A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I started reading these books…

The Star Wars Expanded Universe is a big place, and one that’s easy to get lost in. To the extent that my bookshelf allows, every Tuesday I or another reviewer will be guiding you through the EU with (generally) chronologically placed reviews of Star Wars novels. Today I will be reviewing Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, a James Luceno novel hailed with the unique title of a sequel (and indeed, part of a trilogy) to a movie novelization.

Order 66 and its aftermath have passed- The Republic has become the Galactic Empire, headed by Palpatine, and Anakin Skywalker is now the robotic, black-suited being known as Darth Vader. But the Empire, especially Vader himself, is experiencing growing pains, and the Emperor schemes to make both his Empire and his representative reach their full potential. The only thing that stands in his way is a small group of Jedi survivors, including former Jedi Master Roan Shryne.

For a reader like me, the main draw in this novel is… well, the reason why James Luceno is called from time to time the Lucenopedia. This is irrelevant to casual fans or new readers (although the extra immersion might be a nice perk), but for the serious Star Wars fanatics, Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader features such names as Armand Isarde, Mas Amedda, Sate Pestage, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Wilhuff Tarkin. All of these advisers and opposers of the Emperor feature in meaningful ways that advance the plot, their character in the overarching Star Wars plot, or both. More important to the novel, most of them interact with title character Darth Vader in ways that further his plot and goals.

Then you get to Vader himself, who is exquisitely written. One of my favorite things to do while reading this novel is to read each of Vader’s lines in my head twice, alternating between the voices of Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones, and almost every line works perfectly in both personas. The transition from Skywalker to Vader works in other ways as well, transforming from the Hero Without Fear we’ve seen in the prequel movies demanding respect to the titan in the original trilogy who simply takes it. The only thing I wished for more of in my second read-through was that we saw more of what we were told. The character’s acknowledge the change in Vader’s style, but I would love to see more of the process of developing it, similar to the practicing scenes in Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire. Still, we see a good deal of focus on Vader without taking away from any of the other major plotlines, never straying from the ongoing plot of the novel.

If you haven’t guessed by now, this is a very character-driven novel. The last pair I wish to touch on is, if anything, more dynamic than Vader in terms of character development. We see a Jedi Master (probably the best example we’ve gotten of the “shadowing” of the Force and how it relates to the Council and their peers) and a Jedi Padawan, each with two completely different views of the Force, the Jedi and the galaxy after their different experiences during the war. Not to spoil, neither of them is entirely what they seem by the end and both of them are important to the coming conflicts and Vader’s path. One of them, I wish to see a sequel about (much as I wish to see a sequel about the vast majority of these Order 66 Survivors), though that’s neither here, nor there.

I’ve focused mainly on the characters, so let’s get on with the plot. As much as I love this novel, I have to be honest- the first… third, maybe, possibly even half, is… extremely dry. Because of that, the hook is pretty weak, and if you’re not in love with the setting you’d better be in love with the characters. Otherwise, you’re in for a rough ride early on but it does get better- when Vader comes into play. I wouldn’t say that the Jedi plot becomes any easier to read, although hopefully by the time you’re in a good bit, you’ll be too interested in the characters to worry about that. Dry as it may be, the plot does keep moving, giving sympathetic clones (though I did find myself wishing for Karen Traviss), as well as devious criminals and henchmen, surprising but believable turns, and as I mentioned above, it involves all of the cameos and stays pretty understandable and linear. There are times when some delving into things would have been appreciated, but this isn’t a book in desperate need of padding by any means.

I love this book. Dark Lord perfectly shows the transition from Anakin Skywalker to The Rise of Darth Vader, as well as even explaining why Palpatine wanted Skywalker and Kenobi to run every little errand possible during his time as a Jedi. Despite a dry plot at times, it’s compelling and steady, filled with awesome cameos with plenty of action and philosophy. Definitely a book for all Star Wars collections.