Book Review: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction- Drew Karpyshyn

Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the last novel that I have actually read, rather than listened to- I have read other books since, but not any fiction novels. I read it in part because I actually had the time and in large part because at the time it was one of the first Star Wars novels in a long time to not be turned into an audiobook. This pattern, unfortunately, continued for a while and there are several other novels I have not had the chance to read. It was only two years after the series was complete that the audiobooks were released, in digital format only, in conjunction with the release of the book Darth Plagueis . That book had at one point been cancelled [which later turned out to be a postponement] and was replaced in the release schedule by the second book in this series, which originally was not intended to be a series.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book both when I read it and later when I listened to it. It is broken roughly into four parts [the book might only identify three if any]: Dessel/Bane's life as a miner and pre-Sith empire, Dessel/Bane as a soldier for the Sith empire, Bane as a Sith apprentice, and Bane as a Sith Lord challenging the Sith Academy. This is the first book, I've read at least, that explains the classic Star Wars game of Sabacc. Later, Dessel's life as a soldier is impressive and shows not only us, but also the leadership of the Sith that he is Force-sensitive. His training at the Sith Academy is enlightening because we have seen the Jedi Academy/Academies in numerous other books and the Sith Academy in graphic novels and games, but not in a full-blown novel. From there (view spoiler)[Bane becomes more powerful and is recognized as potentially being the Sith'ari [basically the Chosen One for the Sith]. He forms an alliance with another apprentice and challenges his teachers before leaving. He then returns and tricks them into using a Thought Bomb which the intended to use to destroy Jedi, but ended up destroying themselves as well (hide spoiler)], this paving the way for the Rule of Two. It was a little disappointing that the book ended with him picking an unexpected apprentice, especially when it was not originally intended to be anything more than a stand-alone novel, instead of the trilogy it became.

Check out my reviews of each book in the series:
Rule of Two,
Dynasty of Evil, or
my review of the series as a whole.

View all my reviews