It's taken me some time to come back to this series, because the first three books were just so stupid, and I really mean they were dumb. But my desire to read Star Wars tie-in fiction from the beginning is forcing me to continue, and I suppose at least these are short. I will say, though, that this one is the best of the bunch. That's not saying much - the first three were all one star reads - and much of the same idiocy is repeated regarding names, but it's marginally less idiotic than the others. Though I shake my head at the hidden "good" son of the Emperor saying how if he takes his father's throne he'll start fixing things, because how about he starts fixing things by not taking the throne and returning to the basic democracy of the Senate before his dad started screwing things up in the name of power. No one calls him on it, though, that would require thought.

Honestly, these books would improve at least ten percent if the authors were forbidden from using the word "dark" because the dark prophets having dark visions and giving dark blessings is ridiculous. Might as well tattoo "we are evil" on their foreheads...