YMMV / Shadow of the Sith

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• Awesome Moment:
  • The book itself opens with "a warning from a darker time" - in actuality, a quotation from Matt Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization, which easily sets the tone and feel of the story and provides fans with a Mythology Gag to the most notable Star Wars novelization.
  • Rey's mom getting the last laugh on Ochi, tricking him into going on a wild goose chase to Pasaana, where he almost immediately gets himself killed.
• Complete Monster: Viceroy Exim Panshard was an ancient Sith who ruled over an unknown planet. Regularly having slaves massacred for his amusement, Panshard bound the screaming, agonized souls of hundreds in a mask to preserve his spirit. His malicious will lingering, Panshard corrupts whoever finds and dons the mask, using them to kill others with intention of staging an invasion of the galaxy and reviving the Sith.
• Funny Moments:
  • Pryde — of all people — carrying a flask of cognac to cope with the soul-crushing nature of working in the Corporate Sector. Then Ochi steals his flask.
  • In general, the sheer fact that the book manages to arc-weld away a lot of the plot holes from The Rise of Skywalker by declaring Ochi is an unhinged alcoholic who did a bunch of stupid things while under the influence, which itself is consistent with his depiction in the Marvel Comics.
• Jerkass Woobie: As bad of a person as Ochi is, watching his mental and physical decline and the indignities he suffers also makes him oddly pitiable. The longer the story goes, the less funny both him and his suffering get.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Christopher devotes much of the novel to resolving the plot holes of The Rise of Skywalker (such as why Luke never sought out Anakin's Force Ghost if he and Lando were searching for the Sith Wayfinders and some of Ochi's less logical actions). He also reconciles these plots holes and Rise's other revelations with previously established plot points from The Force Awakens and elsewhere in the Sequel Trilogy era (such as why Rey ended up on Jakku and saw Ochi's ship flying off if he had killed her parents).
  • The sequence with Anakin's spirit answers the question of why he (and, by implication, Obi-Wan and Yoda's Force Ghosts) didn't warn Luke and his allies that Palpatine had survived Endor and was ensconced on Exegol. Anakin could sense something malevolent was building in the Unknown Regions, but didn't know it was Sidious (likely due to the shroud of the Dark Side again). His attempts to communicate what he does know to Luke are also hampered by Force interference due to the spiritual battle on Exegol (and possibly Palpatine, for all intents, jamming the 'transmission').
• Tear Jerker:
  • Since what happens to Rey's parents is a Foregone Conclusion, obviously they come up. Such as their actual death, luring Ochi away from Jakku knowing he'll likely kill them.
  • The beginning and end of the novel have a brief glimpse of a young Ben Solo, who unlike his film self is a cheerful, eager Jedi-in-training.
• Unexpected Character: Anakin Skywalker appears as a Force Ghost and helps Luke out a couple of times.

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