Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: TARKIN (spoilers)

I'll rate it an 8. I'll save time and quote my review of it from the Tarkin thread.

 

I'm going to add another 8 to that.

 

I can't justify 8. I was ready to love this. Plagueis. Brilliant. Tarkin. Not so much. Now that I have some distance from it, I like it less than I did while reading it. It's a bit unforgettable. But they were some awesome moments. The Vader/Tarkin bromance was well done. I do find these kind of character study books interesting. Which is good because I'd guess we may be stuck with more.

7.5/10

 

A solid, if unspectacular Luceno special. Lots of continuity knitting, but the focus is on Tarkin himself and giving us the best and most nuanced portrayal to date. The issue is that, because of that focus, a lot of the other elements are left out in the cold. Palpatine's few scenes are nice breaks from the norm, but the scenes with the rebel group are bland and forgettable. It's not Luceno's best, but it it's also far from his worst. An 8 out of 10 is fair.

 

4 of 10

 

9 of 10

 

7.5 out of 10.

 

9/10

 

7/10.

 

7.5/10

Positives:
-Tarkin was awesome. I could see him doing all that, even rock-hopping with the pants tucked in the boots. Like Van Helsing on the hunt in the outback.
-Eriadu was not what I expected but it worked. Kudos for the Naboo/Tatooine connection (sic: "is it really such a coincidence we come from the same region of space?")
-Speaking of: I think Luceno reconstructed half the old map with the Spike jumping about.
-Death Star was important, but not overly so that we were hit over the head with it.
-Vader and Tarkin's broship makes sense now.
-Veermok story wasn't the most original but... I liked how it fit with the plot. It emphasized Tarkin's character rather than say, the Death Star.
-OMG Koorivars! I love Koorivars. Luceno sometimes I think you're the only one who has any love for the Sep species.
-Dinner with Christopher Lee.

Negative:
-Good setup. Ruined by Tarkin just sitting there and figuring it all out in one scene.
-Main villain behind it all was predictable from the start, plus he wasn't a match for Tarkin's character. Tarkin needs an alpha veermok. Rancit wasn't that.
-Tarkin must have had a really boring life after his teenage years. Or maybe that's when he married Thalassa and he's forcing himself not to think about it...

Mild quips:
-Tarkin being dragged along in the starfighter sequences seemed forced.
-He Who Shall Not Be First-Named
-Jerjerrod is too young to be in this. Motti too, if we're going off the actor's age in ANH. From the context these weren't parents (unless "Conan" distinguishes Motti the Younger or something of that sort)

 

Hm, no offense meant to Luceno, but probably a 6/10 for me.

Part of the problem is the title character- Luceno can write a villain protagonist quite well, as we saw with the Plagueis novel, as well as the Dooku POVs in LoE and much of TUF, but Tarkin is just kind of boring. He doesn't believe in overkill, or collateral damage, or ethics. Throwing in that jungle training also comes off as unoriginal especially relatively soon after the Plagueis book. This is just a personal opinion, but its also just kind of hard to imagine Tarkin as a man of action, even when young, or him climbing into a starfighter.

The plot just moves along slowly, some politics, a few tricks, and it basically comes down to another attempt to stop or slow down the Death Star. At least the proto-Rebel group doesn't even know what it is, just that if Tarkin is personally handling it, its important. I also liked that they're aware that they can at best slow things down, and that they don't really have a chance and that it'll be a long way until a proper resistance comes along. And after long chapters of Tarkin POV, I liked Teller's perspective on Tarkin's life, and his brutish tactics. Its all leading up to "rule by fear", and Tarkin is experienced and intelligent enough, he's just not really interesting either.

I know the circumstances probably weren't ideal, not with most of old canon lost (I wonder what this book could have been like in the old EU, like with Tarkin's niece or even Daala possibly added to the mix). Good continuity as usual, as well as plenty of ship references, like the Secutor as well as the Interdictor scene. The Interdictor scene was a favorite, showing the technology before it had been perfected by the OT era.

Vader and Palpatine are fine when they have their moments, but Vader is at best sharing the spotlight with Tarkin, and that's not the greatest role for him either. Also a few odd moments, like their "negotiations' with the local crime lord, rather than Vader simply marching in and issuing orders. The book probably rates a meh to bad rating, but I'm just left with an overall negative opinion of it. Plagueis was a great villain book, this isn't really, unfortunately.

 

I'll give it an 7 out of 10.

Lots of good things. Vader and Sidious. Vader and Tarkin. Dooku and Tarkin. I liked Tarkin's backstory.

I pleasantly surprised by all the EU. The only two things I felt were missing were his wife and Daala. So I'm sensing they are no longer canon.

Sometimes I felt Tarkin was too smart. I mean I can see him figuring out Anakin and Vader are one and the same, but at other times I felt he figured out too much. Vader and Palpatine are both Sith. What happened the night Windu and the others went into Palpatine's office. I mean I'm glad he has a brain and he uses it, but I just felt he knew too much.

I thought the part where the ship was stolen was funny, but after that I didn't like the storyline much.

And finally it's short. Longer books please Del Rey.

 

Someone steals a redneck's sweet ride. In the meantime, we hear hints of more interesting storylines.

4/10

 

Hold Still by Lisa Regan

 

I'll post my review from the other thread:

finally gave in and ordered this as my first of the new canon books. I strictly wanted to wait for those books to buy them as paperback, but - man - Luceno AND Tarkin was just too much of a seduction to resist

so, having this out of the way: I was slightly underwhelmed by the book. that might have to do with me expecting something on a Darth Plagueis level, which the Tarkin character just isn't able to accommodate. The background story was nice and all, the Palpatine bits were good to great but - for me - the second half of the book was focusing too much on that wild goose-chase for the lost ship. that didn't do anything for me. Maybe it's because I never was too fond of written space battles (yeah, I know this is Star Wars after all *g*) but that was just boring.

what I took away from the book was a glint of hope. Luceno did manage to sneak a lot of EU references in there and it probably set up a some other villain books for the future. A Palpatine novel HAS to come and I'd really like to read a Dooku novel, preferably dealing with his time when he left the Jedi order, seduced (?) Sayfo-Dias and formed the Separatist movement leading up to the start of the Clone Wars. other than that I 'd just like the PTB to throw us a bone and tell us that the Plagueis book is canon

that'll make it a 6.5 out of 10

 

I'd give Tarkin a 8, here's my review:

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pa...brings-empire-dark-heart-blog-entry-1.1997843

 

7/10

I enjoyed it well enough as a short book. I liked the look at Tarkin's thought process and his interactions with the Emperor, Vader and the rest of the Imperials. I wasn't overly interested in the exceedingly long hunt for his stolen ship, though, and felt his back story was a little cliche.

 

I'm really enjoying how the NEU is giving the pre Endor Empire development. A New Dawn showed how the Empire affects ordinary citizens and consolidates it's power. Now Tarkin gives us a glimpse of how the Imperial hierarchy is structured and funfunctions. For the first time I feel like we have a clear picture of the Emore at the hight of its power. The old EU told stories in this period, but they never gave us this much depth; most development was given to the Imperial Remnat. I don't recall ever seeing an in depth look at the governanceand functionin of the Galactic Empire. I'm happy to see Tarkin continue what A New Dawn accomplished in this regarr. The Empire is starting to look scarier than ever before, due to the personal nature if this book.

Thus book succeeded at developing Tarkin's character. I'm surpirsed this came so late seeing as he played a major role in ANH, but better now than ever and I was very satisfied with what Lucero did with him. Tarkin was give real depth, he wasn't evil for the sake of evilness, but he wasn't made to be a sympathetic character. He was ruthless and cruel, but he did it because he believed it was the most efficient way to preserve peace in the galaxy. I liked how we saw that his methods have always been the same, but the scale in which they occurred became larger. His methods in dealing with pirates in the era preceeding the Clone Wars came from the same philosophy that led to how he put down revolts after the war, and that caused him to destroy Alderaan. His perspective didn't change, but his acactions became eviler because he had more power. I enjoyed how this was tied to lessons he learned during his childhood. That leads me to the flashbacks. They gave us a good picture of who Tarkin was and how he got to where he was. All in all, I left this book feeling like Tarkin was a fully developed character and one who I enjoyed reading about.

The book's conflict wasn't anything spectacular nor were the characters opposing Tarkin. I enjoyed both, but I have seem much better. In regards to the theifs: while I liked reading about them, I have no desire to read about them in a future book; not that I wouldn't read one, but it's not something I'm hoping for. I will say I liked how these characters were led to their current decisions. It was interesting and I was happy to see Republic loyalists turning on the Empire. It was a nice look at early Rebels.

I'm unsure what rating to give this book. I feel they're arbitrary; I enjoyed the book and would reccomend it. The plot line ws average so I'd gI've that a 7/10, but the development for Tarkin (and Vader and Palpatine to a lesser degree) and the overly time period was above average -- I guess I'd give them am 9 and 8 respectively. I'm going to give the book an overall score of 8/10.