"The Empire is dead. Nearly two
decades on from the Battle of Endor, the tattered remnants of Palpatine’s
forces have fled to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. But for the heroes of
the New Republic, danger and loss are ever-present companions, even in this
newly forged era of peace. Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is haunted by visions of
the dark side, foretelling an ominous secret growing somewhere in the depths of
space, on a dead world called Exegol. The disturbance in the Force is
undeniable . . . and Luke's worst fears are confirmed when his old friend,
Lando Calrissian, comes to him with reports of a new Sith menace.
"After his daughter was stolen
from his arms, Lando searched the stars for any trace of his lost child. But
every new rumor only led to dead ends and fading hopes—until he crossed paths
with Ochi of Bestoon, a Sith assassin tasked with kidnapping a young girl. Ochi's true motives remain shrouded to Luke
and Lando. For on a junkyard moon, a mysterious envoy of
the Sith Eternal has bequeathed a sacred blade to the assassin, promising that
it will give him answers to the questions that have haunted him since the
Empire fell. In exchange, he must complete a final mission: return to Exegol
with the key to the Sith's glorious rebirth—the granddaughter of Darth Sidious
himself, Rey. As Ochi hunts Rey and her
parents to the edge of the galaxy, Luke and Lando race into the mystery of the
Sith's lingering shadow and aid a young family running for their lives"
I’m generally not in favor of
using these extended universe titles to fill in plot holes the writers of the
Star Wars sequels failed to add to their scripts. I mean some of the backstory
needed for The Force Awakens is included here and would’ve been nice to see
some of it in the movie, but forcing people to read the books to learn these
bits seems arrogant and little reductive. Still, this Star Wars tale is well
written, dark and filled with danger, as well as being a bit overlong.
Most of Shadow of the Sith (set
about 13 years before The Force Awakens) is really about the son of Palpatine –Dathan.
We get no real background on the women who birthed the man, who she was and how
she became involved with the future Darth Sidious (another novel will probably
cover this) as well as background information on Lando’s daughter, Kadara, who
has been missing for six years. And Dathan is a bit of weak man, with his wife,
Miramir being smarter and tougher, which is an interesting character trait, the
idea that Dad was so strong and smart, and son is just average and not Force sensitive.
Still, I became invested in their escape –even though I knew the inevitability of
their fate.
So the novel offers answers about Rey’s parents –something only hinted at in The Rise Skywalker (and Ochi is also briefly seen in that last film) and offers Luke at the peak of his powers –again, something that many of us wanted from the sequel trilogy, and only to be disappointed. Yet this book also lays the ground work for Luke’s emotional state in The Last Jedi. We get brief scenes with Luke and Ben Solo, and we see that despite Luke understanding the need for familial connections learned at the end of Return of the Jedi, his training methodology continues to be in the old Jedi way of keeping those bonds cold. The best example of this comes in the form of Luke forcing Ben to call him Master Skywalker and not Uncle Luke. So the catastrophic psychological damage the Jedi inflict on the padawan’s –the separating the child from their family- continues.
But at 465 pages, Shadow of the
Sith does lose steam. An extended sequence on a mining space station
comes to an great conclusion, but there's a little too much jumping between
characters and wandering around before getting to it. There are also a few
cameos from other characters seen in the sequel trilogy and bit more explanation
of older Rey’s relationship with Unkar Plutt, but I’m reminded again on how
casual fans of the Star Wars movies should not have to read the Extended Universe
novels to get all the plot holes filled in. A lot of bits and bites in this tale, it seems to me, while a great
set-up for The Force Awakens, could’ve actually been included in that film (and the two others) had
Disney/Lucasfilm actually planned it better. This novel sort of reinforces the notion they had no real idea what they were doing, just having an IP The House of Mouse needed to monetize after spending billions on it. Still, I guess, getting the mystery of Rey’s
parentage explained should satisfy many long-time Star Wars fans.
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