Holy plot twist batman... this series just gets more and more interesting! ( )

Finally we're back to the main action of the story after all the backstory and political intrigues of the previous volume! Cade Skywalker is captured by Darth Krayt with the intention of turning him to the Dark Side, but Krayt's reasoning is a little more interesting than that of his Sith predecessors. Unlike Sidious and Palpatine, Krayt's motives are driven by his selfish concern with self-preservation - specifically in getting Cade to use his unique healing powers to purge the coral seeds that have infected his body. Krayt may be working as an agent of the Dark Side in the current story, but his backstory (which is extensively explored in this volume) gives him a role as more of an anti-hero. I quite like how his evolution into a Sith Lord isn't painted simply as "he went bad because of greed/anger/etc," but more as a survival mechanism in reaction to the catastrophic galactic events of the Clone War and his capture and torture by the Yuuzhan Vong. Krayt's past is played alongside the current events of Cade's imprisonment by the Sith, providing us with further potential comparison between two characters who don't easily fit into the neat boxes of Light and Dark sides of the Force. Cade is more successful in evading turning to the Dark Side, but he is such a conflicted character that the authors have made it clear that his story won't be wrapped up so easily. ( )

I enjoyed the reveal of Darth Krayt's background. It really helped tie together all the different eras of the EU in comic and book form. He has seen all the mistakes of the jedi and sith before him. His desire to create a new order is interesting, but why does it have to be another Sith faction. Every time a character in the comics or books walks in the grey area between the light and the dark they always become Sith.

Cade's journey is very interesting as well. I feel like you never really know what he is going to do. Once again I was not expecting the reveal at the end of this arc. ( )

The story really hits its stride in this volume. Cade Skywalker shows an admirable level of twistiness when placed under pressure, and a heroic quality under the mercenary exterior. Ostrander does a nice job of salting the language with Huttese invective much as Joss Whedon uses Mandarin Chinese in his Serenity universe. I still want to make Duursema watch about forty hours of Hong Kong martial arts films and get some sense of balance to her combat scenes. ( )

For every bit of badness in Legacy of the Force, there's a bit of goodness in Legacy, which can loosely be considered a followup to it-- over the span of a century, though. It's another solid installment in the saga, though perhaps my least favorite one to date. Not that it's bad-- merely good instead of excellent. The problem is Cade Skywalker. I'm just not that interested in The Last Of The Skywalkers-- will he choose of the path of good in the end? Well, duh. Or so you may think-- though Cade may reject the teachings of the One Sith in this installment, he escapes them by using the Dark Side, so I will give Ostrander some credit and admit things might not be as clear-cut as I expected. The cool part about Legacy is its new galactic society-- a nice change from the overfamiliar prequel and New Jedi Order eras-- and its expanded cast of characters. Particularly shining in this volume is Darth Krayt-- even though his true identity feels a little gratuitous-- and Morrigan Corde. I'm really looking forward to where they're going with her.