Fun popcorn reading for fans of The Old Republic setting, 4000 years before the movies. You find out what happened with favorite characters like Revan, Malak, Bastilla, The Exile, etc... The ending disappoints a bit, as it too clearly sets up the upcoming MMO. Still, a quick and entertaining read. ( )

Enjoyed everything but the painful ending... ( )

SO I kind of decided I didn't want to read this one, because I like the KOTOR games so much, but at the same time I want to read the good non-canon / lore/ legends Star Wars books while waiting for my Chronological Star Wars Film & TV watching to reach the next canon book in the time-line. Quite a few people say this is one of the good ones...but not so many of the fans of the games, and hooo-boy, I can see why.
I've played KOTOR 1 & 2 many, many times, on many different games consoles and computers, over the years. I've played all ways, good, bad, and in between. I've romanced different characters, I've played them modded, I romance Kaiden in Mass Effect purely because he's voiced by Carth Onansi (well, by Raphael Sbarge, who voices both). My icon on gaming sites is often Bastilla, as a kick ass jedi lady. I'm a fan. This book, despite being called Revan; despite being written by Drew Karpyshyn, who usually Knows His Stuff; despite featuring Revan, Bastilla, The Exile, Canderous,, and T3-M4 - does not feel like it's a fan.
Revan doesn't feel like Revan, (and not just cause I prefer my Revan female) - he's all over the place, and at no point do you feel like he has much in the way of amazing power, or tbh much in the way of brains. Big dumb hero? Yeah, more of that. Bastilla - fantastic, powwerful, mysterious, complex role-maodel Bastilla? Well, I don't think this one could possibly be voiced by Jennifer Hale. Bastilla is sat at home waiting for her man, barefoot and pregnant or as a single mum being jealous of the Exile. I mean sheesh. Canderous is in it for a bit and yeah, I guess he's okay. Big dumb hero was never too complicated in the games either. T3 gets treated so poorly by the end of the book I'm not even going to talk about him. Carth, Juhani, Atton, Jolee, others are just forgotten, I guess Mission, Zaalbar and HK-47 get a passing mention, but literally one or two lines. There's no more where that came from, guys. Oh and The Exile, omg, prehaps Drew Karpyshyn hasn't played KOTOR 2? That's all I can assume.
Aside from that whole thing - the book is, hmm, okay. It starts well, and seems exciting (once you can recover from PointlessLittle WifeyBastilla, that is), but quickly becomes the quite good story of Lord Scourge, a sith whose path eventually connects with first Revan, and later The Exile (Meetra Surik). I quite liked his story, but it was nothing to do with the characters I expected. They turned up, did their thing, and were dealt with in one way or another. Apart from the couple of interludes with wifey, there was very little about them when NOT interacting with Lord Scourge, whereas we got all the history and backstory and side characters and locations etc - all the set dressing - for Lord Scourge's side of the story. I think calling the book SCOURGE and renaming the two jedi and their droid to be anyone else at all, would probably have made a much less annoying book. That might have made a 3 or 3.5 star review, but this is fairly lucky to be a 2 star. Now I have to try to find out, without spoilers, if the next Old Republic book is going to be worth me reading or not, or if I just jump ahead.
As others said before me and I foolishly failed to listen - if you love KOTOR, if you love Revan, the Exile, and Bastilla, - don't bother with this one. I wish I hadn't! ( )

SO I kind of decided I didn't want to read this one, because I like the KOTOR games so much, but at the same time I want to read the good non-canon / lore/ legends Star Wars books while waiting for my Chronological Star Wars Film & TV watching to reach the next canon book in the time-line. Quite a few people say this is one of the good ones...but not so many of the fans of the games, and hooo-boy, I can see why.
I've played KOTOR 1 & 2 many, many times, on many different games consoles and computers, over the years. I've played all ways, good, bad, and in between. I've romanced different characters, I've played them modded, I romance Kaiden in Mass Effect purely because he's voiced by Carth Onansi (well, by Raphael Sbarge, who voices both). My icon on gaming sites is often Bastilla, as a kick ass jedi lady. I'm a fan. This book, despite being called Revan; despite being written by Drew Karpyshyn, who usually Knows His Stuff; despite featuring Revan, Bastilla, The Exile, Canderous,, and T3-M4 - does not feel like it's a fan.
Revan doesn't feel like Revan, (and not just cause I prefer my Revan female) - he's all over the place, and at no point do you feel like he has much in the way of amazing power, or tbh much in the way of brains. Big dumb hero? Yeah, more of that. Bastilla - fantastic, powwerful, mysterious, complex role-maodel Bastilla? Well, I don't think this one could possibly be voiced by Jennifer Hale. Bastilla is sat at home waiting for her man, barefoot and pregnant or as a single mum being jealous of the Exile. I mean sheesh. Canderous is in it for a bit and yeah, I guess he's okay. Big dumb hero was never too complicated in the games either. T3 gets treated so poorly by the end of the book I'm not even going to talk about him. Carth, Juhani, Atton, Jolee, others are just forgotten, I guess Mission, Zaalbar and HK-47 get a passing mention, but literally one or two lines. There's no more where that came from, guys. Oh and The Exile, omg, prehaps Drew Karpyshyn hasn't played KOTOR 2? That's all I can assume.
Aside from that whole thing - the book is, hmm, okay. It starts well, and seems exciting (once you can recover from PointlessLittle WifeyBastilla, that is), but quickly becomes the quite good story of Lord Scourge, a sith whose path eventually connects with first Revan, and later The Exile (Meetra Surik). I quite liked his story, but it was nothing to do with the characters I expected. They turned up, did their thing, and were dealt with in one way or another. Apart from the couple of interludes with wifey, there was very little about them when NOT interacting with Lord Scourge, whereas we got all the history and backstory and side characters and locations etc - all the set dressing - for Lord Scourge's side of the story. I think calling the book SCOURGE and renaming the two jedi and their droid to be anyone else at all, would probably have made a much less annoying book. That might have made a 3 or 3.5 star review, but this is fairly lucky to be a 2 star. Now I have to try to find out, without spoilers, if the next Old Republic book is going to be worth me reading or not, or if I just jump ahead.
As others said before me and I foolishly failed to listen - if you love KOTOR, if you love Revan, the Exile, and Bastilla, - don't bother with this one. I wish I hadn't! ( )

The story of Raven post the end of KOTOR and sets up events in The Old Republic MMORPG. Really you have to play this after you've played KOTOR or KOTOR2 to appreciate it, not sure if you need to play The Old Republic... probably helpful to have a good knowledge of some of the lore. Without spoiling too much of the story, Raven starts to have dreams of what happened when he went to the Outer Rim prior to KOTOR and seeks out the truth of what happened to him and Malek, discovering a new enemy the Republic must face, setting up the events of TOR.

All in all, a fun book, not amazing, not deep, but fun. If you're a Star Wars fan and enjoy the old Legends EU, it's worth reading. It's inspired me to really want to play at least the story of The Old Republic through. ( )