Unless you have been avoiding the internet and any sort of Star Wars news entirely in the past month, you know that Drew Karpyshyn’s newest book, Revan, was released this Tuesday. The hype surrounding this novel is huge, not only for the fact that it wraps up the loose ends of what happened to Revan after Knights of the Old Republic but for the fact that it releases the first pieces of background information about the mysterious Emperor of the Sith Empire. But the million credit question is this, should you pick up the book for yourself or just find all the important information out online? I shall endeavor to help you answer that question with my spoiler free review.

 

The first thing you should realize is that the novel assumes you have at least a passing knowledge of the events of the two Knights of the Old Republic games, though an intimate knowledge of the games will help you to understand the story a little better. All of the companion characters from the first games are at least mentioned, and some of the characters from the second game are touched on as well, though in a much smaller way. It’s also important to note that the story does not focus solely on Revan, the narrative actually hops back and forth between three different characters with Revan being only one of them. This helps to fill in the details of the story as a whole, though fans who want to see a focus on Revan may find the time spent on other characters somewhat disappointing.

 

However what I found the most interesting in this book was not the details of Revan’s life after Knights of the Old Republic but the details of the Sith Emperor. We get our first look at some of the details of the Emperor’s life, his level of power, and his plans for the Empire’s future attack on the Republic. These details, which until now were a highly guarded secret, really makes you look forward to finding out more about him and any possible interactions with him in game.

 

Not everything about the book is great however. It is a little on the short side for a book focusing on one of the most iconic characters of the Old Republic era and at times the story seems rushed because of it. There are also a couple instances where I feel like a couple story points from Knights of the Old Republic II are recycled for some of the new characters in the story. I cannot go into what they are without revealing major spoilers but from what I have seen from others online I am not alone in this feeling. I also found some of the details shared by Karpyshyn detailing Revan’s fall to the Dark Side to not fall in line with what we have heard before. They are minor details to be fair, but not details that I was fond of.

 

Despite these flaws I would still recommend this book to any fan of the Knights of the Old Republic games or any upcoming The Old Republic player. Is it the greatest book ever? No, but it has been my favorite of all the stories dealing with the events before TOR. Pick it up, give it a read, and watch as it finds a way to make you even more excited to dive into the Star Wars universe BioWare has crafted for us.

Tags: Emperor, lore, revan