Customer Reviews

Darth Bane: Rule of Two

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Drew Karpyshyn faced a huge challenge in writing a sequel to the powerful Path of Destruction (Star Wars: Darth Bane, Book 1). Rule of Two (Star Wars: Darth Bane, Book 2) works as a sequel, but doesn't have quite the same emotional power. For one thing, Bane himself is no longer the center of attention. Instead, most of the book follows Zannah, Bane's apprentice. She's a strong character on her own, but we still never really get much backstory to her. I feel like we never find out what makes her tick, aside from a few unguarded moments.

Meanwhile, a young Jedi Johun hears rumors of a Sith and tries to track them down. There's nothing wrong with this subplot. Johun himself seems like a decent character. It just seems much more like the regular Star Wars fare, unlike Path of Destruction, which focused almost exclusively on the Sith. It does answer the question though of why the Jedi seemed to naively believe the Sith were wiped out.

Bane himself faces an interesting dilemma. Karpyshyn found a creative way to give Bane a weakness - and prevent Bane from becoming a stale character - without making him seem weak. Bane is attacked by parasitic crustaceans called orbalisks. While they feed on his Dark Side energy, they also amplify his strength and protect his body. The question then becomes whether the creatures provide more benefit than harm. It's a neat way to backpedal from Path of Destruction, where Bane seemed a bit too omnipotent.

One irreconcilable problem I had with Rule of Two is that dubious science. At one point, Bane simply takes a winged reptile and flies from one moon to another. The bodies, Dxum and Onderon, are described as being mere kilometers away, far two close for any real moons or planetary bodies. In real life, these two would have collided into each other long ago. That seems a bit lazy and I had expected more from Karpyshyn, whose Bane novels are otherwise some of the best in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.