Ah yes, Matthew Stover's novelization, without a doubt one of favorite Star Wars books of all time. I loved his almost poetic style of writing.
I don't know if the "even stars burn out" is actually cannon anymore,
(considering Disney has done away with the entire Expanded Universe ) but that fear that he had in the novelization really defined the character as a whole for me, both while he was a Jedi and a Darth.