Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith - The Burning Seas Review

Finished reading Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith - The Burning Seas, writer Charles Soule continues the series as Vader finds himself going to the planet of Mon Cala in search of a rouge Jedi while the Imperial fleet is bombarding the planet. The book opens with Vader being called to meet Palpatine who gives him a new mission to show a force of strength with the planet of Mon Cala being used as an example for Empire with Tarkin leading the charge of the operation as Vader along with a small group of Inquisitors are tasked with the mission to find a potential Jedi on the planet. Once Vader lands on Mon Cala an Imperial ambassador's ship is shot out of the sky which leads to an assault on the planet by the Empire while Vader and his team try to find the Jedi hiding on the planet who is revealed to be living on the planet with his own students and a complete knowledge on who Vader is and his life as Anakin Skywalker. The next story sees Tarkin along with a group he has assembled to hunt down Vader on the Chander's Folly on a request by Vader himself when Tarkin found himself in Vader's debt to him after asking him to change his mission while on Mon Cala. The final story by writer Chuck Wendig sees Vader traveling to Geonosis to investigate a constant string of sabotages on the construction of the Death Star where he meets with Orson Krennic who is overseeing the Death Star project before conducting his investigation. Overall this was a great book as Vader counties his mission to wipe out the Jedi while also continuing to consolidate the Empires's power and control over the galaxy, with the inclusion of Jedi master Barr leading to some great moments between him and Vader thanks to the way the two characters stories are influenced and motivated by each other own which leads to Barr feeling more of a villain towards the end of the story. The book has a great amount of character development throw the especially for the relationship between Vader and Tarkin with the foundations of their working relationship being forged thanks to the way the two deal with the different situations they find themselves in, while the story where the two are trying to hunt each other also enforces this thanks to the story being from Tarkin's perspective. The final story also has a great amount of character development thanks to the way that it has an intriguing connection between the Attack of the Clones and Rouge One films that not only builds upon Vader's story but those of Krennic and the Erso family. The art throughout the book is amazing as the action set pieces are breathtaking in places especially during the Mon Cala story thanks to the way the art makes use of the water base environment especially in the fight between Vader and an alien squid is used to amazing effect. Also the art during the books last story puts an interesting take on Vader as he appears to be taller which helps to give him a more foreboding presence. 8.5/10.