Thousands of years before the rise of Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, the Old Republic was rife with the evil Sith, who were a constant thorn in the side of the Jedi. But greed and hunger for power were eating away at the Sith Order, destroying it from within. In the midst of this rose a new Sith, Darth Bane, who recognized that the Sith Order would fall if nothing was done. Thus it was he who, learning to cultivate patience and cunning, hid from the strife until it was over, and then rose to become the most powerful Sith Lord ever. This is the story of the transformation of Des, a young miner, into the legendary Sith Lord Darth Bane. Des - like many of the disenfranchised who live on the Outer Rim - is disillusioned with the stagnancy of the Old Republic. When the Sith unite to bring the Republic down, Des is one of many to join their cause. His heroism and skill in battle - along with his remarkable connection to the Force - draw the notice of the Sith Masters, and Des eventually finds himself studying at the Sith Academy on Korriban. He takes the name of Bane and, amidst the deception and back-stabbing of the other students, he learns to unlock his latent dark-side talents. As his power grows, Bane realizes the Sith have lost their way. Under the leadership of Lord Kaan and his Brotherhood of Darkness, the Sith have turned their back on the true nature of the dark side. Through manipulation, cunning and strength, Bane destroys Kaan's Brotherhood and wipes out all the other Sith so he can found a new Order based on the rule of two: one Master, one apprentice.

About the Author

Drew lives in the hinterlands of the Great White North of Canada with his loving wife Jen and their cat, Roxy - because everyone knows you can't be a real author if you don't own a cat. When not penning fantasy and sci-fi novels he is a writer/designer for Bioware, where he has worked on a number of award-winning computer games. During the all-too-brief Canadian summers he works dilegently on his golf game, though he has yet to taste the sweet victory of shooting under par for a full 18-hole round.

Prizes

In the blockbuster movie, Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, we learned about the "Rule of Two," which decrees that there can only ever be two Sith Lords in existence at once--Master and Apprentice. The powerful Sith Lord who destroyed all his adversaries, killed his own Master, and invented the Rule of Two was the legendary Darth Bane. This is his story.

Reviews

In the latest Star Wars novel, Karpyshyn (Temple Hill) charts the evolution of an antihero almost as chilling as Darth Vader. "A thousand years before the Republic's collapse and Emperor Palpatine's rise to power," Des, the young "Force"-gifted son of an abusive miner, wins big in a high stakes game with some Republic soldiers, but kills a sore loser. To avoid imprisonment, Des joins the Sith's Brotherhood of Darkness that's battling the Jedi's Army of Light. Des becomes Lord Bane after his abilities earn him a place at the Sith Academy on the planet Korriban. Determined to excel, Bane secretly trains with the devious Githany, former Jedi turned Sith, but after she betrays him, he decides to fly solo and delve deeper into the Sith past. The intensity lets up on occasion, but on the whole the author delivers a solid space adventure sure to satisfy the Star Wars faithful. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Adult/High School-Yoda introduced the world to the Rule of Two-"Always two there are-no more-no less. A master and an apprentice"-but it was left to Karpyshyn to refine it, flesh it out, and explain it. He takes Darth Bane from his former life as Dessel, a cortosis miner on Apatros, through a circuitous route to fulfill his destiny as a Sith'ari, the Sith version of the Jedi's chosen one. Taking his father's derogatory term for him proudly as his reborn name, Bane makes the code of the Sith his own. He gravitates to the library and learns as much or more from the scrolls and manuals than from his lessons. He develops the belief that he can find a key to the ancient powers of the Rakata, the first servants of the dark side. When he finds what he is looking for, all of the knowledge of the dark side becomes his. It is there that he develops the Rule of the Two-then all he has to do is bring down all the existing Sith and find the perfect disciple. If he were less, it would be impossible and there would be no story. This is an entertaining read, well written and consistent in its history. Readers new to the "Star Wars" series will like it, and fans won't be disappointed.-Dana Cobern-Kullman, Luther Burbank Middle School, Burbank, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Long before the rise of Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire, the fate of the Republic rested on the outcome of the ongoing conflict between the Jedi Knights and the Brotherhood of the Sith. In an era when users of the Force's Dark Side were almost as numerous as those who adhered only to the Light Side, one Sith lord initiated his rise to power and forever changed the destiny of the Sith Brotherhood. Fantasy/sf author and video game designer Karpyshyn brings the expert knowledge of the Old Republic gained from his work on the video game, Star WarsR: Knights of the Old Republic, to this somber story of one of the greatest villains in the prehistory of the world of Star WarsR. Filling in another historical era in film director George Lucas's most popular world, the first (but presumably not the last) novel set during the Old Republic belongs in most sf and YA collections. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.