Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
Apr. 14th, 2006 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulFinished up 'Dark Lord' last night and I think I liked it.
the problem with the prequel novels, especially the ones inbetween movies, is that they really can only go so far with wrapping up the story. We all know that the true ending of these books happens in 'Return of the Jedi' so I was left with that sort of "but I want more!" feeling. I don't think that was Luceno's fault though, it's just how the prequel novels have to be.
That being said, it was pretty fun to read about Anakin/Vader and his new life. The book actually starts a few moments before order 66 is issued. We're introduced to some new Jedi and their clone regiment that does exactly what I said the Republic Commando's from my video game would do - they don't follow order 66 right away. Anyway, so these Jedi get away and the emperor finds out and send Vader to get them.
Vader is in brood mode. He's pissed about his new body, how the suit doesn't work as well as he wished. He's slowly realizing how he was played by Palpatine. And he's also slowly learning how the whole dark side thing works. I found the Vader chapters to be the most interesting - watching him start with a bit of Anakin left and reading as he pretty much pushed any memory of Anakin into the back of his mind and really become Darth Vader.
It's not the best book ever, but it's a quick read. I'm not well-versed in the world of Star Wars novels. I read the original Zahn Trilogy, I think I read the Correlian Trilogy, and I suffered thru a couple Keven J Anderson books and then he killed the whole thing for me. I started reading the novels around the prequels for fun, since Lucas' writing needs all the help it can get and i found the authors tended to understand character a bit more than Lucas and helped make the characters work. And that's what this book does - it makes the Vader we saw at the end of RotS work. We see him introduced to the galaxy as this terror.
Oh, and remember how in 'Clerks' there's that whole conversation about who built the death star and did the rebels kill innocent people? Well, we find out who built the first death star in this book! It's not the geonosians. It's enslaved Wookiees. Hm. Not sure how I feel about that. Chewbacca was not one of them, though, he escapes with the heroes at the end of the story. Still, enslaved Wookiees? Wonder if they kept them around for the Death Star II????
The book ends with Obi-Wan finding out that Vader is alive and well. I was sad because I wanted more Obi-Wan and I could tell I only had 3 pages left! Part of me wants a novel about obi and another part of me wants to leave it all to my imagination. Same with Luke and Leia's upbringing. I'd be curious to read stories of their childhood, but there's something about published fiction vs. fanfiction - when it's published some people really consider it canon and I'd rather it wasn't.
Has anyone else read this book? what did you think?
the problem with the prequel novels, especially the ones inbetween movies, is that they really can only go so far with wrapping up the story. We all know that the true ending of these books happens in 'Return of the Jedi' so I was left with that sort of "but I want more!" feeling. I don't think that was Luceno's fault though, it's just how the prequel novels have to be.
That being said, it was pretty fun to read about Anakin/Vader and his new life. The book actually starts a few moments before order 66 is issued. We're introduced to some new Jedi and their clone regiment that does exactly what I said the Republic Commando's from my video game would do - they don't follow order 66 right away. Anyway, so these Jedi get away and the emperor finds out and send Vader to get them.
Vader is in brood mode. He's pissed about his new body, how the suit doesn't work as well as he wished. He's slowly realizing how he was played by Palpatine. And he's also slowly learning how the whole dark side thing works. I found the Vader chapters to be the most interesting - watching him start with a bit of Anakin left and reading as he pretty much pushed any memory of Anakin into the back of his mind and really become Darth Vader.
It's not the best book ever, but it's a quick read. I'm not well-versed in the world of Star Wars novels. I read the original Zahn Trilogy, I think I read the Correlian Trilogy, and I suffered thru a couple Keven J Anderson books and then he killed the whole thing for me. I started reading the novels around the prequels for fun, since Lucas' writing needs all the help it can get and i found the authors tended to understand character a bit more than Lucas and helped make the characters work. And that's what this book does - it makes the Vader we saw at the end of RotS work. We see him introduced to the galaxy as this terror.
Oh, and remember how in 'Clerks' there's that whole conversation about who built the death star and did the rebels kill innocent people? Well, we find out who built the first death star in this book! It's not the geonosians. It's enslaved Wookiees. Hm. Not sure how I feel about that. Chewbacca was not one of them, though, he escapes with the heroes at the end of the story. Still, enslaved Wookiees? Wonder if they kept them around for the Death Star II????
The book ends with Obi-Wan finding out that Vader is alive and well. I was sad because I wanted more Obi-Wan and I could tell I only had 3 pages left! Part of me wants a novel about obi and another part of me wants to leave it all to my imagination. Same with Luke and Leia's upbringing. I'd be curious to read stories of their childhood, but there's something about published fiction vs. fanfiction - when it's published some people really consider it canon and I'd rather it wasn't.
Has anyone else read this book? what did you think?
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poor annie
Date: 2006-04-16 05:36 am (UTC)it is kind of sad to see him and how unhappy he was
being trapped and what not
i read it when it first came out
and if im in the mood to read it again
i skip over the jedi parts
and basically just read the darth vader parts
im glad he mans up by the end and becomes the man
accepting his role basically
i hope there are a few novels however about him attempting to take out palpy
that'd be nice
of course they'd be failed attempts
but there has to be some of that in his history
dont ya think?
and definitly more obiwan when he ponders what to do about it
maybe even some of obiwan almost makin a move against vader
i mean, he took him out before
why not try again?
of course we know he doesnt
but there can be some almosts
thats mroe interesting than random jedi who get killed
although that is fun as well
happy easter!
i havent used my LJ in many moons
Re: poor annie
Date: 2006-04-16 04:12 pm (UTC)I know there's a children's book series called 'last of the jedi' which I think focuses on Obi-Wan's side adventures...need to pick that up and see if it's any good. I was enjoying the prequel kids books about Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon before TPM.
you should come back to livejournal...I miss your little rants about foodstuff haha. Plus, I despise MySpace. But if you post to that blog more often I think there is a way for me to set it up so the MySpace blog comes to my friends list...
happy easter to you too!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-16 04:17 pm (UTC)I never had a desire to read the EU stuff that was about Luke, Leia, and Han because I was happy with those movies and had my own ideas about what happened to them after RotJ. And as soon as I found out that Luke got married and Chewbacca was killed in the novels, I decided it was safer to avoid them hehe.
It's always a hot topic in fandom related discussions - what each person considers canon. It's pretty much forbidden on the star wars discussion boards I belong too because it always ends in flame wars since everyone has their own views. I'm sure the LotR and Dune people are they same (aren't a chunk of the Dune novels written by a different author?).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-19 02:47 am (UTC)oh my.
I've heard there are a few novels that came out between Star Wars and Empire that have Luke and Leia getting a little too cuddly for comfort. I'm not sure if the people who are deep into EU count that stuff or not.
There are few things as bad as the christmas special...and any fan that whines about the special not being on DVD has obviously never seen the thing. Ugh. Chewbacca would NEVER name his child Lumpy...