Darth Bane: Rule of Two

I found this novel to have some really high points, and a lot of aspects I love, but I also found it a really slow read, and one that I kinda struggled to get through unfortunately.

The book favours espionage and the secrecy and hiding of the Sith over action, which I thought might be cool, but these plots aren't very engaging. There are a few really enjoyable ones, like Bane's struggle to make a holocron, but a lot are really uninteresting, essentially all of Zannah's plots unfortunately until later on.

Zannah's boring plots are made up for by a really good bit where she tests Bane and nearly gets him killed, but then she reverts back to not having much interesting to do sadly. However, I do find her a pretty good character, even if (so far) she pales in comparison to Bane.

I really liked all of the Jedi characters, but I did find their plot extremely predictable, and I found the Jedi's incompetence to be a little extreme and silly at a few points. Luckily, characters like Farfalla and Johun are excellent, and really make up for this. I loved these two, their relationship, and their development.

The pacing wasn't great, as the section before the ten year time jump is almost purely setup to explain how the characters leave the situation they were in at the end of the last book, and is a section I feel could've been skipped entirely

What makes this worse, for me, was how when they do the ten year time jump, they have to reintroduce pretty much everybody as all the characters except Bane have enormously changed and developed, and are all in different places doing different things, so it has to take another dive into exposition and reintroducing everybody, meaning the plot becomes a bit of a slog here.

I will say, though, that the battle between Darth Bane, Zannah, and the five Jedi is utterly fantastic. I love how fast it is, how intense it is, and how close it is. I also love seeing Bane's orbalisk armour in combat, and how almost invulnerable it makes him, and how it enhances his rage and power.

This scene is a shining example of the Jedi being very good even after years of peace, and I do love how fierce a battle it is, and how the Sith come so close to losing here. A theme of these books I continue to love is Bane and Zannah's constant failures and near misses, I love how lucky they get and how they keep having to learn and improve. The battle here is another example of this as they finally have a proper fight and get so close to losing.

Overall, it's a solid book, but I found it a bit of a struggle to read, and maybe it's because I slowed down a little over my birthday, but I found myself becoming disengaged with the plot and characters, and only managed to get back to my usual reading pace towards the end.

I'm sure that most people who enjoy the first novel will enjoy this one too, but I'd be surprised if anyone enjoys it as much, as it's clearly a little bit of a step down.

Rather than forcing myself to read the next novel straight away, to maximise my enjoyment, I'm taking a break to start “Legacy of the Force” for November as I planned, and I will return to finish the trilogy some time after, as I already own the third novel.

Not a bad book at all, but a step down in quality compared to the last, and it has some flaws and issues I really struggled with.

6/10

Slow start, but the second half of the book is worth it.

It's obvious that the book was written in 6-months time. It's only during the last few chapters that I didn't have to semi-force myself through the book.
As much as I love this series, it was a bit disappointing coming to this after the first book.