Lit Tarkin By James Luceno, underrated and under read

Tarkin as a book doesn't get talked about much, yet its a really fun book.
Palps has Tarkin and Vader put aside there differences to team up to take down a Rebel group that's trying to kill Tarkin and stop his project ie Death Star.
Yet its not read or reviewed, Iv even seen EU purists who ay they won't touch it as its Disney canon, even though you could take the Disney label off and not miss a beat and it would fit into the old EU very well.
All in all its a fun book. I wonder what others think of it ?

@AusStig after your excellent review on the RotS Trilogy . I wondered if you'd ever done a thread on this book ?

 

It's been a long time since I've read it, but I remember enjoying it. It was great getting to learn more about Tarkin and his backstory. It also did a lot of legwork of establishing/recanonizing a lot of Legends lore for the new canon, with some notable changes here and there (such as establishing the Jedi Temple becoming the Imperial Palace).

At some point, I want to do a readthrough of all of Luceno's Prequel era/Dark Times stories regardless of canonicity (Plagueis, Cloak of Deception, Labyrinth, Dark Lord, Catalyst, and Tarkin) and see how they all line up and connect with each other.

 

Iv not read Catalyst nor The Millennium Falcon but I enjoyed his other books. I always felt The Cloak of Deception, which I loved and felt was what The Phantom Menace was trying to be but not quite succeeding at. Ie A Political Thriller in Space in which Palpatine maniuplaptes events and situations in order to gain more power.
Labyrinth of Evil was a fantastic Prequel to RotS and he and Stoover worked well with each other. I was less impressed with Rise of Darth Vader and felt it was the weakest of the Trilogy but still really enjoyed it.
Plaguies was another excellent book but really the title should've been Palpatine or Sidious as it was more about his rise than Plaugies. I think Luceno once said Palpatine was his favourite character and it shows

 

I believe it was mostly written before the whole canon change so was essentially a Legends book, just with a few minor details changed to fit in with new canon at the end.

Luceno is the GOAT SW author for me. More consistently brilliant than Zahn or Stackpole, and call it fan-service if you want but the plethora of canon call-backs and references in his books are second to none. Really sad that he didn't get to write a couple more novels before the Disney sale, like a Sidious or Dooku novel

 

Tarkin is a great early entry in the new canon. So much fun stuff happening - a pre-Clone Wars conversation between Tarkin and Dooku, Tarkin and Vader's interactions, the scene with Sidious in the Sith shrine, and more. And in terms of canon continuity it's pretty important as well, with at least a couple dangling plot threads still waiting to be picked up at some point. Like others I do wish Luceno had directly contributed more to the new canon besides this and Catalyst - he would have been the perfect author to sort out the tangle surrounding the death of Sifo-Dyas, for example. Oh, well!

 

I remember enjoying it. If I recall it’s the last book written by Luceno? I’ll double check.

it is also the book that gave us palpatine’s name Sheev.
Edit: no his last work was Catalyst

 

Yes! How could I forget. Tarkin released right around the time I started lurking here, and I recall that revelation overshadowing the book itself for a while. It seems to have become less controversial since then, thankfully.

 

I still want to hear Sheev Palpatine uttered on screen just to confuse the casuals

you know what’s funny. So many people still don’t know what Dooku’s full name is. It’s Dooku Serenno. Like it’s not that hard to figure out. I don’t know why people thought Dooku was his last name.

 

I'm an EU fan who isn't against enjoying both continuities, but this is a book I haven't read. Personally, I'd rather read new canon stuff that is more easily separable from the old e.g. either a totally new time period like the High Republic or something with a clear divergence point like the post-RotJ stuff, which I can easily think of as an alternate timeline. The stuff in between the original six movies feels weird because, if it's a veteran writer, they often still have one foot in the EU which gives me a sense of cognitive dissonance, and if it's a new writer, they're giving me new versions of characters I'm already familiar with, which is also strange. I like the new Zahn books despite all of that, but I'm also a bigger fan of his writing than Luceno's.

 

I don’t separate the EU and canon as much as most fans do IG. The reintroduction of stuff like the Rakata in Andor has basically proved to me that everything from the EU that doesn’t explicitly contradict the new canon is still valid. I don’t see them as separate universes at all

 

I am still convinced this book was originally written for Legends, but they decided it fit and included it.

 

I don't think underated or appreciated at all. People seemed to really like it.

Perhaps not as much buzz since not a main Star Wars character, but I think it also dipped into the Rogue One buzz that brought him back to the big screen.

Honestly, I'd even say one of the more popular NEU books. Plus, people love Luceno SW books.

Here the main thread for the book: https://boards.theforce.net/threads...spoilers-allowed.50019793/&share_tid=50019793

 

The 11 pages of Sheev jokes that followed the leak is honestly the single best thing about the original discussion thread.

 

George was definitely missheevious about the whole thing wasn't he

 

He certainly asheeved what he set out to accomplish

 

Don't start this up again. Just sheev it alone.

 

Sheev-iously? The cat ain't going back in the box.

 

Why so sheevious?

 

When Palpatine's clones appear, do we play Bringing In The Sheevs?

 

Let’s not Sheev a dead horse.

 

This book was very good along with everything that Luceno did. Too bad he hasn't written anything after that because his books are just phenomenal. I like him, Zahn, Stackpole, and Stover. Also Kemp. Solid writers

 

Loved Kemp's SW books. His stay was too brief.

 

In Lucian's library, there lurks the Kemp duology.

 

Has there been any reason given/why Luceno has not been back to do any more books ? he would be a great pick to do a kylo/snoke or maybe a Hux book i'm sure.

 

I'm speculating here but possible contributing factors:

- Age (mostly this one I'm guessing)
- Cost (maybe he would be more expensive than all the new writers they've been mostly focusing on? I really don't know but it would make sense)
- Disney EU wanting to sever as many ties with Legends and Luceno being seen as a Legends-heavy author? (I doubt it tbh but maybe)