Star Wars Legends Fan Group discussion

February 2022 Legends Group Read

Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn



The Group read starts on February 1st.

- the first part of the Bane Trilogy
- First published in September 2006
- set from 1006 BBY to 1000 BBY (The Old Republic)

""Two there should be; no more, no less.
One to embody the power, the other to crave it."
-Darth Bane, Dark Lord of the Sith

On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel, a cortosis miner, vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions. There, Dessel's brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, a far greater destiny awaits him.
As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side, Dessel embraces his new identity: Bane. But the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, he must defy the most sacred traditions and reject all he has been taught. It is a trial by fire in which he must surrender fully to the dark side-and forge from the ashes a new era of absolute power."

For those who participate in the Jedi Academy Reading Challenge,
this book could be used to complete either of these tasks:

2. Read a SW book that's part of a series.
8. Read a book set anytime before The Phantom Menace.
13. Read a book with a male main character other than Luke, Han, Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader.

Anyone reading this, yet? It is a popular series. I am curious to see your thoughts. I started Into the Dark this week to make progress on my SW Reading Challenge. But, I'd like to hit Path of Destruction soon.

The Group read was shuffled to February 2022. It seems like everybody was busy with Christmas preparation and December books never got the chance. :)

Don wrote: "Anyone reading this, yet? It is a popular series. I am curious to see your thoughts. I started Into the Dark this week to make progress on my SW Reading Challenge. But, I'd like to ..."

Not yet but I'm excited to get it and join along as my first read with this group! I've already read the Justina Ireland one for February but I am excited to join the discussion on that one as well!

Hoping to read it.

I read and enjoyed Revan by the same author. I might read this one, either with the GR or later.

I received this one for Christmas I can’t wait to start reading it and talk about it !

Just got my copy in the mail and will be starting it tomorrow!

I've just got my audiobook and I'm ready to start.

In reading the 2021 Del Rey trade paperback. It starts off very well. The fight with Gerd is described well. I was hoping for something more visceral, but it works and kept me interested. I love this particular paragraph:

"He couldn’t explain how he knew; sometimes he could just anticipate an opponent’s next move. Instinct, some might have said. Des felt it was something more. It was too detailed—too specific—to be simple instinct. It was more like a vision, a brief glimpse into the future. And whenever it happened, Des always knew what to do, as if something was guiding and directing his actions" (Karpyshyn, Del Rey 2021, page 13).

That's one of the best short descriptions of the Force I've ever seen. And it doesn't use the word 'penetrate.'

I agree. Karpyshyn seems to go for the practical manifestation of the Force in the Forse sensitive.

He might have been inspired by the prequels:
"QUI-GON : He [Anakin] has special powers.
SHMI : Yes...
QUI-GON : He can see things before they happen. That's why he appears to have such quick reflexes. It is a Jedi trait. !"

He just expressed it better than Lucas did.

BTW The audiobook is narrated by Jonathan Davis. He's by far my favorite SW narrator. His Revenge of the Sith is superb. And I am really excited that he's narrating the upcoming Brotherhood.

I'm going to try and at least start this book after the Olympics are over.

The book starts on Korriban - an Outer Rim planet that was home to the ancient Sith.

Dave Filoni used Korriban (renamed to Moraband) in season 6 of The Clone Wars. Yoda visited Darth Bane's tomb there and met Bane's "apparition". So it means that Darth Bane is canon - we just don't know if or how his story has been changed.

The sabacc game was quite tense. I surprisingly enjoyed the scene despite how long it was.

If you're curious about the rules, lot of it is explained in the book but you can check out these videos for a comprehensive explanation:



1/ short and sweet by Star Wars Explained - How to Play Sabacc: https://youtu.be/O_E_9k-H9TU

2/ more detailed by real sabacc players with demonstration - Sabacc Chat - How To Play Sabacc: https://youtu.be/ZjGsiEtmU-w

Not surprisingly you can buy real sabacc cards and play with your friends.

I finished the first part taking place on Apatros.

Just a couple of notes:
It was refreshing to see a sympathetic and friendly Neimoidian. I wonder what initially made Groshik take (young) Dessel under his wing. I don't think it was solely pity. He might have seen something in Dessel that made him suspect that the boy would have a greater destiny.

I was taken aback by the discussion about the Jedi. I was under the impression that in the Old republic the code was much more loose than what we're used to in the prequel era. But what's been told here albeit by people who are neither Jedi nor closely affiliated with them sounded an awful lot like the rules that Mace Windo and co. observed. (No emotions.)
I might be affected by reading the High republic books where the authors try to portray how different and less dogmatic the Jedi were even only 200 years before the fall of the Republic.

Rebecca wrote: "I'm going to try and at least start this book after the Olympics are over."

Rebecca, how are enjoying this Games? What are your favorite sports to watch?

I'm a major fan of figure skating so for me it's been really rough. How could anybody with conscience dope a 15yo child? And how could anybody (conscience or not) dope a child with a heart medication that is contraindicated in children? How?!

Zuzana wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "I'm going to try and at least start this book after the Olympics are over."

Rebecca, how are enjoying this Games? What are your favorite sports to watch?

I'm a major fan of figure..."
The 15 year old and doping was shocking for me. Russia does what it wants to do, and the rest of the world needs to take actions that don't send us on the path to war, but resolve the issue. As for the 15 year old, she might not know what she was taking, or she might be forced to do it.

Figure skating is my favorite. I'm not shocked Russia treats their minors and skaters like that. They chew up their female skaters and spit them out quickly. I'm angry their letting her skate and not awarding medals to anyone until its been resolved because the harm to her continues and they punish skaters who aren't doping.

I also love watching skiing, bobsled, skeleton, luge, and hockey. I've been enjoying the mixed team events.

Is anyone else having something weird going on with notifications? It said some of you had commented on the thread about 15 minutes ago, but my comments about sports are the last ones I'm seeing at the moment.

My notifications didn't work at all for about 2-3 weeks and today they went totally heywire.

Ok. So not just me.

Rebecca wrote: "Figure skating is my favorite. I'm not shocked Russia treats their minors and skaters like that. They chew up their female skaters and spit them out quickly. I'm angry their letting her skate and n..."

Like some female skaters retired before 25.

I'm not shocked either.

In Russian skating you're lucky to compete at top levels past 17, and will probably need major surgery by 18.

Rebecca wrote: "In Russian skating you're lucky to compete at top levels past 17, and will probably need major surgery by 18."

Agreed, especially with the eating restrictions to keep them light enough to do quads.

Also, she may not have a choice to not take the drugs. After all, she 15, not like even an adult.

Honestly she may not have even known they were banned substances. I'm angry at a court and federation that think this is ok to do to a 15 year old and or a court that doesn't immediately remove her from the situation. I'm not angry with her, but whether she knowingly broke the rules or not she still has to live with the consequences. Why the court thought it was ok to let her compete and be near coaches under investigation for doping and punish skaters who played by the rules makes no sense to me.

Honestly, the more we get to know about the sordid affair the worse it gets. It wasn't one drug it was a coctail of 3 different heart medications with only one of those banned (most likely because the WADA didn't know the others were used to "help" with the training).

Anyway, back to Star Wars and Darth Bane.

I'm really enjoying the book. Makes me regret that I never finished playing KOTOR. There are many references to it as Karpyshyn was the head writer for the game.

I loved the conflict within the philosophies of the Dark Side and the Ligth Side and how they were disregarded by both the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness and the Jedi Army of Light respectively.

"The irony of the situation was not lost on Kaan. For a change it was the Jedi who were split by infighting and rivalries, while the Brotherhood of Darkness remained united and strong. Part of him found the strange reversal troubling.

In the long nights when he couldn’t sleep, he’d often walk the floor of his tent wrestling with the seeming paradox. Had the armies on Ruusan crossed a line where light and darkness meet? Had the endless conflict between the Army of Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness drawn them both into a void where the ideologies became hopelessly intertwined? Were they all now Force-users of the Twilight, caught between the two sides and belonging to neither?"

BTW Did Karpyshyn really need to name the effeminate Jedi "Valenthyne Farfalla"?! Really?!
EDIT: See bellow.

One inconsistency I discovered. Bane mentions that Sirak used Vaapad among other lightsaber combat forms during their duel. Vaapad was invented by Mace Windu 1000 years later.

Zuzana wrote: "BTW Did Karpyshyn really need to name the effeminate Jedi "Valenthyne Farfalla"?! Really?!"

Apologies to Karpyshyn, the character, his name and mannerisms were taken from the comicbook Jedi vs. Sith by Darko Macan. This was the comicbook Darth Bane first appeared in and there are several key scenes that Karpyshyn took and used in his novel.

Here's what Karpyshyn said about it in one of his interviews:

Q: "When it comes to playing around in an already established universe such as Star Wars, how much free reign do you have in creating characters, events and stories? I’m guessing having it set during the Old Republic gives you a lot more freedom, but was there something you really wanted to include in any of the games or stories that was knocked back for whatever reason?"

DK: "I had a lot of freedom, largely because I was the first (and for a while the only) author working in the Old Republic era. As long as I didn’t do anything stupid, like kill off Yoda’s grandfather or something, they let me run with it.

However, there was existing source material in the form of the Dark Horse comics. They actually introduced Bane as a character, so I needed to make the first Darth Bane novel fit with what was established in the comics. In fact, much of the last third of the novel is a retelling of the Jedi vs Sith comic series, but with the point of view focusing on different characters."

I have very very briefly checked out the comicbook and it seems ... not that good. I don't like the art and what I saw from the story I didn't particularly liked (the 3 main characters are child soldiers recruited by the Jedi to fight on Ruusaan - it seems that Karpyshyn fortunately ignored the worst of the comicbook's plot).

And I'm done. In the third part the book lost steam, the pacing and some choices where to take the plot were weird. It's explained by what I wrote above - the last third was a retelling of the comicbook that wasn't very good in the first place. I guess that Karpyshyn did what he could to improve on the original story and I really enjoyed the first two thirds that were his creation. The part set on the Ruusan was lacking.

The audiobook was fantastic. Kudos to Jonathan Davis.

I'm looking forward to Rule of Two.

I finished Path of Destrucyion last night. I give this this book 3.5. Far from perfect, Karpyshyn does an admirable job of what he has to work with. I have never played a Knights of the Old Republic, nor indulged in any of the comic books. I read this without any expectations or familiarity with other mediums associated with the source material.

I really liked the book's opening scene. The fight with Gerd was a great action sequence to open with. I would have liked more understanding of Dessel's relationship with his father. That dysfunctional could have been explored more to solidify Dessel's emerging character. A bit of a shame that Karpyshyn did not flesh that out more. To me, the sabbac game was a bore. It was the book's overly long version of pad racing. Yes, there was some necessary set-up for the murder fight with and murder of an officer. A predictable sabbac game that we all know Dessel's going to win was too much minutia.

Bane's time on Korriban was interesting. Part II offered the best story-telling and presented a lot of insight into the Force. I did chuckle as I saw Sirak and his two sycophants as Draco Malfoy and his ever present Crabbe and Goyle cronies. I would have preferred more development of Sirak, but the introduction of Githany precluded that and he became a familiar plot device we knew was going to be discarded. No surprises there. Despite the Va'apad goof up, ligtsaber fights were good - not great, but better than I've seen in other Star Wars writing.

Githany was a great foil. Another character that may have merited further development in the larger story. Karpyshyn wrote her so well that I despised her and was so glad to see her demise at the book's end. I would have liked to see more into her past and wanted a deeper delve into her character.

The book ended with a dull thud. I cannot let the phrase 'thought bomb' go. I've seen some dumb, lazy writing in Star Wars, and 'thought bomb' is a top three dumb thing. The idea of this psychic weapon had very interesting potential. Regrettably, its name and Karpyshyn's description of it left a lot to be desired. I seemed like a rush job, to me, to get the book ended. That is too bad, because there is enormous potential in the idea of this mass ritual. It made me think of the Night Sisters of Dathomir, except more boring and ill-developed.

Overall, not amazing, but not terrible. I like the idea of Bane, how he discovered artifacts and knowledge from the past, and his dedication to the 'true' ideals of the Sith and the dark side of the Force. I enjoyed his journey 'up' the dark side's ladder as he killed foe after foe to prove his point, develop as a sinister, evil man, and I look forward to his exploits as the trilogy unfolds.

Rebecca wrote: "Figure skating is my favorite. I'm not shocked Russia treats their minors and skaters like that. They chew up their female skaters and spit them out quickly. I'm angry their letting her skate and n..."

Could you maybe compare the Russian figure skater kids to young Sith apprentices, with all the things they are forced into? Sorry about going off topic.

I'm not sure Allyssa. I do know I won't watch another figure skating event until they make changes to protect these skaters though.

Don wrote: "The book ended with a dull thud. I cannot let the phrase 'thought bomb' go. I've seen some dumb, lazy writing in Star Wars, and 'thought bomb' is a top three dumb thing."

I totally agree, Don. From what I've read from the comicbook Karpyshyn did excellent job making sense of most of the atrocities commited by Darko Macan or at least he gave it a good try and that includes the thought bomb. Was it perfect? Far from it. But given the source material Karpyshyn deserves a medal.

It makes me excited for Rule of Two. I'm curious to see what Karpyshyn came up with when he was totally free to develop his own story and was not bound by (totally ridiculous) pre-existing material.