Wow. It's amazing how real life will throw your plans for a loop. Here I was, happily reading away, and then I got reassigned to a new location at work, with a new schedule, and a whole host of new things to do. For a couple of days, I wasn't able to pick up a book for more than a few minutes at a time, and my reading went from ahead of schedule to almost painfully behind.

But a Jedi doesn't give up, and neither do I. Besides, now that my new schedule is firmly in place, it actually looks like I'll have MORE time to read, which is fantastic. Won't know if that will pan out until Saturday, but here's hoping.

Anyway, today we've got the last of the Ancient Republic stories to go over - Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, and the comic series Jedi Vs Sith.

This is the first time I've read Darth Bane, and I have to admit, I was more than impressed. I find it funny how the recent books released dealing with the Clone Wars and other pre-classic trilogy subjects for the most part have been considerably better than all the post ROTJ stuff that's been put out in the last, oh, five years (Again, for the most part. There are shinning examples to contradict this on both sides). DB:PoD is one of the better Star Wars reads I've come across lately, and I found myself glued to it every time I had a chance to open it up. The fact that Drew Karpyshyn went to such effort to connect the book not only with the Jedi Vs Sith comic series, but also all the previous Star Wars works (chronologically) is amazing. And while Bane is a bit more connected to the Knights of the Old Republic game than the Tales of the Jedi series, this makes sense, as KOTOR is the last major Sith event to happen prior to this. And (as I can personally attest) you don't have to have played the game to understand what's going on. I do, however, want to play it more now than ever. Maybe I can find a cheap original Xbox somewhere and pick it up fairly cheap...

The only flaws I found in the entire book are nitpicky things. More detail into how LONG the battle on Ruusaan was would've been nice - it could be read to take place in a mater of weeks or years, but that's never clear. Of course, it's never clear in the Jedi vs Sith comic series, either. Other than that, there were a few things - minor, mostly - that didn't just match up with the Jedi Vs Sith comic - Githany's death, for instance, happens much earlier in the book than it does in the comic, and a few other deaths seem misplaced by my judgement. Still, Bane is fantastically written, and I'd love to see Karpyshyn tackle some more stuff from this era - perhaps Zannah's training in the dark side of the force, or Darth Bane's eventual demise at her hands.

Anyway, here's the stats of Darth Bane: Path of Destruction:

Story: A
Relevance: A+ (connects beautifully with almost every other Star Wars era before or after)
Overall: A - (A fantastic read that I look forward to going over again someday).

Next up is Jedi vs Sith, the comic series with perhaps the dullest name in the history of Star Wars comics. I remember picking up with first issue, looking at the cover, and wondering not only where it fit into the Star Wars universe, but also what the heck it was about. The covers, while mostly artistically beautiful, are about as clear as mud in telling you what happens inside.

But I read the story and found myself drawn to it, and when I found the second issue, I grabbed it to. Sure, the three kids (Tomcat, Bug, and Rain) all bothered me, but then a lot of fictional kids bother me - they're kids, and they're supposed to be annoying (we'll have this discussion again around the time of Episode I, I suspect). But the background characters are interesting, and the more I read, the more I realized it connected to another of my Star Wars guilty pleasures - the Dark Forces novelizations. By the end of the series, the stage was set of Kyle Katarn's early adventures, and I had a new Sith Lord (Darth Bane) to wonder about. The series isn't exactly perfect - the art is a tad on the cartoony side, and most of the characters are two-dimensional. However, when you read it in concert with Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, the whole series of events melds together perfectly, and everything is improved. Yes, those same slight differences in plot are there still, but beyond that, the story is good and it's wonderful to see a previously unexplored era of the Star Wars universe brought to life.

Grades:
Story: B- (focusing on the kids hampers the storytelling)
Art: A- (Bachs and Fernandez's stile takes some getting used to, but once you do, it flows well.)
Relevance: A- (not as connected to the Sith stories that come before, but it sets the stage for Dark Forces beautifully)
Overall: B+

So, that brings our page count to 1396 in 12 days, which isn't as bad as I thought, but still puts me about 2 days behind where I should be (roughly 236 pages behind). I blame work, but hope to catch up again fairly soon. Up next is Jude Watson's fantastic Jedi Apprentice series, which reads easy, and is thoroughly enjoyable. Looking forward to it.