Warning: for those that haven't read Dark Lord yet, this does contain spoilers.

Most nights I read a little bit in bed before I go to sleep, a habit that I've had for a while as a way of relaxing and clearing my mind and getting away from the worries or stresses of my day. My first job out of college was with a large engineering firm in downtown Chicago, at the far south end of the Loop (near Wabash and 8th) and the stress of living in a big city and working a very challenging job as a recent graduate gave me some trouble going to sleep at night. I found that reading a little in bed really helped me go to sleep, and well, basically since then I've always had a book on the nightstand that I'm slowly reading thru.

In '99, I had a great opportunity to take a position with a firm in downstate Illinois, and I jumped at the chance. For one, as a young engineer with a little experience under my belt, it was a good career move with much more job responsibility (and naturally, higher pay), and secondly it would allow me to live in a more rural area (which I prefer to the big city). I had also been casually seeing a girl that lived downstate. We'd met thru friends while I was living in Chicago, and since we'd been doing the long distance thing for a little while, this seemed to be a good chance to see if there could be a longterm relationship there. Well, our relationship did develop and a couple of years ago Brooke and I moved in together.

It's funny that since we've been living together, she's now developed the habit of reading at night too. In fact, currently she's reading thru her first Star Wars book of any kind, my copy of the RoTS novelization (and really enjoying it).

Okay, I'm starting to wander off track here and get totally away from what I wanted to write about in this blog. Dark Lord, like the RoTS novelization, has become a favorite book of mine - not just SW, but any sci-fi/fantasy type book. I'm not really good at writing these book review blogs (which probably explains why I wandered off topic), but I really want to throw out some of my impressions of Dark Lord. To keep this as short and simple as possible, and to keep this blog entry from getting totally goofy (which I have been known to do), I'll just focus on a few interesting points.

Clones disobey Order 66
This was not unexpected, since it made sense to me that there would be Clone Troopers somewhere that could not carry out Order 66 and kill their Jedi Generals. In the case of Dark Lord, it occurs on Murkhana with Ion Team led by a Clone Captain nicknamed Climber, and the Jedi that are allowed to escape with their lives become among the main characters of the book. They are Roan Shryne (a Jedi Master that lost his padawan during the Battle of Geonosis), Bol Chatak (a female Zabrak Jedi Master), and her padawan learner, a female named Olee Starstone. Of the three, Shryne is clearly the most intriguing, since he is somewhat disheartened at being a Jedi, partly due to the loss of his padawan as well as his former Master, but Shryne is also going thru a personal crisis in his beliefs in the Force. Starstone is too typical of a padawan, she was boring for me. She was idealistic and enthusiastic and a bit hard-headed, blah, blah, blah. Same old stuff there. She was too generic in that regard, but she does play an important role thru the story. For example, she has issues with attachment to the Jedi Order, and she can't honor the order from the Temple for all Jedi to go in hiding. She is compelled to try and seek out other Jedi, with some bad consequences.

Return of a Jedi to his mother
This was one of the most interesting little sub-plots in the book. Roan Shryne along with the other surviving Jedi, on the run from Imperial Clone Troopers on Murkhana, eventually winds up onboard a freighter known as the Drunk Dancer with its crew of smugglers and scoundrels and such. The crew are interesting characters, pirates and smugglers always are interesting, but the captain of the ship is actually Roan's mother (and yes, she is somewhat Force sensitive). Hey, small galaxy, huh. The backstory contains many issues I've often wondered about involving the Jedi "taking" younglings from their families. I thought this little sub-plot to the book was touching, and it explored (although somewhat briefly) what losing Roan to the Jedi did to their family. The mother didn't want the Jedi to take him, and the father did - and eventually it had destroyed their marriage.

Enslavement of the Wookiees
I also figured that this was coming as well, since I knew that Wookiee slave labor was used to aid in construction of the first Death Star. However, the fall of Kashyyyk and the battle to enslave the Wookiees was very powerful reading. First off, I love the Wookiees (well, who doesn't) so reading about them being slaughtered and herded and captured, and the Woshyr trees burning did strike an emotional chord. There are several layers to the conflict on Kashyyyk that add to the complexity and drama as well. Roan Shryne is locked in a duel to the death with Darth Vader (though I know who's going to win that), but more importantly, Vader is in charge of the campaign to control Kashyyyk and enslave the Wookiees. Darth Sidious plays this well, he completely unleashes Vader and lets the devastation on Kashyyyk speak to the Imperial troops and officers everywhere of what Vader is capable of. Vader assumes his role as the Emperor's executioner, and the vicious conquering of Kashyyyk is the real rise of Darth Vader.

Appearance of Darth Vader
Yep, the main topic of the book is, you guessed it, the dude in the shiny Black Armor. Vader's arrival on the scene is told from different points of view, from naturally Anakin's own thoughts and emotions to the impressions of the Imperial military forces to the reactions from the general public at this new and mysterious black enforcer serving the Emperor. Anakin is frustrated at how inhibiting the mechanical suit is, and it is interesting to read how he must adapt to his new existence. In some ways he has become less powerful (meaning his physical skills), but in other ways he is slowly becoming more and more powerful (gaining in his knowledge and use of the Dark Side of the Force). I enjoyed reading how Anakin felt about Palpatine, how on the one hand he could despise him and want badly to kill him, and on the other hand how he valued Palpatine's teachings and wanting to use his Master's knowledge to make himself more and more powerful. Vader is already plotting to overthrow Sidious and rule the galaxy.

There are also the views of people that cross paths with Vader during his slow emergence into the public eye. The two reactions that are the most telling and dramatic are those of Bail Organa and Obi-wan Kenobi. They both realize who is in the black armor. They both realize that Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader. Bail Organa now fears for his newly adopted daughter, Leia, and what the consequences might be if Vader were to see her. There is a great scene in the palace on Alderaan when Vader arrives (looking for the fleeing Senator Zang Far) and he shows a mild interest in seeing Bail and Breha Organa's new infant. There's a moment of crisis that is pretty exciting as Bail avoids having Vader get in the presence of infant Leia. Also, the final scene of Obi-wan sitting despondent in a cantina in Anchorhead on Tattooine when over the HoloNet News come images of Darth Vader, and Obi-wan realizes immediately that Anakin has survived their duel on Mustafar. That was a fantastic ending I thought.