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Title: Cloak of Deception (Star Wars) by Alexander Adams, James Luceno ISBN: 0-375-41840-7 Publisher: Bantam Books-Audio Pub. Date: 29 May, 2001 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.85 (65 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good novel, not a knockout, but does everything pretty well
Comment: I was happy with James Luceno's novel. What I think are the strong points is that it gives a lot of interesting backstory and background on the events leading up to The Phantom Menace (TPM). The issues of the taxation of the trade routes, for example, is much clearer when you read this book. As is the Trade Federation and Chancellor Valorum, who you also get to learn about. Valorum only had a few lines in TPM, but he was important in the scheme of things nonetheless. What's nice about the Star Wars novels is that they can develop characters you only see on the screen for a few minutes.
The characters are written well. This is important for any Star Wars book and Luceno clearly has a grasp of them. The dialogue rings true, particuarly with Qui-Gon, who has a pretty good role. Palpatine was also a highlight.
Regarding Episode 2 spoilers: the thought had entered my mind while reading, but I don't think it could spoil anything. I'm a big anti-spoiler fanatic, so I would be upset if that were the case. I highly doubt Lucas gave Luceno his EP2 script. I would also think Lucasfilm would want to minimize spoilers. But because this novel takes place pre-TPM, and there will be a good sized gap in time between TPM and EP2, I can't see there being major spoilers in this book. I sure hope there isn't.
The writing style is clear and well done. Luceno uses a vocabularly word here or there but it never ever becomes excessive. It is very light on techno-jargon as well. The action scenes are written clearly enough, which is not always the case with books.
The pacing was good. I read through this book fairly quickly. It starts off pretty good and then gets better. I always looked forward to reading it.
Compared with the recent DARTH MAUL novel by Michael Greaves, I would say they're both comparable in quality, with the MAUL book slighting this one by a hair. I recommend both novels. The MAUL book takes place before this one but it doesn't make much of a difference which one you read first. Both are highly worthwhile.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: This is an excellent book, and one of the better Star Wars books released in recent times. The book provides a great deal of the backstory behind episode I, and in my opinion, should have been released a couple of months after the movie.
The writing is solid, the dialouge worked in really well with the known characters. The characterisations were fairly good, but I found Captain Cohl to be a little bit two dimensional, he followed a pretty straight bad guy who eventually turns good path.
The book is mostly politics, I enjoy that sort of thing, and some of the Senate characters hardly seen in episode I have big parts here, Valorum in particular. Palpatine was also done very well, the more I read, the more he conformed to the character I had imagined him to be. I think most of all, I liked the details given about the pre-Empire galaxy in general.
James Luceno has done well here, better than those awful New Jedi Order 'books', it's painfully obvious in this novel that he has used the NJO map, but I guess no book can be perfect.
Overall, an excellent book, if you found episode I unsatisfying or you're simply a Star Wars fan, buy this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: First foray into Star Wars literature--not bad.
Comment: Well, the title isn't quite true. I have read a couple books--the novelization of the Phantom Menace and Attack of the CLones, and Return of the Jedi, and the first Jedi Apprentice novel ... but I've never really delved into the Star Wars books ... until now.
This book answers many questions posed in "The Phantom Menace." I read somewhere that it ends two years before, but I don't see how this could be the case. It seems to me that te book ends right before the events of TPM ... maybe three to six months before.
There are new characters in this book that I loved--a band of mercenaries who I would love to see in other books. My biggest obstacle in giving this book a higher rating is that it was difficult for me to keep up with all the political ramifications of events happening in the story. There are a *lot* of characters in this novel, and keeping them all straight was a chore at times ... particularly regarding all the different alien races. Still, having said that, the book held my interest and made me want to reread the novelization of Phantom Menace, and other books in the SW saga.
One thing I'm confused about ... and I don't know if I've just missed something obvious or not ... there's a cahracter named Bail Antilees who is a senator, and we know Leia's father is Bail Organa who was also a senator. It almost seems like these have to be te same person ... but how will/did/does the name-change occur? It's very odd...
All told, this book is definitely a worthwhile read, particularly if you like Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and want a book that feels a lot like The Phantom Menace--sans everyone's favorite Gungan (sarcasm there, folks.).
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Title: The Approaching Storm (Star Wars) by Alan Dean Foster ISBN: 0345442997 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul) by Michael Reaves ISBN: 0345435419 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 27 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Rogue Planet (Star Wars) by Greg Bear ISBN: 0345435400 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks ISBN: 0345434110 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 29 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Shatterpoint: A Clone Wars Novel (Star Wars) by Matthew Woodring Stover ISBN: 0345455738 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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