Jim Luceno to pen Plagueis & Palpatine novel for Oct '08

000 · Post by **000** » 2006-06-08 08:58pm

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. -- Chancellor Palpatine (a.k.a Darth Sidious).

With that carefully calculated name-drop in Episode III, the silver-tongued Palpatine added another intriguing entry into the limited roster of known Dark Lords of the Sith. Since that fascinating tale first escaped his lips last year, Star Wars fans have been aching for any sort of information that would shed light on the immediate Sith history that produced Darth Sidious.

In 2008, readers will learn more. James Luceno, author of the bestselling Cloak of Deception and Darth Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, has been contracted by Del Rey Books to write a novel about Darth Sidious and his Muun mentor, Darth Plagueis. As is to be expected on all matters of the Sith, details remain obscured by the shadow of the dark side, but in time, more will be revealed.

Luceno's as yet untitled book is scheduled for hardcover release in 2008.

Link

All I have to say is... Plagueis was a MUUN?!

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-06-08 09:01pm

What's a Munn?

000 · Post by **000** » 2006-06-08 09:02pm

Duckie · Post by **Duckie** » 2006-06-08 09:09pm

Doesn't that put another nail in the "Empirenazis Love Humans" coffin? Palpantine associates with, has friends that are, and now was apprenticed to xenos.

000 · Post by **000** » 2006-06-08 09:14pm

Not at all. In fact, Plagueis's species might be the reason Palpatine dislikes aliens so vehemently.

I'm seriously psyked about this. Jim Luceno isn't the best author of prose, but he excels at continuity and plotting, which is key to a book like this. Plus, I never thought Lucas Licensing, let alone Del Rey, would have the balls to go ahead with a Palpatine origin project.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2006-06-08 09:14pm

MRDOD wrote:Doesn't that put another nail in the "Empirenazis Love Humans" coffin? Palpantine associates with, has friends that are, and now was apprenticed to xenos.

Maybe it was because of his mentor, he hates aliens?

Then again, perhaps it was a matter of political convenience to ally with the humans in the core.

CDiehl · Post by **CDiehl** » 2006-06-08 09:20pm

Doesn't that put another nail in the "Empirenazis Love Humans" coffin? Palpantine associates with, has friends that are, and now was apprenticed to xenos.

You mean a lying, manipulative villain might be a hypocrite? No, that couldn't be.

Joking aside, it's possible the xenophobia in Imperial policy serves a purpose. It could be intended to separate the species of the galaxy from each other, so they won't be able to unite against the Empire. Also, it may be that it's easier to make their equipment and vehicles so humans can use them, rather than make them to satisfy the standards of many diverse species. With humans nearly exclusively forming the military, arrogance mixed with resentment leads to prejudice against non-humans.

Shadowtraveler · Post by **Shadowtraveler** » 2006-06-08 09:24pm

This looks pretty good. I just hope Luceno doesn't do what he did in Dark Lord and place the focus on someone other than Palpatine.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-06-08 09:51pm

I enjoyed Dark Lord, but I wish it had delved more deeply into Vader's psyche. Luceno's a decent author, so I hope he does a good job with this.

CDiehl wrote:Joking aside, it's possible the xenophobia in Imperial policy serves a purpose. It could be intended to separate the species of the galaxy from each other, so they won't be able to unite against the Empire. Also, it may be that it's easier to make their equipment and vehicles so humans can use them, rather than make them to satisfy the standards of many diverse species. With humans nearly exclusively forming the military, arrogance mixed with resentment leads to prejudice against non-humans.

This ease of use for humans is because the Empire is de facto human. Humans have apparently been ubiquitous in the galaxy for literally evolutionary timescales, as discussed here; it stands to reason, then, that the Empire is dominantly human, and doesn't need to be xenophobic to have equipment designed for humans, other species of the Homo genus, and humanoid species.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2006-06-08 10:01pm

There's also the distinct possiblity Palpatine's force abilities worked best on humans, and he was going to slowly weed out non-human aliens his power's didn't work well on.

What? You think he made species specific genocidal plagues JUST for fun?

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2006-06-08 10:16pm

Solauren wrote:There's also the distinct possiblity Palpatine's force abilities worked best on humans, and he was going to slowly weed out non-human aliens his power's didn't work well on.

What? You think he made species specific genocidal plagues JUST for fun?

Maybe he wanted to consume their force energies a la Darth Nihilus?

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2006-06-08 11:03pm

Holy shit, that's cool.

And I think a Muun works for Plagueis. First, it's unexpected. Second, what would be better for pulling off the "frighteningly gaunt" look?

I mean, it's a skinny, weird looking humanoid, not a Hutt or a Wookiee. I think that either of those would be tough to swallow.

Luceno's also a good choice because so far he's written the only canon dialogue for Plagueis, and it was fricking scary.

Jim Raynor · Post by **Jim Raynor** » 2006-06-08 11:37pm

I have to admit that Darth Plagueis being a Muun feels a little strange. However, I'm really glad that they're trying to break away from alien stereotypes for once.

GeneralTacticus · Post by **GeneralTacticus** » 2006-06-09 02:55am

Anguirus wrote:
Luceno's also a good choice because so far he's written the only canon dialogue for Plagueis, and it was fricking scary.

Where was that?

Rawtooth · Post by **Rawtooth** » 2006-06-09 03:04am

GeneralTacticus wrote:Where was that?

Dark Lord most likely.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2006-06-09 03:12am

This is great news! Luceno is a great author. Interesting that Plagueis was a Muun, that was something I didn't expect.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-06-09 03:19am

Call me nuts, but that's what I imagined Plaeguisisistices looked like anyway. Not a Muun (ps I hate the EU) but a pale emaciated guy. Who cares about race anyway? You lot of racist Impenazis.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2006-06-09 05:29am

YES. I feel alighty optimistic about this, Luceno's last two SW books have been very good.

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2006-06-09 05:45am

Lollerskates, the Muuns got fucking owned in the war.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-06-09 03:34pm

Stark wrote:Call me nuts, but that's what I imagined Plaeguisisistices looked like anyway. Not a Muun (ps I hate the EU) but a pale emaciated guy. Who cares about race anyway? You lot of racist Impenazis.

...but the Muun are from AOTC (all right, not really; Zahn introduced them in pacing during VotF, but they aren't specifically stated as being aliens, just pale, gaunt "natives").

Lollerskates, the Muuns got fucking owned in the war.

That is true, but they don't seem to fair as badly as the other losing members of the CIS; even up until after the Vong invasion, Muun is still one of the primary Imperial, and probably very wealthy/well protected. Its unknown how the planet's native species fared during the Imperial period, but by the time of the Remnant, they seem to be principle members of the economy again.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2006-06-09 03:55pm

Luceno is perfectly suited to this type of book and I'm already excited to have my favorite EU writer on board. That having been said, I still can't believe we're finally going to get a Palpatine origin story...

Donraj · Post by **Donraj** » 2006-06-09 11:18pm

I would be greatly excited about this if it wasn't being written by the same man who gave us the Sith Pope. This is a man who managed to take a story consisting of Darth Vader hunting down and killing Jedi and make it bad. I really don't want to see what he does to Plagueis.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2006-06-10 12:52pm

Donraj wrote:I would be greatly excited about this if it wasn't being written by the same man who gave us the Sith Pope. This is a man who managed to take a story consisting of Darth Vader hunting down and killing Jedi and make it bad. I really don't want to see what he does to Plagueis.

What is it about 'Dark Lord' that you didn't like? Generally everyone I have spoken to about both 'Dark Lord' and 'Labyrnith of Evil' consider them to be fine books and it is rare for an EU writer to have two back to back winners like that.

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2006-06-10 12:57pm

I also found Dark Lord a little bland. Vader spents too much time whining and not enough time kicking ass.

I found the fight scenes, poorly done and the Jedi Characters were just uurgh. The Droid and Chewbacca bits were also stupid.

FTeik · Post by **FTeik** » 2006-06-10 01:40pm

Crazedwraith wrote:I also found Dark Lord a little bland. Vader spents too much time whining and not enough time kicking ass.

I found the fight scenes, poorly done and the Jedi Characters were just uurgh. The Droid and Chewbacca bits were also stupid.

What did you expect? That Darth Vader suddenly stops being the man we were shown in AOTC or ROTS?

And if we leave the useless jumping and flipping through the air behind us and get to the no-nonsense style of ANH, all the better if you ask me.