21 Star Wars Books You Should Read

Cover to Darth Plagueis by James Luceno. Image via publisher Del Rey

15. Darth Plagueis

If you haven’t completely scrubbed Revenge of the Sith from your mind, and we wouldn’t blame you if you did, you may have been wondering just who taught Darth Sidious/Palpatine how to be a Sith Lord. Palpatine does tell the story of his master to Anakin in the film as it exists, though he does not explicitly mention the relationship. (The official Star Wars profile of Palpatine provided that confirmation.)

Enter this now-Legends canon book, Darth Plagueis. Coming from James Luceno, it explores the rise of the previous Sith Lord under his own Master, Darth Tenebrous. It also finally explains just how Plagueis learned how to cheat death by midi-chlorian manipulation.

Finally, it focuses on the relationship between Plagueis and Sidious as master and apprentice as well as rivals for power. While one wishes to live forever, the other wishes to rule the galaxy.

One Goodreads review calls it “a prequel to the prequels,” and that happens to be the most accurate description out there. Many praise Luceno’s ability to tie together far-flung movies, comics, and books into a coherent narrative. Though it did get relegated to Legends status in 2014, a later entry on this list does happen to make some elements of this novel canon again.

Perhaps the best time to read this would be in conjunction with the Dark Lord trilogy, though that may be far too much Sith in far too short a time.