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melsage1823's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An fascinating physiology political thriller that dives deep into the roots of the sith but tries too complete too much in one book.
I loved this a lot more than I expected. From Plagueis to Palpatine it was super interesting to get that backstory set up in the prequel films. It shows how when a seed of corruption is planted it can masterfully leek out. I honestly thought the Star Wars politics would bore me but it didn't as I was shockingly invested in Plagueis and Sidious's alter egos being able to pull the strings so masterfully. Normally I would rate a book like this lower due to its flaws but I enjoyed it so much that I can't despise it. I'll start with the flaws and then get into the good stuff, doing my best to stay spoiler free.
The pacing in this book was atrocious. Reading this book felt like being on a roller coaster slowly working its way up to the top of the track before just speeding so fast you can't scream. I would have enjoyed this book alot more if there wasn't random time skips when I was enjoying plot points set up. A story like this needed good pacing and it's an absolute shame Luceno didn't give it that.
My critisms are all widely linked. Next I'd say I'm not a big fan of how wide the plot is, the overarching story should have been a lot more thought out instead of just, Plagueis wants to live forever, Palpatine wants power. Looking at the blurb it makes sense as it just tells us Plagueis and Palpatines not the actual plot. Too much story was crammed into this book which made it a bit too overwhelming. I see what Luceno was trying to do but it just didn't work for me at all. There are too many paragraphs I wanted expanded on instead of what we got.
Finally, I think this would have been a lot better as a Trilogy instead of a single novel. There's so many times when reading I thought hey it would be fun to read a story about Plagueis's childhood or hey I'd love to know more about his experiments but didn't have time as this novel was just begging to get to the phantom menace. I would have much preferred a trilogy structure where the first novel would be about Plagueis's time as an apprentice and his childhood, the second novel is about Plagueis's power rising through his alter ego as well as him meeting, manipulating and eventually training Sidious and then finally in the third novel setting up the build up and events of The Phantom Menace. With all the cramming and rushing it felt like it lead to wasted potential.
That being said I did really love this novel and found it to be the perfect starting point to dive into Legends Novels. Oh how I wish it was cannon.
One of my positives is my enjoyment. As previously stated I did not expect to enjoy this novel as much as I did. Luceno had me hooked from start to finish with his unique writing style. I could not think of one moment I wanted to stop reading the book or where my interest wained. Parts where I thought I'd lose my interest I didn't. It helps that Phantom Menace is my favourite prequel film but still a good book hook's it's reader from start to finish and this book did that.
Another thing I enjoyed was Plagueis and Palpatines characterisation. It's clear that Luceno knows and understands how to write both characters. Palpatines personality especially was spot on from the films and it was interesting to read about him in his early years and understand what fuels him. Plagueis is a spot on characterisation of a Sith master and from what little information we get of him in Revenge Of The Sith. Although Palpatine sometimes overshadows it, this is Plagueis's story and Luceno with masterful writing helps us understand his rise and fall perfectly.
Finally I'd say this books main strength is getting us to understand the philosophy of the sith, their masterful planning and also their flaws that lead to their eventual demise. He gets us to understand what makes the sith so scary and threatening whilst also showing why their ideas never work such as the rule of two. It also showed how the rule of two is ultimately worthless as either the master will eventually bore of the apprentice or the apprentice will be so power hungry that they do not want to be below their master anymore.
Overall an enjoyable novel that sets up the phantom menace a lot more and gives us a deep dive into the masterful planning and patience of the sith.
Highly recommend if you are a fan of the prequels or want to know more about Plagueis and Palpatines backstory.
I loved this a lot more than I expected. From Plagueis to Palpatine it was super interesting to get that backstory set up in the prequel films. It shows how when a seed of corruption is planted it can masterfully leek out. I honestly thought the Star Wars politics would bore me but it didn't as I was shockingly invested in Plagueis and Sidious's alter egos being able to pull the strings so masterfully. Normally I would rate a book like this lower due to its flaws but I enjoyed it so much that I can't despise it. I'll start with the flaws and then get into the good stuff, doing my best to stay spoiler free.
The pacing in this book was atrocious. Reading this book felt like being on a roller coaster slowly working its way up to the top of the track before just speeding so fast you can't scream. I would have enjoyed this book alot more if there wasn't random time skips when I was enjoying plot points set up. A story like this needed good pacing and it's an absolute shame Luceno didn't give it that.
My critisms are all widely linked. Next I'd say I'm not a big fan of how wide the plot is, the overarching story should have been a lot more thought out instead of just, Plagueis wants to live forever, Palpatine wants power. Looking at the blurb it makes sense as it just tells us Plagueis and Palpatines not the actual plot. Too much story was crammed into this book which made it a bit too overwhelming. I see what Luceno was trying to do but it just didn't work for me at all. There are too many paragraphs I wanted expanded on instead of what we got.
Finally, I think this would have been a lot better as a Trilogy instead of a single novel. There's so many times when reading I thought hey it would be fun to read a story about Plagueis's childhood or hey I'd love to know more about his experiments but didn't have time as this novel was just begging to get to the phantom menace. I would have much preferred a trilogy structure where the first novel would be about Plagueis's time as an apprentice and his childhood, the second novel is about Plagueis's power rising through his alter ego as well as him meeting, manipulating and eventually training Sidious and then finally in the third novel setting up the build up and events of The Phantom Menace. With all the cramming and rushing it felt like it lead to wasted potential.
That being said I did really love this novel and found it to be the perfect starting point to dive into Legends Novels. Oh how I wish it was cannon.
One of my positives is my enjoyment. As previously stated I did not expect to enjoy this novel as much as I did. Luceno had me hooked from start to finish with his unique writing style. I could not think of one moment I wanted to stop reading the book or where my interest wained. Parts where I thought I'd lose my interest I didn't. It helps that Phantom Menace is my favourite prequel film but still a good book hook's it's reader from start to finish and this book did that.
Another thing I enjoyed was Plagueis and Palpatines characterisation. It's clear that Luceno knows and understands how to write both characters. Palpatines personality especially was spot on from the films and it was interesting to read about him in his early years and understand what fuels him. Plagueis is a spot on characterisation of a Sith master and from what little information we get of him in Revenge Of The Sith. Although Palpatine sometimes overshadows it, this is Plagueis's story and Luceno with masterful writing helps us understand his rise and fall perfectly.
Finally I'd say this books main strength is getting us to understand the philosophy of the sith, their masterful planning and also their flaws that lead to their eventual demise. He gets us to understand what makes the sith so scary and threatening whilst also showing why their ideas never work such as the rule of two. It also showed how the rule of two is ultimately worthless as either the master will eventually bore of the apprentice or the apprentice will be so power hungry that they do not want to be below their master anymore.
Overall an enjoyable novel that sets up the phantom menace a lot more and gives us a deep dive into the masterful planning and patience of the sith.
Highly recommend if you are a fan of the prequels or want to know more about Plagueis and Palpatines backstory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: War and Death of parent
Minor: Colonisation, Alcohol, Blood, and Child abuse
billyjepma's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved this way more this time than when I first read it upon release. Maybe I’m older now and have grown even fonder of Star Wars’ political escapades, or maybe this particular story’s portrayal of how corruption interjects into politics is more prescient than ever. Whatever the reason, listening to the new version of the audiobook was a top-notch experience. Luceno’s writing is sometimes a little too dense for its own good—I think he enjoys the Star Wars lore a little too much, as the volume of references, names, and dates thrown around is more disorienting than immersive. But for most of the title, I was totally immersed. The recent Star Wars audiobooks have excellent production value, and the sound effects and music cues they add alongside the narration make it feel like a properly cinematic experience. It is a book for harder core Prequel fans, though, and essentially demands a willingness, if not enthusiasm, to engage with that era’s political jargon and slow-burn machinations. It’s not for everyone, but is definitely for me, a big ol’ nerd.
Daniel Davis’ narration is phenomenal, too. His impression of Palpatine is frighteningly good—some of his enunciations sound like they came from Ian McDiarmid’s mouth—and he does a great job of giving the broader cast enough differentiating characteristics so you can tell who’s speaking. I’ll never cease to be impressed by how talented voice actors and audiobook narrators are.
The book itself isn’t perfect—Plagueis takes a backseat about halfway in, and I wish we got more of how he trained Palpatine—and it has some minor pacing issues. But for a novel that covers a significant length of time, Luceno’s emphasis on critical moments works in the story’s favor, as it highlights the decisions and events that formed Palpatine into the initially charismatic and eventually manipulative dictator we know from the films. Naming the book after Plagueis is somewhat misleading, but we still get enough of him to make him into someone of substance. His depth is lacking when compared to Palpatine, at least a little, but again, this is ultimately Palpatine’s story, and on those terms, it functions as well as anyone could hope for.
I’m definitely going to count this as one of the better Star Wars novels, even though it’s no longer strictly canonical. It engages with the Prequel trilogy in fascinating ways. It all makes me want to rewatch the films and The Clone Wars animated series with the additional perspective into Palpatine this book provides. Good stuff.
Daniel Davis’ narration is phenomenal, too. His impression of Palpatine is frighteningly good—some of his enunciations sound like they came from Ian McDiarmid’s mouth—and he does a great job of giving the broader cast enough differentiating characteristics so you can tell who’s speaking. I’ll never cease to be impressed by how talented voice actors and audiobook narrators are.
The book itself isn’t perfect—Plagueis takes a backseat about halfway in, and I wish we got more of how he trained Palpatine—and it has some minor pacing issues. But for a novel that covers a significant length of time, Luceno’s emphasis on critical moments works in the story’s favor, as it highlights the decisions and events that formed Palpatine into the initially charismatic and eventually manipulative dictator we know from the films. Naming the book after Plagueis is somewhat misleading, but we still get enough of him to make him into someone of substance. His depth is lacking when compared to Palpatine, at least a little, but again, this is ultimately Palpatine’s story, and on those terms, it functions as well as anyone could hope for.
I’m definitely going to count this as one of the better Star Wars novels, even though it’s no longer strictly canonical. It engages with the Prequel trilogy in fascinating ways. It all makes me want to rewatch the films and The Clone Wars animated series with the additional perspective into Palpatine this book provides. Good stuff.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol, and War
bashsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I've always been blown away by Palpatine's master manipulation skills, so it was cool to peer behind the curtain and see how he managed to manufacture a war for his own gain. Plagueis is an interesting character, and I liked his philosophizing on Sith principles - and how his arrogance was ultimately his downfall.
Lots and lots of galatic politics and economics, though. That aspect really made my head spin at times. Also, I constantly had to look up the species being described because I haven't read a ton of Star Wars books, so matching the names of the species to the visuals I know from the TV shows and movies was a bit harrowing at times.
Lots and lots of galatic politics and economics, though. That aspect really made my head spin at times. Also, I constantly had to look up the species being described because I haven't read a ton of Star Wars books, so matching the names of the species to the visuals I know from the TV shows and movies was a bit harrowing at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Gun violence, Slavery, War, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Torture
Minor: Stalking, Trafficking, and Vomit
-Racism is of the fantasy kind (between all the alien races) rather than the real world variety.housedesignerking's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is the first non-canon Star Wars book, and first Star Wars book in general, that I've read. Technically, I have skipped 11 books. One in the pre-Republic era and ten in the Old Republic era. I didn't really read anything that appeared to be a spoiler, but who knows?
It has been a long time since I've seen the prequel and classic eras trilogies, it took me a minute to remember certain characters and certain things that happened. There's quite a few familiar and not familiar characters throughout this book. For not familiar, I don't remember Gardulla the Hutt appearing in any of the movies. However, Jabba of the same species makes a couple of appearances. This book spans years, decades even. There's Count Dooku, whom I'd completely forgotten was played by Christopher Lee. I mean, I knew Lee was in the the movies, but I didn't remember that he'd portrayed that character. For some reason, I was initially picturing some alien creature. There's also Darth Maul's beginnings, which can be gone into a lot more, I believe, in the next three books in the prequel era.
Plagueis, after murdering his Master, Tenebrous, seeks to become the greatest Sith Lord who ever lived, and the one who never died. He's a Muun from the planet Muunilinst, and seeks out young Palpatine on Naboo at what I assumed was this extended universe's version of a High School or some kind of early College. In time, Palpatine becomes Plagueis's apprentice.
The author had an obsession with midi-chlorians and the InterGalactic Banking Clan. I read both things so many times. It reminded me of Geraldine Ferraro’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2893842664">autobiography</a> in which I read the word “abortion” so many times, my rating got reduced. This book is not immune to that, either.
It reads like a history book for the most part as the story literally inches forward, sometimes with very little happening in a chapter. Most of a few of them are mostly information and I'm not sure if I'm going to remember most of it. A chunk of this is conversations with this politician or that lobbyist or some other person where it doesn’t always seem to be very relevant. It really seems to be akin to day to day activities at work.
I also reached for my phone to look up words in quite a few chapters. Sometimes the over-usage of words lead to an unnecessary wording of a sentence like when the author wrote about auditory organs when he could have just typed “ear drums.” The author also alternated between “11-4D” and “OneOne-FourDee.” I’m not sure why other than to alternate spellings.
Confusion struck me on page 94 in chapter 8 when Plagueis went from being with droid 11-4D to being on some other planet called Saleuscami watching some female on a stage on page 96. This was an instance where the mixture of story progression and story information did not flow very well. A better way to say it may be that every chapter was from points of Plagueis’s life and the author just decided to compile them together to see what the big picture looked like. Also, the murder that takes place in this chapter seems completely random and reminds me of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. There's absolutely no character development for the murdered character and Plagueis's reasoning seems to just be that he wanted to kill someone.
I laughed out loud when I had to look up the definition of “farinaceous” after Consigna Palpatine (the future Emperor Palpatine's father) said it on pg 129. “Consisting of or containing starch.” Some existing words in the English language really seem too posh...
I think there was a typo on pg 149. It talks of Sidious/Palpatine being born of “hated and fear”... I think that was supposed to say “hatred and fear.”
In chapter 12, I was getting really into the story. This story didn’t really seem to begin until Plagueis met young Palpatine at school. As I said before, not everything in this story seemed completely relevant... I was hoping by chapter 13 that everything that lead up to the moment at school would come full circle and have a purpose.
Unfortunately, they only somewhat did. There was a massive time jump where Palpatine is revealed to have been installed in a political position. He’s an apprenticed Sith Lord and we don’t really get much about the past ten-ish years except that all the random conversations in the beginning of the story come full circle in one paragraph. It left me feeling briefly disenchanted. Since Luceno included the conversations and events that had nothing to do with Palpatine, shouldn’t he have used these side stories to an equal amount of ending as he did beginning?
Oy. By pg 219, I felt the story was dragging and a bit yawn-inducing with yet another mention of the InterGalactic Banking Clan...
Chapter 19 was pretty awesome. Not gonna lie.
Unfortunately, when I was 70% through the book (pg 266), I found myself thinking that this book was oddly titled. A vast chunk of this book is about Palpatine/Darth Sidious... perhaps “Darth Plagueis and Palpatine” or "Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious" would’ve been much more appropriate title options. In what is now canon, Claudia Gray may have noted this when naming her book about the same Sith Lords. Hers is called “Master and Apprentice" and apparently is the accepted version of this book. Basically. (EDIT 2/17/2020: I recently found out that the Claudia Gray book actually has to do with Qui-Gon and Obi Wan Kenobi. This is awkward...)
There was a hilarious conversation regarding a rare bird in chapter 24 that my fiancé and I laughed our butts off because of. This book gets an extra star for this, whatever the final rating. Poor Viceroy Gunray...
Regardless of any negative note I’ve added herein, I really have to give Luceno credit for creating a link between the past and the future. An interesting tie-in/parallel for this book and “A New Hope.”
In the end, I'm not exactly blown away by James' Luceno's addtion to the non-canon prequel era. The ending did have a decent climactic conclusion, although completely predictable since the author included that Plagueis does pass away. You definitely see it coming because of that. I will also say that it was a bit much to have two master's killed in two chapters that are right next to each other in the book. It's described how Darth Tenebrous killed his master in the prologue and then Darth Plagueis kills Tenebrous in chapter one.
It is also interesting that this book has parts that take place during the time of Episode 1. It felt like a somewhat behind the scenes extra in those chapters.
There was also a disturbing terrorist attack scene in this book with somewhat disturbing details that I could have lived without. As I said, I’ve read that every Star Wars book pre-2014 is now considered non-canon and dubbed as “Legends.” Judging by this book, despite the good parts within, that may be a good thing...
It has been a long time since I've seen the prequel and classic eras trilogies, it took me a minute to remember certain characters and certain things that happened. There's quite a few familiar and not familiar characters throughout this book. For not familiar, I don't remember Gardulla the Hutt appearing in any of the movies. However, Jabba of the same species makes a couple of appearances. This book spans years, decades even. There's Count Dooku, whom I'd completely forgotten was played by Christopher Lee. I mean, I knew Lee was in the the movies, but I didn't remember that he'd portrayed that character. For some reason, I was initially picturing some alien creature. There's also Darth Maul's beginnings, which can be gone into a lot more, I believe, in the next three books in the prequel era.
Plagueis, after murdering his Master, Tenebrous, seeks to become the greatest Sith Lord who ever lived, and the one who never died. He's a Muun from the planet Muunilinst, and seeks out young Palpatine on Naboo at what I assumed was this extended universe's version of a High School or some kind of early College. In time, Palpatine becomes Plagueis's apprentice.
The author had an obsession with midi-chlorians and the InterGalactic Banking Clan. I read both things so many times. It reminded me of Geraldine Ferraro’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2893842664">autobiography</a> in which I read the word “abortion” so many times, my rating got reduced. This book is not immune to that, either.
It reads like a history book for the most part as the story literally inches forward, sometimes with very little happening in a chapter. Most of a few of them are mostly information and I'm not sure if I'm going to remember most of it. A chunk of this is conversations with this politician or that lobbyist or some other person where it doesn’t always seem to be very relevant. It really seems to be akin to day to day activities at work.
I also reached for my phone to look up words in quite a few chapters. Sometimes the over-usage of words lead to an unnecessary wording of a sentence like when the author wrote about auditory organs when he could have just typed “ear drums.” The author also alternated between “11-4D” and “OneOne-FourDee.” I’m not sure why other than to alternate spellings.
Confusion struck me on page 94 in chapter 8 when Plagueis went from being with droid 11-4D to being on some other planet called Saleuscami watching some female on a stage on page 96. This was an instance where the mixture of story progression and story information did not flow very well. A better way to say it may be that every chapter was from points of Plagueis’s life and the author just decided to compile them together to see what the big picture looked like. Also, the murder that takes place in this chapter seems completely random and reminds me of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. There's absolutely no character development for the murdered character and Plagueis's reasoning seems to just be that he wanted to kill someone.
I laughed out loud when I had to look up the definition of “farinaceous” after Consigna Palpatine (the future Emperor Palpatine's father) said it on pg 129. “Consisting of or containing starch.” Some existing words in the English language really seem too posh...
I think there was a typo on pg 149. It talks of Sidious/Palpatine being born of “hated and fear”... I think that was supposed to say “hatred and fear.”
In chapter 12, I was getting really into the story. This story didn’t really seem to begin until Plagueis met young Palpatine at school. As I said before, not everything in this story seemed completely relevant... I was hoping by chapter 13 that everything that lead up to the moment at school would come full circle and have a purpose.
Unfortunately, they only somewhat did. There was a massive time jump where Palpatine is revealed to have been installed in a political position. He’s an apprenticed Sith Lord and we don’t really get much about the past ten-ish years except that all the random conversations in the beginning of the story come full circle in one paragraph. It left me feeling briefly disenchanted. Since Luceno included the conversations and events that had nothing to do with Palpatine, shouldn’t he have used these side stories to an equal amount of ending as he did beginning?
Oy. By pg 219, I felt the story was dragging and a bit yawn-inducing with yet another mention of the InterGalactic Banking Clan...
Chapter 19 was pretty awesome. Not gonna lie.
Unfortunately, when I was 70% through the book (pg 266), I found myself thinking that this book was oddly titled. A vast chunk of this book is about Palpatine/Darth Sidious... perhaps “Darth Plagueis and Palpatine” or "Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious" would’ve been much more appropriate title options. In what is now canon, Claudia Gray may have noted this when naming her book about the same Sith Lords. Hers is called “Master and Apprentice" and apparently is the accepted version of this book. Basically. (EDIT 2/17/2020: I recently found out that the Claudia Gray book actually has to do with Qui-Gon and Obi Wan Kenobi. This is awkward...)
There was a hilarious conversation regarding a rare bird in chapter 24 that my fiancé and I laughed our butts off because of. This book gets an extra star for this, whatever the final rating. Poor Viceroy Gunray...
Regardless of any negative note I’ve added herein, I really have to give Luceno credit for creating a link between the past and the future. An interesting tie-in/parallel for this book and “A New Hope.”
In the end, I'm not exactly blown away by James' Luceno's addtion to the non-canon prequel era. The ending did have a decent climactic conclusion, although completely predictable since the author included that Plagueis does pass away. You definitely see it coming because of that. I will also say that it was a bit much to have two master's killed in two chapters that are right next to each other in the book. It's described how Darth Tenebrous killed his master in the prologue and then Darth Plagueis kills Tenebrous in chapter one.
It is also interesting that this book has parts that take place during the time of Episode 1. It felt like a somewhat behind the scenes extra in those chapters.
There was also a disturbing terrorist attack scene in this book with somewhat disturbing details that I could have lived without. As I said, I’ve read that every Star Wars book pre-2014 is now considered non-canon and dubbed as “Legends.” Judging by this book, despite the good parts within, that may be a good thing...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Death, and Violence
j_boehnke's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Violence
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