Star Wars - Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side by Daniel Wallace

8/10

The Sith have existed in the galaxy for centuries, lurking, waiting for their chance to seize control. In his quest for domination, Darth Sidious tracked down five pivotal Sith texts written by his most powerful predecessors. Then, drawing on the knowledge within the compiled pages, he wrote a sixth text his own manifesto. Together, these documents shed light on the philosophy, achievements, and failures of the Sith Order.

Book Of Sith is a definite improvement on it’s counterpart, The Jedi Path, refining what worked previously and fixing many of the issues I raised in my review for it’s companion book. It’s a great reference work suitable for casual and hardcore fans of the series and will sit handsomely on your shelf.

As in all his Star Wars “non-fictional” works Daniel Wallace’s love and knowledge of the source material shines through. There are smart nods to characters and events of the Expanded Universe, some unexpected and all welcome.

There is also a sense of narrative that was lacking in the previous volume, as the book chronicles the history of the Sith with a more defined beginning, middle and end structure. Each chapter covers not only a new aspect of Sith belief, but reflects on how these beliefs change and shift as time passes.

Some chapters also play out as mini-narratives in their own right, especially the battle diary of Darth Malgus. This serves to give the book a greater variety of style and voice.

Again, each chapter is annotated by various characters that have owned pages of the book adding veracity and occasionally a little humour to proceedings. The choice of characters is smart and there is a better sense of individual voices – though I would still argue a book of this type would be better suited to multiple authors working together.

The artwork is great and again it’s the details that really make this book a treat to have in your collection. Couple this with The Jedi Path and you’ve got two very attractive tomes that are not only good reference books but there’s something appealing about owning something dressed as a genuine artefact that brings that far, far away galaxy into your home.