‘Book of Sith’ – Daniel Wallace

It may not feel like it sometimes but there are books out there that you will never see being dished out for free as review copies. You don’t believe me do you? Well, how about a book that comes with its own Holocron case and retails for $99…? I’m talking about the ‘Book of Sith’ here; a book that reviewers like me would probably not bother reading because they were too busy playing with the very funky looking mechanized Holocron case. Nope, what we get is a (much) smaller book of excerpts instead which I think is probably fair enough all things considered.

This isn’t really a review as such then, how can it be when I haven’t got the whole book in front of me? What I’m going for here is more a case of my reactions to what was in front of me and how that bodes for the book as a whole. My reactions weren’t all that great…

According to the press release, the ‘Book of Sith’ is a collection of Dark Side texts that were squirreled away by Emperor Palpatine and have only now just come to light. Palpatine wrote his own manifesto, for the collection, and each of the texts are heavily annotated by various Jedi who have come across them over the years. There’s also the Holocron case that it all comes in as well as some other little bits and pieces (scrap of Sith burial shroud anyone?) but that’s pretty much what you get for your $99.

I think collectors will love it, no question. You’ve got a very cool looking Holocron case etc and that has to look good when placed next to your replica Darth Vader lighsaber. What I just couldn’t get away from though was the nagging feeling that the actual text wasn’t telling me anything that I hadn’t already gleaned from the dozens of other Star Wars books that I’ve read over the years.

Strip away the fancy sounding names and it all basically boils down to ‘The Sith are really angry and hate the Jedi because they’re not’. I could have told you that without reading the excerpts; there are six films and a whole load of related merchandise that have been telling me that since I was five years old! I’m going to assume that the rest of the book follows the same lines (complete with really smug annotations from Luke Skywalker denouncing the Sith stuff) and if that’s the case then you can count me out. ‘Tell me something I don’t know or just don’t bother’ is the order of the day here I think. This book looks very nice but is ultimately another sign of just how stale the Star Wars universe can feel sometimes.

If you’re a collector then I suspect you’ve already ordered the ‘Book of Sith’; I have a Mace Windu lightsaber myself so I think I know where you’re coming from ;o) Everyone else, if you’re dead set on having this book then I’d hang onto your money for a little while longer. Titan Books released a much more affordable version of ‘The Jedi Path’ (remember that?) not so long ago and I suspect the same thing will happen with the ‘Book of Sith’.