The Book of Sith – Secrets from the Dark Side by Daniel Wallace
Published by Titan Books UK, April 2013 (Review copy received.)
(Originally in a deluxe edition, 2012.)
ISBN: 978 178 1166 178
160 pages
Review by Mark Yon
This is an interesting oddity from Titan Books, in that it is not a Star Wars novel but a book as an artefact, meant to highlight some of the lengthy back-story of the Star Wars universe.
It is a companion volume to The Jedi Path, published in 2011, that showed the secret details of how to become a Jedi. As you might expect from the title, this is a volume that shows the opposite path – the beliefs and techniques of how to be a Dark Lord/Jedi and the clandestine past of their Order.
The concept is that it is a collection of secret histories, compiled by Darth Sidious, and put into one book and then used and annotated by various owners, such as Darth Vader (aka Anakin Skywalker) Yoda, Mace Windu and Luke Skywalker. There are “handwritten” notes in the margins and as footnotes throughout, linking the details herein to wider events in the Star Wars history.
There are five chapters here, with an encapsulating sixth element from Sidious himself. They show the long history of the rise and fall of the Sith over many thousands of years. Sorzus Syn”s chronicle of the original rise of the Sith Empire, thousands of years ago, begins the collection. It is the tale of a female Jedi, exiled from the Jedi Order, who set herself up as one of the first Sith Lords and created the Sith Code at the time of the Second Great Schism. Darth Malgus”s war journal was written during the Great Galactic War, when the Sith was defeated and the Republic ruled the Empire, as shown in the Old Republic computer games. Darth Bane (from Drew Karpyshyn”s novels) tells of a time when the Sith Order was in decline, having to do their work in the shadows, and shows how the Sith learned from their mistakes. Here Bane summarises his ideas and creates The Rule of Two (namely that one Sith must contain all the power of the dark side and that one Master must decide how that power shall be used) in order to rise again. Mother Talzin”s Wild Power text adds an element of the tale from the Clone Wars, that of the history, beliefs and work of the Nightsisters, a Sith splinter group who became dark side mercenaries. The fifth section is by Darth Plagueis, Darth Sidious” Master, showing his scientific thoughts on the true nature of the nature of the Sith.
Darth Sidious (aka Emperor Palpatine) himself finishes the book in a section called Absolute Power. This explains how he achieved absolute power, and how he will maintain it to reshape the galaxy at the time of the films. He also proposes his own ideas about the future for the Sith, as he begins his reign as a Dark Lord Master at the beginning of the Imperial Age. He takes the key concepts of the other Sith Lords, but feeling that they were too rigid in their own dogmas, uses their core truths to establish The Rule of One, in what he sees as the true knowledge of the dark side and illustrate the tasks required to implement a Sith Order.
This is not a huge volume, but it is a lot of fun, in as much as something so dark can be entertaining. It can be read without knowledge of The Jedi Path, though I suspect looking at the two side by side would make an interesting comparison. The Book of Sith covers the full range of the SW universe, from the films to the games to the novels, putting them into a cleverly unified and coherent account.
It is fairly easy to follow without a detailed knowledge of the history, although those with a comprehensive familiarity will find much to appreciate. The author clearly knows his stuff and has used this to tell a lengthy tale with an impressive degree of understanding of the key ideas of the Star Wars Universe.
The details throughout are many and varied. For example, there are specifics on how to select an Apprentice, the meaning of the name “Darth”. how to construct a lightsabre and use a saberstaff, the warbeasts that Siths can create to do their bidding, alchemy and Sith incantions, codes and prophecies.
However, it is the little extra touches that make the book a memorable read. The cover is a faux leather of red with black writing, reminiscent of Darth Maul”s makeup. The edges of some of the pages are cut to different shapes, in order to make the point that they are from different places and various times. Some pages look like parchment, others engineered to look old. The art work, from Paul Allan Ballard, Jeff Carlisle, Chris Reiff, Chris Trevas, Russell Walks and Terryl Whitlatch, is both classic and classy, giving an art gallery feel to much of the contents. My only issue here is that some of the pictures are rather small and would be enhanced by being seen larger.
One for the Star Wars fan, who may occasionally feel tempted by the Dark Side. Channelling my younger Star Wars geek, I can see a lot of young, and young-at-heart, fans lapping this up as it connects the novels and the computer games to the films and the television series. Good stuff.
Mark Yon, March 2013.
