I never quite got into all of the Star Wars books that built on the story of the characters from the movies, never mind actually developing characters who weren’t in the films.  It just didn’t really interest me, and for years I passed them by.  However, once I bought my Kindle Fire, a friend pointed me in the direction of a series of free Star Wars books for the Kindle.

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn is the second book in the series.  Maybe the term “book” is a bit generous.  It would probably be a book if you combined all eight parts together and packaged them.  As it is right now it’s more like eight short stories which provide the backstory to other books in the Star Wars universe.

In the first book, Precipice, readers were introduced to an ancient order of the Sith.  Going about their business doing research and gathering material needed in the ongoing conflict with the Jedi, the ship Omen is damaged and plunges to the planet below.  There, a battle occurs between two brothers for control of the survivors.  Korsin survives but there is resentment and suspicion from his brother’s widow, Seelah.

Skyborn starts with what seems like an entirely different story.  I had to double-check to make sure I wasn’t reading the series out of order, that’s how much the beginning of this story seemed to deviate from where Precipice left me.  This story introduces the natives of the planet the Sith have become stranded on.  The Keshiri are a primitive people, worshipping deities they term the Skyborn.  Adari Vaal is a young scientist who studies the rocks of the planet and has been branded a heretic for the conclusions she has come up with.  On the run from her own people, she stumbles upon the Sith survivors.  When she brings them to her people, they are mistaken for the deities they worship and deemed to be Skyborn, with Adari being their ambassador.

It was a bit disconcerting to be introduced to the ancient Sith in Precipice and then here to start off with an introduction to another entirely different race, the Keshiri.  It seemed like a lot of new people and concepts were thrown at fans in what would really be just a few pages.  Still, there’s enough detail to let the reader understand what’s happening.  The Keshiri people are also basic indigenous people, a familiar setting to many, especially when a more advanced culture is introduced.

There’s not much to Skyborn although a lot does happen in the few pages within.  As I was reading, nearly 40% of the free Kindle book was actually an excerpt from another book, so it was a fairly quick read.  Once I got past my initial confusion with the additional culture, it was smooth going.  The characters are interesting and well-fleshed out despite there being a lot of different tangents to keep track of.  I liked the way it seemed that Korsin and the other Sith seemed to be exerting a degree of mind-control over the primitive Keshiri people, while at the same time, Adari was getting the idea that there was just something inherently wrong about what was going on.  It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out.

If I had to pay for this, I would have said they needed to combine the stories together.  Since it’s a free Kindle book, if you are a Star Wars fan, it’s worth checking out.  Even for someone like me who’s never really been a fan of the stories peripheral to the films, it’s interesting and a lot of fun to read.

Previous book in the series: