Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith audiobook review
It is a time of peace. As the the ashes of the Galactic Empire cool, the New Republic works to establish a new era of freedom and cooperation, while Jedi Master LUKE SKYWALKER trains the next generation of younglings at his temple.
But there is a dark shadow growing in the Force. As former Rebel Alliance general LANDO CALRISSIAN continues his search for his kidnapped daughter, cultists from the hidden world of EXEGOL work to enact plans a generation in the making.
Meanwhile, in the depths of Wild Space, a terrified young family makes a desperate journey, fleeing agents of an evil presence the galaxy has long thought dead….
Author: Adam Christopher
Cover artist: Juan Esteban Rodriguez
Publisher: Del Rey
Release date: June 28, 2022
Narrator: William DeMeritt
ISBN: 9780593606292
With decades of time to fill and two trilogies to bounce between, Shadow of the Sith dives eagerly into an era that has vast scope to not only develop new characters and situations, but also add depth and detail to things we know from the past, and most vitally from the future. Taking classic characters we know so well, primarily in the form of Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker, we also fold in a six-year-old version of the heroine of the sequel trilogy Rey and her blink-and-you’ll-miss-them parents Dathan and Miramir, the shadow of the Emperor, Sith servant Ochi of Bestoon, a post-Empire galaxy still struggling to find its identity and plotpoints most prominently left unanswered in The Rise of Skywalker. While it pre-dates the start of The Force Awakens by a number of years, its connective threads mostly cast forward to Episode IX, while utilising TFA characters like Lor San Tekka in interesting ways. This intriguing concoction cooks up something very special indeed.
The kinetic heart of the story is driven by Dathan and Miramir, Rey’s young parents who are fleeing their past to protect their treasured child’s future while trying to stay one step ahead of their dark pursuer Ochi, an endeavour that brings them into contact with the New Republic, Lando and Luke. Meanwhile, Skywalker has his fledgling academy, his nephew Ben (oh how the recently finished Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series has changed the depth of meaning surrounding that particular name choice) and a quest to gather Jedi and Sith artefacts from around the galaxy. Fold in a Lando who is still the charmer we know and love while simultaneously being older and deeply sorrowful, his confidence and swagger knocked by the abduction of his daughter Kadara, and we have our main threads.
In the hands of a less skilled writer these elements could be too much to balance, but Adam Christopher does an admirable job of taking these threads and weaving a story that builds on what’s come before, tells its own story by bringing in great new characters like the flamboyant Zeltron entrepreneur Zargo Anaximander and new locations like the fascinating Nightside, and plants seeds for what’s to come many years down the timeline. The backstory of Dathan and Miramir is explained, his dark past on Exegol as a Force-blind clone of the Emperor known to the tech-savvy Miramir, while the threat of the Sith shimmers in the distance, close but illusive as a future we already know looms.
The audio book read by William DeMeritt, as all good audio books do, adds an extra element to the experience. Not attempting direct impressions, DeMeritt manages to imbue his read with enough of the character for it to feel authentic, a tricky balance that not every audio book manages to do. I read Shadow of the Sith in hardback, audio and via NetGalley, tracking my progress to pick it up in whatever format was the most convenient at the time, and as it stands I’m confident I’ll be picking it up and re-reading it in paperback when that arrives (something that hasn’t happened for many, many years).
This really is a special read, engrossing and crafted in such a confident way that we can only hope Adam Christopher returns to the GFFA for many more adventures.
