Darth Plagueis Novel

[Darth Mencken]

Saw it 2-day on shelf at B&N. Debated buying it, but chose not to for now. Gave it a lookthrough to see if maybe it was worth ordering for my Kindle. Overall, I'd give it a 6 or 7 out of 10. Not bad, not truly terrible, but not good by any means, unless one simply must possess the backstory of Darth Sidious' mentor, and of Sidious himself.

Didn't read the whole novel thru. Main problems I found with it: 1) Dialogue seems overly contrived and forced along. 2) Only about 20 or so pages pass between when we're introduced to a 17-year-old Palpatine, and his rechristening as Darth Sidious after murdering his whole family (mom, dad, brothers and sisters, as well as several guards). Very little character development for the young Palpatine before he becomes Sidious. He's just an arrogant rich kid who seems to have never had a conscience, or been capable of guilt or remorse, to begin with. He was quite literally born bad. Period.

3) It is clearly indicated that Palpatine's Force powers were never evident, before he suddenly displayed them for the first time in his life when he used them to make himself an orphan.

4) Even tho Palpatine committed this first of many massacres on a ship in hyperspace, in which he, his family, and the family guards were the only occupants (and Palpatine himself the only survivor), there doesn't seem to be any investigation, or curiosity over just what happened to everyone else on the ship. Palpatine simply walks off scot-free, takes possession of the family fortune, and begins his apprenticeship to Darth Plagueis.

Bottom line, it pretty much fails as an origin story. For Palpatine/Sidious at least. He was born bad. He was always that way. An arrogant rich punk who never really had to face ramifications for anything he did. And at the right time he runs into a Sith Lord who's looking for a new apprentice, and discovers he has powers that were never in evidence before, allowing him to commit mass murder just by thinking about it.

My advice: If you absolutely must read this book, look for it in a library, or a bookstore with big, comfy chairs where you can sit and read undisturbed for a couple hours. Or look for it in the nearest used bookstore where you can probably collect it for a buck or two. While not truly terrible, it is hardly worth the price of a meal at McDonald's.

[Flagg]

There's already a thread for this.

And What.

[Darth Mencken]

There's already a thread for this.

And What.

Oops, sorry.