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

Just reading through Tarkin atm and noticed that in chapter 10 Vader, Tarkin, and team, visit a "medcenter housing a shield generator" on the planet of Murkhana. This strongly appears to be the same building that Jedi Master Shryne and his team of clonetroopers infiltrated to destroy the shield generator in the novel The Rise of Darth Vader.

Also in Tarkin, Palpatine also makes mention that Murkhana was the planet in which Vader had one of his first "execution" assignments. In Rise of Darth Vader, Vader is sent to Murkhana to execute the remaining Jedi there (which includes Shyne and Starstone) who managed to survive after Order 66.

Thought this connection was pretty cool, especially since the novel Rise of Dath Vader is not canon.

 

Luceno tends to ignore the "Legends" thing m, IIRC, because he wrote this novel very much as if "Dark Lord" was canon. Not a bad thing, mind you.

 

No, it's not. My belief that unless something is specifically contradicted by canon, it will remain canon until proven otherwise.

 

Right. But also, I thought I'd heard Luceno say one time that he really didn't care about the whole Legends/canon thing? I may be misremembering, but I thought I'd heard something like that.

 

Luceno still made Tarkin very much a canon novel in that the Imperial Palace is in the former Jedi Temple.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Luceno, after the great decanonization, said he was going to keep writing as if it didn't happen. And if they ask him to change or tinker with something, he will (and when Tarkin came out, he said they didn't ask for any changed beyond normal editing).

 

I feel like Luceno tried to pull as many of his books into the new canon as possible - which is fine by me, lol

 

Right. Inherited the throne at age 16 and received the generalship of Greece.

Caesar at 32 was governor-general of Spain.

Vlad Dracula was 17-20.

Nobunaga at 17.

Hideyoshi at 25?

Tokugawa at 13.

Hannibal became C-in-C at 26.

Napoleon became brigadier general at 26.

George Armstrong Custer was breveted Brigadier General at 22.

Some of three postions were hereditary, others merited. Even the hereditary ones were great generals.

 

I'm reading Tarkin, and Darth Vader's characterization is really bothering me. He doesn't really sound like himself at all, and all the things he says during the course of the novel feel out of character.

Sent from Hell--depending on whether or not it exists.

 

Question for you continuity buffs, does the text give any decent indication as to how old Tarkin was when he met Sheev for the first time?

 

Tarkin is 19 when he is in the Outland Regions Security Force. After which, he goes to the Sullust Spacefarers Academy, which is when he meets Palpatine. So likely 20 or 21.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm listening to the audiobook. The narrator and Senator Palpatine both say Naboo is Outer Rim. Emperor Palpatine tells Vader that Coruscant, Naboo, Tatooine have much in common, including being in the same 30 degree arc. Mistake? Naboo is Mid Rim according to Star Wars Wikia. But since TARKIN is canon, is Naboo now canonically Outer Rim?

EDIT:

I just checked Star Wars.com. It says Naboo is close to the Outer Rim borders. I downloaded the THE ESSENTIAL ATLAS Online Companion PDF. It states Naboo is Mid Rim.

 

Sorry. I should have said Eriadu, not Coruscant, Tatooine, and Naboo. I looked at the Map. Naboo is close to the border between the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim. Very close to Tatooine and Eriadu.

 

I agree with people's observations regarding Vader not sounding very 'Vadery', but this is mitigated when we consider that timeline-wise we're still in the shadow of ROTS, so Darth Vader arguably still has more of Anakin Skywalker to him when it comes to how he speaks or the body language he uses. I kind of got the impression that this was deliberate to help us buy into the way Tarkin suspects/deduces the Dark Lord's real identity as he was, of course, on familiar working terms with General Skywalker. We're still seeing the transformation from the leads-from-the-front cavalier Skywalker to the looming, slow-and-deliberate presence that is OT Vader.

 

Well, it seems like Vader is cool towards Tarkin in the beginning because of Ashoka Tano. And they didn't start off in good terms before that. And then Palpatine tries to get Vader to appreciate Tarkin before the mission. He tells his apprentice that Eriadu forged Tarkin as Tatooine did Vader. Vader disagrees, saying it didn't forge him. Then the Emperor observes slavery and Tatooine forged Skywalker. It seems there's a bit of Skywalker in Vader in Rebels when he meets Ahsoka. By destroying her, can he rid himself at last if Skywalker. By Rogue One, he's the Vader we've all come to know and love.

Speaking of sounding like Vader, Euan Morton had me Google to see if JEJ had contributed. No, it was Morton.

 

I wasn't aware of this, thought it was interesting.

Said reference was to the fact that Vader had visited Murkhana before, which he did in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. But I believe the circumstances were different in Canon.
---
Also, Tarkin says regarding the Sith Shrine under the Jedi Temple

This appears to have been contradicted by Into the Dark. However, the next sentence could provide an easy out.

 

I do hope James Lucenon isn’t done writing for Star Wars. The man is by far the best author in the entire GFFA universe.

 

He's my favorite villain author. He just loves a good villain. Or better yet, a bad villain.

 

That ability extends beyond villains. One of the reasons I love James Luceno, and to a lesser extent, Troy Denning is because their characters appear real. Three-dimensional beings who have nuances, facets, actual personalities. The best fiction in my opinion is fiction that feels so real that it immerses you in it. A true escape from reality.

 

He had the best style of any author working in Star Wars and I hope he returns.

 

Really hoping for a James luceno return in the future myself, not so sure about Troy Denning he seems to be doing really well with Halo right now.