Hogan Reviews

A rare Star Wars non-High Republic Canon novel review! Yes filling in a gap is always pleasing as a fan (hell it’s one of many reasons I love Big Finish and their audio Doctor Who productions) so setting a novel in between Episodes 6 and 7 that goes a bit deeper into the backstory of Rey, how and why Luke and Lando tracked Ochi of Bestoon and generally show a bit more of the galaxy at this time made it irresistible to me. Happy to say that although it was perhaps overly long it was a really fun read. Let’s take a closer look!

The book has two major plot threads that then begin to intersect: Dathan and Miramir’s attempts to smuggle Rey away from Dathan’s clone daddy Palpatine while being pursued by Ochi of Bestoon, and Luke and Lando teaming up to follow the latter’s lead on where his daughter might be being kept and how it matches up with Luke’s investigation into mysterious Sith artefacts that have cropped up and some disturbing Force Visions he’s been having. Lando’s lead is Ochi, and so by following the bounty hunter they get close to Rey and family but to keep things correct Luke never gets near them, but he does find out that the Sith are back and living on a planet called Exegol…

Love the front cover artwork, really grabs your attention.

The whole of Exegol and Rey being Palpatine’s daughter was the most annoying thing about “Rise of Skywalker” but I will hand it to author Adam Christopher he does add a bit of lore here as the background “Cultists of the Sith Eternal” seen in the film appear to recruit Ochi to find Rey and even give him the Sith blade seen in the film. Among them is a female Sith in a cool mask called Kiza, she is apparently from the Aftermath trilogy of books that I could never get on with, but all I needed to know was that she fell to the darkside really, so it didn’t impact me much. We also see how Dathan, a failed “Strand-cast clone” of Palpatine survived and escaped Exegol in the first place, implied that Palpatine let him escape perhaps with the birth of Rey as possibility in his mind…

So eventually Lando and Luke head off in search of Ochi while Ochi heads off in search of Rey while Rey’s parents head off in search of somewhere to hide. There are some fun scenes with shootouts involving local mercenary groups, a bunch of robots called the Droid Crush Pirates from the comics and more. These are interspersed with moments with the Rey family, chats between Luke and Lando (who do a straight man/funny man act really well!) and a great scene where Luke “Force travels” to Exegol only to be saved by the shifting Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker, allowing them to have a brief chat at long last. He also confronts Kiza on a spacestation during the middle of the book, finding out she is possessed by a Sith helmet and wanting to save her rather than kill her (naturally!). Eventually Lando and Luke end up on the radioactive planet where Kiza’s “sister” (or previously fellow follower of the cult) Komat resides, who eventually (like I said some parts of this book overstay their welcome quite a bit…) help point Lando towards Rey and Luke towards Kiza…

The back cover, complete with Ochi and the reassurance that you’re reading Science Fiction. Thank god, I thought I might be reading Science Fact for a second there!

I’ll get to the climax in the spoiler section but there are parts I really liked and parts that had me annoyed that my half hour with the book before bed was more stalling tactics. Due to being a prequel of sorts we all know where the book is heading (apart from the Kiza stuff) so I felt there were one too many “Rey’s parents arrive in a safe place only to have to leave again” scenes. The prose is well written though, so at least even during slow parts it didn’t feel like a chore to read, just felt like it was spinning its wheels. The climactic lightsabre duel was worth the wait though!

Overall Thoughts:

Some sort of fan artwork, I believe. Why not? Breaks up the text a bit!

Shadow of the Sith is a handy new addition to cannon, acting as something of a bridge between the Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy and filling in some glaring plotholes and inconsistencies. Sadly it is overly long, one or two chapters of Rey’s family could’ve been expunged without any consequence to the book’s natural flow, but ah well… at least it was well written! Worth a read if you have the time and don’t hate the Sequel Trilogy with a passion like some…

Luke tracks Kiza to an asteroid at the edge of the Red Honeycomb Zone (my favourite Sonic the Hedgehog level!) and the two duel, with Luke trying to pull Kiza away from the spirit of a Sith named Panshard who inhabits the mask. Sadly it doesn’t work and she is eventually killed by being impaled by falling debris, Luke only just managing to escape the asteroid himself. Meanwhile Lando had headed to Taw Provide and found Rey’s family but they’re stuck with Ochi and a whole bunch of “CSA Troopers” Ochi had got from none other than High Colonel Pryde for that extra bit of Episode 9 connection. Lando is joined by Komat, who changed her mind and wished to help and together they get Dathan, Miramir and Rey onto Ochi’s ship, the Bestoon Legacy, and they take off in it. Ochi is less than pleased and corners Lando but Luke arrives in time, duels Ochi for a bit but before being able to finish him off the hired assassin shoots a fuel tank and escapes on a transport in the ensuing confusion.

Official artwork for Kiza. Shame she didn’t get a Darth name, because she deserves to be among them, that’s for sure!

As they plan to depart after him Kiza returns, or I should say Panshard manipulating Kiza’s corpse arrives in her TIE Defender. Lando takes off after Ochi (and loses him) while Luke and Komat lead Panshard away and shoot him down onto an asteroid where on the surface he reveals his plan to use the Sith shards Luke had collected to plot a course to Exegol and be “reborn”. Luke and Komat then have a dramatic duel with Panshard that includes ice sheets breaking, giant creatures interrupting the fight and eventually Luke using both his lightsabre and the lightsabre of “Darth Noctyss” that Kiza had been carrying around to pull the mask off of Kiza’s corpse and slash it in four, banishing the Sith spirit from the world of the living. It was a great scene, proper big film finale stuff. Meanwhile Ochi pleads for more troops from Pryde but he denies his request, though does give him a tip that Ochi’s ship was last tracked to Jakku. This where we then get the tearful goodbye scene as Dathan and Miramir leave Rey with junker Unkar Plutt and head off by themselves, Miramir grabbing some Pasaana Aki-Aki beads hoping to mislead their pursuer.

Ochi finds, kidnaps and eventually slaughters Dathan and Miramir (along with his own crew due to the influence of the Sith Dagger) and falls for the Aki-Aki bead ploy, leading him to the planet and eventually sinking under the quicksand so his corpse could be discovered in a few decades time by Rey and co, his last moments are fraught with visions of Dathan and Miramir and how they had outsmarted him. Meanwhile Lando finds Rey’s parents in a crate above Jakku and assumes he’s failed again. Lando and Luke do eventually track Ochi to Pasaana and find his ship but sadly for them they find no clues about Rey’s whereabouts. Luke heads back to his Jedi Temple (and an already brooding Ben Solo) while Lando stays behind to continue the search…