Darth Bane: Path of Destruction

My first venture into the SW book universe and I am not disappointed.

The book portrays Darth Bane as a great anti-hero and actually makes you feel sorry for him early on which makes it surprisingly easy to connect with people who are often portrayed as the villains of this universe and some of the Sith are surprisingly likeable.

This book has the perfect blend of lightsaber and force action in between slow and methodical tactical planning which keeps it fresh and gripping from the outset and throughout. It also goes against most versions of the Sith as simple villains who just want to kill everything and everyone by explaining their extensive archives and methodology to their being.

Excited to read the sequel and hope it is just as gripping as this book.

5/5

My first venture into the SW book universe and I am not disappointed.

The book portrays Darth Bane as a great anti-hero and actually makes you feel sorry for him early on which makes it surprisingly easy to connect with people who are often portrayed as the villains of this universe and some of the Sith are surprisingly likeable.

This book has the perfect blend of lightsaber and force action in between slow and methodical tactical planning which keeps it fresh and gripping from the outset and throughout. It also goes against most versions of the Sith as simple villains who just want to kill everything and everyone by explaining their extensive archives and methodology to their being.

Excited to read the sequel and hope it is just as gripping as this book.

5/5

I should've known that the writer of ‘Knights of the Old Republic' would be an excellent novelist too, but I was still shocked at how well-written this book was.

The writing style is possibly the most addictive that I have read yet. I found myself last night sat up for hours reading, and today I got through the entirety of Part III rather quickly. His style is fascinating because he describes everything just enough that you can visualise it perfectly, it isn't complicated at all, but is also short and snappy.

The pacing is superb, even though the beginning is slow, it never feels boring, learning about Bane is fascinating and I'm happy that the book explained his origins before becoming a Sith Lord as it made him much more compelling.

Bane as a character is one of the most well-written villains in Star Wars history, but with him being the protagonist, he's hardly the villain is he? Well then, who is the antagonist? Everyone. This book feels very much like Bane against the Galaxy, as he has to fight and kill almost everyone he comes across, even the woman he falls in love with.

Path of Destruction is far more rewarding if you've played the video game ‘Knights of the Old Republic' but should be fine without doing so, after all, I still haven't got round to playing its sequel. But it leans into the lore of that game, and it is easier to comprehend for having played it. I could visualise planets like Korriban much easier, and the Sith troopers and such were easier to imagine having seen them.

I love that the importance of Revan is prevalent even thousands of years later, and this book really shows the vastness of the Star Wars Galaxy, not only linking to the past thousands of years ago, even tens of thousands of years ago, from ‘Knights of the Old Republic' to the ‘Dawn of the Jedi', this book sets up events that won't come to play fully until the fall of the Republic and the Rise of the Sith with Darth Sidious and Vader.

The true and proper final lineage of the Sith is formed as Bane paves a new path for the Sith, revolutionising them forevermore and becoming not just one of the most powerful Sith ever, but one of the most influential and important.

There are many other compelling characters, Githany, for one, who is his lover at the Sith Academy on Korriban. Equally cunning, but not as powerful, like everyone else, she must eventually fall under Bane.

Bane's rise to power is extremely well paced, it feels earned, he suffers many failures and humiliations, but comes out on top the ultimate victor. He also does quite a lot of vile things in this book.

One of the most brutal moments is when he is poisoned, and nearly dying. Trying to use the emotions left by the corpses around him isn't enough, so he murders a child, then the child's younger brother in front of the father, and then the father, using their intense emotions to keep himself going.

Bane doesn't kill without reason, he doesn't like killing out of pure anger, hatred, revenge or anything like that. He believes murder should serve a purpose, and eventually grows cold to killing for what he needs, totally different to how he feels when having killed an opponent at the academy on Korriban, where he felt a conflict for many days afterward.

I love that Bane hates everyone. The current Sith, the Republic, the Jedi, everyone. There is only one person that he can trust, and that is himself. He forms the iconic Rule of Two, “Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power, the other to crave it.”

Path of Destruction is one of the more artistic Star Wars novels, and one I would highly recommend to even the most casual fans. It breaks down the Sith at their ultimate core, and the man who shapes what they will eventually be known to be.

It is an addicting read, superbly written, a masterclass in Star Wars novels. A vastly different era, brand new characters, it is extremely fresh and still relevant and perhaps always will be.

Peak Star Wars as far as I'm concerned.

9/10