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toledoray7 's review for:
Tarkin
by James Luceno
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