Revan: The Old Republic’s Backstory Begins

As I wrote a while back, I’ve been really getting into the Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) MMORPG. Given that Lucasarts is in business to make money, they’ve authorized a series of books based on SWTOR, to give some of the backstory and to explain the universe a little bit better.

The first of these books is titled Revan (or, if you prefer, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan), and it’s set after the older non-online games Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (KOTOR) 1 and 2, and before SWTOR. It follows the main character of KOTOR, the Jedi Revan, on his adventures after the events of KOTOR 1 and 2.

If, like me, you never played either of the KOTOR games, the book gives valuable information about the Star Wars universe during The Old Republic timeframe, which is subtly different from the movie timeframe, in that we have both a strong Republic and a strong Empire. At the opening of Revan, the Republic and the Jedi believe the Sith and their Empire have been destroyed, but that turns out not to be the case (not really a spoiler, because they had to exist for Darth Vader to have arisen in time to be confronted by Luke).

The book also follows a Sith, Lord Scourge, who despite his unfortunate name becomes integral to the story. Along the way we learn more about Sith society and the way the Empire works, along with the Emperor and how he’s apparently become immortal. The book also starts exploring the differences between the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force, and how those differences impact the way the Jedi and the Sith behave, as well as their different abilities.

I am also told by friends in SWTOR that the Jedi Knight storyline is a continuation of at least this book, and perhaps all The Old Republic books; I haven’t played the whole storyline yet, so I can’t say for sure.

It ends with quite a few loose ends still open, but that’s not surprising, given that there are four books set in The Old Republic — they had to leave some things open for the next book.

All in all, I am glad I picked up this book, and thoroughly looking forward to the next one… the Star Wars universe is, like the Star Trek universe, full of stories, and I’m just getting started reading about — and playing — them!