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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I honestly didn’t have a lot of interest in learning more about Tarkin but this book was very interesting and I loved seeing more into his mind and the way he thinks while also seeing more about the behind the scenes of the empire and those closest to Vader and palpatine.
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow, what a great read this was. A little caveat being, I listened to this on Audiobook. The story is good, and it is such a satisfying backstory to Grand Moff Tarkin. Luceno weaves everything together into one of the most believably Star Wars books I've read in a long time. It's just great!
I enjoyed learning more about the past of such a major character in Star Wars lore. However, a large portion of the story follows the pursuit of one major plot point and that wore on me after a while.
Regardless, this was still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys Star Wars. Especially if you are a fan of the Clone Wars or Rebels.
Regardless, this was still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys Star Wars. Especially if you are a fan of the Clone Wars or Rebels.
Tarkin is James Luceno’s first entry into the rebooted Star Wars canon and is another character backstory novel in the same vein as his 2012 work, Darth Plagueis. The main plotline of Tarkin takes place 14 years BBY which is 5 years after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Empire continues to grow in size and power while Moff Wilhuff Tarkin oversees critical operations for the construction of the Death Star. The novel begins with an attack on the military base that Tarkin is currently residing at which leads to the Emperor tasking him and Darth Vader to investigate the origin of the attack. From there the main plotline turns into a “cat and mouse” game as Tarkin’s personal starship, The Carrion Spike, is stolen by insurgents early in the investigation. Tarkin and Vader lead a lengthy chase to recover the ship and crush the insurgents.
This novel struggles from an identity crisis from the very beginning. Throughout the novel and especially at the beginning we are pulled from the main narrative to be told bits and pieces of Tarkin’s past. This happens so frequently that it prevents the main storyline from ever hitting a graceful stride. To make matters worse, the flashbacks are not consistently in chronological order with sections jumping from his childhood to early adulthood and then back to his teenage years. The narrative feels disjointed, unfocused, and delayed as it takes nearly half of the novel for the main storyline to take shape. The flashback scenes to Tarkin’s past aren’t bad but I would have rather read them as one cohesive story than have them be shoehorned into a rather dull plot involving a never-ending chase.
Tarkin and Vader’s interactions are a highlight of the novel and it was fun to see them develop a mutual respect for each other as the novel progresses. Tarkin and Vader understand that they each operate using methods that are as effective as they are different. Emperor Palpatine was also present at times however his scenes were surprisingly the dullest in the entire novel. I can’t think of many things more exciting than seeing the most powerful individual in the Empire reduced to squabbling with subordinates and enduring the pettiness of Imperial politics. Luceno made some effort to develop the characters of the insurgents but there were too many of them (six, I think) and none of them received enough attention to be worth mentioning further.
Tarkin is inherently a good novel, just not a memorable one. I appreciate knowing the history of the character but I will in no way remember the details of this novel’s plot in the future. Had the novel focused more on Tarkin’s upbringing and on one single plotline with less characters the novel would have been better for it.
Grade: C
This novel struggles from an identity crisis from the very beginning. Throughout the novel and especially at the beginning we are pulled from the main narrative to be told bits and pieces of Tarkin’s past. This happens so frequently that it prevents the main storyline from ever hitting a graceful stride. To make matters worse, the flashbacks are not consistently in chronological order with sections jumping from his childhood to early adulthood and then back to his teenage years. The narrative feels disjointed, unfocused, and delayed as it takes nearly half of the novel for the main storyline to take shape. The flashback scenes to Tarkin’s past aren’t bad but I would have rather read them as one cohesive story than have them be shoehorned into a rather dull plot involving a never-ending chase.
Tarkin and Vader’s interactions are a highlight of the novel and it was fun to see them develop a mutual respect for each other as the novel progresses. Tarkin and Vader understand that they each operate using methods that are as effective as they are different. Emperor Palpatine was also present at times however his scenes were surprisingly the dullest in the entire novel. I can’t think of many things more exciting than seeing the most powerful individual in the Empire reduced to squabbling with subordinates and enduring the pettiness of Imperial politics. Luceno made some effort to develop the characters of the insurgents but there were too many of them (six, I think) and none of them received enough attention to be worth mentioning further.
Tarkin is inherently a good novel, just not a memorable one. I appreciate knowing the history of the character but I will in no way remember the details of this novel’s plot in the future. Had the novel focused more on Tarkin’s upbringing and on one single plotline with less characters the novel would have been better for it.
Grade: C
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the first and only time I have given a Star Wars book only one star. It actually hurts me to do it, but the fact is, I struggled to get through this and really wanted to DNF it. Only my stubbornness saw me through, after which I desperately threw myself into another, much better Star Wars book to get the bad reading experience out of my system.
I don't exactly know what went wrong here. I like Luceno as an author - Catalyst, for example, is one of the best Star Wars books I have read. I love the character of Tarkin in ANH and the Clone Wars tv show. I crave more stories about unapologetic bad guys, the Empire that considers itself the only path to stability in the galaxy, stories in which the rebels are viewed through a different lens - because from a certain point of view, they may as well be misguided terrorists. This should have been right on the money for me.
But this book. This book. I wanted to scream. I was so incredibly bored. I'm unsure if it is a pacing issue, a fundamentally uninteresting plot that fails to enthrall or even just interest me, a lack of character distinction and broad themes... all of the above? However, the fact is that I usually get invested in every godsdamned Star Wars story purely because it's Star Wars, and yet this one left me cold and grievously disappointed.
I felt like every Empire character spoke in the exact same way, using the same vocabulary - and let's be real, Vader doesn't talk like that. He just doesn't. Leave Vader alone. This overall sameness made it very hard for me to distinguish between characters, and I lost focus time and time again.
The more interesting bits in there, for me, concerned how Tarkin grew up, his family history, the descriptions of his home planet. I wish there would have been more of that. More of actually getting to know more about his character. I already know he is calculating and shrewd - I don't need to read an entire book where he doesn't grow or evolve, and his growth here I felt was nominal at best.
I recently read Claudia Gray's Master and Apprentice as well as E K Johnston's Queen's Shadow - both good examples of character insight and growth being handled well without obscuring the narrative - and Tarkin sure suffered from following their acts. However, I don't think I would have liked this any better regardless of what other reading experience I was coming off when picking this book up.
Like I stated at the beginning, it really hurts me to give Tarkin one star, but I can't in good conscience give it a passing grade (which I consider two stars to represent). I won't recommend this to anyone. Not when there are so many better alternatives out there for someone who wants to get into the Star Wars expanded universe.
I don't exactly know what went wrong here. I like Luceno as an author - Catalyst, for example, is one of the best Star Wars books I have read. I love the character of Tarkin in ANH and the Clone Wars tv show. I crave more stories about unapologetic bad guys, the Empire that considers itself the only path to stability in the galaxy, stories in which the rebels are viewed through a different lens - because from a certain point of view, they may as well be misguided terrorists. This should have been right on the money for me.
But this book. This book. I wanted to scream. I was so incredibly bored. I'm unsure if it is a pacing issue, a fundamentally uninteresting plot that fails to enthrall or even just interest me, a lack of character distinction and broad themes... all of the above? However, the fact is that I usually get invested in every godsdamned Star Wars story purely because it's Star Wars, and yet this one left me cold and grievously disappointed.
I felt like every Empire character spoke in the exact same way, using the same vocabulary - and let's be real, Vader doesn't talk like that. He just doesn't. Leave Vader alone. This overall sameness made it very hard for me to distinguish between characters, and I lost focus time and time again.
The more interesting bits in there, for me, concerned how Tarkin grew up, his family history, the descriptions of his home planet. I wish there would have been more of that. More of actually getting to know more about his character. I already know he is calculating and shrewd - I don't need to read an entire book where he doesn't grow or evolve, and his growth here I felt was nominal at best.
I recently read Claudia Gray's Master and Apprentice as well as E K Johnston's Queen's Shadow - both good examples of character insight and growth being handled well without obscuring the narrative - and Tarkin sure suffered from following their acts. However, I don't think I would have liked this any better regardless of what other reading experience I was coming off when picking this book up.
Like I stated at the beginning, it really hurts me to give Tarkin one star, but I can't in good conscience give it a passing grade (which I consider two stars to represent). I won't recommend this to anyone. Not when there are so many better alternatives out there for someone who wants to get into the Star Wars expanded universe.
This could have been at least a 4 Star novella, but I felt every time it got going I was suddenly mired down in boring Clone Wars history or random exposition. Still. The actual story and a lot of the scenes are great and deserve 5 Stars, but a lot of fat could could've been trimmed.
I read a review of this that was completely false saying not to expect a Tarkin backstory because that is exactly what this is.