Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was the first book that I read in the Star Wars extended universe, and it's probably due to this book that my blog is currently rather full of star wars book reviews. It's not my favourite book in the Star Wars franchise, but it is one that I will always enjoy reading - and have indeed read several times.

It's a really easy to read book - there is nothing particularly complex about it, the only thing that might require Expanded Universe knowledge is that "the Black Sun" is the name of a criminal organisation - but even that isn't really necessary. If you've only seen the Star Wars films, you can enjoy this book.

Essentially it tells us more about the mystery that is Darth Maul. But in a way that kind of doesn't really tell us much at all. But while I loved Darth Maul in this book, the thing that I really enjoyed about this book was the two characters introduced in it - Darsha Assant and Lorn Pavan. The first a Jedi, the second a kind of lowlife. Reaves writes both of them really well - and the changing relationship between them even better.

I also enjoyed learning more about the Jedi. This was the first book in which I read the Jedi Code, and we learn more about how jedi are taught - as well as what they would sacrifice to protect others. It's quite an uplifting book, if somewhat tragic, and a really nice entry into the extended universe.

A lot of Star Wars books are enjoyed mainly by fans of the Extended Universe. This one is one that I believe can be enjoyed by anyone, and easily read. As I said at the beginning of the review - it's not the best book in the world. But it's one that opens the door to many others (There are over a hundred books in the Star Wars franchise). It's a great book - and an excellent first Star Wars books. ( )

A good read even though you know the fate of the hero's from the beginning. ( )

This is a decent story about the Sith Lord (Darth Sidious) and his apprentice (Darth Maul) prior to the Clone Wars. It is always interesting to follow characters of the Star Wars series both previous to and following where the movies left off. I am not nearly as impressed with the original trilogy (Clone Wars) as I am with middle three movies of most notoriety (Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi). But one character I truly enjoyed was Darth Maul. I was interested in learning more about him. I didn’t learn as much about him as I had wished but I still enjoyed the story nonetheless. ( )

As Darth Sidious prepares to unfold his plans that will lead, eventually, to galactic domination, a treacherous Neimoidian threatens to derail those plans before they can get started. So Sidious unleashes his apprentice, Darth Maul, onto the traitor's trail with orders to obliterate both the Neimoidian and anyone with whom he comes into contact. This includes Lorn Pavan, a downlevel Coruscant hustler who used to work for the Jedi, his droid colleague, and Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant. The three team up in an effort to evade Darth Maul and get the information about Sidious's plans to the Jedi.

Given that this book leads into the events of The Phantom Menace, the final outcome is assured. The story is pretty entertaining, though, amounting essentially to one long chase scene with plenty of action and a couple of side stories thrown in (Pavan's animosity toward the Jedi; Obi-Wan Kenobi skirting around the edges and nearly learning of Darth Maul's existence). Darth Maul in the film had a lot of promise as a villain that obviously wasn't realized, but ample evidence of his badassery can be found here.

Now, all that being said...this was my second reading of this novel, and I found as I went through it that I had only the vaguest recollection of reading it the first time around. As entertaining as it is, it's eminently forgettable, with no particularly memorable characters or events. I felt like Pavan and Assant were a hollow attempt at recreating the dynamic between Han and Leia in the original trilogy and some of the better novels. But I suppose the real point of this book is for Darth Maul to chop off some heads, and I can't give it any less than an A+ in that regard. ( )

A better read than some Star Wars novels, but not anything I'd call a must read. I was interested in reading on just to figure out how the book's central conflict could be resolved without conflicting with what we know from the movies. The plot was well-done and it moved quickly without too much sacrifice of character development. ( )