Degrees of Affection

4.75 Stars

My Review for The Jedi Path

Well, I finally sat down and read my anniversary present to my husband. Being a good 'Jedi' I had read The Jedi Path first and loved it. All the extras that came with the Vault edition made it so much more immersive and, I felt, added greatly to my appreciation of the book. I was hesitant however to tackle this book. I've never been a fan of the Sith, that has always been more of my husband's interest in the Star Wars universe, and I wasn't sure what to expect.

I was both not surprised and blown away by what I read. Here's why.

The Gush

The Sith Holocrom outer shell is cool and the light and sounds as it opens up are really cool. Two of the extras are actually stored in the case underneath the book, a blood-red Sith lightsaber crystal and what you find through reading is a Nightsister's talisman.

The book itself is interesting because unlike the Jedi text, it is not a cohesive book, but rather pieces of several books from various Sith Lords pulled together by Darth Sidious (Palpatine). That was my favorite part, as it was a history lesson from various times in the wider Star Wars narrative. If all you know of Star Wars is the six movies, you will probably be lost. Even I didn't recognize everything, though I have read many novels and a few comics and beyond. The notes in the margins from Sidious, Luke, Yoda, Vader, and others were helpful in tying things together as well as connecting such divergent tales from Star Wars together. The different sections have their own good and bad sides, and you can almost treat them as different books, they deal with such different ideas, etc.

If you are a Star Wars fan, and particularly if you've read The Jedi Path, this is a good balance to it and helps you understand some of the underlying reason for the Prequels and the rest of the expanded universe.

The Rant

I have two problems with this book. One was the section of the book 'written' by Palpatine's master, Darth Plagueis. It is interesting, as it talks about midi-clorians but the print that is used to look like it's handwritten was rather difficult to read. It would have been fine in small doses, but going on for several pages made it all a bit much.
My second problem has to do with the subject matter of some of the sections. I realize this is 'evil'. And evil is not pretty. But some of the discussions and implied happenings in this book were a bit...over board. I make this observation mostly because I know young boys will want to read this book and I should not have read this book at the age many are going to want to pick this up. This is really more for die-hard fans of a more mature age. Just a thought if you are thinking about getting this for a pre-teen boy. Most could probably read over it or not notice the implications, but some would and they are pretty rough.

Conclusion

If you are a Sith in training or just a huge fan of Star Wars in general, this is a very interesting book and well worth a read. The vault version is a bit pricy but very interesting with all the additional pieces that come with it. If you are a long time fan of the universe, it would most likely be worth it. My only caveat would be what I mentioned above about the age of the reader.