Books The Official Darth Plagueis Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Is the entirety of the book unreliable narration?

 

He's gotta be one helluva liar if he can deceive the 3rd person narration.

 

He is one helluva liar. He could deceive god.

 

He didn't deceive Plagueis.

 

yes he did (ST aside)

 

wait wut? Is this a Sequel Trilogy spoiler?

 

Just finished it.

Jimmy boy is a big fan of What's the Story? entries and Galactic Battlegrounds, it seems.

I aint complaining.

 

Darth Plagueis? More like Darth Plagiarised! Geddit, geddit?

 

This book hasn't held up that well on subsequent rereads. Really disappointed by it. Still better than Revan or the Bane trilogy, though.

 

Yeah, I feel the same. I was caught up in the hype, and my opinions were prejudiced by what I hoped it would be. It feels like more of a sourcebook than a novel; all the action is in referenced events. And, it certainly undermines Palpatine as a character, which doesn't sit well with me. Definitely not Luceno's finest.

 

I like you.

The Dark Lord is meant to be glorified, not undermined. Mr. Luceno's heresy must not go unaddressed!

 

No.

Some is, but quite a bit isn't.

 

Yeah, all of the Pax Teem stuff is original.

 

Eh? Ehhh? No action?

Sure, Ysanne. Hide behind that simulator. I'm sure it lets you sleep easier at night.

 

Pestage is the Kerim Bey of the Sith, basically.

I actually laughed out loud at the bit where he cracks wise at Veruna, Veruna has a sook and tells Palpatine to keep his boy in line, and so Palpatine turns around and gives Pestage "a look that said nothing".

 

I think Palpatine can stand some undermining, considering his other depictions seem to bestow an infinite and unerring capacity to manipulate absolutely everything, everywhere, forever. He was, ultimately, a fallible man, with a politician's sense of opportunism.

Of Luceno's books I've only read Labyrinth of Evil, Dark Lord and Darth Plagueis. I thought LoE and DL:TRoDV were pretty terrible (but standard for EU books), while Plagueis had some literary flair to it. It had some depth. I could sense the passion, and it felt like he'd spent quality time writing it. So many EU books feel like rushed novelisations, written by numbers and to the word count half a day before the deadline. I think I said at the time that DP read like a 'proper' novel. Looking back, it's at least as heavily reference-laden as any other EU book, but there's a richness of language and some actual surprises and real twists that seemingly can't appear in most other EU stories.

I admit I'm not at all well read when it comes to the pre-TPM stories, so a lot of references flew over my head (though I did notice some KJA Sith characters, yuck). I take JackG's point about it reading like a sourcebook in places, but that's the curse of writing around these characters in an EU book. I think Luceno dealt with the EU jobbing aspects better than most. Nothing in the story felt jarringly shoehorned to fit the continuity, and the continuity didn't feel too shoehorned into the story either.

I might change my mind after a re-read. As I say, the other two books of his I've read were, IMHO, a bag of *****.

 

With a notable exception being the "I'm on Dathomir for no good reason and oh look a tattooed baby kthxbai."

 

Even Palpatine needs a vacation.

 

That's what Zaarin thought anyway.

My idea of Palpatine's vacation is that bit in Empire at War where he goes to Bothawui or some such and just KILLS EVERYTHING.

Either that or he's loitering on Byss, fiddling with himself.

 

"Your aide seems to have forgotten his place, Senator!"

 

I think it all comes down to whether or not you believe Palpatine's rant to Plagueis at the end of the book.

 

Yeah, Sidious definitely comes up with the strategy for Order 66 and the Clone Wars. But he also takes credit for things like Dooku, Kamino, etc. that I believe all originated with Plagueis.