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

I picked this and Heir to the Jedi up a few days ago on my nook on a whim. I had kinda dropped out of reading star wars after the Disney announcement decanoninzing the old EU but this has definitely brought back and I have high hopes for Lords of the Sith. I loved the Vader/Tarkin interaction and it was cool to see how someone other than Vader viewed the Imperial Court.

 

I hope we see more of Sidious' dark side researches and his quest to achieve immortality.

 

Me too. I hope Lords of the Sith elaborates on it.

 

I am eagerly awaiting that novel as well.

 

I'd like to see exactly what happened to Cham Syndulla - and how much "screentime" a young Hera gets if any, to react to it.

 

I like the irony that the Sith are obsessed with immortality, yet to become immortal you have to let go of your self. But I still want to see how they fight and try, fight and try, and never give up this dream, because that's what the Sith are. They don't accept No for an answer, they will always keep on fighting.

 

I regret that we haven't seen any The Clone Wars action with Even Piell and Wilhuff Tarkin together .(although it is nice that their relationship got mentioned )
Another thing that I noticed is that Nils Tenant is the Admiral from the beginning of The Clone Wars Season 3 Episode 15 Overlords .(Its nice when there are such cool little connections)

 

Given the time period I think it makes sense they wouldn't solely be dealing with the CW.

 

I meant that it was sad as we got flashbacks before and near TPM and in between TPM and AOTC .I like the book the way it is although it could have been longer.

 

Not really a big spoiler, but just in case I'll hide this question:

Spoiler

As someone not overly familiar with a large portion of the EU, did the Sith ever take over the Jedi Temple in the EU? Or is this a new thing that we're seeing in the new canon? I know about the Imperial Palace from the EU. Is The Jedi Temple going to fill that role from here on out in the new canon? Or will both buildings exist? I'm guessing we don't know for sure yet...

I have high praise for this book. As someone who is so far unimpressed with the "new canon," I thought this was a really great read. It's the highlight of the new canon for me so far. I've read all three novels and watched all of Rebels so far. Haven't read any of the comics yet but I picked up the TPB of Son of Dathomir and I'm gonna read it after I go back and re-watch the Darth Maul episodes of TCW.

 

I don't know enough about the events of the Old Republic timeframe in Legends to know for sure - someone who knows what they're talking about might want to jump in here - but I recall that TOR had that trailer showing the Temple getting sacked by that Sith Lord, so maybe?

In any event, Tarkin and the Darth Vader comic series confirm that the Jedi Temple is the Imperial Palace in the canon continuity.

If you enjoyed Tarkin you'd probably like the Darth Vader series. It looks like it will be picking up on some of the threads mentioned in that book, like the Crymorah and the Droid Gotra. I've enjoyed it so far.

 

Agreed. The one thing that Luceno really excelled at (among other things) was making Darth Vader into more of a 'character,' rather than just a daunting brute. Granted, I haven't read the likes of Dark Lord yet (next on my 'to do' list, after so many references were made in Tarkin), but reading Vader's conversations reminded me more of Anakin a la RotS speaking. In other words, I could picture Anakin saying the things he did in the way he said them (of course, after going through all that emotional turmoil of falling to the dark side, dead wife, left to die by best friend, yadda yadda yadda...). Thus, Luceno manages to capture a natural progression of Vader's character merely with his voice - and this was one of Tarkin's biggest strengths.

Hope that makes sense ~ it's kinda tough for me to this reaction into words. Hopefully Dark Lord will provide a similar experience (though with Luceno, I'm quite confident it'll be a great ride).

 

That's encouraging. Thanks for sharing that. Credibility of character voice and progression is vital in convincing me that a book is a good one to spend time on. Though, I much hope the same occurs for the Title Character. If I can hear and imagine Sir as Tarkin in this Luceno will have gained my respect beyond similar descriptive styles.

 

If you'd read the Tarkin bits of Death Star, you'd have been able to compare Perry & Reaves's version of Tarkin to the movie version, the Luceno version, the Kevin J. Anderson version, the Sean Williams version - lots of authors have had Tarkin scenes.

 

All of which I have happily thus avoided and ignored.

 

Then how would Luceno "gain your respect beyond similar descriptive styles" if you have read no other descriptive styles in the first place?

 

I write myself, IL. He has a similar style to *me* and I have been exposed to others' 'Tarkins' but they are off, thus I do not count them. If Luceno does Tarkin justice by making him suitable to Sir in a manner that makes sense to me that is how. No one has yet.

 

Which EU Tarkins (as opposed to fanfic Tarkins) have you been exposed to, and what were the "off-moments"?

 

I'm curious as to what versions of Tarkin are seen as "most like the movie" and what least, by fans other than me.

Can be any fan - as long as they give examples.

 

I've said before that Tarkin's Tarkin did feel much closer to the movie than most other depictions of him, but it was less that the other depictions were bad and more of a "I never realized what I was missing until now" sort of a moment.

 

I recently finished reading this novel, and while I enjoyed it, I was hungry for a bit more detail about the Jedi Temple (and Sith ruins), the Ruling Council, Mas Amedda, Screed, etc. I hope that some of these characters can be added to the Rebels series at some point. The novel was a good exploration into Tarkin, but begs for some visuals.

 

It is enough that I have been, IL and all I have found lacking.

 

I love a healthy discussion.

 

And what do you think of the Tarkin novel - best bits, and worst bits?