Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars) [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

James Luceno (Author), Jonathan Davis (Reader)

Book Description

Series: Star Wars | Publication Date: November 22, 2005

Throughout the galaxy, it was believed that Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker–the Chosen One–had died on Coruscant during the siege of the Jedi Temple. And, to some extent, that was true. Anakin was dead.

From the site of Anakin Skywalker’s last stand–on the molten surface of the planet Mustafar, where he sought to destroy his friend and former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi–a fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi Order, he is now a disciple of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right hand of the galaxy’s ruthless new Emperor. Seduced, deranged, and destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is dead . . . and Darth Vader lives.

Word of the events that created him–the Jedi Council’s failed mutiny against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the self-crowned Emperor’s retaliatory command to exterminate the Jedi Order, and Anakin’s massacre of his comrades and Masters in the Jedi Temple–has yet to reach all quarters. On the Outer Rim world of Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on a Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide, red with Jedi blood, has turned suddenly against them.

When the three narrowly elude execution–and become the desperate prey in a hunt across space–it’s neither clone soldiers, nor the newly deployed stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the power-hungry Emperor himself they must fear most. The deadliest threat rests in the hideously swift and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vader–behind whose brooding mask lies a shattered heart, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted mind hell-bent on vengeance.

For the handful of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy somehow, someday reclaimed. Yet more important still is the well-being of the twin infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the children of Anakin and his doomed bride, Padmé Amidala. Separated after Padmé’s death, they must be made safe at all costs, lest the hope they represent for the future be turned to horror by the new Sith regime–and the unspeakable power of the dark side.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Force is still to be reckoned with, primarily because Darth Vader continues to be one of the most fascinating dark pop icons since Dracula. Picking up where Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith (2005) left off, Luceno (Labyrinth of Evil) delivers exciting battle scenes and brave characters, including the beloved Wookie, Chewbacca. His ease with Star Wars techno-jargon is admirable. What's needed in this intermittently entertaining installment is a better opponent for Vader. Unfortunately, Yoda, the spiritual heart of the saga, appears to be in hiding. Instead, Luceno focuses on Jedi knight Roan Shryne; his Padawan sidekick, Olee Starstone; and other survivors of Emperor Palpatine's Jedi extermination. All appear to be earnest, if pale, imitations of Obi-Wan Kenobi. And where's Han Solo, far older than the Skywalker twins? Why can't Vader sense his twins' existence with his vaunted supernatural abilities? Too often the sympathetic Vader wallows in self-pity. Thankfully, exuberantly evil Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) returns with more power lessons Vader laps up eagerly: "Where the Jedi gained power through understanding, the Sith gain understanding through power."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Picking up where the last Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, ended,Dark Lord chronicles Anakin Skywalker's emotional transition from angry young Jedi to cold, ruthless Darth Vader. The novel opens on the planet Murkhana, hours before the clone troopers are given the order to turn on the Jedi and slaughter them. Jedi Master Roan Shryne and Padawan Olee Starstone escape death and manage to get off the planet, but not before getting a glimpse of the deadly Darth Vader, the new Sith lord who is the emperor's new right-hand man. But the former Anakin Skywalker is still filled with anger and resentment over what he perceives as the betrayal of his wife and his former mentor. As Sidious and Vader work to destroy the remains of the republic, Shryne and Starstone set out to rescue the remaining Jedi, who are spread out throughout the galaxy. Now that all three Star Wars prequel movies are out, expect plenty more novels along the lines of this gripping, fast-paced story. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739323946
• ISBN-13: 978-0739323946
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (164 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JAMES LUCENO is The New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial, Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse, and The Unifying Force, as well as Star Wars: Cloak of Deception, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur. He also co-authored the popular ROBOTECH series with his close friend the late Brian Daley. Luceno wrote the film adaptations for The Shadow and The Mask of Zorro. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and youngest child.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rise of the Most Intriguing Villian in Fiction, November 29, 2005

By 

J. Bongiorno (NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars) (Hardcover)

James Luceno's brilliant sequel to Revenge of the Sith manages to not only complete the saga of Anakin's descent into Darth Vader, but create a dynamic, moving portrait of loss and acceptance in a galaxy turned suddenly upside down.

Jedi Knight, Roan Shryne, has all but abandoned his faith in the Force in the wake of the tragic events of Order 66. He finds little solace in his companion, a plucky young Padawan who has grand plans of saving the remnant of Jedi. En route, he discovers something even more disturbing, a chance to give up life as a Jedi and start over as an ordinary man.

Darth Vader is also undergoing a crisis of faith, unable to move on past the deceit and betrayal of his masters (both Obi Wan and Sidious) and to forge for himself a reason for being other than as yet another pawn for Palpy. But the dark plans of Sidious have only just begun as the Sith Lord prods and pushes Vader into situations that will trigger the chrsalysis of rage, a pathway to the true power of the dark side. His machinations will team Vader up with the newest emergent power, an Imperial Moff, who's overarching designs will mean the enslavement of a nation and the means of fueling life into the Empire's emerging superweapon, the Death Star.

Luceno builds a story filled with pathos, horror and intriguing insights into the minds of Darths Vader and Sidious. Numerous long-standing questions are answered along the way as we're enmeshed in the moral dilemma of a galaxy that's lost its way: a Clone Commando who will not obey Order 66, a politician who risks all to secretly undermine the Empire, a young Padawan that learns -- too late -- the price of blind obedience to duty, a race of fierce beings who will fight at all costs a losing battle against tyranny, and the former Chosen One who learns that he needs the Jedi still to grow into the agent of evil he's chosen to become.

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointed, January 15, 2007

By 

Rick Cunnington (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars) (Mass Market Paperback)

I got this book because it was titled the Rise of Darth Vader. Instead what I got was The Flee of the Remaining Jedi. Darth Vader is in this book but a handfull of times. Since this book is entitled the Rise of Darth Vader one would expect the book to be about Darth vader and his Rise to power as the second in command in the whole galexy. But unfortunately it's not. Over all I was very disappointed in this book. The darth vader character has been my favorite character in the whole Star Wars saga. I hope that books about his life to follow have more to do with him than other characters. If you are interested in Reading this book, you won't learn anything about him that you don't already know. You get no new information about who he has become and what is now driving him. If you noticed in the second starwars movie how much of a baby Anikin is, nothing has changed. Save yourself the few hours of reading time and pick something else.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor effort, unworthy of both Star Wars and James Luceno, January 1, 2006

By 

Kevin M. Cherry "Kevin" (South Bend IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars) (Hardcover)

I'm not sure how this book has received such rave reviews. I'm as qualified to call myself a Star Wars fan as anyone (more qualified, as my fiancee laments). In fact, I looked forward to this book, because I thought Luceno's LABYRINTH OF EVIL (set between Episodes II and III) was possibly the best Star Wars novel since the original Star Wars sequel, Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" series. And since DARK LORD was to tell the story behind Darth Vader's rise to power within the new Empire, I eagerly awaited its release.

Unfortunately, the book was a total let-down on just about every level. Yoda never appears. Obi-Wan Kenobi is mentioned only in passing. The treatment of the major Star Wars characters--the Emperor, Vader, Chewbacca--is poorly done; they are nothing like the figures in the movies, and their internal dialogues are overwrought, sappy, and unrealistic. The new characters--Jedi Knights who survived the notorious Order 66--are even worse: They have no real identity and the reader never comes to care about them. There are typographical and grammatical errors throughout. The plot is threadbare and winds its own long way around. As with his characters, Luceno's descriptive language fails to convey any imagery, setting, or emotion. For instance: At the climactic moment when Vader reveals himself to one of the Jedi, the reader has no idea why Vader (a) "fell silent for a moment" or (b) why he suddenly breaks that silence and tells the Jedi who he is. Worst of all, some questions that Lucas purposefully left unanswered in the films (such as whether Sidious or Plageius manipulated midichlorians "to create life") are resolved in such a way that it weakens the dramatic arch of the Vader saga. To top even that off: Luceno does this in passing, seemingly unaware of what he had done!

The one exception is in Luceno's treatment of Bail Organa, forced to weigh standing firm against Palpatine's New Empire against protecting his newly adopted daughter, Leia. Organa is the one character whose mind Luceno is able to get inside. As a result, Organa evokes some response from the reader. A certain Moff--grander than most others--makes an appearance toward the end, and he, too, comes across as somewhat more akin to the figure in the films. It's silly to ask where Han Solo is--even if he's older than the twins, he's still five or six at the time the novel takes place--but perhaps not so silly to ask where a certain unaltered clone of Jango Fett might be.

Within the confines of the Star Wars schematic, Luceno was able to do a masterful job with LABYRINTH OF EVIL. It had a clear beginning and a clear end, with well-defined characters, and he was able to fill in the outlines ably. Here, forced to create a story and characters largely from scratch, he just isn't up to par. And, of course, he throws in his preachy political sermon at the end, just as he did in LABYRINTH. One can agree with his politics--as I might--but still recognize that (a) parallels with the Star Wars universe are tricky to draw and (b) that it's done in an embarassingly sloppy way.

At the end of this book is an advertisement: "If you enjoyed Star Wars: Dark Lord--The Rise of Darth Vader and would like to delve further into the stories that paved the way for the original Star Wars movies, pick up a copy of Star Wars: Outbound Flight by #1 New York Times bestselling Star Wars author Timothy Zahn!" I did not enjoy this book. However, Zahn's previous efforts in the Star Wars galaxy have been excellent, and I look forward to his new book despite the weaknesses of Luceno. It should fill in some of the background from his legendery "Heir to the Empire" trilogy.

Two stars: one for the treatment of Bail Organa and one because the Star Wars universe is so fascinating that even a trained monkey with a typewriter couldn't screw it up--which is, alas, sometimes what this book reads like.