Book Review: Star Wars - Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher

The Prequel Trilogy sucked. It drove a lot of people like me away from Star Wars, at least temporarily. But it happened. And once it happened, books and comics and video games followed to flesh it out and secure its place in the Star Wars universe and connect it to the Original Trilogy. Lucky for us, Dave Filoni came around and found ways to illuminate the prequel story to the point that people were actually excited that Hayden Christensen was returning as Anakin in "Obi Wan".

Unfortunately for Star Wars, there will always be more mountains to climb. The last movie, The Rise of Skywalker, was a fitting end of the Sequel Trilogy - at least in terms that after seeing that movie we all needed a break from our favorite movie universe. Unfortunately, as much as we'd hope that Rise of Skywalker could be ret-conned away at a later date, it actually happened, and is now ripe for further experimentation.

And also unfortunately, Adam Christopher is no Dave Filoni.

Shadow of the Sith tries to answer several open-ended Rise of Skywalker questions that remained open. What happened during the special mission Lando mentioned he had with Luke? Who was Ochi of Bestoon, and what had he been doing on the planet they found Lando on (the desert planet - no, not that one, the other one)? What had Ochi done to that roll-y "No touching" droid that gave him so much trauma? And what the hell was up with Rey's parents?

Shadow of the Sith follows Rey's parents Dathan and Miramir as they and 6 year old Rey try to escape the minions of Exegol while also keeping a low enough profile to not attract the attention of the Republic. Dathan, of course, was an ineffective clone of Emperor Palpatine - the Sith lords were fine with him escaping Exegol, but as soon as they sensed that Rey had potential they wanted to bring the family in.

While we're here, can we please pour one out for the concept raised in The Last Jedi that Rey's parents were "nobody special" and had nothing to do with Rey's force abilities. Way back in time, when Return of the Jedi was coming out and most people didn't know what a Sith was or who wore beskar armor, you could look at Luke Skywalker's progression with the force movie to movie and think it showed that everyone has the ability to better themselves. Then the Prequel trilogy came around and said that no, only certain people were capable of using the force, trampling that analogy. And then JJ Abrams pissed on the ashes with the whole "you thought Rey was different, but she's actually a clone" bullcr@p.

Anyway, the Sith lords hire Jedi-hunter Ochi of Bestoon to find Rey's family and bring them in. Then, for some reason...the Sith lords also go looking for them too. Feels like they could have saved a bunch of money there.

Lando learns about it, and still grieving over the loss of his daughter six years prior (remember learning that in the final moments of Rise of Skywalker?) he decides to help find the family and protect them from the Sith. To do so, he reaches out to his favorite Jedi Luke, and they form the tag-team DEATH STAR KILLERS #1 AND #2 (okay, not really - but always remember that Lando can only be the second-most important person in any given room at worst, because HE BLEW UP THE SECOND FRIGGING DEATH STAR!!!).

Lots of stuff happens, friends become enemies, enemies become friends, Rey is dropped off with Unkar Plutt on Jakku, and her parents are subsequently shanked by Ochi (oh, um, SPOILERS). Along the way there's some somewhat interesting stuff involving a Sith mask that controls the wearer and gives them Sith powers, and it's always fun to get inside Luke's head for a while, but the story's nothing to write home about.

Oh, and you know who else showed up? Lor San Tekka! Also known as "Who the f#ck is Lor San Tekka?" This book finally comes up with a backstory on why Lor San Tekka was such good friends with Luke that the opening shot of The Force Awakens was Poe Dameron talking to Lor San Tekka.

Anyway, this was not such a great book, and considering I just finished watching Andor, I'm doubly pissed that they just PROVED you could totally do great things within the Star Wars universe if you put your mind to it instead of just filling in dumb JJ Abrams stories. Five out of ten hot dogs.