Here's another Star Wars spinoff novel, a brisk and extremely uncomplicated action-adventure romp set on planet Coruscant immediately before the events of The Phantom Menace. After a few setting-up exercises, it's essentially a prolonged chase sequence whose implacable pursuer is Darth Maul--the almost absurdly villainous-looking Sith Lord with the biggest lightsaber and worst makeup job in the entire saga to date.

The plot? Insidiously evil Darth Sidious is poised to launch the Naboo trade blockade featured in The Phantom Menace. But one of his alien henchmen has sneaked away to betray this scheme and must die. So must the traitor's contacts, smalltime crook Lorn Pavan and his uppity droid, I-Five. Likewise Darsha Assant, the female Jedi Knight apprentice who gets entangled with Pavan through either mind-boggling coincidence or the mysterious ways of the Force.

Michael Reaves makes a reasonably slick job of all this nonsense and is not afraid of clichés. Plenty of characters have wooden lines like "I've got a bad feeling about this," and "Too many questions, and not enough answers." Meanwhile in the Jedi council, Yoda makes characteristic remarks: "A good choice he would be... No accident this was."

A great story of a short-lived character

In the days before the blockade of Naboo, there is trachery afoot within the Nemoidian council. One of the Trade Federation members has decided to sell the information concerning the blocade.That's where Darth Maul, a previously mysterious character, comes to life in this interesting pre Episode I book that brings you to the underbelly of the capital City-Planet of Coruscant.

While Maul searches for the Nemoidian traitor, Lorn Pavan, and information broker finds out and is also being hunted by the Dark Lord. Darsha Assant, a jedi padawan pursuing Knighthood on her trials, also falls into the mix as she and Pavan are chased relentlessly throughout the dirty, ugly underworld of Coruscants' bowels.

I loved the non-stop action of this book, and how you learn more of Darth Mauls' past, not that Reaves delves too deep. One of the more intersting parts to me was when the description of how Maul created the crystal for his lightsaber came about, it really showed how incestantly devoted to the dark side that he really was.

The pace of the book is very quick due to the relentless chase that Maul puts on his prey, and it's hard to put down once you get into it. So if your looking for an action packed story that involves lightsaber fights and blaster bolts-a-flying, you should definitly pick this one up. May the Force be with you!

A Star Wars book with some good stuff - finally

I've read my fair share of Star Wars novels...both before and after the original Episodes 4-6...

This is one of the better ones, and actually allows an interesting glimpse into the pre Episode 1 time frame.

I'm not going to rehash the plot, but I will say that Darth Maul is portrayed exactly as he should be...silent, introverted, and respectful of his Master. It would have been nice to have more of him in the novel, but the side plots and other characters allow for Episode 1 to be that much deeper.

Alongside Shadows of the Empire (though not as well written) this should be a must read for any Star Wars fan who wants a bit more depth in the story arc surrounding the movie mythos.

Entertaining if a bit cheesy

Overall the book is well written and held my interest from start to finish. But, some of the situations that the characters encounter along the way made me feel that I was reading a D&D novel instead of a Star Wars novel. We get some good insights into life in the underbelly of Coruscant, but no real clues as to why the Jedi are so despised by the Sith. Finally, for one who's already familiar with the events of Episode I, the entire book is read with the fore-knowledge that the Jedi counsel will not receive warning about the impending blockade of Naboo, nor information about the existence of the Sith. In short, we know in advance that the heroes will fail.