Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: DARTH PLAGUEIS (spoilers)

I'm pretty much in agreement with the general consensus of the awesomeness of this read. I really enjoyed it. One of the better Star Wars books in a long time. Not sure if it has broken into my top 5 SW books of all time, but this was fantastic.

I did, however, did not feel the story about Plagueis in itself, as presented in this book, was that great. The book, and Plagueis, became much better when Palps was introduced into the fold--into the "regular" narrative that is since Sidious was present from the get go.

For me, Plagueis was most interesting in relation to Sidious and how he fit in to the larger picture of the "creation" of Sidious and his ascendancy. I also enjoyed their speculations, banter, and insight into the nature of the Force and the Dark Side.

Luceno also did a fantastic job of filling in gaps and pulling from other EU and movie sources to help make things fit better and make more sense. Not an easy task. But doing so tended to involve a lot of exposition at the expense of story. That being said, Luceno did a really fine job of marrying exposition and story--they flowed well into each other (the prequels, for example, did not balance story and exposition very well).

But I think the readers really wanted those gaps filled, so the exposition was appropriate.

I too liked, as was surprised, how long Plagueis was around after the start of TPM. The was pretty cool...a great t=unexpected twist even. And so much better crafted than, say, the "big revelation" in TFU in regards to Starkillers family crest.

I also have to take issue with what seemed to come out of nowhere in when Palps killed Plagueis. Of course we all knew this was coming. But when Palps finally did it, he revealed that doing so was his plan all along. And that did not seem to be the case throughout the entirety book--even when the book delved solely into Sidous's POV.

I'm not a Luceno gusher like most tend to be around here. He has some BIG misses for me. His writing can feel too flowery, wordy, and overdone at times. But I have really enjoyed his more recent stuff. His writing seems more streamlined to me lately.

In any case, as I said, a great read (or rather, listen since I audiobooked it), which was a relief given how disappointing Revan was.

A book where I wanted the story to continue--whereas in Revan I just wanted it to end, so I could read something better.

9.5/10

 

Average score: 315.1/33 = 9.55

 

I'll give this a 7.5/10. Luceno has made considerable growth as a writer with this novel and Millennium Falcon. I did not particularly care for Plagueis still living during TPM, and I always did prefer the possibility that Palpatine was simply feeding Anakin a line of crap in ROTS, but I enjoyed the novel for what it was.

 

Average score: 322.6/34 = 9.49

 

Liked the science especially, and the nods to practically every EU thread; it's a grand book on a grand scale for the saga, therefore

9/10

 

I loved this book as I was reading it, & glad I waited to review it.

Now that I've seen its impact, not loving it so much. TPM doesn't need him, the last 20 years could have easily been halved. Pestage should have saved Plagueis alone after the canted circle attack with the old dark lord finishing them with his last burst. Sidious should have killed him as he was nearing a full regenerative, midi-enabled recovery in his sleep. Still keep all the force experiments, the out of body deal, just move em up to right before the Coruscant-slaughter.

I don't like the changes to Darth Maul either.
The tats no longer ID him as Sith, so the lack of a secret persona is nothing more than lack of creativity. That he was dropped in Palpatine's lap, makes it even more terrible. Reducing him to #3, as a Sith Warrior/ Assassin was absurd.

Fun 2/3 initially, total disconnect for me after the fact, with the timing of part three.

6/10

Edit:
Gripes aside, this was the best SW that I've ever read.
Were it not canon, I'd give it a perfect score.

 

Really? Palpatine needed Plagueis around until he was Chancellor. It wouldn't make any sense to kill him then, when he hasn't even gotten the full use out of his Master yet.

 

Before this book came out, he didn't need Plagueis for anything of the sort.
Sidious effectively became his own master, after the crushed circle.

Besides, I'd rather have the non force users like Page, KD, and that dude that Jello's been ranting about, be more responsible for his nefarious political rise than his master. Perhaps I should have only read it once, then it would still seem almost perfect.

 

Yeah okay, but even in the book it's still like that. Palpatine has Plagueis there only for his money. He just needs him and his money long enough to be Chancellor.

 

I don't think we can blame Luceno for that, though. Luceno has to accept the Maul retcons more or less at gunpoint just like the rest of us.

 

Well, that score was unexpected, given how much you seemed to love the book.

I've argued a lot, though, that Maul hasn't been reduced to another assassin/warrior. I'm also bothered by the idea that a lot of Palpatine's plans seemed to have originated with Plagueis, but I actually choose to believe him; that he was manipulating Plagueis, and that Plagueis ended up just like Tyranus, essentially a pawn.

 

True.


THIS ->[image=http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n107/SithStarSlayer/SellMoreMaulStuff.jpg]
Is not Luceno's fault.

 

9.7/10

Great novel, but a few flaws. A lot was great about this book, but to keep this short, I'm just sticking to the flaws.

The events during and around Episode I seemed to be rushed through, and Hego Damask did seem deluded that he would become co-chancellor. He was better-positioned to take Dooku's eventual role, as leader of the Separatists.

I also wish we saw more of Plagueis's experiments and the mystical side, especially when Plagueis/Sidious unbalanced the Force, killed/resurrected/killed/resurrected/killed Venamis, and then when Plagueis reached out in the Force to create a Forceful being. But I heard that Luceno didn't cover this because it's about to be covered somewhere else, so I guess it isn't really a flaw.

There should also have been more focus on Plagueis before he began looking for an apprentice, as the solitary Dark Lord. The beginning seemed to focus too much on his immediate escape from Bal'demnic.

I like reading about politics, even Star Wars politics, but even I was confused by some of the political machinations going on throughout the book.

General comments: I wonder if Plagueis may show up again, I'm not 100% convinced he's finished. Am I right in thinking that Santhe Security was behind the death of Tenebrous? Senator Pax Teem from Malastare said that many had waited a long time for revenge upon Damask, and the displeasure of some of "them" goes back even further, to hating Damask and his ally Rugess Nome. I also don't believe that Palpatine wanted to kill Plagueis from the start, or was putting every idea inside his head, many times we see Palpatine briefly flirting with but ruling out betraying his master, and Plagueis was definitely behind the manipulation of Sifo-Dyas and making Dooku an ally as well as the Kamino-grown Clone Army.

Plagueis is a remarkable creation, a fully-rounded character that's now fully-grounded in the EU. And Sidious has finally been fleshed-out, but not diminished. This is Luceno's masterpiece.

 

I'm pretty conflicted about this novel. On one hand, it's the most engrossing Star Wars book I have ever read. The detail that saturated every page was nothing less than extraordinary, and Luceno's grasp on his characters was spot-on. However, there were several gripes I had with the book that caused my rating to go down considerably. It mostly stems from the fact that Sidious' role is diminished. Sure, he is behind the events we see in the PT, but Plagueis was the one behind outline of the Grand Plan. I'm not blaming this on Luceno, since we were told the day the book was announced that George Lucas had a large amount of input, but it bothered me nonetheless.

The other main thing that bothered me was the lack of focus on Plagueis' experients. While the political sections were pure gold, the power over life and death that Palpatine alluded to in ROTS were what got me truly excited for the novel. I really would have liked maybe ten or fifteen more pages dedicated to Plagueis' developing powers, since they were what kept him interesting during the seven years we went without a backstory for him.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel, but I'm not a fan of the implications is had on the Saga as a whole. I'd give it a 6.5/10.

 

Nice to see I wasn't alone....

 

Perhaps I'm in denial, or simply an apologist, but I had those exact same gripes... but in my typical fashion, was able to retcon and twist them enough to where I really enjoyed them

I just love the idea of Plagueis, despite his power over life and death, becoming nothing more than a pawn in the grand scheme of things, just like Dooku. Even if it wasn't Luceno's intent, I like to give Palpatine more of the credit.

Of course, I couldn't agree more about wanting to see more of the "mystical" side of Plagueis. I really loved the one scene we got of Plagueis training Palpatine as well, wish we would have seen more.

 

A book is only as good as the reader's desire to have more of it.

 

In that case, Revan is one of the greatest SW books . Although in that case, I just wish more had been put in. For Plagueis, it already feels complete, but I would have liked even more.

 

My review here

9.7/10

 

Average score: 363.5/39 = 9.32

 

It seemed to me that Plagueis had a lot of ideas that ended up not working out, and that Sidious was the one to reshuffle them and unite them into a cohesive plan.

That part gave me the biggest nerdgasm of all. Especially since I suspect li'l Palpy had the same name as his father.

 

Average score: 383.15/41 = 9.35

 

Yeah, i kinda expected that as well, considering he decided to just go only with the "cognomen alone", and as he hated his father, and his father him, its not hard to believe that he would disuse it.