Star Wars: Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire (1997) Novella Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Because Paramount decided to drop episode 17 (season 2, episode 7) of Strange New Worlds early thanks to the screening at Comic-Con they did on Sunday, I have two episodes to watch tonight and review. But, I also don't have a whole lot of time tomorrow because of my Cardiology appointment tomorrow afternoon. So, instead of doing two separate episode reviews, I'm going to do one mega review which will cover episodes 17 and 18, and that will come out tomorrow evening sometime. Right now though I'm here to review the first of three novellas that Dark Horse Comics published alongside Boulevard Books, as a tie in to the 1995 PC/PlayStation game, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Soldier for the Empire. This volume covers Kyle Katarn's backstory and what is essentially the first mission of the game. There will be spoilers, just because there wouldn't be much to talk about otherwise. So let's get into it!

Reading Soldier for the Empire was a unique experience. While I've played Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast on the PC when I was in high school, I've never played the original Dark Forces game before. It came out in 1995, at a time where my family didn't own a computer yet, and I wasn't into Star Wars yet as I hadn't seen the Original Trilogy yet, and Episode I was still four years away from being released. And when this novella came out, I didn't know that Star Wars comics had been coming out since I'd had gotten the third issue of Dark Empire just a few years earlier. The first time I came across this book was in 1999 when I got the second issue of the Phantom Menace comic book adaptation and in the back of the issue was a checklist, with images, of the collected editions that were available at that time.

Soldier for the Empire isn't actually a comic book either. It's a graphic novella. It's only seven chapters long, and there are beautifully painted illustrations every few pages. Similar to how the Hardy Boys books of the late '50s, and the '60s and '70s had illustrations sprinkled in. Unlike the ones in the Hardy Boys books though, the illustrations in this novella are full colour and painted. Which is neat.

I honestly don't have much to say about the story. Like I said earlier, this novella is only seven chapters long and covers the game's backstory as well as the first mission, which was Kyle Katarn going to Danuta to get the second piece of the Death Star plans while Bria Tharen got the Toprawa Death Star plans (this is Legends so Rogue One doesn't exist yet) to send to Leia just before A New Hope starts. It's good, I'm just not used to this type of storytelling as I've never read a novella before. I read comic books or novels, not something that is between the two in this case. And because the story is so short the end feels abrupt. 

Kyle Katarn is a character that I didn't grow up reading about. As I mentioned I didn't know about Dark Forces when I was a kid, and I didn't know about Star Wars comics, besides Dark Empire #3 either. And because Katarn didn't show up in the novels until the end of The New Jedi Order, a period where I wasn't keeping up with new Star Wars novels, I had no clue who he was until I played Jedi Outcast in high school. And even then, his backstory wasn't known to me until I read this novella. He's a fine character, but I think he's better in the games as this book doesn't give the reader enough time with him for me to really latch onto him. Maybe the other two novellas will change my mind on that, but this first one hasn't endeared me to the character of Kyle Katarn the way the games would. 

Overall, this was a good read. It's not the greatest and I would definitely recommend playing the games for more of Katarn's story because there just isn't enough material here to get a really good sense of the character. I still enjoyed reading it all these years after discovering its existence.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for a double dose of Strange New Worlds tomorrow evening and then who knows after that. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.