Star Wars Lords of the Sith is a Star Wars novel written by Paul S. Kemp. It takes place on the planet Ryloth five years after the events of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith. The book is about an assassination attempt on Darth Vader and The Emperor by the Free Ryloth Movement led by Cham Syndulla. I’m going to talk about the characters and story in this review.

First up are the characters. Obviously, if you have lived anywhere with Wi-Fi you at least know of Darth Vader, but not everyone knows who Cham Syndulla is. Cham is the leader of a resistance force against the Empire on Ryloth known as the Free Ryloth Movement. Isval, his second in command, is a former slave/prostitute “until she strangled that corporal with a headband and fled to the resistance.” Now she helps Cham in the Free Ryloth Movement. Vader is very much the main character though. We often get glimpses inside of his head and how he thinks such as, “Once, as a Jedi, he had meditated to find peace. Now he meditated to sharpen the edges of his anger.” Quotes like this show that Vader has completely embraced the dark side of the force and is now a true Sith apprentice.

Secondly, we have the story. The story starts strong with the Emperor and Darth Vader accompanying a Ryloth senator back to the planet. Upon hearing word of this Cham mobilizes a strike force to take down the Star Destroyer Perilous. I won’t go any further beyond that because that is spoiler territory. The book is told in third person and jumps around between Vader, Cham/Isval, and various other characters that have very little to no influence on the story.

As for a morale there really isn’t one. One could say the morale is to never give up, but I don’t see it. The resistance needlessly wastes resources trying to kill Vader. You could also make an argument that Cham is a moral compass, but he makes many stupid mistakes and risks too many of his people.

In closing, I was very disappointed by Lords of the Sith. Having already seen the Star Wars films I know Vader and the Emperor don’t die until Episode VI, so for me all the tension this book could have had was lost. Time is wasted on subplots that have no impact at all on the main story, and could’ve been cut or modified to polish it up a bit. Parts that wanted me to keep reading were few and far between, and I would often go a week without reading because the book wasn’t that interesting. I am extremely disappointed that I didn’t like this book especially after people like Kristain Harloff on Collider Jedi Council praised it so highly. This story has no large scale effect on the Star Wars universe, so unless you are a hardcore Star Wars fan or love Sci-Fi, Fantasy books, I’d avoid this book.