After all of the positive reviews I've seen for Star Wars Dark Lord I decided to pick it up on Friday, only to find that the book store had sold out. So I ordered a copy, picked it up Sunday night, and just now, Wednesday morning, finished it. I think the only other book I've read faster was the 6th Harry Potter book

Please note that there will be some spoilers in the second half of this, but the next paragraph will be spoiler-free and is an attempt to persuade fans who haven't bought the book to grab a copy and read it

Let me begin by saying to anyone who is hesitant about this book, it is very much worth buying, whether now or, if you can't afford to pay $25 for the book, wait till it comes out to paperback. Either way, you won't be throwing away your money.

As a writer I can't help but analyze the writing itself along side of the story. Luceno's style is practiced, that is obvious, although his style isn't perfect (who's is?) Some annoying points are long, 5+ line dialogues in a scene where there are many characters, and the person who is speaking this dialogue isn't revealed to us until the very end of the lengthy speech. Of course in dialogue, beginning each and every sentence with "So and so said" or "This person stated" can be boring. It's common practice and teaching that in extended dialogue scenes, when there's no need for such attachments, don't use them. When the words the character is using are enough to allow reader imagination to figure out what tone they're using or what facial expressions, don't use tags such as "he stated angrily" and so on. However, when there's multiple characters all activately talking, and one decides to make a somewhat long speech (and when you make almost every character use the exact same syntax) you need to put within the first sentence who is speaking. I felt somewhat embarassed to be reading such a dialogue with a woman's voice in my head, only to find out it was Shryne speaking...

Luceno's strengths within this piece were particularly with Vader. He obviously put a lot of thought and time into Vader's transformation from whiny, teenage Anakin to the fearsome Dark Lord of the Sith. His description of Vader's suit as a prison, and every part that led up to that thought, was amazing. He was also smart enough to not make the transformation ultimately complete, there was still a hint of Anakin's voice inside of his head in the end, and there probably will be for years to come, but it was more than enough to satiate my curiosity at how RotS Vader grew up to be ANH Vader

I'm now irking to know, however, how Chewie's family will fare. His leaving his family on Kashyyyk (because there's nothing he could do at the moment) kinda reminds me of Teal'c leaving his family in SG-1, but only because I love SG-1 as much as I do Wars and Trek The very short 45th chapter was a great addition with Tarfful roaring and the final line "Kashyyyk had fallen."

Unfortunately, there were other parts of the novel I wasn't so fond of, namely the new characters of Shryne and Olee Starstone. Starstone was particularly flat, nothing special, nothing new in her character. Her switch to blaster+Lightsaber when they board the abandoned CIS ship was out of the blue, and her final 'epiphany' seemed completely artificial.

There were points in this novel, including with Starstone, but also particularly with Shryne, that things felt rushed. The beginning certainly wasn't, Luceno clearly tried to develop his own characters as much as he could, and I did rather enjoy his somewhat artificial-feeling relationship with the clones. However, neither of his new characters were developed very much, and although Shryne's shift from Jedi to merc back to Jedi was more believable than Starstone's character transition, it was certainly not perfect (I've yet to find a writer who can make such transitions perfect...)

And I don't want people to think I'm being negative about the novel, I'm just giving it a thorough review. I loved it all in all I enjoyed the piece-meal way Shryne and Starstone discovered facts about the Empire's birth and who Vader was. I loved how Vader started so clumsy in his suit when it came to fighting, but after he began to know himself, to understand and embrace the dark side, he became almost an expert swordsman.

I was rather miffed, however, about Shryne's final moments. His battle with Vader, and the proceeding revelation of who Vader was, seemed like it was an attempt at an 'homage' for Empire Strikes Back, but it was too much like Luke and Vader's duel. At least RotS's duel between Anakin and Dooku was different enough from the RotJ final duel. I kept expecting Vader to say "Come with me, Shryne, and together we can destroy the Emperor and rule the galaxy as Master and Apprentice!" That whole part could have been left out of the novel or, at the very least, altered dramatically.

The novel had its ups and downs, but like some of the best novels ever written, it overcame its own shortcomings. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and once again I recommend reading it to anyone who hasn't. I certainly hope there's more novels coming that'll take place after this, further filling the gap between these two trilogies, truly making them one complete saga