Star Wars: Revan

Revan was written for the gamers.  It is great at what it does, but that would not really appeal to a normal audience.  This book connects together the two Knights of the Old Republic video games and the new The Old Republic game.  The titular character is the protagonist of the first KOTOR game who disappeared before the start of the second one.  Many fans were somewhat miffed by the jarring transition between the two KOTOR games and have been waiting for something like this for a long time.  However, I am glad that they waited because this allowed them to tie together all three games very neatly and in a sensible way.  However, as you may have gathered, this book would not be the same if you had not played these games.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Karpyshyn makes a noble effort to keep the reader in the know even if they haven't played the games, but there is so much depth missing if you have not played them.  Honestly, the author did a masterful job at tying together a large number of plot threads from the three different games and all that work will go unappreciated if you have played none of them (for the record I have played one of them completely and half of each of the other two). 

The story goes in a different direction than most Star Wars stories as, instead of rehashing the story of a game, it instead acts as a lead in to one.  This means that it ends a degree of cliffhanger that is uncommon for a novel without an intended sequel. The story is wrapped up, but many plot threads are left dangling because they are continued and wrapped up by The Old Republic.  I have to say that this book did rekindle my interest in the game (which was guttering) so it did accomplish one of its intended goals.  It was also an enjoyable read, but I feel that the domain knowledge hurdle might be a little high for those who have not played the game.

Overall, I would give this book an 80%.