Star Wars: Darth Plagueis Review - IGN

Star Wars readers may best remember Luceno for having penned Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, which formed the first and third portions of the Darth Vader Trilogy, respectively. Unfortunately, Luceno's work on those books was always overshadowed by the middle act of the trilogy -- Matthew Stover's surprisingly excellent adaptation of Episode III. Left to his own devices here, Luceno delivers a much stronger performance in terms of writing style and prose. Darth Plagueis is a densely packed book with many characters spanning several decades of the Star Wars timeline. Luceno manages to juggle the numerous character voices well with a strong command of language and dialogue.

The tone of Darth Plagueis is slightly unique among Star Wars novels, as Luceno writes from a detached, almost historical viewpoint. Given that the book explores many formative events that led to the Clone Wars and the rise of Emperor Palpatine, that treatment is only fitting. What may surprise a lot of readers is in just how much time the novel covers. Following an opening flash-forward sequence, it jumps back to Plagueis' final hours as a Sith apprentice and his betrayal of his own master. From there, the novel travels across multiple decades and doesn't actually close until almost the final moments of Episode I.

Also surprising is that the novel very quickly becomes less about Plagueis and his search for immortality and more about Palpatine's own rise as Lord of the Sith. Though Luceno doesn't reveal Palpatine's full name (likely because Lucasfilm wouldn't allow it), readers will learn pretty much everything else about his life and actions building up to the prequel trilogy. In a sense the title is a case of false advertising. However, Palpatine's story is ultimately the more interesting one, so this really isn't a drawback.

However, these positive qualities also have their downsides. The historical approach to the writing also ensures that certain sections of the book are fairly dry, particularly those dealing with the political schemes of various characters. The relationship between Plagueis and Sidious is also strangely dispassionate and lacking in the usual enmity one would expect from a pair of Sith Lords. Not until the very end of the book does Luceno begin to focus on Palpatine's desire to overthrow his master. When the inevitable outcome does occur, it lacks the full drama it should have held.

The other problem with Luceno's approach is that Plagueis' actions diminish Palpatine's to some extent. Star Wars fans would have been justified in assuming that Plagueis' death occurred many years before the prequels, but that doesn't prove to be the case. Palpatine has often been written of in the past as a Sith Lord gifted with the power of foresight. He was able to use the Force to see exactly how best to manipulate people, organizations, and governments in order to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming Emperor. By contrast, this novel spends a great deal of time illustrating how it was actually Plagueis who did the scheming, and Palpatine was little more than an errand boy carrying out his plans and eventually claiming the rewards. The ending does throw all of this into a new light and manages to redeem Palpatine's image somewhat, but it comes as a case of "too little, too late."

One final element of the book manages to work both in its favor and against it. Luceno devotes a great deal of energy to tying the book to the films and various other Expanded Universe projects. The vast majority of the prequel-era characters appear in some capacity. Just about every pre-film Sith Lord of note is mentioned somewhere. The book references events not just in other novels and comics, but video games and even one particular subplot from the current Clone Wars cartoon. The phrase "continuity porn" comes to mind. It's a treat for hardcore fans to make the various connections between this story and that. But such a high level of inter-connectivity can't possibly be helpful to newer readers. Worse, the book actively punishes those who haven't read the other key books and comics that tie into Episode I directly. Conflicts arise and don't receive proper resolution within the story because the reader is expected to continue the thread elsewhere.

Darth Plagueis is a story that has been a long time in coming. In some ways the wait was well worth it. This book fleshes out a previously enigmatic character as well as a much more famous one. But some of the storytelling choices do more harm than good, and the novel ultimately fails to function as the accessible, standalone tale it should have.