What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1-9
Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories
At last in one volume, the eight original installments of the epic Lost Tribe of the Sith eBook series . . . along with the explosive, never-before-published finale, Pandemonium—more than one hundred pages of new material!
Five thousand years ago. After a Jedi ambush, the Sith mining ship Omen lies wrecked on a remote, unknown planet. Its commander, Yaru Korsin, battles the bloodshed of a mutinous faction led by his own brother. Marooned and facing death, the Sith crew have no choice but to venture into their desolate surroundings. They face any number of brutal challenges—vicious predators, lethal plagues, tribal people who worship vengeful gods—and like true Sith warriors, counter them with the dark side of the Force.
The struggles are just beginning for the proud, uncompromising Sith, driven as they are to rule at all costs. They will vanquish the primitive natives, and they will find their way back to their true destiny as rulers of the galaxy. But as their legacy grows over thousands of years, the Sith ultimately find themselves tested by the most dangerous threat of all: the enemy within.
Five thousand years ago. After a Jedi ambush, the Sith mining ship Omen lies wrecked on a remote, unknown planet. Its commander, Yaru Korsin, battles the bloodshed of a mutinous faction led by his own brother. Marooned and facing death, the Sith crew have no choice but to venture into their desolate surroundings. They face any number of brutal challenges—vicious predators, lethal plagues, tribal people who worship vengeful gods—and like true Sith warriors, counter them with the dark side of the Force.
The struggles are just beginning for the proud, uncompromising Sith, driven as they are to rule at all costs. They will vanquish the primitive natives, and they will find their way back to their true destiny as rulers of the galaxy. But as their legacy grows over thousands of years, the Sith ultimately find themselves tested by the most dangerous threat of all: the enemy within.
410 pages, Paperback
First published July 24, 2012
795 people are currently reading
3702 people want to read
About the author
John Jackson Miller
344 books986 followersNew York Times bestselling author John Jackson Miller has spent a lifetime immersed in science fiction. His Star Trek novels include the Discovery – Die Standing, the acclaimed novel Discovery — The Enterprise War, the Prey trilogy, and Takedown. His Star Wars novels include A New Dawn, Kenobi, Knight Errant, Lost Tribe of the Sith, and the Knights of the Old Republic comics, available from Marvel as Legends: The Old Republic.
He’s written comics and prose for Halo, Iron Man, Simpsons, Conan, Planet of the Apes, and Mass Effect, with recent graphic novels for Battlestar Galactica, Dumbo, and The Lion King. Production notes on all his works can be found at his fiction site.
He is also a comics industry historian, specializing in studying comic-book circulation as presented on his website, Comichron.. He also coauthored the Standard Catalog of Comic Books series.
He’s written comics and prose for Halo, Iron Man, Simpsons, Conan, Planet of the Apes, and Mass Effect, with recent graphic novels for Battlestar Galactica, Dumbo, and The Lion King. Production notes on all his works can be found at his fiction site.
He is also a comics industry historian, specializing in studying comic-book circulation as presented on his website, Comichron.. He also coauthored the Standard Catalog of Comic Books series.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 385 reviews
February 10, 2017
A collection of short stories that combine into one larger story that serves as a decent introduction to the Sith.
I recently read another Star Wars book that predates movie story line by several thousand years and it felt far withdrawn from the universe we know and love (forget canon vs legends, you still expect a somewhat similar feel). This one did have a better feel for the Star Wars universe. (The other book was Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void)
I will say that it took me a few of the short stories in this book to get into the writing, the characters, and the overall story line. It was enough that I wondered if it would be difficult to get into it at all. However, I eventually started to get comfortable and, in the end, was quite enthralled.
I recently read another Star Wars book that predates movie story line by several thousand years and it felt far withdrawn from the universe we know and love (forget canon vs legends, you still expect a somewhat similar feel). This one did have a better feel for the Star Wars universe. (The other book was Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void)
I will say that it took me a few of the short stories in this book to get into the writing, the characters, and the overall story line. It was enough that I wondered if it would be difficult to get into it at all. However, I eventually started to get comfortable and, in the end, was quite enthralled.
November 13, 2012
So here's the deal on this collection: they needed an antagonist or antagonists for Luke and his New Jedi Order to face in the aftermath of the Legacy Of The Force arc of novels. And of course these villains should be Sith, because that's how it works (not knocking it, just sayin'). But how? Bane's Sith are destroyed, dead with Palpatine and Vader, as are all the Executers and Dark Jedi that served Palpatine's cause. Lumiya's splinter sect are also destroyed, dead with the Dark Lady and her apprentice, the fallen Jacen Solo. Krayt's "One Sith" are out there and in play, but not viable antagonists--they have to be able to come out of nowhere in the beginning of Legacy, so a full-scale battle with Luke's Jedi is not in the cards. So they created the Lost Tribe Of The Sith. To avoid the appearance of Deus Ex Machina spawning these characters out of the void, they decided to flesh out their backstory in a series of free ebooks and gave the task to the excellent John Jackson Miller, writer of the KOTOR comic series. So that ran for eight stories, and then they decided that they should actually get paid for this. So they released this collection and made it the only way you would get to read the finale. Kinda a jerk move, but hey, I can't complain....I checked it out from the library to read the last couple stories (apparently I missed the memo that they had been released....)
The first several stories tell the tale of the Omen, a Sith cargo ship carrying war materiale for Naga Sadow's forces, that crashes on the uncharted planet Kesh around 4,000 years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, i.e. Star Wars Episode IV). The captain and crew are forced to figure out how to survive on this hostile planet and how to deal with its native population--being Sith, they decide on subjugation, but with the caveat that they are impersonating the natives' gods. Also being Sith, they have a distinct inability to cooperate very well....Miller tracks the evolution of this society through the years in his next several stories, tracing probably the only route that could possibly end in the mostly-stable Sith society we meet in Fate Of The Jedi.
If you're a newcomer to the Star Wars EU (Expanded Universe--if you didn't even know that much you're REALLY in trouble) this probably isn't the place to start. I always tell people that the best entry point into the EU is either Timothy Zahn's Heir To The Empire or Steve Perry's Shadows Of The Empire. If you're really into the Sith you will enjoy this, but still do some background reading first. At the very least to understand the beginning of this collection you should read the Tales Of The Jedi comics from the 90s--Golden Age Of The Sith and Fall Of The Sith Empire are the relevant volumes I believe, conveniently they are also the first. After the first several stories there will be references to the next couple TOJ volumes, but this is less necessary (The TOJ series is actually pretty good, so reading the whole thing woudldn't be unwise, but not essential for our purposes). All that said, this is a pretty good study of the Sith and how a purely Sith society might unfold if they were extremely lucky and managed to avoid killing each other off first. Good for fans of the Sith or those who want to look at the background material for the FofJ story arc.
Other good books on the Sith are Drew Karpyshyn's Darth Bane novels, the tie-ins to the Old Republic video game (especially Deceived), and James Luceno's Darth Plagueis novel chronicling the rise and fall of Palpatine's Sith Master (and thus Palpatine's rise in the process).
The first several stories tell the tale of the Omen, a Sith cargo ship carrying war materiale for Naga Sadow's forces, that crashes on the uncharted planet Kesh around 4,000 years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, i.e. Star Wars Episode IV). The captain and crew are forced to figure out how to survive on this hostile planet and how to deal with its native population--being Sith, they decide on subjugation, but with the caveat that they are impersonating the natives' gods. Also being Sith, they have a distinct inability to cooperate very well....Miller tracks the evolution of this society through the years in his next several stories, tracing probably the only route that could possibly end in the mostly-stable Sith society we meet in Fate Of The Jedi.
If you're a newcomer to the Star Wars EU (Expanded Universe--if you didn't even know that much you're REALLY in trouble) this probably isn't the place to start. I always tell people that the best entry point into the EU is either Timothy Zahn's Heir To The Empire or Steve Perry's Shadows Of The Empire. If you're really into the Sith you will enjoy this, but still do some background reading first. At the very least to understand the beginning of this collection you should read the Tales Of The Jedi comics from the 90s--Golden Age Of The Sith and Fall Of The Sith Empire are the relevant volumes I believe, conveniently they are also the first. After the first several stories there will be references to the next couple TOJ volumes, but this is less necessary (The TOJ series is actually pretty good, so reading the whole thing woudldn't be unwise, but not essential for our purposes). All that said, this is a pretty good study of the Sith and how a purely Sith society might unfold if they were extremely lucky and managed to avoid killing each other off first. Good for fans of the Sith or those who want to look at the background material for the FofJ story arc.
Other good books on the Sith are Drew Karpyshyn's Darth Bane novels, the tie-ins to the Old Republic video game (especially Deceived), and James Luceno's Darth Plagueis novel chronicling the rise and fall of Palpatine's Sith Master (and thus Palpatine's rise in the process).
September 21, 2012
Yaru Korsin and his crew on the ship, Omen, crash land on the planet, Kesh. At first, they think it will be no problem to return to their Sith mission in the stars, but quickly they realize that they are stuck on Kesh to stay. These series of stories cover the initial landing to a couple of thousand years later.
I'm not going to mince words: this is the best Star Wars book (or collection of short stories--whatever you want to call it) I've read all year. It has everything I love in a Star Wars book: great characters, interesting stories, a lush world, a setting that actually feels several thousands of years older than the one we see in the Original Trilogy. This book has its hiccups--the stories in the beginning are rather rough around the edges, and a couple of the stories don't seem to mesh with the overall storyline that great--but I haven't had this much fun reading a book since Timothy Zahn's Choices of One.
I was first introduced to John Jackson Miller via Star Wars: Knight Errant and its comic tie-in, Star Wars: Knight Errant, Volume 1: Aflame. You can read my reviews to get my full opinion of those works, but I felt that, overall, the stories just weren't very interesting and the writing wasn't very compelling. And, to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled about reading The Lost Tribe because of that.
But John Jackson Miller shows he can write with this collection of works. I feel there is more cohesion, overall, in the overarching story in these separate works, compiled into one novel, than there was in "Knight Errant" (with the minor exception of Ori and Jelph, whose stories aren't as critical as the rest--which doesn't mean they are pointless). Each story can stand alone; several stories work as a whole; and all of them together fit nicely in the Tribe's timeline. I can't emphasize enough how much this impressed me.
Roughly, the stories could be separated into three distinct chapters of the Tribe's life: the "Crash", the "Rot", and the "Revival".
"The Crash": Precipice, Skyborn, Paragon, Savior. This follows the crew of the Omen and the Keshiri tribe, and how the Sith establish their rule.
"The Rot": Purgatory and Sentinel. This follows Ori and Jelph and how the Sith rule breaks down completely and groups begin to fight amongst themselves.
"The Revival": Pantheon, Secrets, Pandemonium. This follows a time where the Sith nearly destroy themselves and how they overcome their differences for one goal: domination.
My favorites are Paragon, Savior, Pantheon, and Secrets. I can't make a list for least favorite, because the rest are all equally good. If I were to choose one, it would be "Precipice" because it is a rough story and the setup for the rest of the series.
The characters are absolutely amazing. I loved some of them to pieces (such as Hilts), hated others viscerally (Seelah), and wanted to know more about each one. I think it's great to see so many flawed, realistic characters. Yaru, who likes to pit Seelah against Adari. Adari, who realizes too late the evils of the Sith. Seelah, who wants to purify the race and is on the cusp of wholesale genocide. Ori, not-quite a Sith, not-quite a Jedi. Hilts, a man more interested in history, who wants to keep his people together and learn about the past, even if it puts his life in harm's way. Edell, who enjoys building and creating more than fighting and killing. Quarra, who contemplates committing adultery and struggles to figure out her place. All these characters are vivid and well-written. All these characters engaged me and made me interested in their own story.
A complaint I've had frequently with these pre-prequel Star Wars novels is that they don't feel as if they are thousands of years before "A New Hope". This isn't true with Lost Tribe at all. I think setting back the technology, having the Tribe lose that knowledge as the years past, was excellent. I enjoyed seeing the Tribe through the years, seeing them having to use their wits to get out of scrapes instead of hopping on an airspeeder and whipping out a blaster.
About the only complaint I have in this entire book (collection of short stories--whatever) is that the first few stories are pretty rough writing wise. Scenes jump from one to the next with little to bind them together. Some of the wordplay was confusing, and I had to reread sentences over and over to figure out what was going on. Also, it was a little challenging each time the story jumped in time. It took time to establish relationships with characters, to get a feel for the new surroundings and people and events.
I cannot say enough good things about The Lost Tribe of the Sith. It truly is one of the best Star Wars books in recent history and showcases the true talents of John Jackson Miller. Now that I'm done, I'm more than a little sad to leave these people behind. Hopefully, Miller will get a chance to go back and write more stories about these people. I would welcome the addition to the Star Wars world.
Heartily recommend for Star Wars fans, either new to the franchise or old.
I'm not going to mince words: this is the best Star Wars book (or collection of short stories--whatever you want to call it) I've read all year. It has everything I love in a Star Wars book: great characters, interesting stories, a lush world, a setting that actually feels several thousands of years older than the one we see in the Original Trilogy. This book has its hiccups--the stories in the beginning are rather rough around the edges, and a couple of the stories don't seem to mesh with the overall storyline that great--but I haven't had this much fun reading a book since Timothy Zahn's Choices of One.
I was first introduced to John Jackson Miller via Star Wars: Knight Errant and its comic tie-in, Star Wars: Knight Errant, Volume 1: Aflame. You can read my reviews to get my full opinion of those works, but I felt that, overall, the stories just weren't very interesting and the writing wasn't very compelling. And, to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled about reading The Lost Tribe because of that.
But John Jackson Miller shows he can write with this collection of works. I feel there is more cohesion, overall, in the overarching story in these separate works, compiled into one novel, than there was in "Knight Errant" (with the minor exception of Ori and Jelph, whose stories aren't as critical as the rest--which doesn't mean they are pointless). Each story can stand alone; several stories work as a whole; and all of them together fit nicely in the Tribe's timeline. I can't emphasize enough how much this impressed me.
Roughly, the stories could be separated into three distinct chapters of the Tribe's life: the "Crash", the "Rot", and the "Revival".
"The Crash": Precipice, Skyborn, Paragon, Savior. This follows the crew of the Omen and the Keshiri tribe, and how the Sith establish their rule.
"The Rot": Purgatory and Sentinel. This follows Ori and Jelph and how the Sith rule breaks down completely and groups begin to fight amongst themselves.
"The Revival": Pantheon, Secrets, Pandemonium. This follows a time where the Sith nearly destroy themselves and how they overcome their differences for one goal: domination.
My favorites are Paragon, Savior, Pantheon, and Secrets. I can't make a list for least favorite, because the rest are all equally good. If I were to choose one, it would be "Precipice" because it is a rough story and the setup for the rest of the series.
The characters are absolutely amazing. I loved some of them to pieces (such as Hilts), hated others viscerally (Seelah), and wanted to know more about each one. I think it's great to see so many flawed, realistic characters. Yaru, who likes to pit Seelah against Adari. Adari, who realizes too late the evils of the Sith. Seelah, who wants to purify the race and is on the cusp of wholesale genocide. Ori, not-quite a Sith, not-quite a Jedi. Hilts, a man more interested in history, who wants to keep his people together and learn about the past, even if it puts his life in harm's way. Edell, who enjoys building and creating more than fighting and killing. Quarra, who contemplates committing adultery and struggles to figure out her place. All these characters are vivid and well-written. All these characters engaged me and made me interested in their own story.
A complaint I've had frequently with these pre-prequel Star Wars novels is that they don't feel as if they are thousands of years before "A New Hope". This isn't true with Lost Tribe at all. I think setting back the technology, having the Tribe lose that knowledge as the years past, was excellent. I enjoyed seeing the Tribe through the years, seeing them having to use their wits to get out of scrapes instead of hopping on an airspeeder and whipping out a blaster.
About the only complaint I have in this entire book (collection of short stories--whatever) is that the first few stories are pretty rough writing wise. Scenes jump from one to the next with little to bind them together. Some of the wordplay was confusing, and I had to reread sentences over and over to figure out what was going on. Also, it was a little challenging each time the story jumped in time. It took time to establish relationships with characters, to get a feel for the new surroundings and people and events.
I cannot say enough good things about The Lost Tribe of the Sith. It truly is one of the best Star Wars books in recent history and showcases the true talents of John Jackson Miller. Now that I'm done, I'm more than a little sad to leave these people behind. Hopefully, Miller will get a chance to go back and write more stories about these people. I would welcome the addition to the Star Wars world.
Heartily recommend for Star Wars fans, either new to the franchise or old.
July 8, 2025
As a "Star Wars" fan, it has always fascinated me how truly visionary George Lucas was when he created the original "Star Wars" film in 1977. It was a fully-formed universe, with a history, a philosophy, and believable characters whose stories didn't stop after the credits rolled.
True fans knew that there were so many more stories to be told in this galaxy far, far away. Hundreds of authors have contributed their own stories in what has become the Expanded Universe.
John Jackson Miller published nine e-stories set roughly 5,000 years before the events of the original film. These stories have now been published in one volume. "Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories" starts with the Sith spaceship Omen crash-landing on a remote planet called Keshtah after a space battle with a Jedi cruiser.
For those unfamiliar with the history of the "Star Wars" universe, here's a little mini-primer: Siths and Jedis were two warring factions who fought a long and deadly war throughout the universe for thousands of years. Jedis engaged in peaceful endeavors, using the Force for good. Siths subscribed to a philosophy of self-aggrandizement and the subjugation of other races. Jedis eventually won the war, and the Siths died away and passed away into legend, until they were resurrected by the evil Lord Palpatine, who turned a young impressionable Jedi knight into a Sith Lord known famously as Darth Vader. Together, these two created an evil Empire bent on conquering the universe. They also set in motion a campaign to eradicate the Jedi, which almost worked, except for a few surviving Jedi knights who went into hiding. Vader unknowingly had a son named Luke Skywalker who, with the help of an aging Jedi Knight named Obi Wan Kenobi, learned the ways of the Jedi Knighthood and eventually defeated Vader and led the way for the destruction of the Empire and the creation of the New Republic. I just realized that I probably know more about the history of the "Star Wars" universe than I do about the history of my own country... *
Anyway, the small (roughly 600 members) Sith crew of the Omen have no choice but to make Keshtah their new home, as they lost all means of communication when the ship crashed.
They soon discover that an indigenous population exists on the planet, an intelligent but technologically primitive race called the Keshtari.
The first several stories focus on the events after Omen's crash, when the Sith use the Keshtari as slave labor. A young Keshtari woman named Adari leads a successful slave revolt and flees to the other side of the planet.
Centuries later, the Sith population has grown, but constant in-fighting and numerous coup attempts have left its toll.
The Sith of Keshtah are in danger of being extinct, until a Sith historian named Varner Hilts unites them all for one purpose: an attack upon the newly-discovered continent on the other side of the planet.
Unfortunately, the legacy of the Keshtari heroine Adari quickly comes back to haunt them.
Miller has done a great job of creating an entire tangential storyline to the original "Star Wars" universe. Each story is vividly conceived and well-told.
Only a few stories seem contrived and ultimately irrelevent, including one in which a single Jedi pilot crashlands on Keshtah, pretends to be a Sith, and inevitably falls in love with a Sith. As cheesy as it sounds, it actually kind of works, and its presence within the collection does serve a very limited purpose.
The last story, "Pandemonium", which is more of a novella, is the best of the collection.
If you are a fan of the SWEU, you will most likely enjoy this book, as it brings more depth and back-story to an already-crowded and steadily-growing mythos that can only be comparable to other sci-fi legends such as Tolkein's Middle Earth and Frank Herbert's Arrakis.
* Sorry, that was a lot of unnecessary man-splaining. Or, more to the point, nerd-splaining...
True fans knew that there were so many more stories to be told in this galaxy far, far away. Hundreds of authors have contributed their own stories in what has become the Expanded Universe.
John Jackson Miller published nine e-stories set roughly 5,000 years before the events of the original film. These stories have now been published in one volume. "Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories" starts with the Sith spaceship Omen crash-landing on a remote planet called Keshtah after a space battle with a Jedi cruiser.
For those unfamiliar with the history of the "Star Wars" universe, here's a little mini-primer: Siths and Jedis were two warring factions who fought a long and deadly war throughout the universe for thousands of years. Jedis engaged in peaceful endeavors, using the Force for good. Siths subscribed to a philosophy of self-aggrandizement and the subjugation of other races. Jedis eventually won the war, and the Siths died away and passed away into legend, until they were resurrected by the evil Lord Palpatine, who turned a young impressionable Jedi knight into a Sith Lord known famously as Darth Vader. Together, these two created an evil Empire bent on conquering the universe. They also set in motion a campaign to eradicate the Jedi, which almost worked, except for a few surviving Jedi knights who went into hiding. Vader unknowingly had a son named Luke Skywalker who, with the help of an aging Jedi Knight named Obi Wan Kenobi, learned the ways of the Jedi Knighthood and eventually defeated Vader and led the way for the destruction of the Empire and the creation of the New Republic. I just realized that I probably know more about the history of the "Star Wars" universe than I do about the history of my own country... *
Anyway, the small (roughly 600 members) Sith crew of the Omen have no choice but to make Keshtah their new home, as they lost all means of communication when the ship crashed.
They soon discover that an indigenous population exists on the planet, an intelligent but technologically primitive race called the Keshtari.
The first several stories focus on the events after Omen's crash, when the Sith use the Keshtari as slave labor. A young Keshtari woman named Adari leads a successful slave revolt and flees to the other side of the planet.
Centuries later, the Sith population has grown, but constant in-fighting and numerous coup attempts have left its toll.
The Sith of Keshtah are in danger of being extinct, until a Sith historian named Varner Hilts unites them all for one purpose: an attack upon the newly-discovered continent on the other side of the planet.
Unfortunately, the legacy of the Keshtari heroine Adari quickly comes back to haunt them.
Miller has done a great job of creating an entire tangential storyline to the original "Star Wars" universe. Each story is vividly conceived and well-told.
Only a few stories seem contrived and ultimately irrelevent, including one in which a single Jedi pilot crashlands on Keshtah, pretends to be a Sith, and inevitably falls in love with a Sith. As cheesy as it sounds, it actually kind of works, and its presence within the collection does serve a very limited purpose.
The last story, "Pandemonium", which is more of a novella, is the best of the collection.
If you are a fan of the SWEU, you will most likely enjoy this book, as it brings more depth and back-story to an already-crowded and steadily-growing mythos that can only be comparable to other sci-fi legends such as Tolkein's Middle Earth and Frank Herbert's Arrakis.
* Sorry, that was a lot of unnecessary man-splaining. Or, more to the point, nerd-splaining...
March 13, 2015
Couldn't finish it. In my opinion, John Jackson Miller is one of the most (if not the most) boring Star Wars writer I've ever read.
Sorry, I just couldn't find myself enjoying anything he writes. "A New Dawn" was better than this though. He seems to be a bit better with Novels than Short Stories. This book (Lost Tribe) feels like something made out of pieces put together clumsily. Reading them as individual stories makes no sense, and reading them as a book makes a bit more sense but you get lost in the useless description and lack of action. There's not to much happening in this book. There are some rivalries between characters, sexual frustration of one of the characters because he doesn't have sex with his wife anymore etc. I mean WTF? This is Star Wars, not The Walking Dead. I don't need the characters bearing boring conversations once every three pages. I need a plot and that adventure "vibe" specific to Star Wars.
The problem might be that all the action takes place in one single location, and it feels too stationary. Then again, Andy Weir's The Martian is similar in that matter, and it's a great book. I'm thinking JJ Miller likes too much to describe stuff and develop characters, but dislikes action in itself.
Action is the main thing that describes a story, you have to have a plot. This book has none. It only offers some background on the origin of the Sith, it can be read for historical reasons, if you want to know more about that, but if you seek fun, action, adventure - you won't get it. I read three of the collected stories and I stopped, they were too boring for me.
Then again, subjective opinion - some people might like it. Judging by the reviews, they actually did.
Sorry, I just couldn't find myself enjoying anything he writes. "A New Dawn" was better than this though. He seems to be a bit better with Novels than Short Stories. This book (Lost Tribe) feels like something made out of pieces put together clumsily. Reading them as individual stories makes no sense, and reading them as a book makes a bit more sense but you get lost in the useless description and lack of action. There's not to much happening in this book. There are some rivalries between characters, sexual frustration of one of the characters because he doesn't have sex with his wife anymore etc. I mean WTF? This is Star Wars, not The Walking Dead. I don't need the characters bearing boring conversations once every three pages. I need a plot and that adventure "vibe" specific to Star Wars.
The problem might be that all the action takes place in one single location, and it feels too stationary. Then again, Andy Weir's The Martian is similar in that matter, and it's a great book. I'm thinking JJ Miller likes too much to describe stuff and develop characters, but dislikes action in itself.
Action is the main thing that describes a story, you have to have a plot. This book has none. It only offers some background on the origin of the Sith, it can be read for historical reasons, if you want to know more about that, but if you seek fun, action, adventure - you won't get it. I read three of the collected stories and I stopped, they were too boring for me.
Then again, subjective opinion - some people might like it. Judging by the reviews, they actually did.
June 8, 2018
I’m currently working my way through the original Star Wars Expanded Universe (now know as ‘Legends’) and this is the second book in chronological order.
Originally released as a set of eBook novellas, this is the complete volume of short stories.
They are set between 5000 to 2975 years Before the Battle of Yavin.
The first four: 5000 - 4975 BBY
The next two: 3969 BBY
The last three: 3000 - 2975 BBY
I really liked how close the first four were connected, it really felt episodic.
The next batch of stories were also really good, mentions of Revan was the perfect tease for the next book that I need to read.
The final batch were the weakest.
The big time jumps didn’t help, I found it hard to try and connect with the last batch of characters.
Overall it’s a nice collection, it’s a slight shame that the book didn’t separate the three time zones better. I felt I would have enjoyed the last section more.
The first six stories were really great though, maybe best to limit yourself to just one story a day for a better reading experience...
Originally released as a set of eBook novellas, this is the complete volume of short stories.
They are set between 5000 to 2975 years Before the Battle of Yavin.
The first four: 5000 - 4975 BBY
The next two: 3969 BBY
The last three: 3000 - 2975 BBY
I really liked how close the first four were connected, it really felt episodic.
The next batch of stories were also really good, mentions of Revan was the perfect tease for the next book that I need to read.
The final batch were the weakest.
The big time jumps didn’t help, I found it hard to try and connect with the last batch of characters.
Overall it’s a nice collection, it’s a slight shame that the book didn’t separate the three time zones better. I felt I would have enjoyed the last section more.
The first six stories were really great though, maybe best to limit yourself to just one story a day for a better reading experience...
May 3, 2019
Mixed bag on the stories. I’ll admit that I skimmed the final installment and don’t feel like I missed much.
October 20, 2023
A decent collection of short stories, with some highlights, but overall not one I loved.
As for positives, I did enjoy the idea of this collection. Seeing the history of the Lost Tribe over the course of roughly 2000 years was pretty interesting, and the way things tied together in the end was cool. I also did really enjoy two of these stories: Pantheon and Secrets. One or two of the earlier stories in the collection were good as well, though these two are the real standouts.
However, I did feel that a lot of these just didn’t draw me in that much. None of them were bad, but few were memorable. I didn’t feel that connected with or interested in many of the characters or plots. I think that might be due to the short story nature of these, as you don’t get a lot of time to really get invested. That said, there were cases where it really worked. But even the novella, roughly four times the length of the other stories, didn’t manage to really intrigue me outside of a few moments.
Overall this was a fine collection but not one I loved. Some good stuff here and there but for the most part, it was just okay.
Rating: 6.5/10
As for positives, I did enjoy the idea of this collection. Seeing the history of the Lost Tribe over the course of roughly 2000 years was pretty interesting, and the way things tied together in the end was cool. I also did really enjoy two of these stories: Pantheon and Secrets. One or two of the earlier stories in the collection were good as well, though these two are the real standouts.
However, I did feel that a lot of these just didn’t draw me in that much. None of them were bad, but few were memorable. I didn’t feel that connected with or interested in many of the characters or plots. I think that might be due to the short story nature of these, as you don’t get a lot of time to really get invested. That said, there were cases where it really worked. But even the novella, roughly four times the length of the other stories, didn’t manage to really intrigue me outside of a few moments.
Overall this was a fine collection but not one I loved. Some good stuff here and there but for the most part, it was just okay.
Rating: 6.5/10
March 12, 2016
The basic reasoning behind why these stories were written certainly makes readers want to read this series of short stories. However, this book fell a little flat for me because it was hard for me to connect with many of the stories before they ended. Such is the nature of short stories.
February 16, 2016
I decided to read the Legends books in chronological order instead of in publication order, which might not be the best approach. On the one hand, I have the story told to me in the right order, but on the other hand, I wonder if the stories will give too much away for future books. I dug in and read Asimov's Foundation series in publication order, which was the right decision, since reading earlier books would have ruined some of the suspense of the later books, since Asimov wrote of mysteries that had yet to be solved in his prequels.
Anyway, I now understand that this series of novellas is intended to create the antagonists for Legends of the Force, a series of books that actually falls near the end of the Legends Extended Universe chronology. The thinking was that the Sith Lords had been defeated, and instead of bringing in a bunch of bad guys who had never been seen before, the publisher decided to create a lost tribe to serve as the antagonists for that series. Such was the birth of this book, which collects eight ebook novellas that told the story of that tribe.
(I should note that the Sith are a race of beings in the EU, as well as a class of Dark Jedi. I didn't know this until I looked it up when parts of the stories didn't make much sense.)
Precipice, the first novella, tells of a group of Sith who crash land on a hostile planet called Kesh. The group loses members to the native predators, as well as to mutiny, but it's indicated that they are unable to make contact with anyone to rescue them. And of course, it's the Jedi who put the Sith into that position. Skyborn, the next novella, shows what happens after the crash, when the native population, still making the transition from mythology to science, discover the Sith. The Sith take the opportunity to pretend to be the gods these people worship, as they come from the sky, and the Sith have crash-landed on their planet.
Paragon is where the story begins to pick up speed, and highlights how these novellas don't really work as individual stories. As chapters of a novel, they work well enough, but when you look at them separately, they don't have the cohesion of a single story. Characterization for the key characters is found in the preceding stories, including their motivations and names. The preceding stories serve as exposition, while the rest of the stories become more involved with plot.
Paragon is set fifteen years after the crash-landing, when the Sith have come to realize that they won't be leaving the planet. An apparent plague overcomes one of the lake towns on Kesh, killing all the residents. It spreads to other lake towns, and the Sith become concerned over their own vulnerability. The truth devastates not only Kesh, but the Sith (the race) survivors, as well.
Savior follows Paragon, ten years later, when the remaining Sith choose to move from their temple near their crash site to integrate with the Kesh. The Sith are still revered as gods. Mostly. It turns out there's an underground group of rebels who suspect or know the truth about the Sith, and hope to defeat them for good. Seeing as how this story doesn't even mark the halfway point in this collection, you can guess how well that goes for them.
The story then jumps ahead nearly 1,000 years for Purgatory. The Sith have settled in to the planet fairly well, establishing their own system to rule the planet. Unfortunately for them, their isolation isn't complete, as the story reveals an adversary in their midst. Sentinel continues that story, highlighting an unlikely alliance between one of the discredited Sith and someone else living on Kesh.
Pantheon jumps ahead another 1,000 years, this time showing the Sith's ceremonies, as well as their self-serving interests and how they will ultimately lead to the destruction of the Sith. Oddly, the collection begin to take on a weird sense of humor at this point, even invoking some slapstick comedy. It's not a complete destruction, though, as Secrets shows, but a group of people who live only for themselves doesn't much guarantee the survival of the group as a whole. Not until they find another reason to pull together a group, that is.
Pandemonium is the last novella in the book, though it could be considered a novel all by itself. It comprises about a third of the entire book, and concludes the series of stories that have preceded it. It jumps ahead about 25 years, and covers the events surrounding why the Sith decided to work together again. Knowing Sith, though, the only thing that will bring them together is an opportunity to destroy another group. Hence the name of the novella.
I'm surprised that these novellas were originally released individually as ebooks, since many of them don't work as standalone stories. They seem to work better together as pairs, and even then, the pairs are part of a larger story that concludes with a story that was never available by itself. It seems like the release schedule was more about marketing (and I guess they all are, really), but it felt a little cheap, and besides, the stories themselves didn't stand out as great works.
I think the book succeeds in what it set out to do -- establish the lost tribe that would serve as antagonists much later in the EU -- but I didn't feel like the stories were all that good. The characters didn't seem fleshed out (which, granted, could have been due to the length of the works), there seemed to be more telling than showing, and a lot of the action occurred off-screen, or between chapters. I can't help but feel like the events would have been better seen, though I will admit that the scope of this series of stories -- over 2,000 years -- prohibits too much detail.
So, I like it for what it conveys about the EU, but I can't say I was wild about the style, or the stories themselves. It seems like the idea was better than the execution, which I've heard can be said of a lot of the EU material. I look forward to when the stories return to being as good as their ideas.
Anyway, I now understand that this series of novellas is intended to create the antagonists for Legends of the Force, a series of books that actually falls near the end of the Legends Extended Universe chronology. The thinking was that the Sith Lords had been defeated, and instead of bringing in a bunch of bad guys who had never been seen before, the publisher decided to create a lost tribe to serve as the antagonists for that series. Such was the birth of this book, which collects eight ebook novellas that told the story of that tribe.
(I should note that the Sith are a race of beings in the EU, as well as a class of Dark Jedi. I didn't know this until I looked it up when parts of the stories didn't make much sense.)
Precipice, the first novella, tells of a group of Sith who crash land on a hostile planet called Kesh. The group loses members to the native predators, as well as to mutiny, but it's indicated that they are unable to make contact with anyone to rescue them. And of course, it's the Jedi who put the Sith into that position. Skyborn, the next novella, shows what happens after the crash, when the native population, still making the transition from mythology to science, discover the Sith. The Sith take the opportunity to pretend to be the gods these people worship, as they come from the sky, and the Sith have crash-landed on their planet.
Paragon is where the story begins to pick up speed, and highlights how these novellas don't really work as individual stories. As chapters of a novel, they work well enough, but when you look at them separately, they don't have the cohesion of a single story. Characterization for the key characters is found in the preceding stories, including their motivations and names. The preceding stories serve as exposition, while the rest of the stories become more involved with plot.
Paragon is set fifteen years after the crash-landing, when the Sith have come to realize that they won't be leaving the planet. An apparent plague overcomes one of the lake towns on Kesh, killing all the residents. It spreads to other lake towns, and the Sith become concerned over their own vulnerability. The truth devastates not only Kesh, but the Sith (the race) survivors, as well.
Savior follows Paragon, ten years later, when the remaining Sith choose to move from their temple near their crash site to integrate with the Kesh. The Sith are still revered as gods. Mostly. It turns out there's an underground group of rebels who suspect or know the truth about the Sith, and hope to defeat them for good. Seeing as how this story doesn't even mark the halfway point in this collection, you can guess how well that goes for them.
The story then jumps ahead nearly 1,000 years for Purgatory. The Sith have settled in to the planet fairly well, establishing their own system to rule the planet. Unfortunately for them, their isolation isn't complete, as the story reveals an adversary in their midst. Sentinel continues that story, highlighting an unlikely alliance between one of the discredited Sith and someone else living on Kesh.
Pantheon jumps ahead another 1,000 years, this time showing the Sith's ceremonies, as well as their self-serving interests and how they will ultimately lead to the destruction of the Sith. Oddly, the collection begin to take on a weird sense of humor at this point, even invoking some slapstick comedy. It's not a complete destruction, though, as Secrets shows, but a group of people who live only for themselves doesn't much guarantee the survival of the group as a whole. Not until they find another reason to pull together a group, that is.
Pandemonium is the last novella in the book, though it could be considered a novel all by itself. It comprises about a third of the entire book, and concludes the series of stories that have preceded it. It jumps ahead about 25 years, and covers the events surrounding why the Sith decided to work together again. Knowing Sith, though, the only thing that will bring them together is an opportunity to destroy another group. Hence the name of the novella.
I'm surprised that these novellas were originally released individually as ebooks, since many of them don't work as standalone stories. They seem to work better together as pairs, and even then, the pairs are part of a larger story that concludes with a story that was never available by itself. It seems like the release schedule was more about marketing (and I guess they all are, really), but it felt a little cheap, and besides, the stories themselves didn't stand out as great works.
I think the book succeeds in what it set out to do -- establish the lost tribe that would serve as antagonists much later in the EU -- but I didn't feel like the stories were all that good. The characters didn't seem fleshed out (which, granted, could have been due to the length of the works), there seemed to be more telling than showing, and a lot of the action occurred off-screen, or between chapters. I can't help but feel like the events would have been better seen, though I will admit that the scope of this series of stories -- over 2,000 years -- prohibits too much detail.
So, I like it for what it conveys about the EU, but I can't say I was wild about the style, or the stories themselves. It seems like the idea was better than the execution, which I've heard can be said of a lot of the EU material. I look forward to when the stories return to being as good as their ideas.
July 20, 2014
Worst Star Wars book I have ever read (and I've read a lot of them) I felt it was poorly written and the plot was confusing. Sadly, I'm not getting the 4 hours back that I spent reading this.
June 23, 2025
Przyjemne czytadełko, szybko się czyta, fabułka angażuje, idealne jako lektura poboczna, jeśli ktoś lubi łączyć cięższe pozycje z czymś lżejszym, by uniknąc czytelniczego wypalenia. Fanom uniwersum polecam.
April 18, 2024
This is a book about the Sith early on in their existence, a time when they are kinda the good guys and the Jedi are the thugs. The book was a bit confusing for me at the start, but once I settled in, it turned out to be a very interesting millenial-spanning history of a civilization in the making. Very engaging and enjoyable.
Synopsis: Five thousand years ago. After a Jedi ambush, the Sith mining ship Omen lies wrecked on a remote, unknown planet. Its commander, Yaru Korsin, battles the bloodshed of a mutinous faction led by his own brother. Marooned and facing death, the Sith crew have no choice but to venture into their desolate surroundings. They face any number of brutal challenges—vicious predators, lethal plagues, tribal people who worship vengeful gods—and like true Sith warriors, counter them with the dark side of the Force. The struggles are just beginning for the proud, uncompromising Sith, driven as they are to rule at all costs. They will vanquish the primitive natives, and they will find their way back to their true destiny as rulers of the galaxy. But as their legacy grows over thousands of years, the Sith ultimately find themselves tested by the most dangerous threat of the enemy within.
Synopsis: Five thousand years ago. After a Jedi ambush, the Sith mining ship Omen lies wrecked on a remote, unknown planet. Its commander, Yaru Korsin, battles the bloodshed of a mutinous faction led by his own brother. Marooned and facing death, the Sith crew have no choice but to venture into their desolate surroundings. They face any number of brutal challenges—vicious predators, lethal plagues, tribal people who worship vengeful gods—and like true Sith warriors, counter them with the dark side of the Force. The struggles are just beginning for the proud, uncompromising Sith, driven as they are to rule at all costs. They will vanquish the primitive natives, and they will find their way back to their true destiny as rulers of the galaxy. But as their legacy grows over thousands of years, the Sith ultimately find themselves tested by the most dangerous threat of the enemy within.
July 12, 2018
It’s hard to assess this as one package because it’s actually a collection of loosely collected novellas, but I think John Jackson Miller is on point here. It’s curious – as a writer for the Star Wars universe, Miller sometimes got it horribly wrong – the unmemorable Knight Errant, for example – but when he got it right it was pure gold – the Knights of the Old Republic graphic novels, in which Miller had this amazing knack to create complex, grey characters and gripping, unexpected plots, weaving them all together with a truly deft skill. With The Lost Tribe of the Sith, Miller’s definitely leaning more towards the good stuff. It’s not as good as KOTOR, but it’s a damn sight better than Knight Errant. The characters aren’t quite as compelling, and the plots aren’t quite as complex, and I suspect that’s down to the novella nature of the collection, and the fact that it keeps skipping around in time, only providing us with key glimpses from an overall history. Given more page space, I think the likes of Yaru Korsin and the crew of the Omen, and the other characters, could have been much more compelling and developed over a running series such as Miller had with KOTOR. I can’t find too much more to say about this. It’s an intriguing book, but because nothing gets too much time, and because it’s clearly just setting up a history, it’s not outstanding and there’s not much to talk about.
6 out of 10
6 out of 10
March 11, 2014
Ever wonder what kind of society would evolve with only Sith? Here is your answer. Check out my full review here: Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith
April 8, 2018
“The Lost Tribe of the Sith” was something of an oddity that sat on my Star Wars bookshelf for far too long. This collection of novellas – a first for me since reading the “Tales of…” books back in high school – was created to give some context and background to the antagonists that Luke and his New Jedi Order face in the “Fate of the Jedi” series (because you can’t just have random Sith popping up in the galaxy without giving some explanation to where they came from, the obvious sources of Sith had been wiped out by that point). Since I haven’t yet read the “Fate of the Jedi” books, I sort of put off reading this, but I was finally convinced to pluck it off the shelf and give it a go on the simple basis that I love Sith, so these novellas should be right up my alley. And they definitely didn’t disappoint! The Lost Tribe of the Sith” is one of the best Star Wars books I’ve read in recent memory. Spoilers follow.
The novellas all pull together to cover three distinct periods in the tribe’s history. We start with the crew of the “Omen,” a mining ship, being blown off-course and crash landing on a primitive planet. They quickly learn that it’s impossible to get communications off the planet and their ship is irreparably damaged, so Captain Yaru Korsin settles the crew in to stay for the long-haul. Fortunately, the planet’s native people, the Keshiri, are easily persuaded that the newcomers are gods and are more than happy to make life very comfortable for the lost Sith. With the Sith being as duplicitous and scheming as they are, Korsin faces plots of intrigue and betrayal, but he succeeds in establishing a strong foundation for the tribe’s continued survival.
Over the next thousand years or so, the self-serving nature of the Sith nearly ruins all that Korsin created, the Grand Lords proving to be more interested in boosting their status than repairing the tribe’s old, crumbling infrastructure. In this tumultuous environment, Orielle Kitai, a Sith Saber, finds herself violently thrown from her privileged life when an assassination attempt on the Grand Lord is unfairly tied to her family. Reeling from the shock, she retreats to the remote farm of Jelph Marrian, a human slave who specializes in fertilizer and seems to have no interest in improving his position or grasping for power. Orielle soon learns, however, that Jelph isn’t the simple farmer he makes himself out to be: he’s a Jedi that, like the crew of Korsin’s “Omen,” was forced to land on the planet and has been unable to leave. Though she initially plans to use this information to put herself back in the graces of the Grand Lord, Orielle begins to question if a life in the deceitful environment of Sith politics is what she wants.
The tribe is finally saved after another thousand years by an unlikely savior. Varner Hilts is a historian by trade, an occupation generally looked down on by the ambitious Sith, who holds the distinguished role of caretake to Korsin’s Testament, a recording made by Yaru Korsin himself in his final moments to direct the tribe’s future ruling decisions. In the midst of destructive infighting, Hilts uncovers the secret of the tribe’s origin, which threatens to tear the tribe apart. Fortunately, he also discovers a second secret: there’s a large continent across the ocean, just waiting to be conquered. Having reunited the tribe toward, Hilts is made Grand Lord and sets himself to figuring out how to get to this new land. It takes a couple decades, but his chief engineer, Edell Vrai invents ships that can navigate the vast ocean. What Edell finds, however, isn’t a primitive people waiting for new gods like Korsin discovered; these Keshiri have been prepped for a war with the Sith for millennia, and they’re advanced enough to put up a good fight.
I loved how well these novellas characterized the tribe at different points in its existence. It would have been very easy for these stories to read like dry histories, but John Jackson Miller takes care to craft the political climate through his characters and their stories. There’s no info-dumping here, no awkward exposition; history, politics, action, and character development are expertly woven together to give readers a complete, interesting look at these lost Sith and their ups and downs over the millennia. The stories are paced exceptionally well and flow steadily from one point to the next. It was difficult to put the book down when I got into one of the novellas because it was so easy to get lost in the story. There are a lot of twists and turns in the pages – the scheming nature of the Sith always begets a good deal of intrigue – so it’s hard to find a good stopping point when you just know that something big is brewing. The setting is fully established and realized which, combined with the fluid writing and compelling plot, makes for a very satisfying reading experience.
I was also very impressed by how well things in one era would link to events in another. One of my concerns with this information being presented in the form of novellas instead of larger novels was that the short stories would be too self-contained and very separate from one another (in case it isn’t obvious, I don’t read many short stories…). Fortunately, a lot of events end up having consequences that stretch into future years. The last novella, “Pandemonium” is the perfect example of this, demonstrating how Adari Vaal’s flight during the Korsin era went on to develop an entire continent of people that dedicated themselves to an inevitable future conflict with the Sith. There are also smaller, but no less impactful instances of this throughout the collection and it all works to make the novellas feel very coherent.
My sole negative is that it’s sometimes a little difficult to get into a new era since each distinct period is separated by a thousand years or so. Once you settle into the characters and writing, it’s easy to get invested, but there’s a necessary amount of setup and context to be established at the start of each time jump and it can be a little jarring to essentially “start over” after finishing the story arch of a different character in a different era. I guess if I had a second complaint, it’s that it’s a bit saddening to realize that you’ve reached the end of a character’s story and likely won’t be seeing them again (unless they appear in a dream or vision)…but I think wanting more of a character or plotline is probably one of the best criticisms an author can receive, so make of that what you will!
Going into this, I was especially curious as to how much it would feel like Star Wars. A problem I sometimes have with novels in the EU is that authors occasionally feel the need to shoehorn movie characters into a story that doesn’t need them in order to really emphasize that the story belongs in the Star Wars universe (for the record, I don’t think this is ever really successful). Since “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” takes place thousands of years before any of the movies, the normal trick of tossing in movie characters isn’t an option and there’s the added challenge of writing in an era of Star Wars that was only just being developed in novel format, so I wondered how well Miller would capture the Star Wars feel. The Old Republic novels faced a similar battle and ended up varying in their success. I’m pleased to say that “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” feels very Star Wars, more so than a lot of EU books. Fans of the Expanded Universe will recognize references to certain characters and events like Naga Sadow, the ship “Harbinger,” and Revan’s start of the Jedi Civil War, but otherwise, the setting and characters are unique to this novel…yet Miller really captures the Star Wars atmosphere. The Sith are an obvious tie-in, but it’s more than that; the technology feels authentic for the time periods, the story build and progression feel right, the characters are interesting, the Force and its use work with everything else we’ve seen in the Star Wars universe, and the conflicts boil down to the good vs evil that Star Wars thrives on while providing the beautiful shades of grey that make this franchise so enthralling. I wish more authors would hit this same stride and realize, as Miller seems to have, that a Star Wars novel doesn’t need popular characters tossed in to make it Star Wars.
Despite the secluded nature of the lost tribe, it feels as though the events that occur will be important in the grand scheme of the galaxy but, like many Sith plots, it’ll take time to simmer and brew until it’s ready to be revealed. Those who have read the “Fate of the Jedi” series probably already know how everything turns out, but since I haven’t gotten to that set of books, it’s all an unknown to me (and I’m a little sad that I likely won’t be getting to that period in Star Wars novels for a while). Like the best stories in this franchise, this one features an epic story told through individuals. My praise of the story and its role in the EU aside, I’m not sure that I’d recommend it to a newcomer. Those coming in without any knowledge of the vast EU might find themselves a little lost in the time period and events. If you know anything about the Old Republic or, like me, have a love of the Sith, however, you’ll probably be able to jump right in without much difficulty.
This collection of novellas is chock full of characters, and as I think back on them, I can’t think of one that I didn’t like. There are obviously figures that are meant to be antagonists, like Seelah, but they’re all thoroughly developed and fleshed-out, which makes even the nastiest of villains interesting. I enjoyed that many of the main characters didn’t start out with great ambitions and seemed very normal (as far as Sith go): Yaru Korsin is a ship’s captain who just wants to carry out his mining orders; Adari Vaal is a widow with more interest in geology than her family; Orielle is the daughter of a High Lord, but she’s just as content to chat with farmer Jelph as she is to grab at power; Varner Hilts is a historian with a fondness for stories and an almost fatherly relationship with his Keshiri assistant; Edell Vrai, though a High Lord who wants to keep his position, is just as focused on building things as he is in conquering; and Quarra Thayn, much like her hero Adari Vaal before her, is a Keshiri with a family that she holds little interest in, a husband that she has grown bored with, and a career equal parts fulfilling and predictable, though she handles her own encounter with the Sith very differently from Adari. They all feel very real with their strengths and flaws, and their journeys are fascinating reads. I have a personal preference for characters that lead relatively normal lives before being risen to something more, and this cast happily fits the bill.
The real treat, however, was seeing how Miller reconciled the fact that these characters are Sith with the desire to make them complex and relatable. This is why I like books about the Sith so much: it’s always interesting to see how (and if) an author can make their characters both conniving and duplicitous enough to be Sith while also portraying them as sympathetic, relatable, and human enough that the reader doesn’t just see them as evil bad guys. The characters in The Lost Tribe of the Sith walk that balance perfectly. Make no mistake, these are definitely Sith (most of them, anyway); they’re self-interested, content to scheme and stab each other in the back, and don’t follow the same moral compass that most of us do. At the same time, they’re very complex in their motivations and portrayal, often making their actions understandable within the character’s context even if still unjustifiable by our own. These are the types of characters I want to see in Sith novels…Hell, these are the type of Sith I want to see period.
If you have any love for the Old Republic era, want some context for the antagonists in the “Fate of the Jedi,” or just plain like the Sith, pick up a copy of “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” and have a read. John Jackson Miller is a Star Wars author that I don’t personally have much experience with, and it seems like opinions on his writing are a little mixed, but I think he blew it away with this collection. The Expanded Universe may have officially ended, but this book will easily be a shining point in it for me: events that feel like they matter, characters that are both scheming and relatable, and a story full of history, excitement, and betrayal. It’s everything you could want in a collection of novellas about the Sith. Five stars.
The novellas all pull together to cover three distinct periods in the tribe’s history. We start with the crew of the “Omen,” a mining ship, being blown off-course and crash landing on a primitive planet. They quickly learn that it’s impossible to get communications off the planet and their ship is irreparably damaged, so Captain Yaru Korsin settles the crew in to stay for the long-haul. Fortunately, the planet’s native people, the Keshiri, are easily persuaded that the newcomers are gods and are more than happy to make life very comfortable for the lost Sith. With the Sith being as duplicitous and scheming as they are, Korsin faces plots of intrigue and betrayal, but he succeeds in establishing a strong foundation for the tribe’s continued survival.
Over the next thousand years or so, the self-serving nature of the Sith nearly ruins all that Korsin created, the Grand Lords proving to be more interested in boosting their status than repairing the tribe’s old, crumbling infrastructure. In this tumultuous environment, Orielle Kitai, a Sith Saber, finds herself violently thrown from her privileged life when an assassination attempt on the Grand Lord is unfairly tied to her family. Reeling from the shock, she retreats to the remote farm of Jelph Marrian, a human slave who specializes in fertilizer and seems to have no interest in improving his position or grasping for power. Orielle soon learns, however, that Jelph isn’t the simple farmer he makes himself out to be: he’s a Jedi that, like the crew of Korsin’s “Omen,” was forced to land on the planet and has been unable to leave. Though she initially plans to use this information to put herself back in the graces of the Grand Lord, Orielle begins to question if a life in the deceitful environment of Sith politics is what she wants.
The tribe is finally saved after another thousand years by an unlikely savior. Varner Hilts is a historian by trade, an occupation generally looked down on by the ambitious Sith, who holds the distinguished role of caretake to Korsin’s Testament, a recording made by Yaru Korsin himself in his final moments to direct the tribe’s future ruling decisions. In the midst of destructive infighting, Hilts uncovers the secret of the tribe’s origin, which threatens to tear the tribe apart. Fortunately, he also discovers a second secret: there’s a large continent across the ocean, just waiting to be conquered. Having reunited the tribe toward, Hilts is made Grand Lord and sets himself to figuring out how to get to this new land. It takes a couple decades, but his chief engineer, Edell Vrai invents ships that can navigate the vast ocean. What Edell finds, however, isn’t a primitive people waiting for new gods like Korsin discovered; these Keshiri have been prepped for a war with the Sith for millennia, and they’re advanced enough to put up a good fight.
I loved how well these novellas characterized the tribe at different points in its existence. It would have been very easy for these stories to read like dry histories, but John Jackson Miller takes care to craft the political climate through his characters and their stories. There’s no info-dumping here, no awkward exposition; history, politics, action, and character development are expertly woven together to give readers a complete, interesting look at these lost Sith and their ups and downs over the millennia. The stories are paced exceptionally well and flow steadily from one point to the next. It was difficult to put the book down when I got into one of the novellas because it was so easy to get lost in the story. There are a lot of twists and turns in the pages – the scheming nature of the Sith always begets a good deal of intrigue – so it’s hard to find a good stopping point when you just know that something big is brewing. The setting is fully established and realized which, combined with the fluid writing and compelling plot, makes for a very satisfying reading experience.
I was also very impressed by how well things in one era would link to events in another. One of my concerns with this information being presented in the form of novellas instead of larger novels was that the short stories would be too self-contained and very separate from one another (in case it isn’t obvious, I don’t read many short stories…). Fortunately, a lot of events end up having consequences that stretch into future years. The last novella, “Pandemonium” is the perfect example of this, demonstrating how Adari Vaal’s flight during the Korsin era went on to develop an entire continent of people that dedicated themselves to an inevitable future conflict with the Sith. There are also smaller, but no less impactful instances of this throughout the collection and it all works to make the novellas feel very coherent.
My sole negative is that it’s sometimes a little difficult to get into a new era since each distinct period is separated by a thousand years or so. Once you settle into the characters and writing, it’s easy to get invested, but there’s a necessary amount of setup and context to be established at the start of each time jump and it can be a little jarring to essentially “start over” after finishing the story arch of a different character in a different era. I guess if I had a second complaint, it’s that it’s a bit saddening to realize that you’ve reached the end of a character’s story and likely won’t be seeing them again (unless they appear in a dream or vision)…but I think wanting more of a character or plotline is probably one of the best criticisms an author can receive, so make of that what you will!
Going into this, I was especially curious as to how much it would feel like Star Wars. A problem I sometimes have with novels in the EU is that authors occasionally feel the need to shoehorn movie characters into a story that doesn’t need them in order to really emphasize that the story belongs in the Star Wars universe (for the record, I don’t think this is ever really successful). Since “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” takes place thousands of years before any of the movies, the normal trick of tossing in movie characters isn’t an option and there’s the added challenge of writing in an era of Star Wars that was only just being developed in novel format, so I wondered how well Miller would capture the Star Wars feel. The Old Republic novels faced a similar battle and ended up varying in their success. I’m pleased to say that “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” feels very Star Wars, more so than a lot of EU books. Fans of the Expanded Universe will recognize references to certain characters and events like Naga Sadow, the ship “Harbinger,” and Revan’s start of the Jedi Civil War, but otherwise, the setting and characters are unique to this novel…yet Miller really captures the Star Wars atmosphere. The Sith are an obvious tie-in, but it’s more than that; the technology feels authentic for the time periods, the story build and progression feel right, the characters are interesting, the Force and its use work with everything else we’ve seen in the Star Wars universe, and the conflicts boil down to the good vs evil that Star Wars thrives on while providing the beautiful shades of grey that make this franchise so enthralling. I wish more authors would hit this same stride and realize, as Miller seems to have, that a Star Wars novel doesn’t need popular characters tossed in to make it Star Wars.
Despite the secluded nature of the lost tribe, it feels as though the events that occur will be important in the grand scheme of the galaxy but, like many Sith plots, it’ll take time to simmer and brew until it’s ready to be revealed. Those who have read the “Fate of the Jedi” series probably already know how everything turns out, but since I haven’t gotten to that set of books, it’s all an unknown to me (and I’m a little sad that I likely won’t be getting to that period in Star Wars novels for a while). Like the best stories in this franchise, this one features an epic story told through individuals. My praise of the story and its role in the EU aside, I’m not sure that I’d recommend it to a newcomer. Those coming in without any knowledge of the vast EU might find themselves a little lost in the time period and events. If you know anything about the Old Republic or, like me, have a love of the Sith, however, you’ll probably be able to jump right in without much difficulty.
This collection of novellas is chock full of characters, and as I think back on them, I can’t think of one that I didn’t like. There are obviously figures that are meant to be antagonists, like Seelah, but they’re all thoroughly developed and fleshed-out, which makes even the nastiest of villains interesting. I enjoyed that many of the main characters didn’t start out with great ambitions and seemed very normal (as far as Sith go): Yaru Korsin is a ship’s captain who just wants to carry out his mining orders; Adari Vaal is a widow with more interest in geology than her family; Orielle is the daughter of a High Lord, but she’s just as content to chat with farmer Jelph as she is to grab at power; Varner Hilts is a historian with a fondness for stories and an almost fatherly relationship with his Keshiri assistant; Edell Vrai, though a High Lord who wants to keep his position, is just as focused on building things as he is in conquering; and Quarra Thayn, much like her hero Adari Vaal before her, is a Keshiri with a family that she holds little interest in, a husband that she has grown bored with, and a career equal parts fulfilling and predictable, though she handles her own encounter with the Sith very differently from Adari. They all feel very real with their strengths and flaws, and their journeys are fascinating reads. I have a personal preference for characters that lead relatively normal lives before being risen to something more, and this cast happily fits the bill.
The real treat, however, was seeing how Miller reconciled the fact that these characters are Sith with the desire to make them complex and relatable. This is why I like books about the Sith so much: it’s always interesting to see how (and if) an author can make their characters both conniving and duplicitous enough to be Sith while also portraying them as sympathetic, relatable, and human enough that the reader doesn’t just see them as evil bad guys. The characters in The Lost Tribe of the Sith walk that balance perfectly. Make no mistake, these are definitely Sith (most of them, anyway); they’re self-interested, content to scheme and stab each other in the back, and don’t follow the same moral compass that most of us do. At the same time, they’re very complex in their motivations and portrayal, often making their actions understandable within the character’s context even if still unjustifiable by our own. These are the types of characters I want to see in Sith novels…Hell, these are the type of Sith I want to see period.
If you have any love for the Old Republic era, want some context for the antagonists in the “Fate of the Jedi,” or just plain like the Sith, pick up a copy of “The Lost Tribe of the Sith” and have a read. John Jackson Miller is a Star Wars author that I don’t personally have much experience with, and it seems like opinions on his writing are a little mixed, but I think he blew it away with this collection. The Expanded Universe may have officially ended, but this book will easily be a shining point in it for me: events that feel like they matter, characters that are both scheming and relatable, and a story full of history, excitement, and betrayal. It’s everything you could want in a collection of novellas about the Sith. Five stars.
April 24, 2021
I REALLY enjoyed this book. Each of the stories is a four-star read except "Precipice," which is extremely important but mostly boring and confusing for me since I'm totally lost when it comes to mechanics and technical things. But even that is a three-star read because of how important it is to the whole picture. I'm just glad I decided to keep reading after that because I was thinking, "If they're all like this, I can't do it," but they're not all like "Precipice" at all. Once the initial story is told, the other short stories and the novella, Pandemonium, can be what I feel Miller really wanted to write about. He created such an interesting world, essentially using a classic colonialism story of conquest. But the dynamics of the conquerors and of the conquered are very complex and personal. The characters don't feel like cliches at all but are very well-developed on both sides. I was disappointed by the ending of Pandemonium while also recognizing why it ends the way it does and appreciating the pathos of the final pages. I also enjoyed reading about the Sith. From watching the Star Wars movies and also reading some of the comics and Into the Void, I'm prejudiced against the Sith. Reading an entire book that features them, I learned that Sith philosophy is what it is, and I'd definitely be a Jedi myself, but not all Siths are the same. There are some who use the dark side of the Force to be, well, dark. Then, there are others who...well, they may still use it to be dark, but their darkness is more like gray than black. Miller never seems to side with the Sith, exactly, but he does defend them to an extent by showing that some of them are capable of more nuances and subtleties than we may expect.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters a lot, and I'm glad that each time leap takes place after a couple stories, so you can get to know the characters and the world of Kesh as it is until it changes again. If each story featured new characters and lifestyles, I wouldn't enjoy the book as much. Having some continuity is important, and Miller accomplished that very well by building on each story but also by throwing in references to earlier stories and characters in pretty much every succeeding tale. I recommend this book to Star Wars fans, particularly to Sith fans but also to people who enjoy the massive creativity allowed by the massive Stars Wars universe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters a lot, and I'm glad that each time leap takes place after a couple stories, so you can get to know the characters and the world of Kesh as it is until it changes again. If each story featured new characters and lifestyles, I wouldn't enjoy the book as much. Having some continuity is important, and Miller accomplished that very well by building on each story but also by throwing in references to earlier stories and characters in pretty much every succeeding tale. I recommend this book to Star Wars fans, particularly to Sith fans but also to people who enjoy the massive creativity allowed by the massive Stars Wars universe.
June 22, 2017
These are nice little stories as far as Sith go. The plot behind this is that a Sith ship called the Omen has crashed on a planet with stone age technology, and very low in Iron ore so Sith crew cannot make repairs to their own Ship effectively stranding them there. As stated this book is a collection of E-books so effectively short stories. 8 Stories on average of 32 pages, then one large one of 133 pages.
The first story is deals with the crash and leader ship of the "tribe". At this point the Sith are more worried about how they are going to be perceived by their current lord Naga Shadow as disappearing with his cargo. The two highest ranking officers realise that they will not get getting off the planet anytime soon. there is a fight for leadership with one dying. As far as Sith go The main character does not seem evil, apart from killing his brother and even that was pretty much self-defence.
The next story is of one of the natives who accidentally come across the stranded Sith. The story fast forwards 25 years the Sith have embedded themselves as the top of society, there is a bit of infighting that is normal for the self-destructive and racist Sith. Then we are taking to the revolution of an insurgence of the lower lords against the grand lord with the natives taking their own side. Then we are taken 1000 years into the future of the Sith are there usual scheming selves. There is an appearance of a member of the Jedi Coven, dedicated to stopping the Sith for returning first seen in the Knights of the Old Republic comics. Who has also crashed on this planet. All these stories lead up to the Sith destroying and restabilising their society, priorities and self-destructive tendencies.
Good stories I am glad i read them before starting the Fate of the Jedi Series as I hate prequels.
The first story is deals with the crash and leader ship of the "tribe". At this point the Sith are more worried about how they are going to be perceived by their current lord Naga Shadow as disappearing with his cargo. The two highest ranking officers realise that they will not get getting off the planet anytime soon. there is a fight for leadership with one dying. As far as Sith go The main character does not seem evil, apart from killing his brother and even that was pretty much self-defence.
The next story is of one of the natives who accidentally come across the stranded Sith. The story fast forwards 25 years the Sith have embedded themselves as the top of society, there is a bit of infighting that is normal for the self-destructive and racist Sith. Then we are taking to the revolution of an insurgence of the lower lords against the grand lord with the natives taking their own side. Then we are taken 1000 years into the future of the Sith are there usual scheming selves. There is an appearance of a member of the Jedi Coven, dedicated to stopping the Sith for returning first seen in the Knights of the Old Republic comics. Who has also crashed on this planet. All these stories lead up to the Sith destroying and restabilising their society, priorities and self-destructive tendencies.
Good stories I am glad i read them before starting the Fate of the Jedi Series as I hate prequels.
May 11, 2021
This book gets almost full stars despite not being exactly a stylistic masterpiece and here's why.
The stories follow a Sith ship which suffered serious damage during a battle and which crashlands on a remote planet somewhere randomly our of hyper-space and just about killing everyone on board. The survivors need to do the best they can out of their situation - at least they have just evaded almost certain death. Leaving the planet is a no-go as their ship lays in ruins on a mountain ridge. The only way is down to the continent below.
It's not difficult for the Sith to establish themselves as the new rulers of the land they found what with their power to wield the Force and with the locals already primed by their lore to expect the God-like creatures from their myths to descend from the stars. But the Sith are warriors whose whole existence is grounded in their insatiable desire for conquest and ever growing power. So how long will they be satisfied with being masters of a single piece of land? There's no escaping this planet, but may be they are not as alone on it as they originally thought? Will conquering new continents pawse their self-destruction and unite them to a common goal? May be temporarily...
What I actually loved the most about this book is that about 2/3rds of the way through is I got the sudden realisation that this Sith tribe is in fact humanity. The story is almost verbatim the broad strokes of human history from the past few thousand years and this realisation finally gave me the answer why I was so fascinated with the Sith in the first place. The ability to recognise yourself in the character is the key to almost certain success of the writer and this Miller did brilliantly!
The stories follow a Sith ship which suffered serious damage during a battle and which crashlands on a remote planet somewhere randomly our of hyper-space and just about killing everyone on board. The survivors need to do the best they can out of their situation - at least they have just evaded almost certain death. Leaving the planet is a no-go as their ship lays in ruins on a mountain ridge. The only way is down to the continent below.
It's not difficult for the Sith to establish themselves as the new rulers of the land they found what with their power to wield the Force and with the locals already primed by their lore to expect the God-like creatures from their myths to descend from the stars. But the Sith are warriors whose whole existence is grounded in their insatiable desire for conquest and ever growing power. So how long will they be satisfied with being masters of a single piece of land? There's no escaping this planet, but may be they are not as alone on it as they originally thought? Will conquering new continents pawse their self-destruction and unite them to a common goal? May be temporarily...
What I actually loved the most about this book is that about 2/3rds of the way through is I got the sudden realisation that this Sith tribe is in fact humanity. The story is almost verbatim the broad strokes of human history from the past few thousand years and this realisation finally gave me the answer why I was so fascinated with the Sith in the first place. The ability to recognise yourself in the character is the key to almost certain success of the writer and this Miller did brilliantly!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2020
This is my first foray into the time period of the Old Republic. I couldn’t stop thinking about how technology in the Star Wars universe hasn’t evolved much from this time, 5000 years before “A New Hope”. Hyperdrive, lightsabers, holograms, and blasters all seem to exist at this time. How could civilization be so stagnant for 5000 years that there haven’t been many advances? I may be missing pieces of the puzzle.
June 4, 2020
The story is pretty good but the writing is sooooooo overly descriptive. Could have been a third the length and it would have been the same story, without the crap I don't need to read.
February 7, 2014
This book was a collection of short stories and one final story telling the ending of the tale. It took place over three time periods in the planet Kesh's past (Meaning BBY)
These first four books of the collection take place around 5000 years BBY (Before the Battle at Yavin). They follow the crew of the Sith ship Omen as it crash lands on an unknown planet called Kesh. The surviving Sith then start to in fight and political intrigue themselves almost to extinction. The leader of the group, Commander Yaru Korsin, meets a native, Adari Vaal, of the planet and forms a sudo friendship with her.
These were not bad. I had read them in the individual short stories a few years ago. The characters, even though they were Sith, were likable and you could follow them without getting bored. And the subjugation and enslavement of the Kishiri was interesting watching it happen slowly to the point there was no other life for the Keshiri but to serve the Sith.
These two books were my favorite of the whole collection. They take place approximately 1040 years after the first four books. The original characters are one with the force now so we meet a whole new collection of characters. We learn how the Sith society has evolved over the milenium since their arrival. But what i liked most about this set was the characters.
We meet a Sith princess, Orielle Kitai, and a simple gardener Jelph Marrian. My two favorite characters in the whole collection. Through the two books Ori becomes an outcast and slave and joins up with Jelph. While there she discovers Jelph is actually a Jedi, stranded here like the Omen crew was 1000 years ago. By the end Ori, who was not a normal Sith, decides she would rather spend time with Jelph in the hills as a hideaway than fight him.
My disappointment was there was not much of these characters. And in the following section they were barely even mentioned. I wish we could have got more, or at least had a separate culture on Kesh form from the pairing of Jelph and Ori.
Pantheon
These take place 2000-2025 years after the Omen crew crashed on the planet Kesh. These were not all that great. The Sith culture is crumbling and rather useless. They weren't bad by any means, just not my favorite part. Pantheon could have been skipped all together and you wouldn't have missed out on much.
Overall it was a good series of novellas, worth a read for any Star Wars fan!
These first four books of the collection take place around 5000 years BBY (Before the Battle at Yavin). They follow the crew of the Sith ship Omen as it crash lands on an unknown planet called Kesh. The surviving Sith then start to in fight and political intrigue themselves almost to extinction. The leader of the group, Commander Yaru Korsin, meets a native, Adari Vaal, of the planet and forms a sudo friendship with her.
These were not bad. I had read them in the individual short stories a few years ago. The characters, even though they were Sith, were likable and you could follow them without getting bored. And the subjugation and enslavement of the Kishiri was interesting watching it happen slowly to the point there was no other life for the Keshiri but to serve the Sith.
These two books were my favorite of the whole collection. They take place approximately 1040 years after the first four books. The original characters are one with the force now so we meet a whole new collection of characters. We learn how the Sith society has evolved over the milenium since their arrival. But what i liked most about this set was the characters.
We meet a Sith princess, Orielle Kitai, and a simple gardener Jelph Marrian. My two favorite characters in the whole collection. Through the two books Ori becomes an outcast and slave and joins up with Jelph. While there she discovers Jelph is actually a Jedi, stranded here like the Omen crew was 1000 years ago. By the end Ori, who was not a normal Sith, decides she would rather spend time with Jelph in the hills as a hideaway than fight him.
My disappointment was there was not much of these characters. And in the following section they were barely even mentioned. I wish we could have got more, or at least had a separate culture on Kesh form from the pairing of Jelph and Ori.
PantheonThese take place 2000-2025 years after the Omen crew crashed on the planet Kesh. These were not all that great. The Sith culture is crumbling and rather useless. They weren't bad by any means, just not my favorite part. Pantheon could have been skipped all together and you wouldn't have missed out on much.
Overall it was a good series of novellas, worth a read for any Star Wars fan!
August 14, 2017
It's Star Wars, so I'm predisposed to liking it. That being said, it's unlike any other Star Wars novel I've read before.
Set all on one world, and built up of several short stories (rather like Asimov's Foundation), the book tells the story of a ship full of Sith marooned on a metal-free planet, with no way to escape after the wreck of their warship, through two thousand years.
I like the idea of a Star Wars book that concentrates on the history and development of one planet, it's just that the Sith are not a compelling culture. When everyone is a murderous schemer, it all gets predictably Game of Thrones-ish. Although the stories concentrate on the least Sithlike characters, the culture in general feels too implausible to be completely satisfying.
Also, Miller uses the word "humongous" as a serious descriptor twice in quick succession, which made it feel like the story was being recounted by a surfer dudebro.
So, could have been better, but could have been far worse. Recommended only for the more than casual fan.
Set all on one world, and built up of several short stories (rather like Asimov's Foundation), the book tells the story of a ship full of Sith marooned on a metal-free planet, with no way to escape after the wreck of their warship, through two thousand years.
I like the idea of a Star Wars book that concentrates on the history and development of one planet, it's just that the Sith are not a compelling culture. When everyone is a murderous schemer, it all gets predictably Game of Thrones-ish. Although the stories concentrate on the least Sithlike characters, the culture in general feels too implausible to be completely satisfying.
Also, Miller uses the word "humongous" as a serious descriptor twice in quick succession, which made it feel like the story was being recounted by a surfer dudebro.
So, could have been better, but could have been far worse. Recommended only for the more than casual fan.
January 13, 2016
This book is a jarring mess for me. I only really read the first story and part of the second before I went to find spoilers for the rest. I couldn't really connect to any character in the first story before it abruptly ended, then we get a mad scramble of telling what happened between the first and second story in the second and it's over with as well before I'm allowed a real connection to these new characters. I'm simply not a novella person, I guess. I will be continuing the Star Wars books, of course, I would just prefer the novellas to be something of a side story for an already established character, rather than a new one we see only a slice of their life and know only itty bitty fragments of their backstory.
October 19, 2017
This is a series of mostly pre-published short stories, that occur 5000-3000 years before the Battle of Yavin (fun irrelevant fact,: my iPad's voice to text just translated this as " Battle of yeah but then.") For those unfamiliar, this was the battle at which the first Death Star was destroyed. If you don't know that fact, reading this collection is probably unnecessary. Even if you do know that fact, I don't know that reading this collection is necessary.
The stories explain how a band of Sith wound up developing in isolation on a (when they found it) pre-industrial world. They are primarily intended as a prequel to the Fate of the Jedi series. I've read better Star Wars novels, including others written by John Jackson Miller. I was fairly ambivalent about this one.
The stories explain how a band of Sith wound up developing in isolation on a (when they found it) pre-industrial world. They are primarily intended as a prequel to the Fate of the Jedi series. I've read better Star Wars novels, including others written by John Jackson Miller. I was fairly ambivalent about this one.
November 1, 2012
So looking forward to this there is sopposed to be one final story with the collection.
Also look out for the comic book series based after the book series.
Also look out for the comic book series based after the book series.
June 7, 2014
Interesting twist
showing a different sides of Sith occupation these stories are well written and engaging. Looking forward to the next installment.
showing a different sides of Sith occupation these stories are well written and engaging. Looking forward to the next installment.
February 18, 2021
A really fun story. If you’re doing a chronological read through don’t bother splitting up the stories around the old republic, just read all of it at once. Worth a reread. Good writing.
September 15, 2024
The Lost Tribe, a civilization of Sith warriors, cut off from the rest of the galaxy for 5000 years, first appears as one of the antagonists in the Fate of the Jedi series. As those novels got released over several years, a series of ebooks (short stories really) was doled out as well, telling tales of those 5000 "lost" years. This volume collects those stories in one place and then adds a final novella that caps the sequence. The tales cover several thousand years of history on Kesh, from the crash-landing of the Sith mining ship, Omen, to the Sith's eventual dominance of the entire planet and its indigenous species, the Keshiri.
As you might expect from a collection of stories, the book varies some in quality. Despite all of the material being written by John Jackson Miller, a regular contributor to Star Wars comics, his plot and character ideas are not uniformly good. Each tale has a limited amount of time - often just 30 to 40 pages - to establish the current protagonists and antagonists, lay out the social and political situation, raise the stakes, and play out any action. Miller sometimes cheats a bit on this model, pairing a couple of stories together, leaving one on a mild cliffhanger, only to resolve it in the next tale. Thus, he is able to reutilize the setup from the previous story and move ahead faster with plot and action in the second paired story.
Still, with the majority of the characters being devious, malevolent Sith, it's hard to get excited about who wins or loses in the various political schemes, interpersonal machinations, or outright battles. That makes it all the more exciting when there are characters to root for, as we find in the stories "Skyborn," "Purgatory," and "Sentinel." And of course, the real upside of the linked-story format is that the pieces are always short, so if you don't like one of them, you can quickly move on to the next installment.
The final piece, "Pandemonium," written just for this volume, promises something different. The Lost Tribe discovers that there is another continent on the other side of the world from them, and vows to conquer it. The novella-length story features long sections told from the point of view of the Keshiri preparing to defend their cities and their people. Due to the lack of metal on Kesh, the story has a bit of a steampunk flair, with the Tribe forced to resort to using animal-powered airships to invade. The Keshiri fight back with their own bronze-age tech, and some unexpected mental powers. I enjoyed much of this section, as it was quite different from anything else I've read in the Expanded Universe. Unfortunately, if you've read the Fate of the Jedi books, the ending of this one is a foregone conclusion, leaving little suspense.
I found this collection mildly engaging while reading it, but nothing in it captured my attention enough to make it feel like these tales were indispensable. At best, these stories represent a detour or side show in the overarching Star Wars mythology.
As you might expect from a collection of stories, the book varies some in quality. Despite all of the material being written by John Jackson Miller, a regular contributor to Star Wars comics, his plot and character ideas are not uniformly good. Each tale has a limited amount of time - often just 30 to 40 pages - to establish the current protagonists and antagonists, lay out the social and political situation, raise the stakes, and play out any action. Miller sometimes cheats a bit on this model, pairing a couple of stories together, leaving one on a mild cliffhanger, only to resolve it in the next tale. Thus, he is able to reutilize the setup from the previous story and move ahead faster with plot and action in the second paired story.
Still, with the majority of the characters being devious, malevolent Sith, it's hard to get excited about who wins or loses in the various political schemes, interpersonal machinations, or outright battles. That makes it all the more exciting when there are characters to root for, as we find in the stories "Skyborn," "Purgatory," and "Sentinel." And of course, the real upside of the linked-story format is that the pieces are always short, so if you don't like one of them, you can quickly move on to the next installment.
The final piece, "Pandemonium," written just for this volume, promises something different. The Lost Tribe discovers that there is another continent on the other side of the world from them, and vows to conquer it. The novella-length story features long sections told from the point of view of the Keshiri preparing to defend their cities and their people. Due to the lack of metal on Kesh, the story has a bit of a steampunk flair, with the Tribe forced to resort to using animal-powered airships to invade. The Keshiri fight back with their own bronze-age tech, and some unexpected mental powers. I enjoyed much of this section, as it was quite different from anything else I've read in the Expanded Universe. Unfortunately, if you've read the Fate of the Jedi books, the ending of this one is a foregone conclusion, leaving little suspense.
I found this collection mildly engaging while reading it, but nothing in it captured my attention enough to make it feel like these tales were indispensable. At best, these stories represent a detour or side show in the overarching Star Wars mythology.
June 25, 2021
3.5, rounded up
TW:
Rating per short story:
Precipice: 3 stars
Skyborn: 3 stars
Paragon: 3 stars
Savior: 3 stars
Purgatory: 4 stars
Sentinel: 2.5 stars
Pantheon: 4 stars
Secrets: 3.5 stars
Pandemonium: 4 stars
The book is roughly structured in three "generations".
The first (Precipice to Saviour) sets up the whole thing and gives us the first couple years from when the Sith crash on Kesh to taking over the native population. It was good enough, nothing special, but not bad either.
The next generation (Purgatory and Sentinel) are set a thousand years later, in the middle of political intrigue. I rather liked Purgatory, it was a nice little story. Sentinel was just meh. Too fast, so a lot wasn't set up very well.
The last (Pantheon to Pandemonium) was my favourite part, yet again a thousand years later. It sorted out the chaos of the previous years and then set off to do some new exploring!
Of course, those are stories about Sith. They're obviously not the nicest of people. But it was interesting to read about a Sith society. That is also completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy.
TW:
Rating per short story:
Precipice: 3 stars
Skyborn: 3 stars
Paragon: 3 stars
Savior: 3 stars
Purgatory: 4 stars
Sentinel: 2.5 stars
Pantheon: 4 stars
Secrets: 3.5 stars
Pandemonium: 4 stars
The book is roughly structured in three "generations".
The first (Precipice to Saviour) sets up the whole thing and gives us the first couple years from when the Sith crash on Kesh to taking over the native population. It was good enough, nothing special, but not bad either.
The next generation (Purgatory and Sentinel) are set a thousand years later, in the middle of political intrigue. I rather liked Purgatory, it was a nice little story. Sentinel was just meh. Too fast, so a lot wasn't set up very well.
The last (Pantheon to Pandemonium) was my favourite part, yet again a thousand years later. It sorted out the chaos of the previous years and then set off to do some new exploring!
Of course, those are stories about Sith. They're obviously not the nicest of people. But it was interesting to read about a Sith society. That is also completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 385 reviews