Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Annihilation

Hello friends, and welcome to the latest installment of my Legends Reading Challenge. We’re still in the Old Republic (and will be for a bit), and this time it’s Drew Karpyshyn’s Annihilation. Let’s get into it!

This one stars Theron Shan, the son of Grand Master Jedi Satele Shan (descendant of Revan and Bastila Shan). Except Satele gave him up at birth, to be raised by her former master, Ngani Zho. Satele, besides breaking the Jedi code of no attachments, knew that having a child would distract her from her job as a Jedi fighting for the Republic against the Sith Empire. Theron knew who his mother was, and understood why she gave him up, but they never had contact with each other or had a relationship of any kind. He never knew his father, and Ngani Zho was all the father he ever needed. Turns out, though, Theron didn’t have an affinity for the Force, so instead of going to the Temple, he trained as a spy for the Republic. And he’s very good at his job.

The Sith Empire seems to be flagging in the war with the Republic, but a ship called the Ascendant Spear is a huge threat. It belongs to the Sith Lord Darth Karrid, who can plug into the ship itself through portals surgically implanted into her brain, making it extremely dangerous to the Republic cause. The Supreme Commander of the Republic Forces, Jace Malcom, wants this ship destroyed and decides to send Theron, along with Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, on a mission to destroy it. Gnost-Dural was Darth Karrid’s master before she fell to the dark side. They come up with a plan, but not before Jace has a stunning realization: Theron is most likely his son. He and Satele had had a relationship decades ago during the war, and Satele never told him she was pregnant. And Theron doesn’t know, either. Before the mission, Jace tells Theron he’s probably his father, and Theron isn’t exactly thrilled with the revelation. Ngani Zho was his father, the only father he ever knew or needed. Jace’s revelation is unsettling, to say the least.

Anyway, Theron and Gnost-Dural must execute a rather complicated plan: they need to steal a black cipher from the Empire’s Minister of Logistics, which will allow them to listen in on Imperial transmissions to find out where the Ascendant Spear will be docked; but they can’t know it was stolen, or they’ll change the encryption codes and it will be worthless. So they have to break into the Minister’s Office, steal the cipher, replace it with a broken one they have, and then blow up the building so everything will be so damaged they won’t know the cipher was replaced by a damaged one. Got that?

Of course things don’t go exactly according to plan, but they manage to get the job done with only a few injuries. They go back to Coruscant, and through the cipher find out the Spear will be docked at Reaver Station. They need a way onto the station to get to the ship, which they intend to sneak on board and plant a virus that will incapacitate it. They enlist the help of Teff’ith, a young Twilek woman that Theron sees as a kind of younger sister and feels responsible for (they had some adventures together in a video game–I think? Or comics?–and Ngani Zho died protecting her). She does not appreciate Theron’s help and really wants nothing to do with him, however. But she’s part of the Tion Brotherhood, a criminal gang that can get them ship codes, uniforms, and a way onto Reaver Station, so they make a deal.

After some trouble, they get on board and Gnost-Dural goes to face his former Padawan. His plan is to get her to send the Spear to the planet Duro, which is going to be attacked by the Empire. Theron had sent Teff’ith to Coruscant to ask his mother, Satele, for help–if she can convince Jace to send a Republic fleet, they can save Duro and take down the Spear at the same time. Gnost-Dural fights Darth Karrid’s two apprentices and then her for a time, but gets captured. But it’s all part of his plan, even the torture he endures at her hands.

Meanwhile, Theron finds a way on board and gets to the engine room, where he connects to the ship’s systems through his cybernetic implants (I forgot to mention those, lol) to try to find a way to plant the virus. But then he figures out he can’t plant a virus, as Karrid connected to the ship would know instantly and destroy it. So he decides that when (if) they get to Duro, he’ll just sabotage several systems like weapons, communications, etc, on the fly to give the Fleet a chance to destroy it. If they get to Duro.

Gnost-Dural has gone through some horrendous torture, but manages to manipulate Karrid into going to Duro. Once there, the battle ensues, and Theron causes some trouble for Karrid once she’s plugged in. He also releases Gnost-Dural from his prison, and the Jedi makes his way to Karrid’s chamber. Theron leaves the engine room and they meet up; Gnost-Dural fights Karrid’s apprentices while Theron tries to get into Karrid’s sealed chamber. By this time, the Fleet has dealt fatal blows to the Spear and the ship is failing; the apprentices flee to escape pods and Karrid is blown up inside her chamber. Theron and the Jedi find an escape pod and get out of there, to be picked up by Jace–along with Satele and Teff’ith–on his Republic ship.

We leave with Theron softening a bit on Jace, and maybe–eventually–Satele.

I enjoyed this book–I liked the characters, there was a good balance of action and character development, and the pacing was good, moving right along its 350 or so pages. I really thought I’d have to slog through these Old Republic novels, but so far they’ve been pretty good. I give “Annihilation”:

3.5 lightsabers out of 5.

Up next is “Knight Errant,” by John Jackson Miller. I tend to like his Star Wars novels, so I’m looking forward to it. (According to my list, “Lost Tribes of the Sith” is the next book, but I’m not feeling it right now, lol. I think I’ll save this one for last in the Old Republic category.)

Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Fatal Alliance

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I posted about my Legends Reading Challenge, but I’ve finally finished The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, by Sean Williams. On top of it being quite a hefty read (482 pages!), I put it down a few times when I was busy reading current canon like The Last Order and Mask of Evil. It didn’t help that the story wasn’t (at least initially) very compelling to me. But let’s get into it.

SPOILERS!!! (Legends have been out for years, but just be aware.)

The story takes place about ten years after the sack of Coruscant by the Sith, as related in the book Deceived. There’s a treaty, but also a very cold Cold War between the Republic and the Sith Empire. It starts with a strange ship being intercepted by a smuggler called Jet Nebula (not his real name, as you can imagine). He’s on a job for the Hutts, but decides to see what kind of cargo this ship has as a bonus. But before he can board the Cinzia, it self-destructs. He takes what’s left of it back to the Hutts, who decide to auction off what they have. Tasha Bareesh, the ruling Hutt, doesn’t reveal what it is, but lets it be known that it could be very profitable and change the balance of power in the galaxy.

Into this mix comes several characters: Shigar Konshi, a Kiffu Jedi Padawan who is sent to Hutta to investigate what it may be (his master is Grand Master Satele Shan); Eldon Ax, the apprentice to Darth Chratis, with instructions to steal whatever it is; Ula Vii, a Republic envoy who is actually an Imperial spy, sent by the Republic to find out what it is and who hopes to use it to please his Imperial masters; Larin Moxla, a disgraced Republic soldier (who is also Kiffu like Shigar) who meets and accompanies the Jedi Padawan; and Dao Stryver, a Mandalorian whose interest and motive in acquiring the item is a mystery to all. All they are told is that it’s from an unknown planet that could hold untold riches in minerals and/or have a strategic advantage. Naturally, both the Republic and the Empire want those things.

They all have competing interests and loyalties, they all end up on Hutta, and naturally chaos erupts and battles are fought. As they all fight each other, whatever it is the Hutts have escape the vault it’s locked in. Turns out they are droids, but unlike any droids they’ve ever seen. They dub them “hexes” because of their shape, but they are super-resiliant, adaptable, and lethal. They can join together to increase their strength. And they endlessly scream “We do not recognize your authority!”

Turns out the killer droids were made by Lema Xandret, a particularly skilled droidmaker, who hates the Sith Empire with a rage she put into these droids. The Sith had taken her young Force-sensitive daughter, named Cinzia, and that loss and rage fuels her to create droids that could wipe out the entire galaxy, if attacked. Here’s the twist: the Sith apprentice, Eldon Ax, is that child who had once been Cinzia. She doesn’t remember her mother, Lema Xandret, and only wants to finish her mission for Darth Chratis (who she hates, by the way).

The Essential Legends edition of Fatal Alliance, with Eldon Ax and Shigar Konshi on the cover.

Anyway, the droids in the vault are finally destroyed, but Ax leaves with a piece of the “nest” from which the droids can replicate themselves, and Stryver has the ship’s navicomputer, both of which lead them back to the planet they originated from. Shigar has psychometric abilities and a piece of a droid, from which, after some persuasion from his master, he’s able to discern the coordinates. Or close enough. Envoy Vii ends up with Shigar, Larin, and Jet Nebula.

They all converge on the planet Sebaddon, which is near a black hole just outside of the galaxy itself. They all reluctantly agree to work together to destroy the colony of hexes (Lema Xandret and the small colony are already dead) to save the galaxy. They hatch a plan to have mixed troops attack two spots on the planet: the equator, where the CI (central intelligence governing the hexes) seems to be, led by Satele Shan and Eldon Ax; and the southern pole, where the actually factory building the hexes is located, led by Darth Chratis and Shigar, as well as Larin and some troops.

While on the ground, which is a very unstable, volcanic landscape, Darth Chratis tries to seduce Shigar to the dark side (doesn’t seem like a good time to do that, but whatever, lol). The Sith Lord and the Padawan fight, and Shigar has to fight the dark side, the anger, within himself.

On the equator, Satele and Ax come upon the actual central intelligence of the whole operation: a clone of Lema Xandret’s daughter, Cinzia. She’s younger by a few years, and suspended in a red, bacta-like substance, where she’s lived her whole life. The red fluid has some kind of metal in it that blocks her Force abilities. Lema had put her here to protect her, but she’s been a virtual prisoner. The droids had killed Lema Xandret when she sent the ship out to make a deal with the Mandalorians, as they were programmed to fiercely protect Cinzia. But her mother somehow lives on in the fluid, talking to her daughter in a kind of telepathy. The hexes take orders from Cinzia now, but she’s been so isolated and protected, she’s quite naive and doesn’t know anything about the outside galaxy, or the battles that have been taking place above the planet. She wants to know Ax better, her “sister,” what her life’s been like. Ax is appalled, naturally, and doesn’t really want anything to do with her. Her mother, “alive” through the liquid, starts to strangle Cinzia when she doesn’t listen to her and decides to help them with the hexes. Satele breaks the glass of the tank to save her, but she’s not used to living outside the tank, and dies shortly thereafter. But Cinzia told Ax she could control the hexes, like her, if she uploaded her DNA into the matrix, which she does.

After that, the battles end and Ax announces to Darth Chratis she no longer answers to him. He scoffs, of course, but then she orders the hexes to attack and kill him, and then to destroy themselves.

Afterward, Ax goes back to Dromund Kass and becomes an apprentice to Darth Howl, who is on the Dark Council. I was kind of hoping she’d leave the Sith Order, but no, she has her own ambitions and Darth Howl is the pathway to that.

Shigar is now allowed to take the Jedi Trials, which he’d been denied at the beginning of the book. I liked him throughout the story, but he does seem a bit angry and rash. I think he’s meant to join other Jedi later on who want to engage the Sith in battle sooner rather than later, if only to end the cold war and get on with it. Another war is coming.

As an aside, I just want to say that yes, Lema Xandret was a little insane, lol. Okay, a lot insane. But as a mother, I totally understand her maternal rage. If the devil stole my child to raise as evil, I’d burn down the galaxy in revenge, too. Just putting that out there.

So, all in all, I thought the book was fine. It took me a while to warm to it and get to know the characters, and actually care about what happens to them. They all had their own personal battles to fight, which tends to draw me in more than space battles, lol. But by the last quarter of the book, I was eager to see how it all worked out. I do believe this book is linked to the Old Republic video games, so there’s probably some stuff about these people or events I don’t know or understand. But that’s okay. In the end, I give this book:

Three out of Five Lightsabers.

Next up is The Old Republic: Annhilation, by Drew Karpyshyn.

Onward!

Legends Reading Challenge: Deceived

Hello friends, the Legends Reading Challenge continues with…

(As always–SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived, by Paul S. Kemp. You know, I really thought I’d have to slog through the Old Republic books, but they’ve been surprisingly good. This one, especially, I thought was quite good, as it had interesting, complex characters that had to make difficult decisions.

There are three interweaving plotlines in Deceived. One is of Darth Malgus, who, at the beginning of the book, leads the assault on Coruscant and destroys the Jedi Temple. At his side is Eleena, a lovely lavender Twi’lek, a former slave that Malgus had taken pity on and rescued. Now she is is his constant companion, lover, and stand-in-conscience, and is absolutely devoted to him. During the assault, Malgus defeats Master Zallow, a Jedi Master, and the Sith force kill all the Jedi in the Temple.

Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Aryn Leneer is on Alderaan with a Jedi delegation meeting with the Sith for a peace treaty. It doesn’t sit well with Aryn, as she had recently fought the Sith on Alderaan. When her former Master, Master Zallow, is killed by Malgus, she feels his death and is devastated. Once Coruscant is taken, the Republic has no choice but to acquiesce to the Sith’s demands. Aryn is furious that they are capitulating, but the Jedi and the Republic really have no choice. Aryn decides that she will leave the Order and pursue vengeance for her master’s death.

The third story involves a former Republic commando named Zeerid, who is now running spice for a criminal syndicate called The Exchange. He is only doing it for the money to take care of his daughter, Arra, who had been in an accident that killed her mother and left her with no legs. Zeerid wants to give his daughter a better life, and is now in debt to The Exchange and feels there is no way out. His boss wants him to deliver engspice (a highly addictive form of spice) to Coruscant, which has been shut down by the Sith. At the same time, a rival operative employed by the Hutts called Vrath Xizor is trying to stop the shipment, either by destroying the spice, or killing Zeerid.

Darth Malgus and Eleena Daru, by Aleksandra Skiba.

These characters will all come together and collide during the course of the story. Aryn, who had fought beside Zeerid before and considers him a friend (and perhaps a little bit more), seeks him out to help her get into Coruscant, and he happens to be going there. Vrath tells Malgus about Aryn, and Malgus figures out that Zallow was her master and she’s probably looking for him. So he goes to her.

I love these characters because they’re all wrestling with some form of internal conflict. Malgus, who is furious that the Sith are seeking peace when he wants war, knows he has a weakness: Eleena. He loves her, and that makes him vulnerable, particularly to other Sith lords like Darth Angral and Lord Adraas, who use the idea of Eleena to undermine him. Aryn obviously has left behind the Order to seek vengeance for her master’s death; she chooses to do this without too much doubt, but realizes that when she seeks to hurt him through Eleena that perhaps she’s gone too far. And Zeerid hates himself for dealing in spice, but feels he has no other choice in order to help his daughter; he later kills Vrath in order to protect her, and must live with the idea of being a murderer.

There are some great lightsaber duels and fight scenes, and I like that the plot remains fairly simple but interesting nonetheless. The characterizations and personal stakes involved are enough to keep me invested. Particularly at the end, when Darth Malgus defeats Aryn in battle but lets her go for sparing Eleena; he then turns around and kills Eleena after admitting to her that he loves her. He recognizes that she is his weakness, and he mustn’t be weak or vulnerable in any way. It’s tragic and so very Sith-like, lol. So Malgus lives, but Aryn keeps her soul and goes to live with Zeerid and Arra on Dantooine.

My only gripe is that there are too many names that begin with the letter A: Arra, Angral, Adraas, and Aryn. Whyyyyyy, Paul S. Kemp????

Rating: I’m going to give this one 4.5 out of 5 lightsabers (not sure what half a lightsaber looks like–the hilt or the blade? Or split down the length? Lol.) I really liked this one, but I need to read more Legends to get to know what a 5-star book looks like (I’ve heard great things about the Bane trilogy, so we’ll see).

Up next is Red Harvest, by Joe Schrieber. Just in time for Halloween: zombies!

Star Wars Legends Reading Challenge: Revan

Hello friends! Welcome to book #2 in my Legends Reading Challenge: Revan, by Drew Karpyshyn, published in 2012. It’s been out for quite a while, so there are SPOILERS ahead!!! (And it’s kind of long, lol). By the way, I’m getting the chronological order of the books from a list on Youtini.com.

So Revan is a character from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, and the events of this book occur between in the middle of Revan’s video game story arc. As I’ve said here before, I’m not a gamer, so I felt I had to do some research before I began this book. Youtube to the rescue!

This is what I gathered from my “Revan’s Story” research (very basically): Revan was a very gifted Jedi, strong in the Force, who did not agree with the Jedi Council’s stance on staying out of the Mandalorian conquest of the Outer Rim worlds. He gathered some loyal Jedi who followed him to fight the Mandalorians, including his close friend Malak. At one point during the war, Revan found a Mandalorian mask and put it on, vowing to never take it off until the Mandalorians were defeated. After besting Mandalore the Ultimate in one-on-one combat, the Mandalore revealed that it was a Sith who pushed them to go to war with the Republic, so Revan and Malak went in search of this Sith on the planet Dromund Kaas. It was the Sith Emperor Vitiate, who, when Revan and Malak confronted him, twisted their will to the dark side and sent them out to make war against the Republic.

Now Darth Revan and Darth Malak, they did just that; the Jedi Council decided they had no choice but to fight back and sent Jedi Knights to oppose them, led by Bastila Shan. At this point, Malak had challenged Revan (as Sith do) but Revan won the battle by shearing off Malak’s jaw (oof). Anyway, Bastila confronts Revan, but there’s an explosion and he’s injured. She instinctively tries to save Revan, bringing him back to the Council. They decide to wipe his memory and retrain him as a Jedi. He and Bastila then go back out to defeat Malak, and the two Jedi fall in love, though they both try to ignore their feelings. Malak manages to capture Bastila and turn her to the dark side. After much trial and tribulation, Revan defeats Malak, turns Bastila back to the light, they declare their love for one another and go back to Coruscant to live together. This is a very trimmed down synopsis, and I may have gotten some things mixed up, lol. But it was enough background for me to know in order to start the book, which begins with Revan and Bastila on Coruscant.

Revan is having vivid dreams and nightmares, mostly about a dark, lightning-filled world. He believes it’s some of his memories coming back and is convinced that there’s still something out there that threatens the Republic. We know that it’s the Sith Emperor Vitiate on Dromund Kaas, but Revan has no idea what these dreams mean, only that he is compelled to do something about it.

He decides to talk to his old Mandalorian friend Canderous Ordo. He and Canderous were enemies during the Mandalorian Wars; when the Mandalorians were defeated and the clans scattered, Canderous became a mercenary. Revan meets him during this time, and they work together during the Jedi Civil War to defeat Malak. Anyway, he asks Canderous for help, seeking any information on what he, Revan, had said or done when Canderous knew him. Canderous asks around among his Mandalorian contacts and finds out the clans have been searching for Mandalore the Ultimate’s mask in order to reunite and possibly move against the Republic. Revan had told him he had taken Mandalore’s mask and he and Malak had hidden it somewhere to prevent the clans from reuniting. It was after that he and Malak went to the Unknown Regions and came back as Darth Revan and Dark Malak.

Revan believes that finding Mandalore’s mask might help him discover why they went to the Unknown Regions and what happened there. Canderous says that the Mandalorian clans are looking for the mask on the planet Rekkiad. Revan decides he needs to go and find out what his dark dreams mean. When he tells Bastila, she gives him her own news: she’s pregnant with his child. She understandably must stay on Coruscant, and neither of them know if they’ll ever see each other again (spoiler: they don’t). Even so, Revan leaves with Canderous and his loyal droid, T3-M4.

Meanwhile, on Dromund Kaas, we meet Lord Scourge, a Dark Lord of the Sith who arrives to serve Darth Nyriss, a member of the Dark Council. Scourge, like Nyriss and many on the Dark Council, are of the Sith species, red-skinned and strong with the dark side. Scourge is ambitious, as all Sith Lords are, and hopes his service with Nyriss will one day lead him closer to the Dark Council. However, he becomes enmeshed in the entangled machinations of Nyriss, who tests Scourge’s abilities, loyalty, and motivations. It turns out that Nyriss and others on the Council believe the Emperor is mad and will bring the galaxy to eventual annihilation. To convince Scourge of this and recruit his help, she tells the history of Vitiate and what he’s done. He’s lived for over one thousand years; his immortality stems from what he did to his home world, Nathema–through a Sith ritual, he drained the entire planet of life and Force energy, every living being and plant reduced to dead ash (this reminds me of the Blight in the High Republic novels–a deadness that spreads across planets, in which the Force itself is absent). Nyriss decides to take Scourge to Nathema so he can experience it himself and convince him the Emperor must be stopped.

Meanwhile, Revan and Canderous meet up with the Ordo clan on Rekkiad (who are led by Canderous’ wife, Leera). Revan and Canderous find the mask at the top of an ice tower, but Leera has figured out that he’s their old enemy Revan and turns on them. Leera and her team are killed, and Revan gives the mask to Canderous to lead the Mandalorians as Mandalore the Preserver. But seeing the mask unlocks some more memories of Revan’s, which also leads him to Nathema.

Scourge, after being on Nathema for a short time and experiencing the total loss of the Force, agrees that the Emperor is mad and must be stopped. He and Nyriss leave the planet, but before they leave the system they detect Revan entering it and crash-landing on the planet. They take him prisoner, leaving T3 behind.

Revan is their prisoner for three years. They get all the information they can out of him, but don’t really have a use for him. What’s interesting is that Scourge becomes interested in Revan. Revan is drugged most of the time to keep his Force abilities at bay, but Scourge will often visit him to have conversations with the Jedi. He knows Revan has mastered both the Light and Dark sides of the Force, which fascinates him. He wants to know about Force visions, which Revan has had (and which darksiders rarely have, apparently). Revan makes use of Scourge’s interest, attempting to plant the idea of Scourge freeing Revan so they can work together to take down the Emperor, a common goal for both of them. Scourge is getting impatient with Nyriss and the rest of the Dark Council, who clearly aren’t going to make a move against the Emperor out of an abundance of caution and fear.

In the meantime, T3 has gotten himself off of Nathema and found Meetra, a Jedi known as the Exile. She’s got a whole backstory of her own (which I learned about on Youtube, but won’t get into here), but basically, she worked with Revan during the Mandalorian Wars and now wants to find him. Meetra goes to Bastila with T3; Bastila gives Meetra two things: a holovid of herself and Vaner–her and Revan’s 3-year-old son–and Revan’s old Mandalorian mask.

Meetra and T3 go to Nathema, where T3 extracts information from the dead city about Dromund Kaas, where they head next. Meetra eventually meets up with Scourge, and they come up with a plan to free Revan so they can work together to defeat the Emperor. Of course, things go terribly wrong.

Scourge, who has had an actual Force vision of seeing Meetra and Revan dead at the Emperor’s feet, starts to have doubts. Unlike the Jedi, he’s unwilling to sacrifice himself for the cause (although he’s willing to sacrifice others). When the battle with the Emperor goes badly, he makes his decision and betrays the Jedi, killing Meetra and showing Vitiate he’s willing to kill Revan. He tells himself he will continue to undermine the Emperor and take him out when the time is right, so their deaths are acceptable. He lies to the Emperor to save his own skin.

However, the Emperor has another use for Revan–he keeps him in stasis indefinitely, feeding off of his lifeforce. During this time, the Force ghost of Meetra stays by his side, giving him strength.

Scourge is rewarded by Vitiate with immortality and the title of “Emperor’s Wrath.” The ritual to achieve this is extremely painful, and to Scourge’s dismay, he finds out after the ritual that the pain never ends. He’ll just eventually “accept” it and become numb to any emotions, which runs counter to his plans–as a Sith Lord, he counts on his anger and hate, as well as that of his enemies, to fuel his power, a power he had hoped would increase over time so he could defeat the Emperor. Ah well, make a deal with the devil, and you get what you deserve.

The epilogue shows Bastila, an old woman fifty years later, talking with her son and grandchildren. Vaner has not inherited force-sensitivity and got into politics instead, helping to rebuild the hurting Republic. Bastila misses Revan, but believes he achieved his mission, as there has been no threat to the Republic since he left.

It’s very sad, and I’m glad she doesn’t know the truth–that Revan is alive and being held by Vitiate and will be for the next TWO HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS. Revan’s story isn’t over, and I assume the next game tells it–that eventually Revan is freed from his prison and splits into two beings: the “good” Jedi part that becomes a Force ghost (I think?) and a living being that is all dark-side revenge against the Emperor. Say what you want about Legends, it’s over-the-top nuts! But in a fun way, lol.

Despite not having played the game, I enjoyed this book. I liked Revan and his story, but he’s kind of larger-than-life, which makes sense–he’s a mythical figure to the Jedi. Surprisingly, I found Scourge to be the most interesting character. He’s bad, no doubt about it, but he’s complex, too. Ambitious, brutal, but understands the existential threat of Vitiate and willing to work with the Jedi to defeat him. But only to a point. Sith like absolutes–Scourge wants to know that they will definitely win if they go up against the Emperor. Revan tells him they must have faith in the Force and do their best–and be willing to sacrifice their lives for it. This doesn’t satisfy Scourge, lol. The Force vision he has (which he thought he wanted) doesn’t help. He doesn’t know how to interpret it, and it makes him skittish. That doubt seals his fate–once the battle goes downhill, he decides to save himself, rationalizing that at least one of them will live to continue the battle. But he only gets eternal pain as a result, which–duh, dark side.

Rating: 4 out of 5 lightsabers.

Anway, a cool book, and I’m really starting to get into this Old Republic stuff. Onward to Darth Malgus in The Old Republic: Deceived.