Dark Lord: Star Wars Legends The Rise of Darth Vader

Throughout the galaxy, it was believed that Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalkerthe Chosen Onehad died on Coruscant during the siege of the Jedi Temple. And, to some extent, that was true. Anakin was dead. From the site of Anakin Skywalker's last standon the molten surface of the planet Mustafar, where he sought to destroy his friend and former master, Obi-Wan Kenobia fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi Order, he is now a disciple of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right hand of the galaxy's ruthless new Emperor. Seduced, deranged, and destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is dead . . . and Darth Vader lives. Word of the events that created himthe Jedi Council's failed mutiny against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the self-crowned Emperor's retaliatory command to exterminate the Jedi Order, and Anakin's massacre of his comrades and Masters in the Jedi Templehas yet to reach all quarters. On the Outer Rim world of Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on a Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide, red with Jedi blood, has turned suddenly against them. When the three narrowly elude executionand become the desperate prey in a hunt across spaceit's neither clone soldiers, nor the newly deployed stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the power-hungry Emperor himself they must fear most. The deadliest threat rests in the hideously swift and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vaderbehind whose brooding mask lies a shattered heart, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted mind hell-bent on vengeance. For the handful of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy somehow, someday reclaimed. Yet more important still is the well-being of the twin infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the children of Anakin and his doomed bride, Padme Amidala. Separated after Padme's death, they must be made safe at all costs, lest the hope they represent for the future be turned to horror by the new Sith regimeand the unspeakable power of the dark side. From the Hardcover edition.

James Luceno is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil, Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial and Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, as well as Star Wars: The Unifying Force, Star Wars: Cloak of Deception, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and youngest child.


From the Hardcover edition.