For a reader, one of the fun parts of the explosion of “Star Wars” spinoff literature in recent years is finding meanings in the names of all the new Darths. Darth Vader, famously, stood for father. Darth Sidious calls to mind “insidious.” Darth Maul makes me think of an animal, a sentient weapon to be unleashed on the Jedi.
Darth Vectivus, a character only mentioned in passing, represents a mathematical mind, a man content to expand his personal knowledge of the Sith arts; and indeed, he’s a rare Sith who didn’t believe in aggressively taking over the galaxy. Darth Bane would be the bane of the Jedis’ existence, of course. And Darth Plagueis, Sidious’ master, was the starting point for the Sith plague being re-introduced to the galaxy. (I don’t list Darth Caedus as a great name, because I always thought he should’ve been called Darth Solo; “Caedus” doesn’t call up anything in my mind, although I see on Wookieepedia that it means “battle of darkness.”)
Now, “The Old Republic: Deceived” (March, hardcover) introduces Darth Malgus, a name that makes me think of “malicious,” and also of a man who is “maligned” by anger and darkness. Those descriptions fit the bill, and — combined with the musclebound, ugly guy with a breath mask on the book’s cover — I get a pretty good feel for the character.
A name and a picture are just starting points, though. In his second “Star Wars” book, Paul S. Kemp does justice to the name Darth Malgus, and he drew me in despite the fact that all of the book’s characters are new. Characters are his strength and focus, so fans new to the “Star Wars” expanded universe should feel comfortable picking up “Deceived”: It’s an easily accessible standalone novel that nonetheless opens up a new corner of the galaxy. And although it’s the second “Old Republic” book, it’s not linked to “Fatal Alliance,” which takes place later on the timeline.
Malgus is all the things I’ve mentioned above, but he also has a softer side, because he has a secret girlfriend, the Twi’lek Eleena. Kemp doesn’t totally pull this off: Eleena sees something positive in Malgus, where readers will have a hard time seeing it. Still, a Sith with a girlfriend is a neat enough twist that it’ll keep you reading.
On the side of good, we get Zeerid, whose troubled economic state gets him in too deep with a smuggling organization; and Aryn, a Jedi who breaks free of the Order and goes rogue to seek revenge on the Sith Lord who killed her master.
The solitary nature of the three main characters — plus a fourth, the bounty hunter Vrath Xizor (great first name, but I’m not thrilled with Kemp recycling the last name from the “Shadows of the Empire” character) — fits with the “every being for himself” nature of this ancient time in the “Star Wars” universe (3,650 years before “A New Hope”) when the Jedi-Sith feud is playing out on a galactic scale, not to the benefit of the average citizen. But it’s not overly dark and grim; it moves at a fast clip and touches on galactic politics only as a framework.
Kemp did a nice job with a horror setting on a cold planet in his first “Star Wars” novel, “Crosscurrent”; here, his settings aren’t as strong. A lot of the action takes place on a Coruscant that has just been bombed and taken over by the Sith, and the exploration of this planet in turmoil could’ve been more evocative; I did a lot of my picturing of Coruscant based on all the previous stories that took place there. The final act of “Deceived” is all action, with cross-cutting between the three main characters as a final showdown looms; I personally found it a bit too choppy.
Still, Kemp proves once again to be a respectable addition to the pantheon of “Star Wars” writers. I’ll never turn down an author who loves to write and create characters, especially when it’s the latest in the proud history of Darths.