"The power of the Dark Side cannot be dispersed among the masses. It must be concentrated in the few who are worthy of the honor." Like most of the good stories in the Star Wars universe tales are told in 3's. Star Wars is king of the trilogy and the Darth Bane series keeps this legacy alive and strong. Keep in mind this is a review on the entire Darth Bane series, not just a single book, the series is too strong as a whole to review individually and like any good sci-fi epic its better to judge the series as a whole rather than in three broken down pieces.
The story of Bane starts as a miner and a solider, broken and destroyed backed into a corner in the heat of battle he decides to disobey a direct order, this defiance does not go unnoticed by his Sith overlords of course. The story really takes off once Des sheds his former name and joins the ranks of the Sith. His indoctrination is brutal, dark, relentless, and unforgiving causing Bane to be forged into the most powerful and unforgiving bad ass villains I have read about in damn near any story. Readers who have played the Knights of the Old Republic game will feel very at home with this, if you followed the ideas of the Sith in KOTOR you will see a lot of recognizable ideas in the teachings of the Sith from this era. With Karpyshyn at the helm this story as well as the games that should really come as no surprise. What's great about this story is that Bane doesn't simply rise to power over night, he has to be beaten down, nearly to death, become an outcast, and rise back up and steal power crushing all who oppose him. This creates a beautiful destructive path of brutality and carnage powered by The Dark Side of the Force. Once Bane takes control of the Sith his thirst for power is hardly quenched he takes on an apprentice and continues his endless hunt for power.
Bane's apprentice Zannah becomes one of the most interesting figures in the trilogy, which is only fitting as the follower of Banes teaching. We get to see her take a different path to embracing the darkside than the one that was set before Bane. In fact Zannah comes to be more of what you expect a apprentice to be in the lore of the Star Wars universe. She often becomes Banes go between doing the leg work while Bane is off doing his own things in his never ending quest for more power. That's not to say she doesn't terms with the power of the Darkside in her own way. Not only does she embrace the Darkside she does it in a way that embraces Dark and sexy only like a Sith female.
If you are familiar with the ways of the Sith you probably can guess what the story will build up to in the end. A power struggle between two powerful lords of the Sith. The battle takes an entire book to build up to and goes off in an extremely satisfying way. The battle of two titans totally meets the expectation that the reader sets in their mind and even manages to pull off a bit of the unexpected. With any luck, as a fan, this will lead to more novels. Without giving away the ending I can see a clear door opened for at least 3 more books. Will we get those? Who knows, I know Karpyshyn is working on other projects right now, and honestly I would be a little skeptical to see another author take the reigns of this series, it the short time it took me to read the books it has already become to close to me to see the legacy falter; at the same time I would be full of bantha fodder if I said I didn't want more of this story.
