Legendary Adventures: Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader

What is it like to be Darth Vader? What is the new role for the Jedi after the Purge has thinned most of its ranks? Join us as the thrilling conclusion to the Dark Lord trilogy, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, which takes the Legendary Adventures to planets new and old in chase of the surviving Jedi!

As the Separatists are waging their most daring strike on the Republic’s capital, Republic forces are engaged in combat against Separatist forces on Murkhana. Three Jedi lead this mission: Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone. The Republic’s mission is to take out a shield generator on the planet and leave the capital defenseless. The Republic generals and Jedi disagree on the best method to take out the shields, but the debate ends up getting cut short early. Clone Commander Climber, commander of Ion Squadron, is given the command to execute Order 66. The clone hesitates out of respect for the Jedi, and gives them a head start to run away. As the trio tries to escape, the galaxy collapses around them.

Among the losses are the twin pillars of the Clone Wars – Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. In the previous Legendary Adventures, we visited Ben Kenobi on Tatooine. If he struggles with his new identity and role in the galaxy, imagine how much more the new Dark Lord, Darth Vader, does! As the Empire grows, Sheev Palpatine, the newly christened Emperor, sends his new apprentice out on missions across the galaxy. These missions are two-fold: obviously, to consolidate the Empire’s power across many systems, but maybe more poignantly, to teach Darth Vader what it is like to be a Sith Lord. It’s beautiful that two novels in a row focus on the heroes of the Clone War and the effect of the Purge on them.

The next portion of the novel starts four weeks after the Purge. Darth Vader is sent to Murkhana to investigate some troubling news. Sheev hears that a clone failed to obey his Order and sends Vader to take care of them. As he goes to Murkhana, he comes across the Jedi, who have been re-captured by the clone troops. In an ensuing battle, Darth Vader takes Chatak’s head clean off. The rest, in classic Star Wars fashion wherein a sacrifice allows others to escape, charter a ship to leave the planet as soon as possible. Vader’s investigation into clone’s behavioral practices will become important later as the clone troopers are becoming folded into the new Imperial Army. The Empire has to question what it will do with those who have become too cozy with the Jedi. We will, sort of, revisit this question when we get to Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel in our next adventure.

I’ll extol more of Luceno’s virtue later in this review, but I do want to stop here for a minute and praise his writing style for a moment. The novel briefly asks us to consider the clone troopers, but they don’t develop a full novel around this question. Instead, we are asked to consider what their role is vis a vis the Jedi that they have served with for a long time. What does their relationship mean now? Can they trust their new Imperial Masters? And how is insubordination challenged? I thought Luceno did a wonderful job of making the clones sympathetic without ever pulling away from the main plot line. This has been a frequent critique of mine against the Republic Commando series.

As the state of the galaxy shifts, the Jedi have to re-evaluate their commitment to the charge. As they charter a ship, Shryne meets his mother on the ship. This causes him to wonder if he should leave it all behind, but this decision is made easy when Senator Fang Zar is the target of Vader’s next hunt. This leads to one of the most exciting events in a Legends novel: Darth Vader arrives on Alderaan. This scares the poodoo out of Bail, who has reason to be scared. Remember, he only recently adopted Leia, Anakin’s daughter. I want to save the compelling nature of this scene, so I won’t say much here. I will, however, note that this raises the stakes for the Dark Times immensely. Darth Vader has come within feet of his daughter, Leia, but thanks to quick-thinking on the part of the entire Alderaanian Royal House, she is kept safe, briefly. We know that Bail will become increasingly more involved in the Rebellion, but he knows that the cost is real. When we revisit the Organas in both the Han Solo Trilogy and the Force Unleashed duology, there is a real danger. Vader has set a mark on Bail, meaning that all of their actions are even riskier and risk the future hope of the galaxy. This is a good reminder that the heroes are not operating in a safe galaxy. Darth Vader is watching, and he is free to come and move around your house with no objections at all.

The enslavement of the Wookiees is a well-known Star Wars plot, and it chronologically begins with this novel. The Empire looks to start capturing slaves for an ultra-top-secret project, and they know that the Wookiees provide the best cattle for slaves. The surviving Jedi (as the novel features a revolving cast of Jedi who are killed as time goes on), featuring Shryne and Starstone, meet Darth Vader on Kashyyyk. The Empire launches an all-out assault on the planet, looking for the final enslavement of the Wookiees. Shryne and Starstone both attack Darth Vader, and one falls to his blade. Well, one more – at least three Jedi have been killed by Vader already in this novel.

This is where we really get into the heart of who Darth Vader really is. He has spent half of his life so far fighting alongside Jedi and clones, and now Sheev is calling upon him to kill both. This creates some turmoil within Anakin, but none that suggest that he had the possibility of turning too early. Instead, the novel shows how he descends into darkness, moving closer and closer to total darkness. When he fights Shryne on a landing platform on Kashyyyk, he does not kill him by his blade alone. Rather, he channels the Dark Side itself to deliver the killing blow, cementing the “death” of Anakin Skywalker and the new life of Darth Vader. I think the Dark Horse Purge comics made a mistake by showing Vader as simply murdering Jedi, growing more and more obsessed with killing them. This made the Dark Times era Vader, honestly, super boring. This novel course-corrects the Dark Times Vader into a more three-dimensional character who has to think through the consequences and meaning of his hunts.

James Luceno may not be a favorite Legends author. His writing is fairly technical, feeling more like an encyclopedia entry than a novel. I will say that I am actually a huge fan of his writing – I love both his world-building, his connection with the Legends lore, and how he sets up plenty of future novels without feeling like he’s hurting the current story. He is perfect for getting into Vader’s head as he understands how previous Legends events have shaped former-Anakin-now-Vader. A lot of these stories come from comic events, which is cool, but something I chose not to cover in the Adventures. Despite not having read these stories, I never felt like I couldn’t understand the current book. I really appreciate that, and I think more canon writers would do well to learn from him.

Legendary Travel Tips:
-This novel is preceded by Kenobi and will be followed by Order 66: A Republic Commando novel.
-The epilogue to this novel features Ben Kenobi, and is a huge pay-off to having this after Kenobi.

You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi