Book Review: Master of Evil

The last Star Wars novel of 2025 was Adam Christopher's Master of Evil, a novel telling a tale of some of Vader's earliest days under Emperor Palpatine's reign. While this era of Vader's life has received some pretty extensive coverage thanks to Vader's various comic runs, Master of Evil slots in really nicely with those stories, and fans of the 2017 Darth Vader run from Marvel Comics will find a lot of what they love here. If you're a fan of early Empire stories, weird Force stuff and everyman characters then this is a book you should pick up!

While the story (as so many in Star Wars do) very much revolves around Darth Vader, the vast majority of the book is not told from his eyes (or the lenses of his helmet). Most of the book is various other narrators, many being original characters to the novel and their stories and perceptions of Vader and his quest in the book. Nonetheless, it's still fascinating character study on Darth Vader at this point in his life as well as how he is perceived by the galaxy at large. Not to mention that the original characters the book has to offer are well-written and easy to root for, providing a really great throughline and I found myself starting the next chapter for them just as much as I was Vader.

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Spoilers ahead for Master of Evil by Adam Christopher!

Much to my surprise the book actually opened on a different Sith Lord- and not Palpatine. We open on a Dooku hook, one vitally important throughout the rest of the novel. The prologue details a mission towards the end of the Clone Wars where Dooku is sent by Palpatine to locate, excavate and retrieve a powerful, hidden temple. Dooku however, in true Sith fashion, decides he'd rather keep it to himself. He uses an incredibly rare and powerful Separatist tactical droid, Sarnath, and experimental hyperspace anchor technology to hide the temple away where it won't be found by anyone else, telling his master that the Temple was simply destroyed. Dooku plans to go back for it, but we've all seen Revenge of the Sith. Still, it was an unexpected surprise that gave a cool backstory to the plot of the novel while also paralleling Vader's own journey on a quest hidden from Palpatine throughout the book.

The book cycles through various different narrators, especially the further in you get, but the one we spend the most time with is Halland Goth. Goth is the Commander of Emperor Palpatine's own Royal Guard, and finds himself on a special, secret assignment. An ISB officer who is a member of a secret, powerful society within the Empire called the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order gives him special orders straight from the Emperor himself- to spy on the mysterious Darth Vader and report back. Palpatine sends Vader on a mission, insisting the Royal Guard accompany, and Goth has his way in.

Before this mission, however, we also learn something else about Goth- he is chronically and terminally ill. Goth has Kangly's Syndrome, a painful condition that worsens with time and has never been survived. Goth's trusty droid, TC-99, is an old protocol droid that's been modified to be equipped with medical equipment to take care of him- administering a drug called sol-nitro that staves off the painful symptoms of his condition.

In fact, TC-99 has gone under many modifications thanks to Goth, because as he searches for a secret cure to his condition he finds old droid matrixes to load them into TC-99, giving him a wide variety of knowledge and loadable skillsets- though some droid personalities are strong and dangerous, and risk taking over TC-99's own personality. This comes in handy throughout the book, as TC-99 can load different matrixes in different situations- including loading a commando droid named Boxer for the sake of combat, who takes over TC-99, leading Goth to have to save his friend by reminding him of the stories that they've been learning together about distant galaxies from one explorer droid's matrix.

Goth's story arc is very, very compelling. He's one of those characters where you know pretty much right away that he's very very doomed, but you can't help but root for him anyway. Not only is he terminally ill and growing more and more desperate for a cure, but he also learns Vader's identity pretty early on in the book, unfortunately signing his death warrant in most Star Wars stories. Still, his arc is well put-together and really emotional. We watch his unwavering loyalty to the Empire begin to falter, he goes from revering Vader's power to being disgusted by him, and his desperate, self-destructive search for a cure to Kangly's culiminates in acceptance of fate, and a Star Wars-style noble sacrifice.

His relationship with TC-99 as well was really sweet. TC-99 acts as Goth's closest and really only friend and confidant throughout the entire book, making Goth's ending all of the more tragic for TC-99, left behind. There's a section of the book where, Star Wars Outlaws style, TC-99 is not entirely in control of himself, leading Goth to try and get to him the only way he can- by reminding him of the stories that they've enjoyed with each other. It's such a great moment, both for the bond of these characters and as a way to show how important storytelling is in our own lives and relationships with one another.

The general droid stuff in this book is really, really interesting. Star Wars screen media doesn't often get into the habit of diving into the nitty-gritty of how droids function, the ins and outs of their programming and some of the more unique capabilities that come with them, so I always love it when the books or comics have the opportunity to explore that. Between TC-99 loading the other droid matrixes and how that can work really well or really not, the old Separatist droid Sarnath's thought processes and how he's able to jump into somebody via cybernetics (Dark Droids style) was really fun to read.

Like some other media including the 2017 Darth Vader comics and The Bad Batch, this book gives us the opportunity to get into the early, early Empire stuff. The fact that the clones are still being used over stormtroopers is a big one of course, but in addition there is the restructuring of the Republic into the Empire- the formation and dissolution of various departments, new jobs and promotions for people, and something I oddly hadn't thought about as much- organizing all of the former Separatist assets. While no one really won the Clone Wars except for Palpatine, the Separatists lost badly and were taken over- and that includes assets from the Techno Union, Banking Clan and more that the budding Empire now has to take over and sort through, on top of everything else that they're striving to do. If you're like me and love the details of that kind of bureaucratic process (in Star Wars at least), then there are certainly parts of Master of Evil that will scratch that itch for you, and in a specific way we haven't seen much of.

Two very unique new characters introduced in the novel are Ziroon & Enoosha. Early in the book Vader, on the hunt for this temple that Dooku hid away from Palpatine, brutally tortures the shaman on Diso that directed Dooku to it. And he interrupts a ceremony to do so, maiming him in front of his followers and later abducting and eventually killing him. While later looking for Vader (and therefore the temple), Goth meets Ziroon and Enoosha- the shaman's wife and daughter. He initially allows them to believe that the shaman is still alive (despite knowing the truth) to get their help in tracking down Vader, though he does reveal the truth eventually- too late, because they're already trapped in a hyperspace-anchored ship with Vader aboard. Both characters are driven by their anger and grief as well as their faith in the Force and its power. I loved seeing their bond and a different look at a Force religion that we don't always see. Enoosha's character in particular as a budding Force sensitive intrigued me, and her open ending leads me to believe we could see her pop up in some other books and comics in the future, and I certainly would not complain!

And of course, the elephant in the room and star of the whole show- Vader himself. While only bits of the book are told from his perspective, seeing his story unfold through the perspective of those around him is no less interesting. In line with the comics that take place around this time and the Vader Immortal VR game, Vader is taking on quests beyond the purview of Palpatine to try and bring Padmé back, which leads to him seeking out the Diso shaman in the first place. And like other Vader stories of this era, what makes him so interesting is the fact that Anakin Skywalker, stubborn as ever, simply refuses to die. We still see parts of Anakin shining through Vader, and even more specific than a general temperament or personality.

For example, when Vader assembles a strike force to accompany him to try and take the stolen temple of Diso, he picks out clones specifically from the 501st, including fan-favorite Appo. We get several chapters from Appo's point of view, in fact, supplying a The Bad Batch-esque look at the state of clones this early in the Empire's reign. But my favorite scene that comes from Appo's inclusion involves private moment between him and Vader.

The novel explains that during the Order 66 attack, Appo had sustained a serious injury that resulted in him losing his leg and being fitted for a prosthetic one. By the time the book takes place he is mostly used to it. However, while exploring the mysterious Separatist ship side-by-side with Vader, Appo sustains damage to his leg. He's stuck trying to fix it by himself, sitting up against a wall using his helmet as a light with some makeshift tools, but is having a lot of trouble. Until Vader finds him, and the imposing, frightening, inhuman Darth Vader kneels down in front of Appo, picks up the tools and fixes it himself.

That scene might be one of my favorite Star Wars book scenes EVER! Darth Vader of course an evil man, and barely even seems human at many points- but he is. He's still Anakin Skywalker, somewhere in there. And this quiet compassion for a clone serving under him, coupled with some mechanical know-how and a preference to simply do to show compassion rather than saying anything is all Anakin.

I know that Anakin and Vader as separate characters is a popular framework when discussing this character, but to me there is no way to analyze Darth Vader without acknowledging that he really is just Anakin Skywalker, and scenes like this show it. It vindicates Padmé's plea to Obi-Wan that there's still good in him in Revenge of the Sith- and even if that good gets smaller and harder to see over the years, it is always still in there, as Luke Skywalker is able to bring it all full circle.

And on that topic, we do get to spend some time in the book from the perspective of Darth Vader to experience some visions with him in the temple of Diso. Very similar to the Darth Vader (2017) comic run's visions, or what we see in Vader Immortal, he is still haunted by the visions of his past and those important relationships that he threw away- Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and of course, Padmé. He wants Padmé back, feel like he deserves her back after all he's done. He even loves and wants Obi-Wan back as much as he now hates him, and Ahsoka is a wound he'd rather ignore. It all culminates in Vader fighting the specter of a just slightly younger Anakin Skywalker in lightsaber combat, which is the best kind of on-the-nose symbolism and just thrilling to read.

If you made it to the end of this very long review, thank you! I hope I've intrigued you enough to pick up a copy of Master of Evil yourself, as its well worth a read to dive into all the nitty gritty of it yourself. And I speak from experience when I say that if you sit in Galaxy's Edge to read it, you'll gain approval from Kylo Ren, stormtroopers and even Boba Fett!