Star Wars: Darth Bane

Path of Destruction Book Review

Path of Destruction was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Drew Karpyshyn. This novel is the ninth event on the Legends novel timeline. This tale takes place during the Old Republic Era, it also counts as book one, in the Darth Bane trilogy. It takes place 1003 years before A New Hope.

SUMMARY

Dessel, a miner on the world of Apatros, had a hard life. He was abused by his father and picked on by the other miners. With age came great height and strength, and the bullying, a thing of the past. He developed a sixth sense, spawning quick reflexes and quick glance of the future.

Apatros was a sink hole for Dessel, debt held him there. He was no friend of the Republic, nor an enemy. His opinion on politics of the galaxy was neutral. He’s outspoken about his feelings one evening, during a tense game of Sabacc, with a table of Republic soldiers. The results of the game had taken Dessel’s life in an unexpected turn. He’s forced to flee Apatros, the only way he could do that, was by being secretly smuggled off world by Sith academy recruiters.

Dessel served the Sith as a soldier. Months had passed and he’d already been promoted to sergeant. On the front lines, he did the unexpected, he disobeyed orders, actually punching out his superior officer. He’s arrested and escorted to one of the Sith leaders, a member of the Brotherhood of Darkness. Instead of being punished, Dessel is invited to Korriban, to be a student at the greatest Sith academy. He is reborn… as Bane.

Bane had some struggles in the academy, some serious struggles, but actually became the best student. His faith in himself and the dark side was shaken, but he became stronger than ever. He learned so much more from the Sith archives than he did from lessons by instructors. His view of what the Sith should be is vastly different then what the Sith had been. A brotherhood of Darkness was not the nature of the Sith. Passion, strength, power, and victory was part of the Sith mantra, not brotherhood.

In Bane’s quest he adopts the title of Darth Bane. To use the title Darth, is frowned upon, it’s not the way of the Brotherhood of Darkness. So in Darth Bane’s quest, he is to reform the Sith order completely. There is an ongoing war on Ruusan, between the Sith and the Republic, Bane believes it could play a major roll in the balance of the force.

CHARACTERS

This book had a handful of great characters, I’m going to mention only one Githany. Wait… why not Bane? Because I mentioned him pretty heavily in the Summary, I don’t want to spoil more than I have to.

Githany: She was an apprentice of the Jedi, until she abandoned the order to join the Sith… for selfish reasons. She desperately wants to be the top student in the Sith academy on Korriban. She’s beautiful and she knows it, she uses her stunning looks to manipulate others. She takes a liking to Bane, for a while, she helped him when he was at his lowest point. She has traits of an old fashion Sith. She’s power hungry and full of betrayal.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This book is outstanding. I like how the Sith had evolved into something different, how they lost sight of who and what they truly were. They became soft, and that was the tipping point. It’s as though it’s their destiny to fail.

Bane’s rise to power was an emotional journey. One reason that makes this book so great, was the struggle! Bane wasn’t some super human who was unstoppable, he had a weakness. The chemistry between our characters was magic. The shift in loyalties was natural, nothing seemed out of place or unlikely. The characters were true to themselves to the very end. I have to say, this book contains one of the best character arcs yet, and this is only book one of a trilogy.

The book was loaded with surprises. I thought that maybe this book would be predictable, it wasn’t, at least not for me. I enjoyed every page! The war of Ruusan was handled great, it was a fine backdrop to the main story, until it’s brought to the forefront in a natural way. Drew Karpyshyn, is an amazing writer. I’m really looking forward to more of his writing in the Expanded Universe!

Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Darth Bane – Path of Destruction? Absolutely! For some reason I always imagined this book, this trilogy would be mediocre. I was wrong.

RATING

I give this book an A+. It was a brilliant tale of how one character changed the destiny of the Sith.