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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
I listened to the audiobook and Sam Witwer put his entire gussy into it
Pretty straightforward book. Has some funny moments and funny lines. Bit repetitive, I mean, I get it already after first mention. Maul would die if Sidious said so.
Not a bad book and I quite liked it honestly.
Not a bad book and I quite liked it honestly.
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
"Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter" is a good book. I feel like it's standard Star Wars novel fare, nothing great, yet nothing terrible. It has got your villain, Darth Maul with Sidious in the background; it has your good guy/girl, Darsha; and it has your gray area character, Lorn Pavan (yes, the father of Jax Pavan, "The Last Jedi"). When I read reviews about this book many of them noted the dearth of Maul in the book. Some reviews suggest he's a minor side character. But he is not! Maul figures front-and-center. "Shadow Hunter" not only presents Maul in many of its scenes, the novel also offers glimpses into his past. Despite reviews complaining that, "A book titled Darth Maul does not have much of Maul int it," rest assured that he figures prominently.
I give "Shadow Hunter" three stars. One for good, easy to follow prose that is clear and tells the story without confusion. Another star for well-written characters that I liked - Maul, Darsha, Lorn and I-Five. A third star for being true to the feel of Star Wars (as dumb as the taozin and cthons were to me, they felt like weird, Lucas-type, alien Star Wars monsters).
I really like the ending of this book. It's not a masterpiece ending, but it dovetails nicely with "The Phantom Menace." In that same thread, I think a person would be well informed relative to "The Phantom Menace" motion picture by reading "Shadow Hunter" and "Darth Plagueis" and then revisiting the movie. Before you read "Shadow Hunter," consider first reading the short stories "Darth Maul: Restraint" and then "Darth Maul: Saboteur." My Kindle edition of "Shadow Hunter" includes both short stories. Those two short stories add some depth to Maul as a character and explore his background in Legends.
I give "Shadow Hunter" three stars. One for good, easy to follow prose that is clear and tells the story without confusion. Another star for well-written characters that I liked - Maul, Darsha, Lorn and I-Five. A third star for being true to the feel of Star Wars (as dumb as the taozin and cthons were to me, they felt like weird, Lucas-type, alien Star Wars monsters).
I really like the ending of this book. It's not a masterpiece ending, but it dovetails nicely with "The Phantom Menace." In that same thread, I think a person would be well informed relative to "The Phantom Menace" motion picture by reading "Shadow Hunter" and "Darth Plagueis" and then revisiting the movie. Before you read "Shadow Hunter," consider first reading the short stories "Darth Maul: Restraint" and then "Darth Maul: Saboteur." My Kindle edition of "Shadow Hunter" includes both short stories. Those two short stories add some depth to Maul as a character and explore his background in Legends.
3.5 stars
For 2022, I decided to go back in time and reread all the Prequels Era novels published between 1999 and 2005, plus a smidgen of other novels (like [b:Survivor's Quest|46623|Star Wars Survivor's Quest|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330605305l/46623._SY75_.jpg|1197542] and the Dark Nest trilogy) released during that time frame. This shakes out to 21 novels, four eBook novellas, and at least thirteen short stories.
This week’s focus: a novel from 2001 set immediately prior to The Phantom Menace: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves.
SOME HISTORY:
Michael Reaves wrote or co-wrote nine Star Wars books between 2001 and 2013, but he is perhaps better known as a screenwriter of animated series—he served as the head writer for Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Spider-Man Unlimited (to name a few). Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter made it to number nine on the New York Times bestseller list for two separate weeks: the week of February 18 and the week of March 4, 2001--and was on the NYT list for four weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I’m fairly certain that I read Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter when it was released, but I didn’t have any memories of it—Maul isn’t one of my favorite characters, he always felt like a menacing cipher to me.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious meets secretly with the Trade Federation to plan the blockade of the planet Naboo. But one member of the Nemoidian delegation is missing, and Sidious orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor down. The future of the Republic depends on Lorn Pavan, an information broker, and Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant. But how can an untried Jedi and an ordinary man hope to triumph over one of the deadliest killers in the galaxy?
THE CHARACTERS:
If you go into Shadow Hunter expecting more information about Maul (his backstory, etc.), you will be disappointed. I don’t blame Reaves—I suspect Lucasfilm put an embargo on the history of Maul, Sidious, and the Sith since Lucas hadn’t finished the prequel trilogy yet—so while we learn that Sidious has trained Maul his entire life, we don’t get much more than that. Maul is still a shadowy figure: he’s unquestionably loyal to Sidious, he will do anything his Master asks, and he believes in the supremacy of the Sith. We also know that Sidious has been shaping events for decades, that his final game plan is the destruction of the Jedi Order, but a lot of his goals are still nebulous at this point. Maul isn’t a particularly complex character; he’s very good at what he does, but what he does is evil and violent. There’s not any conflict within Maul—he merely wants to see this job through to its conclusion, and it ends up being a little more difficult than he first imagined.
Maul’s job is to track down a missing Neimoidian, Hath Monchar, and make sure that he hasn’t leaked information about the upcoming blockade of Naboo to anyone. Of course, there wouldn’t be a story unless some people did uncover that knowledge, so the main trio we follow are Lorn Pavan, an information broker, his protocol droid partner I-5YQ, and Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant.
Lorn has a complicated history with the Jedi—as the story progresses, we learn that he worked for the Jedi, that his Force-sensitive child was taken by the Jedi and that they fired him from his position. He hasn’t seen his son in five years, and he has a lot of grief and anger bottled up inside over the situation. Lorn’s definitely a scoundrel type, he does some morally questionable things in an effort to make money, but when push comes to shove he also does the right thing. He thinks about weaseling his way out of this situation multiple times, but in the end he does try to get this information to the Jedi.
I like I-Five, but I am predisposed to like droids who have developed their own personality! I-Five is a hoot. Lorn views him as an equal business partner, and they don’t have that typical master-servant relationship; he relies heavily on I-Five’s ideas, and while I-Five is also not the most lawful individual (he hacked into the banking system!), he’s absolutely loyal to Lorn.
Darsha was also an interesting character. She’s around the same age as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she’s excited to face her Jedi Trial and become an actual Knight. But she’s also unsure of herself. A lot of that devolves from her failed mission for her Trial; she second guesses herself, she doesn’t think she’s strong enough or learned enough, and she struggles at times to fully immerse herself in the Force.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi also appear briefly. Obi-Wan is assigned to find out what happened to Darsha after she didn’t return from her mission, and spends the book about ten steps behind Darsha and Lorn. He knows that something bad happened to Darsha and her Master, but he’s never able to uncover what precisely happened because Qui-Gon and he are sent to Naboo. No one finds out what Darsha and Lorn learned, and it’s sad—they tried to accomplish something immense, and no one will ever know. Like [b:Outbound Flight|192523|Outbound Flight (Star Wars)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405546347l/192523._SY75_.jpg|556530], they make a huge sacrifice that goes unacknowledged.
PACE: THE BAD AND THE GOOD:
Going into Shadow Hunter, I found the beginning a little slow. There's a lot of setup to wade through: Darsha and Master Bondara and the failed extraction of the Black Sun informant, and well as Lorn and I-Five being double-crossed by a Toydarian, desperately needing money, meeting with Monchar and then stealing huge sums of money AND the all-important holocron. But once Lorn encounters Maul for the first time and encounters Darsha, the story really took off from there.
You know they’re not going to be able to share this information with anyone, because then the events of [b:The Phantom Menace|34941|The Phantom Menace (Star Wars Novelizations, #1)|Terry Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349115978l/34941._SY75_.jpg|3304766] would have never occurred. So in Shadow Hunter it’s less about “will they get to the Jedi in time?” and more “oh no, how will this go wrong?” Sometimes I don’t enjoy reading something where the conclusion is known from the beginning (it feels pointless, like the characters accomplished nothing), but the pace was so good and I was so interested in Lorn and Darsha’s stories that I never felt frustrated with their obvious ending.
Darsha ultimately sacrifices herself to save Lorn and I-Five; Lorn, in turn, is able to reach someone with this vital information. But it’s a gut-wrenching moment—he thinks he’s gotten to safety, but you as the reader know that he has turned to the absolute worst person in this situation. And poor I-Five never makes it to the Jedi Council, but is instead memory wiped and sold by one of Lorn’s underworld acquaintances.
THE SETTING:
I really liked the setting here—it gave me a film noir feeling, because we spend so much time in the underworld of Coruscant. This is not the glittering spires we see in The Phantom Menace: there's gangs, there's violence, and I think that's partially how Maul is able to go on a killing spree that no one really notices. Because it's the underworld, you just expect disastrous events like that to happen.
ISSUES:
I did wonder why no one picked up on Maul’s murder spree, especially when Lorn walked into the room where Monchar the Neimoidian was killed, instantly picked up on the fact that he was decapitated with a lightsaber, and realized that they had either a rogue Jedi or a Sith running around. Maul kills a bunch of Black Sun people, he fights with Master Bondara, yet somehow news of a Sith never trickles out until Maul’s appearance on Tatooine. It felt a little bit like Maul was behaving too obviously for a book called Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.
Sometimes Maul seemed too easily foiled by Lorn and I-Five and Darsha. He’s supposedly one of the greatest swordsmen of all time, who’s been training for years—when we first encounter him in the book, he destroys four combat droids in less than a minute—but I suppose that Maul is so rigid in his thinking, so convinced that he’s better than everyone else, that he tends to underestimate those he encounters. When he duels Darsha towards the end, he doesn’t realize she has a plan until almost the last moment. I think that more than anything, Shadow Hunter shows that despite Maul’s training, the real world has the ability to flummox him. People don’t always behave how he expects them to, and that’s his greatest weakness: he thinks he knows everything, but he’s been almost sheltered and hasn’t encountered the ingenuity of others.
And perhaps in keeping with the film noir tone, there’s an unrequited romantic element here. While initially Lorn hated the Jedi, he reaches a point where he finds Darsha very attractive—and the feeling seems to be reciprocal. Nothing ever comes of it; Darsha sacrifices herself, and then Lorn dies at the end, but I felt like it was an unnecessary addition to the story. I could see the attraction on Lorn’s end, but not so much why Darsha would be interested as well. I guess I’m not sure that a two-sided attraction would have occurred, and it felt like one aspect of the story that could have been excised pretty easily. I think it’s enough for Lorn to spend time with Darsha, realize that some Jedi are good and kind, without adding a doomed romance in there as well.
IN CONCLUSION:
Shadow Hunter was a fun prequel-era noir story. Lorn and Darsha's fates are a foregone conclusion, so the interesting bits are how things go wrong, how they outsmart Darth Maul, and how they eventually fail in their mission. I wasn't crazy about the romantic elements, and the initial pace was a bit too slow, but this was still an enjoyable read despite my initial disinterest in Maul's character.
Next up: James Luceno’s prequel novel to The Phantom Menace, [b:Cloak of Deception|387506|Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)|James Luceno|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349122895l/387506._SY75_.jpg|1016812].
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/upZs6hoohHg
For 2022, I decided to go back in time and reread all the Prequels Era novels published between 1999 and 2005, plus a smidgen of other novels (like [b:Survivor's Quest|46623|Star Wars Survivor's Quest|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330605305l/46623._SY75_.jpg|1197542] and the Dark Nest trilogy) released during that time frame. This shakes out to 21 novels, four eBook novellas, and at least thirteen short stories.
This week’s focus: a novel from 2001 set immediately prior to The Phantom Menace: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves.
SOME HISTORY:
Michael Reaves wrote or co-wrote nine Star Wars books between 2001 and 2013, but he is perhaps better known as a screenwriter of animated series—he served as the head writer for Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Spider-Man Unlimited (to name a few). Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter made it to number nine on the New York Times bestseller list for two separate weeks: the week of February 18 and the week of March 4, 2001--and was on the NYT list for four weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I’m fairly certain that I read Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter when it was released, but I didn’t have any memories of it—Maul isn’t one of my favorite characters, he always felt like a menacing cipher to me.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious meets secretly with the Trade Federation to plan the blockade of the planet Naboo. But one member of the Nemoidian delegation is missing, and Sidious orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor down. The future of the Republic depends on Lorn Pavan, an information broker, and Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant. But how can an untried Jedi and an ordinary man hope to triumph over one of the deadliest killers in the galaxy?
THE CHARACTERS:
If you go into Shadow Hunter expecting more information about Maul (his backstory, etc.), you will be disappointed. I don’t blame Reaves—I suspect Lucasfilm put an embargo on the history of Maul, Sidious, and the Sith since Lucas hadn’t finished the prequel trilogy yet—so while we learn that Sidious has trained Maul his entire life, we don’t get much more than that. Maul is still a shadowy figure: he’s unquestionably loyal to Sidious, he will do anything his Master asks, and he believes in the supremacy of the Sith. We also know that Sidious has been shaping events for decades, that his final game plan is the destruction of the Jedi Order, but a lot of his goals are still nebulous at this point. Maul isn’t a particularly complex character; he’s very good at what he does, but what he does is evil and violent. There’s not any conflict within Maul—he merely wants to see this job through to its conclusion, and it ends up being a little more difficult than he first imagined.
Maul’s job is to track down a missing Neimoidian, Hath Monchar, and make sure that he hasn’t leaked information about the upcoming blockade of Naboo to anyone. Of course, there wouldn’t be a story unless some people did uncover that knowledge, so the main trio we follow are Lorn Pavan, an information broker, his protocol droid partner I-5YQ, and Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant.
Lorn has a complicated history with the Jedi—as the story progresses, we learn that he worked for the Jedi, that his Force-sensitive child was taken by the Jedi and that they fired him from his position. He hasn’t seen his son in five years, and he has a lot of grief and anger bottled up inside over the situation. Lorn’s definitely a scoundrel type, he does some morally questionable things in an effort to make money, but when push comes to shove he also does the right thing. He thinks about weaseling his way out of this situation multiple times, but in the end he does try to get this information to the Jedi.
I like I-Five, but I am predisposed to like droids who have developed their own personality! I-Five is a hoot. Lorn views him as an equal business partner, and they don’t have that typical master-servant relationship; he relies heavily on I-Five’s ideas, and while I-Five is also not the most lawful individual (he hacked into the banking system!), he’s absolutely loyal to Lorn.
Darsha was also an interesting character. She’s around the same age as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she’s excited to face her Jedi Trial and become an actual Knight. But she’s also unsure of herself. A lot of that devolves from her failed mission for her Trial; she second guesses herself, she doesn’t think she’s strong enough or learned enough, and she struggles at times to fully immerse herself in the Force.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi also appear briefly. Obi-Wan is assigned to find out what happened to Darsha after she didn’t return from her mission, and spends the book about ten steps behind Darsha and Lorn. He knows that something bad happened to Darsha and her Master, but he’s never able to uncover what precisely happened because Qui-Gon and he are sent to Naboo. No one finds out what Darsha and Lorn learned, and it’s sad—they tried to accomplish something immense, and no one will ever know. Like [b:Outbound Flight|192523|Outbound Flight (Star Wars)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405546347l/192523._SY75_.jpg|556530], they make a huge sacrifice that goes unacknowledged.
PACE: THE BAD AND THE GOOD:
Going into Shadow Hunter, I found the beginning a little slow. There's a lot of setup to wade through: Darsha and Master Bondara and the failed extraction of the Black Sun informant, and well as Lorn and I-Five being double-crossed by a Toydarian, desperately needing money, meeting with Monchar and then stealing huge sums of money AND the all-important holocron. But once Lorn encounters Maul for the first time and encounters Darsha, the story really took off from there.
You know they’re not going to be able to share this information with anyone, because then the events of [b:The Phantom Menace|34941|The Phantom Menace (Star Wars Novelizations, #1)|Terry Brooks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349115978l/34941._SY75_.jpg|3304766] would have never occurred. So in Shadow Hunter it’s less about “will they get to the Jedi in time?” and more “oh no, how will this go wrong?” Sometimes I don’t enjoy reading something where the conclusion is known from the beginning (it feels pointless, like the characters accomplished nothing), but the pace was so good and I was so interested in Lorn and Darsha’s stories that I never felt frustrated with their obvious ending.
Darsha ultimately sacrifices herself to save Lorn and I-Five; Lorn, in turn, is able to reach someone with this vital information. But it’s a gut-wrenching moment—he thinks he’s gotten to safety, but you as the reader know that he has turned to the absolute worst person in this situation. And poor I-Five never makes it to the Jedi Council, but is instead memory wiped and sold by one of Lorn’s underworld acquaintances.
THE SETTING:
I really liked the setting here—it gave me a film noir feeling, because we spend so much time in the underworld of Coruscant. This is not the glittering spires we see in The Phantom Menace: there's gangs, there's violence, and I think that's partially how Maul is able to go on a killing spree that no one really notices. Because it's the underworld, you just expect disastrous events like that to happen.
ISSUES:
I did wonder why no one picked up on Maul’s murder spree, especially when Lorn walked into the room where Monchar the Neimoidian was killed, instantly picked up on the fact that he was decapitated with a lightsaber, and realized that they had either a rogue Jedi or a Sith running around. Maul kills a bunch of Black Sun people, he fights with Master Bondara, yet somehow news of a Sith never trickles out until Maul’s appearance on Tatooine. It felt a little bit like Maul was behaving too obviously for a book called Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.
Sometimes Maul seemed too easily foiled by Lorn and I-Five and Darsha. He’s supposedly one of the greatest swordsmen of all time, who’s been training for years—when we first encounter him in the book, he destroys four combat droids in less than a minute—but I suppose that Maul is so rigid in his thinking, so convinced that he’s better than everyone else, that he tends to underestimate those he encounters. When he duels Darsha towards the end, he doesn’t realize she has a plan until almost the last moment. I think that more than anything, Shadow Hunter shows that despite Maul’s training, the real world has the ability to flummox him. People don’t always behave how he expects them to, and that’s his greatest weakness: he thinks he knows everything, but he’s been almost sheltered and hasn’t encountered the ingenuity of others.
And perhaps in keeping with the film noir tone, there’s an unrequited romantic element here. While initially Lorn hated the Jedi, he reaches a point where he finds Darsha very attractive—and the feeling seems to be reciprocal. Nothing ever comes of it; Darsha sacrifices herself, and then Lorn dies at the end, but I felt like it was an unnecessary addition to the story. I could see the attraction on Lorn’s end, but not so much why Darsha would be interested as well. I guess I’m not sure that a two-sided attraction would have occurred, and it felt like one aspect of the story that could have been excised pretty easily. I think it’s enough for Lorn to spend time with Darsha, realize that some Jedi are good and kind, without adding a doomed romance in there as well.
IN CONCLUSION:
Shadow Hunter was a fun prequel-era noir story. Lorn and Darsha's fates are a foregone conclusion, so the interesting bits are how things go wrong, how they outsmart Darth Maul, and how they eventually fail in their mission. I wasn't crazy about the romantic elements, and the initial pace was a bit too slow, but this was still an enjoyable read despite my initial disinterest in Maul's character.
Next up: James Luceno’s prequel novel to The Phantom Menace, [b:Cloak of Deception|387506|Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)|James Luceno|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349122895l/387506._SY75_.jpg|1016812].
My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/upZs6hoohHg
Very uninspired and boring story. This was certainly just a cash grab to pull in Maul fans even though he was more of a minor character in the book.
Holocrons are supposed to be force related objects, but the author of this book decided to let everyone use them. I don't think the author knew much of anything about the Expanded Universe and just wanted to throw terms around that sound good.
There were too many scenes that came very close to putting characters together that were not supposed to know about each other before The Phantom Menace. It was entirely too much to believe that Obi-Wan or Yoda wouldn't have remembered anything about the Sith from this story.
Also, he randomly uses a word that noone alive today has ever used just to prove he has a thesaurus. I'm all for grammar diversity, but don't make it sound like you are an elitist.
Holocrons are supposed to be force related objects, but the author of this book decided to let everyone use them. I don't think the author knew much of anything about the Expanded Universe and just wanted to throw terms around that sound good.
There were too many scenes that came very close to putting characters together that were not supposed to know about each other before The Phantom Menace. It was entirely too much to believe that Obi-Wan or Yoda wouldn't have remembered anything about the Sith from this story.
Also, he randomly uses a word that noone alive today has ever used just to prove he has a thesaurus. I'm all for grammar diversity, but don't make it sound like you are an elitist.