Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

So I should have known better. When I start reading a book and really get into it, it's quite impossible for me to stop at all, let alone five chapters at a time. I'm quite well known to start a book and be up until 4 or 5 am reading it because it's just so good I can't put it down. Well, that has happened with Darth Bane. So here's what I'm going to do. The book is separated into three sections, so I'm going to go one section at a time. That I know I can do (seeing as how I already finished the first two parts).

Part 1

So this also includes the prologue. I'm the type of person that if I'm not interested after the first few paragraphs, I'm never going to finish the book. Not the case here. So the prologue starts out fairly well. It introduces us to the Sith ages ago. This is when they had a legion, as compared to the movie era where there is a Master and an apprentice. It jumps to a scene at the end of the battle, which is in gruesome detail. Here we meet the three top Sith Lords of the era, Lords Kaan, Kopecz, and Qordis. Already, we can smell the dissent among the Lords. It's quite intriguing.

Part one actually starts three years later with the character Dessel, who is a miner on a small planet called Apatros. In just the first chapter, we get a sense of what he's capable of when a fight with another miner gets out of control. We also find out that his father used to call him Bane. That's interesting. He gets suspended and ends up at the planet's only cantina. Yes, the planet is that small. We also learn that this planet is not a destination spot for anyone. After a long game of Sabacc in which Dessel cleans up and gets a visiting Republic Ensign very upset. After a fight with the officer and some of his friends, Des realizes that he has to get out, so he joins the Sith army, knowing the Republic would never find him. This ends Des's time on Apatros.

The next two chapters focus on his career in the Sith army. His unit, the Gloom Walkers, is known as one of the best fighting units in the entire army. His 'talent' seems to grow more and more, so much so that it helps his unit avoid defeat and mass casualties. After a disagreement between him and his superior, he leads his unit to a mass victory where we see him perform an incredible feat that seemingly no one could ever accomplish. For this victory, he gets arrested. This is when he gets sent to Korriban. There he meets Lord Kopecz, whom we met earlier. Des is told about the Force and the Sith Lords and is asked to join the Sith Academy. He finally learns that all the unnatural feats he had accomplished were not so unnatural. This is when he takes the name Bane.

Analysis

So the first part was a little slow, but the parts where there was fighting helped move it along a lot. Especially in chapter 7, where Des and his unit are attacking the Republic outpost. That was intense. It's nice to see where he came from and how he ended up the way he did. I think this part of the book makes me side with him. I want him to succeed, even though I know how things end up a millennia later.