Three Stormtroopers, two Empirical officers and one very large blaster invaded the Barnes ‘ Noble at Boston University last night, as part of a reading and book signing by author Drew Karpyshyn, which drew a crowd of about 16.
Karpyshyn, a former Star Wars video game writer, read from his latest book, Path of Destruction, and signed copies for fans.
The book, published last month, takes place in the Star Wars universe, a thousand years before the original movies, when the benevolent Jedi and the evil Siths were in constant battle. It focuses on the rise to power of Darth Bane, a master of the Dark Side, and his descent into greater evil.
The night was a small, quiet affair, until the Emperor arrived. After a brief introduction by Barnes ‘ Noble Author Events Manager Jeanne Haight, a 2004 College of Communication graduate, Karpyshyn was escorted to the stage by members from the New England chapter of the 501st, an unofficial Star Wars organization. The author read the prologue and first chapter of his latest novel, a narrative of spacecraft warfare.
This is Karpyshyn’s third book and first to cover the Star Wars universe. He is better known as the primary writer behind the highly acclaimed role-playing video games, “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and its sequel, “Sith Lords,” produced by Canadian developing company BioWare.
He described his book as “a fresh take, a fresh look at the Dark Side,” specifically addressing the question, “what makes a villain a villain?” and how “the Dark Side philosophy is not evil, [but] is twisted into evil. [The book asks] when do self-empowerment and improvement go too far.”
“The biggest thing is: the focus is on the villain, who is very much, by the end, a monster,” Karpyshyn said.
However, for Karpyshyn, the story always comes first.
“In itself, a good story has value,” he said. “I would like people to enjoy it.”
Path of Destruction is on the Barnes ‘ Noble bestsellers list and will be at number 11 on the New York Times list next week, according to the author.
Karpyshyn provided a look into the creation of stories for video games by comparing the craft with writing a novel.
“It’s actually a matter of volume,” he said. “Knights of the Old Republic had about 500,000 words of dialogue, a lot more than you can put into a novel . . . [But] we have to keep things simpler, because we don’t know what a player will do. A novel is not as wide, but it’s deeper. A video game has greater breadth, but we have to keep the story more shallow.”
As for the Stormtroopers, they were just three of more than 3,000 worldwide.
“We do walks for autism and hospital visits,” Stormtrooper Justin Manning said. “We’re not for profit.”
Haight said the night’s event had been planned over the summer, initiated by the publisher.
“We try to match up what’s new and what’s popular here on campus,” she said.
Karpyshyn said college audiences would be more receptive to his works than other age groups, particularly in role-playing video games.
“[College students] are the people who put in those grueling hours,” he said.
Less than 10 years ago, Karpyshyn worked at a bank, until a car accident gave him enough money to pursue a degree in the fine arts. He got the opportunity to write his first fantasy novel, Temple Hill, through a publisher’s open call for works. Video game developer BioWare, also located in Edmonton, hired him shortly thereafter to work on scripts for video games.