Jedi Master Luke Skywalker is haunted by visions of the dark side, foretelling an ominous secret growing somewhere in the depths of space, on a dead world called Exegol. The disturbance in the Force is undeniable . . . and Luke’s worst fears are confirmed when his old friend Lando Calrissian comes to him with reports of a new Sith menace.
After Lando’s daughter was stolen from his arms, he searched the stars for any trace of his lost child. But every new rumor leads only to dead ends and fading hopes—until he crosses paths with Ochi of Bestoon, a Sith assassin tasked with kidnapping a young girl.
Ochi’s true motives remain shrouded to Luke and Lando. For on a junkyard moon, a mysterious envoy of the Sith Eternal has bequeathed a sacred blade to the assassin, promising that it will answer the questions that have haunted him since the Empire fell. In exchange, he must complete a final mission: Return to Exegol with the key to the Sith’s glorious rebirth—Rey, the granddaughter of Darth Sidious himself.
As Ochi hunts Rey and her parents to the edge of the galaxy, Luke and Lando race into the mystery of the Sith’s lingering shadow and aid a young family running for their lives.
Whatever else happens in Adam Christopher’s Star Wars writing career, he’ll always have a very interesting footnote on his Wookieepedia page: he was scheduled to write a tie-in novel for THE MANDALORIAN, but the book was canceled, with Del Rey/Star Wars offering up this in a tweet:
“Due to the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian, we will no longer be publishing THE MANDALORIAN ORIGINAL NOVEL at this time, as the story continues to unfold on screen.”
I’m not sure we’ll ever know how much of that novel had been written or what it would have been like. It was a huge bummer…I think this happened between seasons one & two of the show, and I remember feeling kinda gutted. I was really looking forward to the book, and Christopher certainly seemed excited about writing it!
Anyway.
The Story Group is gonna Story Group, and it apparently just wasn’t in the cards. But ALAS!
SHADOW OF THE SITH is now the debut Star Wars novel by Adam Christopher (he has published some Star Wars short stories as well), and fucking hell…this is truly an epic achievement. For sure one of my new favorite Star Wars books, and one that perfectly meshes together elements from the books and the movies.
The book plays particularly well with the sequel trilogy, and goes a long way towards answering some of the unanswered questions from The Force Awakens & The Rise of Skywalker.
We catch a fleeting glimpse or two of Rey’s parents in The Rise of Skywalker, but in SHADOW OF THE SITH, we meet them properly: her father, Dathan and her mother, Miramir. They are such special characters, and I sincerely think Adam Christopher has created one of the all-time great Star Wars love stories with these two. Each of them is so well developed in this book, and their love for Rey is like a physical, tangible, heartbreaking thing. And even getting to spend any time at all with little Rey (my favorite Star Wars character) is just…oof.
They are hunted across the pages of this novel, spanning the galaxy, making one seemingly impossible choice after another.
Their hunter? Ochi of Bestoon, Sith assassin & Jedi hunter. Ochi is…certainly an enigmatic character & one that’s written with a great level of detail. There’s an aspect of Ochi’s personality that made me loathe him, which was probably the point. He’s abusive towards his droid, D-O (that’s the little droid in The Rise of Skywalker that doesn’t like to be touched), and it just made my skin crawl.
DO NOT FUCK WITH THE CUTE LITTLE DROIDS!!!
Anyway, Ochi of Bestoon is wildly egocentric, and more than a little unhinged.
There’s a significant part of this book that is tied to Chuck Wendig’s AFTERMATH trilogy, but you certainly don’t have to read those first in order to enjoy SHADOW OF THE SITH. The less I reveal about those connections, the better. But for sure, this aspect of the book is one of the strongest & most compelling. Some real white-knuckle moments for me regarding one very interesting character.
But that’s enough about that.
I’ve gone all this way & not even mentioned Luke and Lando, ostensibly the main characters of the book (but this is just testament to how strong the other characters are).
The story really kicks off when Lando overhears something about Ochi’s mission to track down Rey & her parents. This takes on a personal meaning for Lando, and we really get to see a pretty raw, emotional side of this beloved scoundrel.
And who better to bring along for the adventure than his old buddy, Luke Skywalker.
Listen, I think The Last Jedi is a fucking masterpiece, and I won’t hear any different. That said, the Luke Skywalker we get to follow around on a planet-hopping adventure here is probably closer to the Luke Skywalker that the detractors of The Last Jedi were hoping to see in the film. While there’s some weariness and darkness creeping into the character, for the most part, this is the dashing, daring Luke Skywalker; a Jedi who will stop at nothing to save the day.
SHADOW OF THE SITH is really just exceptional in every way. It is relentlessly nerdy & full of so many cool/fun Star Wars Easter eggs. There’s a vehicle in this book that, to the best of my knowledge (and Google’s) began its life as a toy for the release of The Empire Strikes Back…it never even appeared in the film, but it sure does make an appearance in SHADOW OF THE SITH. And it’s just that kind of small detail that really brought me so much joy reading this book.
This is a tense, emotional, and character driven Star Wars story. But Christopher also writes some truly breathtaking action sequences, some of the best in any of the recent Star Wars books. SHADOW OF THE SITH is also an absolute treasure trove of both Jedi & Sith lore, so if that’s your thing, you’re in for a big treat.
I’m not sure what else to say here…SHADOW OF THE SITH is so fantastic, and one of my favorite books of the year, Star Wars or otherwise!
May the Force be with you!!
Grimdark Dad 