Paragon

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #3

by John Jackson Miller

The ruthless cunning of the Sith Order has served the shipwrecked crew of the Omen well on the alien planet Kesh. Subjugating the superstitious Keshiri race by posing as its fabled overlords has ensured the Sith's survival—while they struggle in secret to return to the stars. But after fifteen years on their adopted world, some among the lost tribe have grown restless and fearful that assimilation will consume their Sith heritage. Now, as rival factions begin to appear, a shocking disaster throws into doubt the Sith's future on Kesh.

In the distant city of Tetsubal, the entire native populace is suddenly wiped out by a grisly plague of unknown origin. With terrifying speed, more cities succumb to the mysterious contagion. Only the Sith remain unharmed—so far. And as Sith commander Yaru Korsin grapples with the looming loss of the paradise he rules and the race his people have come to depend upon, he must confront the dark possibility that the catastrophe may not be cruel fate but insidious sabotage.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Ebooks, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy

50 pages, ebook

First published February 5, 2010

About the author

New 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.

Reviews

[Leeanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #3: Paragon, by John Jackson Miller

Finally, there's some action in this ebook series! Lost Tribe of the Sith is a series to provide back story for the new Fate of the Jedi books. "Paragon" is the third installment.

All Star Wars fans know that if you leave two Sith in a room only one Sith is going to come out. The same is true of the crashed Sith on Kesh - their numbers are slowly dwindling, cut down by mainly by sabotage.

The native population of Kesh are now the servants of the Sith, most happily serving those they consider the descendants of gods. But Keshiri start dying in droves after some Sith visit their towns - what is the cause? Is it a new mysterious illness, or is there some darker force behind the mass deaths?

"Paragon" is a better story than the previous in the series. Seelah, the wife of the Sith ruler is shaping up to be an interesting character; at first I thought she was spoiled and annoying, but my opinion changed as I read. The author reveals her early life in flashbacks; the flashbacks also give some insight into the early Sith Empire. Readers new to the series should start with book one, "Precipice."

3/5.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Interesting that Seelah and Korsin/Yaru got married and had a daughter. The deaths of the Sith and others was very sad. Wonder if Seelah and her son are plotting to kill Korsin. Also wonder if Adari is planning on killing the foreign Sith.

Can't wait to read Savior!!!!

[Myles Gerber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid entry in this series- I didn’t like it as much as the last one, but it was still pretty good. Fifteen years have passed and the sith have fully leaned into their roles as “saviours” for these people, though it’s clear that the sith have also begun turning against each other. We follow Seelah who I honestly don’t find particularly interesting but it’s cool to see a bunch of sith go at each-other’s throats in typical EU fashion. I like the reveal at the end that the whole thing has been strung up by Adari who is fed up with the “plague” these sith have brought upon her people, though I would have liked to see a little more of her taking direct action. Still a good entry though despite its flaws and I look forward to reading the next one.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot:
Paragon takes place 15 years after the crash. Seelah decided to remarry her late husband’s brother, Yaru Korsin. Plans for getting off of the planet are becoming hopeless because of the lack of metals on the planet. Soon an entire town is wiped out by an unknown disease. The Sith are worried that the disease might start killing off the rest of the human population. Then a few days later all of the lake towns are completely wiped out, millions of lives lost. The epidemic is getting worse. Seelah figured out it isn’t an epidemic however, but sabotage. And it is Ravilan who is doing it. So the human Sith kill all of the alien Sith except for Gloyd. Right before Seelah kills Ravilan she tells him how she was the one who sabotaged the lake cities.
Characterization:
Throughout the novel we see Seelah as she changes. In the beginning Seelah was just trying to fit in. As time progressed she became bolder and bolder. When she found out that Ravilan poisoned the water in that little town, she began plotting. She decided to poison the lake cities and pin it on him. No one ever suspected her.
Audience:
I would recommend this book to teenagers and older as some of the material is hard to grasp. I would recommend this book to Star Wars fans as well as fans of science fiction because there are a lot of fictional aspects in this book such as space travel and futuristic technology. Both genders will be able to enjoy this book equally. However, if you are not a fan of science fiction do not read this book. You will be bored out of your mind because of all of the science involved. Likewise if you are not of a high reading level the content will go right over your head.
Personal Response:
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars because it is about Star Wars. You can’t get any better than that in my book. It gives information to another section of the Star Wars universe. I would recommend this book to any of my Star Wars fan friends. Overall this was a good book.

[Avery Delany · Rating 3 out of 5]

The further I get into this series, the more interesting it gets and the more I like it.

I like the fact that there are twists in this series as well, it keeps me from getting bored where I otherwise would be. It was interesting having this book follow Seelah and it brought her character into a new light, especially as at first she was presented as a spoilt, childish woman.

I find it quite interesting that so many SW fans seem to dislike the political aspects of this series (and of other series in the SW franchise). It sounds like the complaining of little boys because there isn't enough fighting and waving of lightsabers. People don't generally go to wars or start fights without some kind of psychological and/or political motives so it only seems right that that also has a place in the SW universe. I find it interesting to see a more 'human' side of the Sith because it's rare that you get such animalistic characters, and if all the books were were fighting, it would be incredibly boring.

The series is becoming darker as the series is progressing and the Sith are becoming more 'Sith'-like.

[Igor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the hints of Naga Sadow time and the main story develops great... or to be precise Sith like.

[I DRM Free · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this story picks up some time after Skyborn ends. The Skyborn (ie the Sith) have taken over the planet. They busy their new population in building them great stone buildings and monuments to them. The population eagerly absorbs the Skyborn into their religion. However they find out there is an older story, the basis of the current religion of battles between the Protectors and the Destructors. Because Keshiri themselves had become Skyborn, Seelah didn’t see it fit that the Sith and a select few of the Keshiri should all be worshiped. So they changed it so the Sith were the Protectors and the Skyborn were no more an important part of their religion. Slyly cutting out the Keshiri, but keeping the Sith in power.

But not all Sith are happy, just dominating this single planet. Many want to leave, even though that is not possible. And others secretly work to cleanse the Sith blood lines of impurities.

The Massassai are slowly dwindling in number, their offspring never living long. So they devise a plan to force the Sith to regroup and possibly wipe out the Keshiri. The plan fails, and it is the Massassai who fade into the annals of history.

As with all the other Star Wars books, this has DRM, -1.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we have the paragon of Sith ideology: intrigue, treachery, the ideology of the rule by the strongest bleeding into social darwinism... and, perhaps, slow self-destruction? Paragon returns to the first ebook's structure of a slow build-up of theory culminating in an explosion "of praxis". Though the Korsin plot has certainly not reached an end yet, this does a good job of picking up its predecessors' ideas while carving out an idea of its own. If Lost Tribe continues like this, I'll be a happy fan.

I already know I'm going to enjoy revisiting all these stories as a cohesive whole via the trade paperback.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book includes more action than before with a few surprising twists. Since I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, some of the more political references went past me but it wasn't too out of range for me to not infer what may be going on.

Unfortunately, I guess when I bought these books, I somehow didn't get the fourth one. I can't find just the fourth installment by itself and I'm not purchasing them again for 50 pages or so. I'll have to go to the fifth and hope I can enjoy the end of the series.

[Eric Neil Bonds · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book or a novel. It isn't even a short story. It is barely longer than a Newspaper Editorial. The writing is ok, the story is compelling and right when you are settling in for a good read, it is already over and incomplete. Very dissatidfying. It's like riding a roller coaster to the top and it stops & you are told to take an elevator to quietly the ground floor. Not worth the time to down load. Don't waste your time, I can't believe Amazon allows an author to post tiny wisps and get away with it.

[Lyndon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a very satisfactory installment to this series, but it does reveal the machinations of a main character. Lost Tribe of the Sith is an episodic novel in I'm not sure how many parts. I downloaded them free from Amazon at one point (a promotion, I think) awhile back. Working my way through each "chapter" (each book is less than 40 pages) in the story.

[Jedi Master Nate Lightray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet, this story continues to tell the story of a lost tribe of Sith who could not leave a planet they were trapped on during after a battle in space. No one knows they are there. They will survive for thousands of years, creating their own culture of Sith. It's great, and I went straight into the next novella.

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plots are getting better (and thicker, naturally) the further along into this ebook series one ventures. This one had a couple of good, dark twists. Lots of tangled webs and all that. Good continuation, good setup for the ongoing struggle.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has more substance than its predecessor. Plots and subterfuge are beginning to take shape. Much more engaging.

[Britta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't expect that.

[Abigail Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story is definitely the most interesting so far! I enjoyed reading from Seelah’s perspective.

[Hanna Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is beginning to pick up and become interesting now! Can't wait to continue on!

[Nina ✳ The Shadow Dancer ✳ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“An empire of Sith is an empire of small schemes.”

[Cameron Fry · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10 GREAT

[Dan Graziotto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things are starting to pop off, factions are making their plans to control Kesh

[Meg V · Rating 4 out of 5]

This worked better for me than the others have so far. Plots within plots, I like it.

[Kevis Hendrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a bit torn about my feelings about this series. On one hand, I relish the thought of reading new adventures set in the Star Wars universe. However, I really don't find any of the characters interesting and find that the humanized version of the Sith are paltry replacements for the likes of Darth Maul, Darth Bane, Darth Sidious, and their ilk. Truth be told, I like my Sith Lords wicked, ruthless, and downright EVIL!

Although it's kind of clever to create a cast of Sith Lords who are more like everyday people than the the vicious, kill-or-be-killed style of villains Lucas created for his mythology, it also makes for unnecessarily overly psycho-analytical, annoyingly pretentious, and ultimately unengaging storytelling. So far, The Lost Tribe of the Sith falls prey to the same trap that ruined the prequel films. There's just too much political intrigue and faux-philosophical storytelling to actually get excited over this series. With the material Jackson has to work with, this should be a slam dunk for an exciting story about Sith Lords. Instead, reading Miller's books are a chore because it seems less like Star Wars and more like badly written fan fiction. Give me show-stealing lightsaber battles and heated dogfights in space! Get rid of all of this socio-political fluff and return to the kind of space opera that made fans fall in love with Star Wars in the first place.

To be honest, if it weren't for the last page of 'Paragon', I'd probably give up on this series right now. My hope is that Miller is about to give us the goods on the next round. If not, I'll be happily moving on to watching reruns of The Empire Strikes Back on my DVD player and putting to rest any thought of reading more books in this series.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I don’t like about these books is their form – as short stories – what I mean is, that reading them as one book wouldn’t work for me because I want to take it sequentially and therefore I’d have to stop at one point and star another book because the last two stories are after some other books, at least according the time-line. And reading them as separate books is also not the same because they’re too short to build up some atmosphere and suspense, not a very good one, though I admit that the stories got slowly better. But it was odd how there’s been many years between them – 25 years between 1-4 and a thousand between 4 and 5, just then it again was following on each other directly – I mean why? Why not take it a little bit slower?

Oh, and the thing with the Keshiri people – when they’ve been able to steel all their Uvak I certainly wouldn’t just flee and try to find a new home and risk that many would die during the journey, I’d rather have my own city back, so I don’t understand why wouldn’t they rather fight.

Well, anyway, I doubt I’ll read them again, they’re nothing that special.

[Sacha Valero · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this third installment of the Lost Tribe series we find that fifteen years have passed. Seelah has been in charge of the nursery for new young Sith that have been born since arrival. As part of her job she has taken to learning the blood lines of all of the new children and it's clear she has an adjenda.

Ravalan is sent off by Korsin, the Grand Lord, to investigate an algae for beneficial properties. The following day the uvak riders return telling of a pandemic that has swept the areas Ravalan's people were to investigate the algae.

Seelah learns the disease is only affecting the keshiri, and not the Sith or humans. This gives her insight to why and how the disease spread and she and Korsin take matters into their hands.

The writing in this installment was a little faster, and the pace a bit more urgent as it should be. It's a good page turner and gives a bit more insight to Seelah and her background, and why she ended up on Omen in the first place.

[Julianne Redmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paragon is full of intrigue and suspense. So far my favorite book in the series!

The characters are revealing more of themselves as the story progresses. With the Sith it is all about power and domination, not only over the native Keshiri but over each other. Seelah is taking it even farther by trying to "perfect" the way that the Sith look. I have disliked her since she was first introduced in Precipice and in Paragon she is so vile she makes my skin crawl. We find out more about her history and why she is the way that she is, but I still detest her.

In the story we are seeing more now how the Keshiri have taken to domination by the Sith "skyborn." I won't spoil the story but there are key events that happen in Paragon that not only move the Sith into questionable standing with the Keshiri, but reveal a dissidence within the tribe itself. So much is revealed right at the end...can the Tribe survive and remain in power? I can't wait to find out!

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is set a few years after the Sith crash landed in Kesh and they have now taken the place of the Skyborn in the Kesh people. The non-human Siths want to escape but Korsin know well enough that they are stuck on this planet forever.

So Siths being Sith devised a plot to wipe out the native Kesh population but only to have the plan backfired and used by another person to get rid of the non-human Sith. At the same time Adari is beginning to see the true nature of the Siths and is planning a way to overthrow them.

I thought this story was ok. There's some more action and we see the conflicts within the Sith population and the growing tension between the Siths and the Keshiri. It still feels more like an in-between book that is slowly building up to something big.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paragon, I must admit, impressed me. While very little happened in the first two entries of this series, this one actually had a lot going on. There are a couple of twists and a cliffhanger ending that has me excited to read the conclusion. I didn't even mind the main character switching again, as following Seelah actually made her an enjoyable character. It's made me excited to see who the main character of the conclusion will be.

While this entry was quite exciting, it relies heavily on the setup it's received from the first two tales in the series. Hopefully, the fourth entry can follow this pattern and build off what's been established already for a satisfying conclusion.

[logankstewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is improving as it moves along. This third volume, Paragon, adds a characteristic Sith touch to the story, as well as yet another POV from a different character, the widow Seelah. By now, the Omen has been marooned on Kesh for 15 years, but the Sith are still hoping to get off the planet. During this time, many changes have come to the native Keshiri, some good, some not.

Paragon is the longest of the ebooks so far, taking a bit under an hour to read and enjoy. It accomplishes its task by making the Reader want to know what happens next. My favorite so far.

[Jeff Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things are heating up in this series. Until now, it seems like John Jackson Miller was kind of setting the scenario, but now we're starting to get a little more conflict, which is what Star Wars is really all about.

The writing is solid, but sometimes the actions of the characters or their motivations are a little difficult to understand. It could be because I was reading it really quickly, but I would imagine it is due more to the format: short e-books don't lend themselves well to deepening the motivations of characters or explaining events very much. Overall though, the book is solid.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot: The plot in this one was much more intense. It kept me more interested than the past ones, but I still felt like it was too short.


Characters: The characters didn't change much from the past books.


Setting: The place they are at is the same, but they did move around a little and reconstructed their buildings.


Overall: I feel like this series is being hurriedly put together. I don't dislike it, and I do plan on finishing it, but I wish the stories from book to book flowed together better.