Joining that wealth of new material comes Joe Schreiber's latest venture into the Star Wars galaxy, Maul: Lockdown, a book set shortly before Episode I and tying into the highly popular and detailed Darth Plagueis. Schreiber is well known for his two previous Star Wars horror novels, Death Troopers and Red Harvest, which brought the zombie genre and a level of brutality and gore rarely seen in the Star Wars universe. In many ways, Schreiber is the ideal choice for telling a story in which Maul is pretty much the protagonist, putting the living weapon in a setting of savagery and lawlessness and letting Maul's considerable physical abilities shine. Yet, as the apprentice to Star Wars' greatest villain, the brilliant mastermind Darth Sidious, Maul also gets to display his cunning, adaptation, and improvisation, something The Clone Wars began to display on a grander scale and had always been hinted in previous Maul-centered stories, but may have been overshadowed by this relentless physical nature.
The story is set in a space station and prison, where Sidious has dispatched Maul to infiltrate and track down an elusive arms dealer, Iram Radique, a figure few have met or seen and may, in fact, be a myth himself (The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze seems to be a major inspiration). Complicating matters is the nature of the prison, designed so that the cells can be reconfigured at a moment's notice, two cells linked, and two inmates paired in a fight to the death, a match that's broadcast throughout the galaxy with a lucrative gambling industry having sprung up around it. The concept reminded me so much of 2008's Death Race remake that I imagined Joan Allen as the prison Cog Hive Seven's unscrupulous warden.
This isn't our first foray into a Darth Maul-centered adult novel, with Michael Reaves' excellent Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter back in 2001. In that, however, Maul was a more traditional antagonistic presence, pursuing a ragtag collection of good guys in an unstoppable chase. This time around, Maul is even more of the center of the story and dealing with such a collection of shady characters that he's almost the good guy, even though his ultimate goal will benefit the most evil character in Star Wars. As I noted above, Schreiber is a fitting choice to write Darth Maul and this brutal prison is the type of setting that lets Maul thrive. Maul is focused on his mission and that, along with the instruction of Darth Sidious to refrain from using the Force lest he reveal his nature as a Sith Lord in a constantly surveilled setting, means he has to think before he acts, plan before he moves, and investigate without giving himself up, maneuvering himself into the the prison's power structure uncovering the shadows without sparking the ire of the warden and guards or the inmates working for the very target he seeks. We get plenty of Maul's natural lethal capability, even without the dark side to call upon, while at the same time get to see him working, probing, and manipulating the other inmates to accomplish his own goal. In many ways, it's a microcosm of the Sith's Grand Plan, the manipulation of others to benefit his own ends, and seeing Maul get to accomplish that is gratifying. We uncover the mystery with him, learn new twists as he does, and it's captivating. Schreiber's structure of short, sleek chapters, a method that he used in his first two Star Wars novels, works even more to his advantage here, making the story move at a breakneck pace that still never feels rushed and makes the novel hard to put down. It seems like something is always happening, with a diverse cast of colorful characters all with their own agendas and motivations, all working to survive and triumph over the threats surrounding them.
Beyond Maul's characters, the prison and events relating to it are shaped through that motley collection of supporting players, from the manipulative warden to a father with a few secrets of his own and his son in the prison; two gangs of fierce inmates and individual inmates with their own strange quirks and secrets; and a few familiar faces from this era of rising Sith and underworld scum. Some are more interesting than others, but none drag the story down nor stand out as a glaring weakness.
The story isn't without its faults. After a strong start to a small climax about 2/3 of the way through, the story seems to lose its focus for a while before picking up for a strong finish. There are a couple of head scratchers that don't quite pay off as far as I could tell, one character who serves as a nice Expanded Universe tie-in, but was probably introduced too late to have as much character development as they could have, and a twist with one character midway through that had almost no impact on the story.
Overall, though, it works, from its take on Maul's perspective as he experiences physical difficulties and fear of failing his master, to the setting itself, with its strange geography and hidden terrors. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, especially when it was first announced, and was pleasantly surprised. If this is one of the final books before a new era in EU literature, it's sending it out on a high note.
8 out of 10
This isn't our first foray into a Darth Maul-centered adult novel, with Michael Reaves' excellent Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter back in 2001. In that, however, Maul was a more traditional antagonistic presence, pursuing a ragtag collection of good guys in an unstoppable chase. This time around, Maul is even more of the center of the story and dealing with such a collection of shady characters that he's almost the good guy, even though his ultimate goal will benefit the most evil character in Star Wars. As I noted above, Schreiber is a fitting choice to write Darth Maul and this brutal prison is the type of setting that lets Maul thrive. Maul is focused on his mission and that, along with the instruction of Darth Sidious to refrain from using the Force lest he reveal his nature as a Sith Lord in a constantly surveilled setting, means he has to think before he acts, plan before he moves, and investigate without giving himself up, maneuvering himself into the the prison's power structure uncovering the shadows without sparking the ire of the warden and guards or the inmates working for the very target he seeks. We get plenty of Maul's natural lethal capability, even without the dark side to call upon, while at the same time get to see him working, probing, and manipulating the other inmates to accomplish his own goal. In many ways, it's a microcosm of the Sith's Grand Plan, the manipulation of others to benefit his own ends, and seeing Maul get to accomplish that is gratifying. We uncover the mystery with him, learn new twists as he does, and it's captivating. Schreiber's structure of short, sleek chapters, a method that he used in his first two Star Wars novels, works even more to his advantage here, making the story move at a breakneck pace that still never feels rushed and makes the novel hard to put down. It seems like something is always happening, with a diverse cast of colorful characters all with their own agendas and motivations, all working to survive and triumph over the threats surrounding them.
Beyond Maul's characters, the prison and events relating to it are shaped through that motley collection of supporting players, from the manipulative warden to a father with a few secrets of his own and his son in the prison; two gangs of fierce inmates and individual inmates with their own strange quirks and secrets; and a few familiar faces from this era of rising Sith and underworld scum. Some are more interesting than others, but none drag the story down nor stand out as a glaring weakness.
The story isn't without its faults. After a strong start to a small climax about 2/3 of the way through, the story seems to lose its focus for a while before picking up for a strong finish. There are a couple of head scratchers that don't quite pay off as far as I could tell, one character who serves as a nice Expanded Universe tie-in, but was probably introduced too late to have as much character development as they could have, and a twist with one character midway through that had almost no impact on the story.
Overall, though, it works, from its take on Maul's perspective as he experiences physical difficulties and fear of failing his master, to the setting itself, with its strange geography and hidden terrors. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, especially when it was first announced, and was pleasantly surprised. If this is one of the final books before a new era in EU literature, it's sending it out on a high note.
8 out of 10
