Star Wars: Lords of the Sith

Decent enough novel focused partly on the relationship between Sidious and Vader, and partly establishing the early days of the Rebellion through the medium of the residents of Ryloth. Couple of nice tie-forwards to the Rebels animated series, and back to the prequel trilogy. Enjoyable particularly after the action picked up in the second half, but never felt an "essential" read. Strong characterisation of Vader though.

Remember when Darth Vader was this bad ass that scared you as a kid? If you were born in the 70s like me you do. He wasn't some angsty teen with terrible writing.

This book brings more of the bad ass scary guy than the angsty idiot that was created in the prequels. There are still some moments where they dredge up some of that, but the opening scene was a good homage to when Darth Vader's stories hadn't been flushed out and he was this scary monster from the original trilogy.

a nice novel between Ep 3 and Ep4 with some development of how life under the Empire was, and the hopelessness that some people might have felt. Some decent intrigue and twists. It is a fun read.