Quick-take: Entertaining filler book

Dan's Review

As is typical with a book 2, everything is wrapped up nice and neat and nothing particularly groundbreaking happens.

The Jedi elites make some questionable decisions near the end to allow a big story reset to prepare for book 3. However, I am willing to let all that slide. I'm letting it slide because this book was very entertaining. Darth Bane is simply a bad-ass. He is an armored plated godlike force of nature destroying multiple Jedi masters all at once.

Bane's Rule of Two that guides the Sith is now in full effect:

• Two there should be; no more, no less.
• One to embody the power, the other to crave it.

His apprentice, Zannah, is pretty interesting too. Though reluctant at first, it only takes a few demonstrations of Darth Bane's powers to make her go all-in with evil. She does indeed crave that power, and the book is better for it.

A plot element that I felt was lacking justification is why Bane got obsessed with creating memory crystals. At first, he got in to the habit of destroying them as he found them... would've been nice to save a few, right? Perhaps he should be teaching Zannah, his chosen successor, some tips about the crystals because after all his main goal is to have his knowledge captured for the following generations.

Though nothing groundbreaking happens, this book gets 5/5 stars purely for the entertainment value. I've already picked up book 3.