4,975 BBY
*So, this is the final book in this particular arc of the Lost Tribe of the Sith series.
*I was initially, I should say, pretty ticked when the announcement first came out that there were going to be more stories in this series, because I thought this was the perfect ending to the story. But, for once, it seems the people in charge got that. The rest of the stories in this series take place way down the timeline, so that makes Savior effectively the end of this particular story.
*Anyway, as this begins, Korsin is leading the Keshiri in a special anniversary celebration. It has been twenty-five years to the day since the Omen crashed back in Precipice. Thus, ten years have passed since Seelah orchestrated the ethnic cleansing we saw last time in Paragon.
*This ceremony also signals the descent of the Sith from their mountain home. From now on, they will live among the Keshiri.
*Korsin’s introductory section ends with a moment of peaceful reflection. “He had saved his people. Today was a good day.” Unbeknownst to him, both of the women flanking him at that moment, Seelah and Adari, are plotting his imminent death.
*We are introduced to Jariad again, now the head of an assault team of Sith lightsaber experts. Also to Nida, the one offspring of Yaru’s marriage to Seelah, who leads a team of Uvak riders.
*Seelah returns us to our theme of time, of time coming to its fullness. “Twenty-five years. She’d saved all her hate. The end was coming.”
*More wit about the ‘honor’ heaped upon the Sith: “Joining her in the garden, he found she was staring at a relief sculpture being carved into a triangular pediment on the building above. ‘What – what is that?’ she asked. Korsin squinted. ‘If I’m not mistaken, that’s a depiction of my own birth.’ He took a drink. ‘I’m not sure how the sun and the stars are involved.’”
*So, Seelah lures Yaru and a small group of his retinue up to the now deserted temple on the mountaintop. Jariad and his team are waiting there. And it seems that Seelah’s vengeance will be complete.
*It is testament to Miller’s wonderful characterization that at this point in the story, I found myself absolutely involved in Yaru, just really invested in his survival.
*Meanwhile, the Keshiri put Adari’s plan into motion. The plan is to steal all the Uvak and fly them out over the sea; basically, Adari plans to lead the riderless Uvak over the sea until they all tire and die. Adari will die as well, of course, but without the Uvak, the Sith will have no transportation, will be separated and isolated and easily dealt with by the far numerically superior Keshiri.
*I admit, I found this quite moving. This plan will both free the Keshiri and also cripple them. It is a ridding of themselves of the Sith by ridding them both of their greatest treasure, the Uvak.
*So, both plans hit at once. Yaru’s group is stranded at the temple with Jariad and Seelah and their assassins as their Uvak fly away.
*These final two chapters here are quite brilliant, a tense and suspenseful unspooling of this situation. Great action sequences on the mountain.
*But the titular character arrives, just when time seems to have run out for Yaru: Nida, the daughter that Seelah shunned and ignored, slowly formed into Yaru’s trump.
*Nida has managed to ferret out Adari’s plans, by seducing Adari’s son, and she has stopped the plot in Tahv, leaving the Sith with a lot of Uvak after all. And she arrives at the mountaintop, just in time to foil Seelah’s plan. She kills Jariad; Yaru dies, but he dies knowing that his daughter has been victorious; The Sith will survive and they will be his Sith.
*They never mention Nida’s middle and last names, Ex and Machina.
*So, Adari leads her people out over the sea anyway. Since the Uvak from Tahv didn’t come, Adari knows her plan has failed. But they have nothing to go back to now. As their story ends, they come on a small rocky island in the middle of the sea. This place will be their life now.
*And then the final scene, which is the perfect kiss off: Seelah has been crippled, paralyzed from the waist down. And, Nida informs her, she will be left in the temple, all alone. Food will be flown in and dropped in the courtyard, but no one will ever come to find her there.
*The rest of Seelah’s life . . . she will crawl.
*I mean, this is brilliant. I mean, Seelah’s been such a great villainess starting particularly with Paragon. I mean, her character was so finely drawn and so despicable . . . this feels absolutely correct. It is the perfect ending.
*Well, this series, as I understand it, is sort of backstory for some details in the Fate of the Jedi series, which I haven’t been reading or even following really.
*And it is a sort of timeline clutter type story, a sort of not particularly necessary addition to the timeline.
*But, even if I generally don’t like these kinds of additions and even if I haven’t been reading Fate of the Jedi . . . I still really, really enjoyed this series.
*I’ve been telling you from day one of this series that Miller is really great at characterization. I mean, what we have here is essentially a really good 120 page novella. But despite the fact that this story is dribbled out in thirty pages drops and that none of the characters are at all familiar, Miller succeeds in creating several incredibly real and engaging characters: Yaru, Devore, Seelah, Adari, Ravilan.
*It’s that, really, that makes the series work. Miller has added some wonderful, real characters to the pantheon.
*Anyway, after I talked a while back about weaving Precipice and Skyborn into the movie version of The Fall of the Sith Empire, I should probably address these last two. I’d like to see Paragon and Savior turned into, essentially, hour long short films.
*CANONICAL STATUS: The historical records of the Sith on Kesh are of superlative accuracy. This text should be seen as an exact accounting of the events it details. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.
*** ½ out of **** stars.
John Jackson Miller
*Well, gee whiz, it’s been ten posts again already, which means it’s time for us to return to the 111 Star Wars Stories You Can’t Live Without! Namely, we’ll hit up Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire; already done the long form review, so it’ll just be the short paragraph review next time.
