The new Dark Lord of the Sith has arrived. Sacrifice by Karen Traviss, the middle chapter of the Legacy of the Force series, hit bookshelves last week. Who will Jacen Solo have to kill to finalize his transcedence as a Sith Master? Will the Galactic Alliance survive the civil war that rages on all sides? Is this pricey hardcover worth picking up? Let’s find out, shall we…
Don’t worry, no spoilers! Unless, of course, you can use the Force!
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force – Sacrifice
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The turning point has arrived. The fifth book by Karen Traviss, and middle chapter, of the Legacy of the Force series (check out the story so far) brings everything to a head as Jacen Solo fulfills his final task to become the next Lord of the Sity by sacrificing someone he loves.
The book picks up right where Exile left off. Jacen sends Ben off on a dangerous mission, Mara searches for Lumiya, and Luke struggles with making sense out of what is happening to his family and the galaxy.
One of this series strengths has been to show the Sith philosophy as different than the Jedi belief system but not exactly evil (though this has fluctuations somewhat in the different novels as each of the writers has taken their own path to revealing the Sith and exploring the rational behind Jacen’s actions). Whether or not his actions are right or wrong, you can hardly state that they are self-centered or purely evil. It’s a nice change of pace, still with eerie similarities, to Palpatine and Vader’s rise to power.
In Sacrifice the new Sith pupil is given the final task of sacrificing someone or something dear to him to achieve his rightful place as a Sith Lord. How exactly such a sacrifice works, and how it will increase his power is rather unclear.
Another slight problem with this entry into the series is there are too many clues as to who the sacrifice will be. The red herrings provided are never really presented strongly enough, and with the necessity of certain characters to live to carry on the characters’ bloodlines, there isn’t enough to give the reader doubt as to who will die.
The final scenes for some characters (sorry no spoilers here) also becomes anti-climatic given the slow build up to these moments, though the emotion in the aftermath of the loss of a major character from the Skywalker/Solo family is filled with emotion.
For you Force users out there wanting to know who dies in the novel but without the cash to plunk down for this hardcover, use the Force and click and move your mouse below to uncover the hidden text:
What? You can’t figure it out from the cover? Some Force user you turned out to be! That’s right, Mara Jade Skywalker is the one who dies!
In terms of moving the story forward the novel works well, but the series has begun to drag its feet a little with the last two books. Hopefully with the death of a major character and the rise of the new Dark Caedus the series will shift back into gear for the final four novels. So is it worth the $25.95 price tag? For true fans of the novels yes, but casual observers may want to wait for the paperback version. Since the next couple of novels will be released straight to paperback before that happens it will mean you will be two or three books behind on the series by that time. What should you do? Trust the Force young Padawan!
