Let me start by summing up this book in one word - WOW! Finally, a book that reminds me why I enjoy reading all the EU material and want to continue reading. The past few books I've read were less than stellar IMHO, but I figured not every story can be best of the best. PoD, however, was tough for me to put down once I started and I find myself now hoping there will be more coming in the near future.

I enjoyed every part of this book, and not the fact that it was broken into 3 parts, simply for the way the characters were introduced, developed, and woven into the story almost seamlessly yet without being drawn out & boring. Each new character addition or transition to a different part of the story was near perfect in my mind. Watching Des go from a miner on an Outer Rim World to becoming the potential Sith'ari was quite an exciting story.

Drew Karpyshyn completely captured my attention with this book and how he explained the origin of the 'middle wave' of the Sith and its eventual downfall at the hands of Darth Bane. Seeing Des/Bane go from a guy stuck as a miner, to getting a chance off-planet, to joining the Sith Army, and then eventually being trained as a Dark Lord, and all the interaction between could have been a boring story...but the way things were written here was outstanding. Once I finished reading the first thing that crossed my mind was how this story was almost to me a cross between Luke in the OT and Anakin during the PT. Taking parts of each of those stories, merging them together as needed, and then having it take place entirely along the Sith path and you have the Darth Bane beginnings.

The beginning of the book showing how Bane started his life basically not being a believer in the Republic out in the Outer Rim and then being bated & attacked by Republic soldiers was a perfect foreboding for what would come in his future. Throughout the book nothing seemed like it was forced upon Bane, but instead was the result of circumstance. ie. Joining the Sith army to hide from the Republic & saving his own life. Also, his having no knowledge of what the Force was and how it worked, yet his having premonitions was also very clever. That part of the story line reminded me a bit of Harry Potter in the first book of that series when Harry didn't realize he could become a wizard.

I don't want to tell much about the story itself for those who may not have read it yet, but I think this is a must read for any fan of the EU. Along with the Thrawn Trilogy this is one of the few 'must reads' IMO. I will admit I haven't read many of the books past the Thrawn Trilogy, yet, but I'm working my way through the SW timeline.

Overall rating - 10/10