Books The Official TARKIN by James Luceno Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I am getting back into the world of Star Wars books with these new canon novels and want to go back and read the EU novels referenced in Tarkin. Since I have no read most of them I do not catch the references in most cases. Does anyone know what novels are heavily referenced? I understand Cloak of Deception and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader are but not sure what else is. Thanks!

 

From what I've heard about Tarkin (and knowing Luceno's past works), most of the things referenced are just small name drops like the name of a planet or a sector or a paticular droid, that you could read and understand the book just fine without catching the reference, but give people who do catch it a little chuckle.

If you still want to read books referenced by Tarkin or about similar topics, the two you mentioned are referenced a bit from what I've heard as is Darth Plagueis. Luceno typically references a lot of obscure sourcebooks and short stories however, making it hard to guess which novels you should read. I'm sure someone with a review copy will come along and have a full list though.

 

I am in the EXACT same boat you are. I read Cloak of Deception last week, and now I'm a sizeable way into Dark Lord (yay Kindle!) . And while there are certainly some scattered references in each of those books that are likely obsolete in the new Story Group Canon, the stories themselves fit surprisingly well with what is going forward, and I find it very unlikely there will be much if any to make those particular stories in the whole obsolete. Very much enjoying them.

 

I don't think Cloak of Deception will ever be clearly contradicted. It's at the beggining of the timeline so it's unlikely that new events in will contradict it, nor do I see them writing a new TPM lead in novel. With Dark Lord, the chances of being contradicted are higher, but of happens in a long enough time frame that it should be fine.

 

Agreed. I see no reason at all to re-write Cloak of Deception. It fits in beautifully, and is a fantastic prologue to Episode I, which, IMO, makes the movie better.

As I'm reading Dark Lord, there are certainly a few references here and there that are outdated (in addition to the previously noted reference to Clone programming, a scene with Vader speaking to Tarkin includes a mental note that they had only met once before, as they surveyed the Death Star under construction at the end of Ep III - this was before TCW featured Anakin and Tarkin having met several times) - but the elements are so cursory and insubstantial to the total plot that the novels can be enjoyed as 'having happened', with a few details simply being 'mistaken in translation'. Especially since Luceno's Tarkin appears to assume that the events in general did happen when they happened, and where they happened. And that novel is well aware of Anakin's earlier history with Tarkin.

Some novels might have major plot points completely scrapped - I haven't read Shatterpoint, but I understand the major substantial plot point involving Depa Billaba could potentially be presently completely overwritten by new information and media about her being Kanan's master in the Story Group canon moving forward. I'm sure in the months to come we'll see if that was confirmed or not.

 

Maybe then we can get the New Essential Characters (And We're All Totally Canon Now, Promise). AKA the NECAWATCNP.

 

The art is all I would've bought it for, anyways.

 

Although, that didn't stop them from publishing the original Essential Chronology right between Episodes I and II, and if they were to follow that model, it'd be a lot neater and tidier because at least this time there wouldn't be a big glaring gap in the middle of the narrative (not counting Rebels, of course); all the stuff that would really need updating later would be at the end, wouldn't it?

 

That Episode II-era Essential Guide to Characters kinda soured me on buying anything mid-series. I'll gobble up stuff that's movie-specific (Incredible Cross Sections: Episode VII?), but I'll wait on any chronologies or sourcebooks.

 

It had separate entries for Palpatine and Darth Sidious.

 

I've never understood why anything that covered the OT treated them as separate characters. What made it even more amusing is that we were supposed to believe that Palpatine becomes The Emperor while Sidious doesn't.

 

What, it's not like they were played by the same actor or anything...

Or that Sidious spoke with the OT Emperor's voice...

 

or that Sidious wears The Emperor's cloak, or that Sidious and The Emperor both have apprentices who wield red sabers
and are called "Darth"

 

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTERS.

 

Really? That's awesome.

 

That sheeved me off too. The reason that was there was for the benefit of the people who would be seeing them in chronological order, so as not to screw up the "big reveal" in ROTS. But of course the people who had grown up on the OT knew they weren't fooling anyone.

 

They also met in Rogue Planet.

LOOOOOOO-CENO YOU GOT SOME SPLAINING TO DO

 

Heh.

I'm...actually not surprised at all. Sounds like the sequel boards today.

 

The theory also said that Palpatine was a clone of Sidious created so that the Jedi wouldn't sense anything when talking to him. The theory started with claims that Palpatine being Sidious was too obvious.

 

Ah, got to love tinfoily fan theories. Reminds me of the ASOIAF reddit.

 

Finally made it through this thread. It's been an entertaining read.

 

I thought some of the theories were really cool, but alas it just wasn't meant to be.