Star Wars: Darth Plagueis (edition 2012)

The book, in principal, deals with Darth Plagueis' Sith carrer from removing his previous master until his own eventual death.

Plaguies was the Master of Sideous who plays a pivitol roll in the films.

The story has it's ups and downs but overall is very good, if you, like me, want an insight into dealings before, and leading up to, the Phantom Menace you will be extremely pleased as it answers questions you may have had because of that film. ( )

Apparently this Star Wars novel had been highly anticipated since its announcement years ago, and I had no idea until after I finished it and decided to look it up. Now that I've read it, I guess I can see why. Darth Plagueis is probably worth reading simply if for no other reason other than how "canon" it is, if you're a big Star Wars fan. I heard that the author worked really closely with LucasFilms to get it just right. And yes, I did find that it explained a lot about the events of the prequel movies, and I now have a better understanding of the backstory behind them.

But I don't want to make it sound like that's the only reason to pick up this book, because there's a lot more that makes it a worthwhile read. For one thing, I was surprised at the quality of the writing, especially for a Star Wars novel. I've read some of Luceno's other Star Wars titles in the past, and as you can see from those reviews in my book list, I wasn't very impressed. But I was quite happy with his efforts with Darth Plagueis, to the point I couldn't believe it was the same author. It's obvious he put his full heart and soul into writing this.

Darth Plaguis is also quite different from many of the Star Wars book I've read in the past. It's less action oriented, and instead focuses more on political intrigue. There are some fight sequences and light saber action of course, but the bulk of the story is about the Sith lords acting and pulling strings behind the scenes. ( )

I hate to say this, but I really did not enjoy this book. The language was just too flowery and... I felt like it was trying too hard, in so many ways. Linguistically, scene setup/description, plot complications, back story, etc.

It just annoyed me a lot, and kept pulling me out of the experience itself. Kind of like Episode I (the film) - I kept wanting to know why the author made this or that choice, instead of wondering why the CHARACTERS made this or that choice. Does that even make sense? Anyway, I found it frustrating and disappointing. ( )

Kept my interest to the end, fairly well written. Nice behind the scenes look. ( )

Darth Plagueis lived up to and actually exceeded my expectations.

While I had hoped to learn more about this fabled Sith Lord, I was really looking for back story on my favorite Star Wars character, Palpatine.

Well certainly this book delivers that in spades.

The title of the book is almost misleading as both of this legendary Sith play enormous roles in the plot. The timeline alone is something that certainly allows you to watch "The Phantom Menace" under a new light.

While this book makes reference to events in other Star Wars Expanded Universe books, by no means are they necessary pre-requisites to enjoying this.

James Luceno has written a couple of my other favorite EU novels and this book continues to cement his place as one of my favority Star Wars authors. ( )