Star Wars- Darth Maul- Saboteur Description:

Star Wars: Darth Maul: Saboteur review:
3 stars (Solid but not spectacular) - Darth Maul: Saboteur (2001.) A Star Wars short short written by James Luceno, occuring before Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.



INTRODUCTION:

The Star Wars film series is, without question, the greatest science fiction series of all time. George Lucas captured the minds of people young and old across the world. But as anyone knows, there are only a limited number of films, and for many people, this just wasn't enough. And thus, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was born. The Expanded Universe consisted of comic books, video games, novels, and other media. Many of the stories focused on the characters in the films, many focused on unknown characters from the same universe. Among the authors who tried their hands at creating Star Wars novels was James Luceno. He wrote a plethora of prequel-era novels, including a short story entitled Darth Maul: Saboteur. It was initially only available in the E-Book format. The story served as somewhat of a prequel to Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, a full-length book by Michael Reaves. Read on for my review.



STORYLINE:

On a distant mining world, two different mining corporations are constantly competing with one another - and not in the nice, competitive business way. They frequently sabotage one another and endanger lives. Darth Sidious has become aware of this and sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, to massacre both sides of the conflict and create chaos and confusion. This way, Darth Sidious can have the resources of the world all to himself.



OPINIONS:

In a lot of ways, doing a Star Wars short story just doesn't work. James Luceno is one of my favorite Star Wars author, but really, this tale falls flat. Many parts of the story drag on for too long, and even though Darth Maul's name appears in the title of the story, his role isn't as big as it should be. Seriously, Luceno should have written a full-length novel about this subject, not just a novella. Doing so, I'm sure he could have created a masterpiece. Saboteur makes for an entertaining read, just don't expect anything that will blow you away.



AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

DO NOT, BY ANY MEANS, PURCHASE THIS IN THE E-BOOK FORMAT! Just buy the Michael Reaves novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter instead. When you buy Shadow Hunter, you get Saboteur included with it, in the pages of the book. That's much better than having to deal with all the technical issues.



OVERALL:

I can't say anything else. This is a good story, but being that it is an underdeveloped novella, it just falls flat. Really, I can only recommend this one to die-hard Star Wars fans, or for those fans who just can't get enough of Darth Maul. Don't expect this tale to blow you away - it won't.


3 stars (Too short, too complicated, too boring) - I'm starting to get a little annoyed with James Luceno's SW novels. Cloak of Deception was okay, but Saboteur just lacks anything interesting. Heck, it's 54 pages long, and only focuses on everyones favorite villainous killer Darth Maul for less than half the novel, if it even can be called a novel. And the author didn't need to go into so much detail about the production of lommite. That was pretty boring.



It's about Darth Maul and his hooded, menacing master Darth Sidious. Sidious orders Maul to sabotage the lommite companies Lommite Limited and its nemesis InterGalactic Ore, sending them both into disarray. That's an example of go home and think up a different plot. However, I really did like reading about Darth Maul's spy motives, like recording that meeting with Patch Bruit and his gang. I thought Luceno was creative about that.



DO NOT buy this in eBook format; it'll get you nothing but trouble. Do what I did: Buy Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter in paperback edition, turn to page 332, then turn the page. Now you can read Darth Maul: Saboteur. (If you want to read the SW books in order, then read Saboteur first. After, you can go ahead to Shadow Hunter, which you'll have right in front of you. Pretty convenient.)



It is definitely not a downright terrible book, but it is somewhat boring, still worth reading if you're a major SW fan, though.
5 stars (Buy the paper back!) - You shoudld buy the paper back version of Darth Maul, it has the e-book in it.