Spoilers Ahead!!!

Hello friends! You didn’t think I’d forgotten my Legends reading, did you? Nope, it just took me a bit to get this far. I had been reading Knight Errant by John Jackson Miller, and surprisingly, it was a terrible slog for me. I happen to like JJM’s other books–A New Dawn and Kenobi, specifically–and I was familiar with his rather plodding, and carefully and thoroughly-told tales. But this was on a different level. It was just so convoluted and out there and well, just plain boring, I had to put it down.

But this post isn’t about that book, it’s about Bane. I’ve heard many good things about this trilogy, breathless and excited praise, and I thought, yeah yeah, I’ll get there, calm down, lol. But as soon as I picked it up and started reading, I was enthralled. Bane’s rise from downtrodden cortosis miner, to Sith soldier, to star student at the Sith Academy on Korriban, to the most powerful Dark Lord of the Sith, is truly compelling and one of the most entertaining reads of the Old Republic books.

One of the reasons I worried about getting through the Old Republic section of the Legends books was that it was so heavily focused on the Sith. Normally, I don’t care to read books with the “bad” guys as the protagonists; I just have a hard time sympathizing with them as the main character (I did really like the Darth Malgus book Deceived, however). But as I was reading this book and watched Bane rise among the Sith and become disenchanted with the Brotherhood of Darkness and the new Sith ways, I found myself nodding along as he learned of the old Sith Masters and came up with the Rule of Two: “Hmm, yeah, he’s right, you know, they’re weak, they need to be destroyed.” LOL. I was actually rooting for him to become the strongest, most powerful Sith and exorcise any trace of guilt, pity, or compassion in himself to get there. And I blame the excellent writing of Drew Karpyshyn, who drew me into this world and into Bane’s life, and helped me understand where he came from and what he believed, and why (I also enjoyed Karpyshyn’s excellent Old Republic novel Annhilation).

The book focuses almost entirely on Bane, with only a few other, brief points of view, and I think this was an excellent decision on the part of the writer. I don’t mind multiple points of view, but if there’s too many, my attention will often become scattered. Once we enter Bane’s mind, we stay there for most of the book, and it’s an intense experience where the reader becomes enveloped in the fire of the dark side. Towards the middle to the end of the book, we see the Battle of Ruusan taking place between The Brotherhood of Darkness and the Jedi’s Army of Light, which becomes Bane’s chosen time and place to destroy the Brotherhood. The war has come to a terrible stalemate, and both sides are exhausted and near despair.

The Jedi in charge is named General Hoth (did he have a whole world named after him?), and the war has caused him to become desperate, angry, a little crazy, sliding toward the dark. It’s interesting to see the Jedi Order in this time period, what with the constant wars with the Sith over the centuries. We canon junkies think the Clone Wars caused a lot of harm to the Order, but these holy wars with the Sith were on a different level entirely.

Bane has had an insight that seems obvious when you think about it: the war between the dark and the light will not be won by armies; it will be won by the power of the Force. The Sith infighting over the millenia has only caused them to become weak, as seen by Lord Kaan’s forming of the Brotherhood: the Sith Lords have formed an alliance in order to defeat their enemy, with the idea that they are all equal; together they will be strong enough to defeat the Jedi. But alliance and working together as a whole is a Jedi trait. Bane has nothing but contempt for this; the very essence of the dark side is to be the strongest. The weak serve the strong. The Sith Lords have even dropped the title Darth from their names, as part of distancing themselves from the old ways. Bane brings the title back–he is Darth Bane, not simply a Dark Lord of the Sith.

Bane’s epiphany begins with his study of the ancient Sith texts in the archives during his spare time, when he’s not training with the other students. The Masters have no use for the old knowledge and see it as a waste of time, but Bane is fascinated. The Old Masters performed incredible, even impossible feats (I’m thinking of Darth Nihilus, who swallowed entire worlds [!!!]). Most of the new Masters believe it all to be myth and legend, but Bane isn’t so sure. He leaves the Academy to explore the old Sith tombs in the Valley of the Dead, but he’s disappointed to find nothing but dust and bones. But he’s not deterred. Instead of going to Ruusan with the other students to fight in the war, he goes to the planet Lehon and finds a Sith holocron with lessons on the dark side from none other than Revan himself. It’s here he comes up with his idea: the Rule of Two. There should be only one Master, to hold the power, and one apprentice, to crave it. When the Apprentice has learned all there is to know from the Master, they will challenge and kill the Master and take on their own apprentice, thus preserving the line. They will survive through secrecy, deception, and betrayal, the true Sith ways, and one day defeat the Jedi. It will take a thousand years, but it works, lol. At least for a while, as the Light always returns, and on and on. But I digress.

He destroys the Brotherhood through a Thought Bomb, an ancient, very dangerous Sith spell that usually destroys any Force user within its radius, Sith and Jedi alike. He tricks Lord Kaan into using it with the other Sith Lords, and they are killed, their spirits trapped in an agonizing netherworld, along with the Jedi General Hoth and his followers who sacrifice themselves to end the Brotherhood. Bane is now free to put his plan of the Rule of Two in motion. He meets a little girl named Zannah on the planet who he takes as an apprentice, and we’ll see their relationship in the next two books.

There’s a lot I haven’t mentioned here, including some characters like Githany, a fallen Jedi who shares an attraction with Bane and betrays him over and over (which he admires, lol); Sirak, a Zabrack Sith student that Bane challenges and loses to, and then later defeats; Sith Lords like Quorlis, Ka’sim, and Kopeck; Lord Farfalle, a dandy-like but noble Jedi who keeps General Hoth on track; and everything about Bane’s childhood at the abusive hands of his father, Hurst; his challenging life in the cortosis mines; and his brief service in the Sith army, all experiences that contributed to who he is and what he believes, as well as his strength and persistence. It was interesting to follow his journey, and I understand why he chose the dark side and the Sith rather than the light side and the Jedi: the Republic, who are allied with the Jedi, never did anything for him or his planet; and the dark side gives him a sense of control and power over himself and his life, which he didn’t have growing up on Apatros. It was an outlet for all of his rage, and I get that. But as Tech from the Bad Batch said to Crosshair: “Just because I understand you doesn’t mean I agree with you.” The dark is the dark, after all.

Anyway, these are my rambling and not very organized thoughts about Path of Destruction, which is probably my favorite Old Republic Legends book so far. I give it:

5 out of 5 Lightsabers!

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!