Labyrinth of Evil
by James Luceno
Star Wars: The Dark Lord Trilogy (book 1), Star Wars Novels (19 BBY), Star Wars Universe (19 BBY)
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The war that erupted in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones is nearing its boiling point, as the dauntless Separatist forces continue their assault on the teetering Republic–and the diabolical triumvirate of Count Dooku, General Grievous, and their Master, Darth Sidious, fine-tune their strategy for conquest. In Episode III Revenge of the Sith the fates of key players on both sides of the conflict will be sealed. But first, crucial events that pave the way to that time of reckoning show more unfold in a labyrinth of evil. . . . Capturing Trade Federation Viceroy–and Separatist Councilmember– Nute Gunray is the mission that brings Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, with a squad of clones in tow, to Neimoidia. But the treacherous ally of the Sith proves as slippery as ever, evading his Jedi pursuers even as they narrowly avoid deadly disaster. Still, their daring efforts yield an unexpected prize: a unique holotransceiver that bears intelligence capable of leading the Republic forces to their ultimate quarry, the ever-elusive Darth Sidious. Swiftly taking up the chase, Anakin and Obi-Wan follow clues from the droid factories of Charros IV to the far-flung worlds of the Outer Rim . . . every step bringing them closer to pinpointing the location of the Sith Lord–whom they suspect has been manipulating every aspect of the Separatist rebellion. Yet somehow, in the escalating galaxy-wide chess game of strikes, counterstrikes, ambushes, sabotage, and retaliations, Sidious stays constantly one move ahead. Then the trail takes a shocking turn. For Sidious and his minions have set in motion a ruthlessly orchestrated campaign to divide and overwhelm the Jedi forces–and bring the Republic to its knees. Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
The thing that struck me most about this novel was the incredible betrayal and evil of Senator Palpatine. Here he is playing everyone against everyone - no one knows fully what he is doing. He's like this malignant puppet master. The writing was a little uneven, and the characterization of Anakin is still troublesome for me. I just can't reconcile all the different views of Anakin with what he ends up doing.
I was a little worried about this book, because I have had a hard time reading some of Luceno's other SW books (Catalyst, Darth Plagueis). They were both too dry and boring to me, and I was worried this one would be like them. Thankfully, it wasn't. It's one of my favorite books from the Clone Wars era. The story is great and it functions wonderfully as a lead-in to Revenge of the Sith. The only complaints I have are: 1) there are times when Luceno starts over-describing things to the point where it reads like it's a reference book instead of a novel. But even those are easy to deal with. The other is near the end, where the Battle of Coruscant ends up contradicting the events of the microseries. Other than those, the book was show more fantastic. It gives good backstory about Grevious, has some nice banter between Obi Wan and Anakin, and functions as a good mystery/thriller novel with the Jedi on Sidious's trail. All leading up to (in my opinion) the best Star Wars movie (and the best movie novelization of all time). show less
I appreciate James Luceno's novels. The few I have read: I enjoyed.
This is a prequel to the Revenge of the Sith in the legend timeline. It was full of action and plot with well planned senate politics.
I appreciate Palpatine's character. He is one smart, bloody cookie. Everything he planned came to fruition and oh boy . . . What a ride it is.
The jedi was occupied in the war, and with the obsession on finding the Sith Lord, they failed to see the bigger picture.
His character was captured beautifully. The way he manipulates without giving anything away.
Can I just mention the relic, Mace saw? Damn that makes so much sense.
I loved Obi and Anakin in this one. The banter feels real and not forced. I could hear them as if I were watching the show more movies.
The battles were well written. The fact that the author encorporated other novels that I haven't read yet was a nice touch.
One of the things I loved was how this ends, and you can pick up the movie novelization of The Revenge of the Sith as it continues from where this left off is amazing.
I am sorry, Disney, but this novel is my canon now. show less
This is a prequel to the Revenge of the Sith in the legend timeline. It was full of action and plot with well planned senate politics.
I appreciate Palpatine's character. He is one smart, bloody cookie. Everything he planned came to fruition and oh boy . . . What a ride it is.
The jedi was occupied in the war, and with the obsession on finding the Sith Lord, they failed to see the bigger picture.
His character was captured beautifully. The way he manipulates without giving anything away.
Can I just mention the relic, Mace saw? Damn that makes so much sense.
I loved Obi and Anakin in this one. The banter feels real and not forced. I could hear them as if I were watching the show more movies.
The battles were well written. The fact that the author encorporated other novels that I haven't read yet was a nice touch.
One of the things I loved was how this ends, and you can pick up the movie novelization of The Revenge of the Sith as it continues from where this left off is amazing.
I am sorry, Disney, but this novel is my canon now. show less
I was fully prepared to give this book 2.5 stars, as I was only reading it to lead in to Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith. But the gripping, action-packed final third of the book mostly makes up for the clunky, boring first two-thirds. It works well as prequel, building right up to the beginning of RotS, though it's not really worth reading for its own sake.
“Labyrinth of Evil” takes place immediately before the movie “Revenge of the Sith” with its conclusion leading straight into the movie’s opening.
The story is only mediocre. Once we get far enough to see exactly where it is in the Star Wars chronology, the conclusion is obvious, with no surprises.
It’s chock full of references to the movies, somewhat interfering with actually telling a story. Having seen the movies, of course, I just groaned at them. One, for instance, when several of the Jedi Council visit Chancellor Palpatine in his office, looking around at the various sculptures he’s accumulated and remarking that one is a demigod of “disguise”.
Another groaner is on an asteroid base Obi-Wan has to go with a local to show more disable a large tractor beam so their ship can leave, later telling Anakin, of all people, that it was nice to learn a new skill, but he’ll never use it again.
Luceno mentions a lot of characters and a lot of races that don’t really go anywhere. It gets confusing having to figure out if they’re people to remember or to blow off and forget.
And it gets awfully repetitive to keep mentioning Nute Gunray’s “mechno-chair” instead of after a while just calling it his “chair”. The “mechno” part just isn’t a significant part of the story.
The writing starts off feeling quite juvenile, simple words, simple sentence structures and so forth, but does move up a few grade levels after about the halfway point. The editors, however, didn’t proofread very well, so there’s a number of misspellings, mostly missing letters.
Overall, it’s a quick, mildly entertaining way to pass some time. But it’s far from one of the great Star Wars “Legends” novels. show less
The story is only mediocre. Once we get far enough to see exactly where it is in the Star Wars chronology, the conclusion is obvious, with no surprises.
It’s chock full of references to the movies, somewhat interfering with actually telling a story. Having seen the movies, of course, I just groaned at them. One, for instance, when several of the Jedi Council visit Chancellor Palpatine in his office, looking around at the various sculptures he’s accumulated and remarking that one is a demigod of “disguise”.
Another groaner is on an asteroid base Obi-Wan has to go with a local to show more disable a large tractor beam so their ship can leave, later telling Anakin, of all people, that it was nice to learn a new skill, but he’ll never use it again.
Luceno mentions a lot of characters and a lot of races that don’t really go anywhere. It gets confusing having to figure out if they’re people to remember or to blow off and forget.
And it gets awfully repetitive to keep mentioning Nute Gunray’s “mechno-chair” instead of after a while just calling it his “chair”. The “mechno” part just isn’t a significant part of the story.
The writing starts off feeling quite juvenile, simple words, simple sentence structures and so forth, but does move up a few grade levels after about the halfway point. The editors, however, didn’t proofread very well, so there’s a number of misspellings, mostly missing letters.
Overall, it’s a quick, mildly entertaining way to pass some time. But it’s far from one of the great Star Wars “Legends” novels. show less
So this is the CW novel I was waiting for with Anakin/Obi-Wan action.
Loved all their scenes, esp the bar the went to on Naos III. I couldn't help but LOL when the bartender thought they were looking for a hooker . I liked reading how well they worked as a team and even argued, esp about Padme or what they had to give up to serve for the Order.
I liked how whenever they went to a worse off plant they felt nostolgic for the last place. hehe
This part broke my heart!
Ani: and you, Master. What does your heart tell you you're meant for?
Obi: (says even with a smile) Infinate sadness
You can see the dark side sneaking up on Anakin, like when he made the ceiling come down with his anger. scary.
Reading about the events on Coruscant with Mace and show more Shaak Ti tracing Sidious steps was cool too. Too bad they didn't see where it lead sooner
I was happy Padme and the other senators made an apperance. The seeds of the rebellion are being planted And I always wanted to know what happened to her during the invastion.
Bail was so sweet when he said (& forshadowed) he doing anything he could to help Padme
(side note) I am curious to find out in Dark Lord if Bail knows that Anakin is the father, I don't think he knows Anakin became Vader though anyways
SO this one was my favortie Clone Wars novel show less
Loved all their scenes, esp the bar the went to on Naos III. I couldn't help but LOL when the bartender thought they were looking for a hooker . I liked reading how well they worked as a team and even argued, esp about Padme or what they had to give up to serve for the Order.
I liked how whenever they went to a worse off plant they felt nostolgic for the last place. hehe
This part broke my heart!
Ani: and you, Master. What does your heart tell you you're meant for?
Obi: (says even with a smile) Infinate sadness
You can see the dark side sneaking up on Anakin, like when he made the ceiling come down with his anger. scary.
Reading about the events on Coruscant with Mace and show more Shaak Ti tracing Sidious steps was cool too. Too bad they didn't see where it lead sooner
I was happy Padme and the other senators made an apperance. The seeds of the rebellion are being planted And I always wanted to know what happened to her during the invastion.
Bail was so sweet when he said (& forshadowed) he doing anything he could to help Padme
(side note) I am curious to find out in Dark Lord if Bail knows that Anakin is the father, I don't think he knows Anakin became Vader though anyways
SO this one was my favortie Clone Wars novel show less
Leading up to the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, the novel oscillates between the ongoing adventures of Anakin and Obi-Wan, the machinations of Palpatine, Grevious, and Dooku, the Separatists, the Jedi, and the group of disgruntled senators who will eventually form part of the Rebel Alliance. The fight scenes are detailed, fast paced, and exciting, as are the instances of foreshadowing and scenes that parallel events that take place in the Star Wars Trilogy. Anakin continues to fight with his prescience and the Jedi Council’s apparent desire to ignore anything he says, Palpatine slowly moves players into an end game of his choosing, and Dooku and Grevious continue to act without ever truly understanding the parts they have been show more chosen to play. show less
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Author Information
56+ Works 13,310 Members
James Luceno was born in 1947. His works include the Star Wars novels Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Cloak of Deception, Labyrinth of Evil, Millennium Falcon, and Darth Plagueis as well as the New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, and The Unifying Force. He also writes the Web Warrior series. show more (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Labyrinth of Evil
- Original title
- Labyrinth of Evil
- Original publication date
- 2005-01-25
- People/Characters
- Anakin Skywalker; Sheev Palpatine; Darth Sidious; Mace Windu; Obi-Wan Kenobi; Grievous
- Important places
- Coruscant; 500 Galactica; Jedi Temple; Muunilist; Cato Neimoidia
- Dedication
- For my loving aunt and uncle,
Rosemary and Joe Savoca
And for my earliest mentors,
Pat Mathison, who was forever urging me
to tell him stories,
and Richard Thomas, who introduced me
to science fiction,
Ia... (show all)n Fleming, and Thomas Pynchon - First words
- Darkness was encroaching on Cato Neimoidia's western hemisphere, though exchanges of coherent light high above the beleaguered world ripped looming night to shreds.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Accelerating on columns of brilliant blue energy, sluing slightly to port, slightly sinister, they coupled with their hyperdrive rings and disappeared into the long night.
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