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Blood Of The Empire (2011)

by Alexander Freed(Favorite Author)

3.49 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1595826467 (ISBN13: 9781595826466)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Dark Horse Comics

series

Star Wars: The Old Republic Comic

review 1: Star Wars The Old Republic Volume One: Blood of the Empire is a graphic novel prequel to the Bioware/LucasArts video game. It's meant as a tie in but without the need to have played the game beforehand. Unfortunately, weak scripting and editing as well as poor characterization create a muddled, disaffecting mess that leaves the reader either bewildered or bored.The story follows Sith apprentice Teneb Kel and his loyal companion maggot. Kel's master has betrayed the empire and the Sith - leaving Kel in a tenuous position. He is given the task of hunting down another Sith traitor (guess that was pretty common?) in order to avoid execution for his master's lack of vision. Wanton destruction and deaths ensue.I am guessing that the point of the story is that Kel is not yet ... morefully corrupted but his blind obedience to the Sith ideals take him down his eventual path of evilness. One one hand, he is protective of and saves his loyal companion. But then, he's quite happy to kill padawans or bystanders in order to protect the Sith goals. So the whole book is him calmly being evil or calmly being good - whiplash confusing to a reader since this happens within panels of each other. I get that the author wanted to pursue this duality of Kel's nature - but it's just so random without actually giving us any insight into Kel in the first place.All of the characters were poorly defined, Kel especially, so we had no basis for understanding who he is, where he is right now with his idealism/fanaticism, or why he's always so calm and honest, and kind of boring in a resigned way. I just wasn't interested in him - I found the person he was hunting FAR more interesting, though she was sprouting mumbo jumbo just the same as every other character. It's one of those times I really hoped the main character would get axed (or sabred, in this case).The action scenes were incredibly confusing and I had a hard time following the story. Eventually, I just gave up and kind of went with the flow. The artwork itself isn't bad - it is crisp and clean. But there is a lot of lost potential in the action scenes and I had no idea what was going on. Several times I thought I was missing something important but couldn't find anything significant in the previous panels to tell me what I missed.As with all Star Wars novels, there is quality here. But I think without an editor providing coherence and guidance, even the most quality of artists and writers can get lost. Which appears to have happened with this book.
review 2: About once a year I pick up a SW novel or graphic novel. Sometimes I'm surprised and find something really good, but most times they are just ok. This one was just ok. The basic concept is fun----a young Sith trainee Teneb Kel is sitting in disgrace after his master betrays the will of the Emperor. He's given a chance to redeem himself and carve a new path for his life, but the trick is he has to hunt down the former apprentice of the Emperor, a powerful and crafty Sith Lord named. Unfortunately the action's a bit clunky----it looks a lot like a comic from the 80's-----and the characters just aren't that interesting. Not sorry I read it, but I definitely won't bother reading any other volumes in this Old Republic line unless I hear there's a big change in quality. less

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