Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction - Drew Karpyshyn

I am a Star Wars fangirl. I admit that. I have almost all Star Wars novels and other assorted books. I love the Star Wars world, and especially the fight between Sith and Jedi.

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction is set about 1000 years before the events of the classic trilogy, about 3000 years after Revan saved the Republic in the KOTOR game.

Dessel is a miner on Apatros. Due to a killing of a Republic soldier, Dessel must run. He joins the Sith army and his potential in the Force is seen by one of the Dark Lords, Kopecz. He is taken in the Academy at Korriban, and there he takes the name of Bane and learns the ways of the Dark Side. Bane will be the destroyer of the Sith, but also the builder of a new Sith era. But for the rest, it's better to read the book.

As a whole, the book is one of the best in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, with good characters. You believe Bane, and you want him to succeed despite him being a Sith Lord. You want him to have his revenge, you want him to end the war and start his new rule. Except for Bane, there was also another Sith Lord I very much liked in this book: Kas'im, Bane's main instructor. And I would love to have even a short story about this Dark Lord, and how he became part of the Brotherhood of Darkness.

As for the writing, Drew Karpyshyn does well for a newbie writer. He has his problems, but I think that they are mostly associated with his writing for games rather than anything else. His action scenes were well described, well done, and were some of the best written parts of the book. Also, the chapters when Bane is on Ambria are also well written.

Some parts though needed to be a bit refined. Some of the dialogue seemed like it was written for games, it is too short, and at times, I was left with the impression that there were more things that should have been said. There were some chapters, especially when Bane is at the Academy on Korriban which needed something more. Too short? Too little detail? There was a bit of the "game" writing in that, which is not always bad, but needed a bit more colour, and more detail.

All in all, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I was one of those people who played KOTOR at least 5-6 times in a row, and I love the Old Republic, and the whole Jedi vs.Sith adventure. I wish I had the time to play the online Star Wars The Old Republic game, but with my very limited time and my unreliable net connection at times, it's not very possible for the present.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Spear said...

Knights of the Old Republic.... Babylon has fallen... nope, you're going to have to run that one past us again Pete. Do you go out of your way to talk nonsense on other people's blogs, or does it just happen by chance?

I notice you're not particularly up to date either - 'Babylon is fallen' - what an interesting use of the present tense, as if you are informing us of a recent development rather than something that happened over 2 millenia ago.

I think, if you were to engage in a little open-minded inquiry, that you'd find that cities don't fall because of fornication. That tends to increase the populace somewhat.

What actually happened was a very slow decline over centuries as other regional powers grew. Hardly in need of a divine explanation, but I suppose it's got to be kept simple for those who think there's only one book worth reading.