Here's my review of the first book in this trilogy

The challenge of having a Sith Lord — an ostensibly evil character — as your protagonist, is that you need to find a way to make the Dark Side of the Force seem compelling and relatable, and to make the Light Side seem abhorrent and wrong. It’s a tall order. But the author of this book does it with aplomb.

Imagine you grew up in an emotionally repressed environment (maybe you don’t have to imagine), where for one reason or another you were asked to suppress, ignore, or otherwise deprioritize your emotional needs. Maybe there was someone sick in your house that always took priority over how you felt; maybe there was someone in the house whose emotional needs were understood to be more important than yours; maybe showing emotion was seen as weakness by your family members, and was exploited. Anyway: when you grow up and move out and go to therapy, you might hear something like this from a therapist: "Your emotions are valid, and they are good. They’re part of how you experience the world. They’re part of your instincts for when a situation is right or wrong. You should be in touch with your emotions, and use their power to help you figure out your relationships and your purpose."

That hypothetical therapist is basically making the argument for embracing the dark side of the force. In this book, the Jedi are sold as emotionally-stunted, repressive monks. And the Dark Side is sold as something that sees & validates your emotion and frustration, and allows you to indulge in your emotions, especially the ones that it feels best to indulge: a sense of being wronged, and a desire for retribution. It’s really an impressively portrayed philosophy.

The book has lots going on besides this, too. The combat scenes are great; this is perhaps the first time I've been interested while reading a description of two people fighting... and the author really does go blow-by-blow. There's also just lots of great Star Wars-y stuff. Great lore about the foundation of the modern Sith, lots of cool new planets with ancient secrets.

If you like any Star Wars books, you'll like this Star Wars book.