death...and the fact that he killed her and his unborn child. I found his acceptance of all the events that had taken place to be a bit rushed. The magnitude and scope of his decisions needed more development after the fact. In addition, the B story overshadowed the A story. I liked the B story, and I think Shyrne was a good character, but it took up a bit too much space.

Now for the good, I was very impressed by how Lucerno described the feelings Vader felt while in the suit. I also liked the fact that he touched on the raging debate of how Vader eats, pisses and...well you know. I really liked the way he showed the machinations of the Sith, and that part of the Sith philosphy is to encourage a certain level of disloyalty in the apprentice. Since we know that Anakin does kill the Emperor, it really added to my anticipation for the coming event. I also LOVED the way Lucerno played up the Emperor's manipulations, and the idea of Vader living for his own apprentice some day. And, I really LOVED the fact that Lucerno touched on portions of Vader's pyschological limitations. The Dark Lord is only limited physically and mentally, however he is not limited in his ability to use force.

Overall, "Dark Lord" was a good read. I'm hoping that after Lucerno is done writing PTEU that he will take on a book that deals with the events that occured after ESB. I'd loved to see an indepth reaction from Vader when he finds out the Emperor lied about Padme's death, and he didn't in fact 'kill' her...per se. "Shadows of the Empire" was great, but it was before the PT, and there were many things the book couldn't touch on. Now all of it's fair game. I'm hoping Lucerno is one of the first authors to tackle that period.

 

obviously i read a different book than the rest. while it sure fits into the usual cadre of eu books, i was not as impressed as the rest of you. i expected a book about darth vader. instead the first third of the book was about a whiny padawan. there was not enough about vader to satisfy. my beef with these eu books is they only cover superficialities of the characters. i am dying for a book that delves into how a character thinks not what a character does. i didnt buy the transition of anakin in a black suit to darth vader at the end. he killed hundreds of jedis, children even but it wasnt until he killed a bunch of wookies that meant nothing to him that he embraced the dark side. i just felt that luceno was tired of writing.

 

Did you read the ROTS book, that went very deep into what the characters were thinking. That was my favorite book ever. I recommend it.




Emporer Gerner Dark Lord of the Sith

 

There is a small version of teh Japanese version of the cover out already:

http://starwars.jp/

It looks great!, hope amazon.jp gets it in their slightly bigger size soon, or the people here in TFN in their spectacular high res

 

well of course i read it. while it had more moments than most it just seems that the novels leave a lot to be desired. but then i have always like stories that are character driven instead of plot driven. just cause i didnt like parts of it doesnt mean it wasnt entertaining.

 

Just finished reading my Christmas present last night. My reflections....

Maybe it wasn't as exciting as LOE or ROTS, but this book is as much of an introduction to the next "series" as TPM was to the PT...

Luceno did a great job showing how Vader develops his new fighting style, esp. the "if-the-saber-isn't-working-throw-everything-in-the-room-at-'em" tactic...

Also good was the development of the plot against Wookie World. Nice to see Chewie again. And nice to see that the Wookies saw it coming and didn't fall without a fight. And Vader vs. Wookies....

Good character development w/ Shryne and Starstone. Esp. like the family relations showing up...

Bail's dillema...how does he keep this up for the next 20 years?...

Where the heck did the Imperator-class SD's come from? They shouldn't be online for another decade?...

Luceno & Lucas MUST make this a multi-book series. It's off to too good a start...