I’ve read a number of Star Wars novels over the years, most of them dealing with the characters from the first three films. Well, the original three films. You know, the ones from the 1970’s and 1980’s. Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, etc. I haven’t delved much into the Star Wars universe outside of that. When I received a new Kindle Fire for Christmas, a friend suggested I try out a series of free Kindle Books that tie into stories I haven’t read and characters I’m not familiar with.
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice is the first in this series. Apparently, in a series I have not yet read titled Fate of the Jedi, a tribe of Sith is introduced. No explanation is given for where they were all this time, and this series of e-books attempts to fill in that gap.
Commander Yaru Korsin is on a run to deliver much-needed crystals to the war between the Sith and the Republic when they are ambushed by a Jedi fighter. His mining ship, Omen, crashes on an alien planet in a giant precipice. The survivors include his half-brother Devore, with whom Korsin has always been at odds. To complicate matters further, Devore is a powerful Sith and an addict to spice which sends him out of control at times.
The problems with Precipice will be for people like me who aren’t familiar with the Star Wars universe outside of the original characters. There are alien species talked about but are unfamiliar. I had no idea what a Massassi was or what purpose it served, so I couldn’t understand the impact of all of their dying out due to the atmosphere when the ship crashed. There are Star Wars Wikis out there and I found myself turning to it more than once while reading Precipice.
The plus is that the characters in Precipice are well-defined and well-written without getting bogged down in the backstory. There’s plenty of intrigue between them. Who can’t relate to a rivalry between half-brothers over their father’s attention and praise? It’s a story as old as time and that is crafted nicely here. At the same time, Precipice shows how inherently ruthless the Sith are as Korsin takes an action to survive that he knows he must take, but that would be completely out of character for a Jedi.
The secondary characters are fleshed out nicely as well. Devore’s wife, Seelah, is also a survivor and does what she has to when she no longer has his protection to count on, but it’s hinted that there will be more from her in the future as she is not naïve to what had happened, either. This sets up plenty of intrigue to look forward to in the future.
Precipice was a quick read in the series of e-books and based on this I will continue reading. It will probably lead to me starting on many more books in the Star Wars universe that I haven’t yet read. If that’s the purpose of these free e-books, they succeed quite well, especially for those of us who are fans of the movies but never quite embraced the stories outside of them. Just make sure you have the wiki handy for those things that aren’t familiar.
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Categories: Book Reviews, Star Wars books, Star Wars Universe
As much of a Star Wars fan that I am, I’ll pass on this book. Not that I don’t like John Jackson Miller; I think he’s a good writer, and I have one Legends novel (Kenobi) and one canon novel (A New Dawn, which is a prequel to Star Wars: Rebels) that he penned.
My complaint is that this book comes almost at the tail-end of the old Expanded Universe (now called Legends) that tried to continue George Lucas’s saga beyond the Original and Prequel Trilogies. Not only is Legends too vast a collection of stories, but its quality is hit-and-miss (something that irks me greatly). For instance, I find Timothy Zahn’s books, including the famous Thrawn Trilogy, to be more attuned to the vibes of the films (especially the OT). On the other extreme, I find Kevin Anderson’s novels to be meh, at best, and the late Vonda N. McIntyre to be among the worst Star Wars writers.
Good review. (By the way, the Massassi were the ones who built those temples on Yavin Four. They’re mentioned offhand in the 1976 novelization of what was then the movie simply titled “Star Wars.” )
This was a decent set of stories. I still think they should have built on the books more for the last 3 movies of the Skywalker saga, but they didn’t ask me.
They should have asked you and me. Alas, they did not.