Darth Plagueis
by James Luceno
Published: October 30, 2012
Genres: Science Fiction, Star Wars
Format: eBook (368 pages)
Source: Purchased
In Revenge of the Sith, while attending a ballet, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine casually mentions to Anakin Skywalker the tale of Darth Plagueis. Plagueis was a Sith Lord so wise and powerful, that he could even manipulate the Force to create life or stop death in others. Ironically, such a powerful being could not prevent his own death, for in the way of the Sith, Plagueis was killed in his sleep by his apprentice.
When I first saw this book at the store, I was beyond excited to read it. I knew right away it would be filled with awesome backstory from the prequels and I wasn’t disappointed. The writing was wonderful. It sucked you in with it’s eery tone and deep thoughts. There were so many interesting revelations that gave some new meaning to a few of the elements from the prequels. For example, it goes into a little more detail of midi-chlorians and what they are. In fact, it even goes into quite a lot of detail about what Darth Plagueis learns about the prolonging life through dark side which ironically, his apprentice doesn’t learn. One delightful surprise was seeing Palpatine as a teen. And his story wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. In fact, it’s the backstory that I thought Anakin had until the prequels came out. I loved that we also get to see a lot of familiar characters show up in unexpected ways.
It was also very fascinating to read about Sith training and compare it to Jedi training. Sometimes the dark side in the Sith training was very subtle. Sometimes the dark side was manipulative. And sometimes the dark side was violent and disturbing. The biggest contrast I saw in Sith training was the complete lack of trust and faith that is the standard for Jedi training.
The plot towards the end got a little confusing since I couldn’t keep track of who was killing who and who was getting revenge on who for what reason any more. I suppose it wasn’t terribly important, but I felt left out from what was going on for a while.
Overall, it was one of those deep books that made me think – especially about the nature of evil. The characters, new and old, were well-rounded and interesting. The plot and the rich backstory for the Star Wars prequels had me loving this book.
Content Rating: Medium for violence.
About James Luceno
He is The New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial, Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse, and The Unifying Force, as well as Star Wars: Cloak of Deception, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and youngest child.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
I’m glad you liked it. I’ll have to pick it up some time.