Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 1: Betrayal

Expanded universe material can be tricky sometimes. It's one thing when it's stuff that extends a story, like Dark Horse's Buffy comics or the New Jedi Order novels, but stuff that takes place before or during the thing it's based on is difficult; if the story's important enough for me to want to read about it, then why is it something that never gets mentioned by the characters elsewhere?

That's the case with this book. Vader stops a coup attempt within the Empire, with Palpatine killing a lot of the conspirators himself. That's pretty much the entire story; not only are you not really given anyone to cheer for, but you know the conclusion of the story before it begins. There's no real surprises or twists in the plot, and you don't really learn much about the characters within it. I'd have to recommend giving this one a pass unless you're the most hardcore of hardcore SW fans.