Darth Bane
Rule of Two
by Drew Karpyshyn
This is the second book written by the author about Darth Bane, the Sith Lord who made the Rule of Two. In the first book you saw the downfall of the Sith from a large group down to just one. This book picks up where the previous book left off. Darth Bane is now training his Apprentice to one day replace him as the Dark Lord of the Sith. On top of this he is trying to collect all information on the Dark Side of the force that he can and is starting to meddle in the affairs of the Republic so that one day down the road the Sith will take over. Meanwhile, the Jedi are asked to step down now that the war with the Sith is over by the first non-Jedi Chancellor. So the book covers the beginning of Bane's education of his apprentice and also sets up the changes in the Jedi that we see later in the timeline.
Expand review to include spoiler information
I really enjoyed powering through this book. It was fast pace, probably more so due to the authors limited writing time on it, and had some decent intrigue. Bane's young apprentice is a young girl named Rain that he finds in the midst of some Jedi she killed. But she gives up the name of her youth for Zannah. In her journey which covers a decade in this book you see her go from a reluctant apprentice into a most willing and deceitful apprentice. You see this in how she treats her cousin, Darovit (Tomcat). In the fist meeting after her apprenticeship begins she cuts off her cousin's hand to save his life as Bane would have killed him. By the end of the book in order to save Bane she makes her cousin insane and enraged so that the Jedi would no choice but to kill him. By doing this she also makes the Jedi believe they have killed the last Sith Lord thus keeping herself and Bane hidden once again.
This book also chronicles the life and death of some Jedi. Leave it to happen in a book about a Sith Lord to put a lot of time and background in on some Jedi only to have them slaughtered the Bane and Zannah. With such a setup I won't delve into them too much.
Bane during this book first starts out by testing his new found apprentice by abandoning her on the planet he found her and giving her the task of making it in 10 days to another place where he would meet up with her. He did this one to test but also so she wouldn't be around while he went looking for the Holocron of a dead Sith Lord. In his attempt to find the Holocron he becomes infected by these parasites, Orbalisks. He soon discovers that these creatures feed on his Dark Side energy but in return he gains more strength, healing abilities, armor and a greater strength in the Dark Side. However, as the story progresses his apprentice gets him to start doubting that the trade off is all good. Because for some unknown reason Bane cannot construct a Holocron of his own. Each attempt ends in failure. That is until his apprentice stumbles upon an unlikely source for information of the Dark Side. A noble, Hetton, of a minor house is trying to start a movement to overthrow the Republic but when Zannah meets him he knows what she is and wants to become her apprentice. She as any good Sith Apprentice would do gets him to attack Darth Bane with his Force Assassins. She figures either Bane goes down or Hetton does either way she wins.
Bane of course is the victor and with this new information gained from Hettons resources they find where a Holocron exists that may have information on creating Holocrons. So Bane goes after that and sends his Zannah to the Jedi Temple to do research on removing the Orbalisks.
All in all it's a decent book with a great story line, I mean who doesn't want to read about the Sith doing their thing. I hope he writes more in the Darth Bane series.
I'm still not feeling I'm doing that great of a job in my reviews so feedback is welcomed.
Next Up: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
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