A great addition to any Star Wars Fan's collection. This novel is set just before and leads in to the events of Star Wars: Phantom Menace (Episode I). It has all the action, excitement and thrills that we expect in the Star Wars universe. It's also aimed at the teenage and older generation - which is refreshing after reading a few of the SW novels that targeted children.As you would expect from a novel that focuses on Darth Maul, there is a distinct dark tone across most of the story. But as we have all come to learn in the Star Wars universe, there's always hope.A great read and well paced.Plot ***Spoilers***After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious is taking the first step in his master plan to destroy the Jedi Order and take over the galaxy. He meets secretly with his Neimoidian contacts in the Trade Federation to finalize details in the plan to blockade the planet Naboo. But one member of the delegation is missing, and Sidious does not need his Force-honed instincts to suspect betrayal. He orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor Hath Monchar down. Maul completes this task by decapitating Monchar with his double-bladed lightsaber, but learns from Monchar that he had also recorded proof of the Sith's manipulation of the Naboo blockade on a holocron, to sell for profit. A suicidal attack by a Trade Federation-hired bounty hunter forces Maul to retreat before claiming the holocron, making an explosion which kills the bounty hunter, and by the time he returns to its hiding place, the holocron is in the possession of its intended purchaser, a Corellian con man named Lorn Pavan.Pavan, although at first purely motivated by money and deeply resentful of the Jedi for taking his son away from him, realizes the nature of the information and seeks to take it to the Jedi Temple. Maul, for his part, is ordered by Sidious to not only retrieve the holocron, but kill Lorn, his droid partner I-Five, and anyone else who might have knowledge of the information. Meanwhile, a Jedi Padawan named Darsha Assant is faced with the Jedi Trials to finally become a full-fledged Jedi Knight by saving Oolth the Fondorian, a Black Sun member, and get some information out of him of Black Sun's destruction (which had been caused by Maul in the previous novel Darth Maul: Saboteur). Darsha saves Oolth from a gang in one of the lower levels of Coruscant, but when she and the Black Sun member zip-line toward the top of a building, Darsha and Oolth are attacked by hawk-bats. Eventually, the two go high enough where the hawk-bats force Darsha to release Oolth and he falls to his death on the lower levels.Lorn and I-Five meet up with Yanth the Hutt, a crime lord in one of the lower levels in Coruscant, to get money out of the deal, but Maul arrives to kill Yanth by impaling one of his lightsaber blades into him and murders his bodyguards. This gives Lorn and I-Five the opportunity to escape. Jedi Master Anoon Bondara and his padawan, Darsha Assant, who are on a mission related to the Black Sun crime syndicate, find Lorn and I-Five. The two Jedi agree to escort Lorn and I-Five to the Temple, but the foursome are attacked by Maul, leading up to a battle on the top of a building. Bondara manages to nearly kill Maul at the cost of his own life, leaving Lorn, I-Five, and Darsha to work their way to the Temple from the underground caverns of Coruscant, while Bondara is killed in an explosion that also nearly kills Maul. Maul, however, is not seriously wounded, and immediately begins tracking the three again.After escaping various dangers of Coruscant's subterranean levels, Lorn, Darsha and I-Five are once again set upon by Maul, who is intent on fulfilling his mission. Darsha, realizing that she cannot defeat Maul, draws out their duel long enough for I-Five to hastily repair a carbonite-freezing unit and seal Lorn and the droid inside it. Darsha plunges her lightsaber into a pile of volatile gas canisters, causing an explosion that Maul barely escapes and kills Darsha. Upon surveying the scene, Maul feels no trace of Lorn in the Force, not realizing that the carbonite hibernation has made his lifeforce all but undetectable.An automatic timer frees Lorn from hibernation, and he decides to go after Maul on his own to try to retrieve the holocron. When I-Five attempts to come along, Lorn deactivates him and asks a friend to take the droid, who knows about the blockade, to the Jedi Temple. Lorn's friend, however, decides to keep I-Five for himself - after giving the droid a memory wipe. Lorn, unaware of this, uses a piece from the body of a subterranean creature to block his presence in the Force, and follows Maul to a Republic space station. Lorn sneaks up on and stuns Maul momentarily before Maul awakens and strikes out, severing Lorn's right hand and pursuing him through the station's service tubes.Lorn barely makes it into the public area of the station where Maul cannot follow, and unwittingly gives the holocron to Senator Palpatine of Naboo, not realizing the senator's true identity is Maul's Sith Master, Darth Sidious. After a brief period of recovery, Lorn starts to leave his quarters, only to be confronted by Maul one final time. Maul by this point considers Lorn a worthy opponent and kills him quickly, then leaves, his task completed.
"He can't be bought off, scared off, or thrown off the trail and he'll stop at nothing..."Lorn Pavan hates the Jedi. So when he and his droid companion, I-Five, get access to a Sith Holocron detailing the impending Naboo blockade, the first person he goes to is a Hutt crimelord attached to the Black Sun, not the Jedi. But someone wants that Holocron back...and he will stop at nothing to get it.NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.I Liked:WOW! I am astonished at how good this novel is! I remember when I had first read it eons ago, that I adored it and thought Reaves was an impressive author. And time has aged this novel favorably.The writing is very engaging, very quick paced for the action, yet insightful and thoughtful for the character moments. Reaves balances the two well, not spending the whole novel on a underbelly of Coruscant race (Anderson might have) or having his characters sit around a fire gabbing all night (Traviss might have).The characters are absolutely impressive. Lorn Pavan is your average guy. Sure, he lives in the underlevels, his best friend is a droid, and he sells information, but he isn't a Jedi, smuggler, Sith, Mandalorian, bounty hunter, assassin, or any of a million occupations that have been almost exclusively seen in Star Wars. In fact, he used to work in the Jedi Temple in finances. No different than the millions who go to work each day at Sterling Bank. What this "Everyman" character gives us is the chance to see how one guy, who isn't the best shot, pilot, or fighter in the galaxy faces off against a Sith Lord. He has guts, he has courage, and he has a friend who helps him along. Plus, we see a character who has a reason to hate the Jedi, yet when he faces on personally, realizes that there is more to them than meets the eye (unlike the Jedi-haters from Traviss' books). These qualities really stand out to me and make Lorn Pavan (Jax Pavan's father) a much more approachable character.Then we have Darsha Assant. In some ways, she is a predecessor to Etain Tur-Mukan. She's a Jedi Padawan, trying to become a Jedi Knight, but totally ruins her first mission. She meets up with Lorn, who informs her of his find and now it is her task to see him to safety. I don't want to ruin the plot, but there is a scene where she faces off with Darth Maul that is up there with Ganner Rhysode from Traitor.I-Five is probably the only droid I actually like to read about. C-3PO, R2-D2, and all the others always seems to get in the way or are just thrown in for a plot element. I-Five is actually a character, with feelings, with opinions, and with an excellent sense of humor. It was a good move on Reaves' part to have I-Five and Lorn banter as they do, and add levity to this intense novel.Lastly, Darth Maul appears. If I could say only one thing, it would be this: Reaves needs to write more Maul books! He does a great job with Maul's single-minded hatred. My only complaint is there wasn't enough of him.The plot was fantastic. The pacing was great, the flow was superb, the scenes made sense (no deus ex machina or other @ss-pulling), and the outcome was fabulous.I Didn't Like:Michael Reaves likes his vocabulary. He loves to dig deep into the dictionary and pull out words no one has ever heard of, such as "pyrric" and "rictus".Obi-Wan is included, and while his part isn't inflated and does serve the purpose as to put closure for the characters, I wonder if we really needed such a prominent character in this role. Couldn't Reaves have invented a different apprentice or Jedi? Why Obi-Wan?Lastly, Mahwi LIhnn, a bounty hunter going after Hath (who has the Sith Holocron), makes a comment that there are 1 trillion people on Coruscant, and, at a rate of 1 person/second, it would take her 100 Tatooine Sarlacc's lifetimes to interview them all. Being an ubergeek, I crunched the numbers and came up with 31.7 years. Either the character can't do math or Tatooine Sarlaccs don' live very long ;)Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:Lorn spews b*****d and d***.Obi-Wan finds Darsha good to look at.Darth Maul is a ruthless hunter. Several people end up dead by the end. Hath wets himself from fear.Overall:This is a positively astounding novel, interesting, compelling, with great characters, great writing, and great story. I enjoyed rereading about Jax's father, I-Five, and their origins. About my biggest complaint is, for a "Darth Maul" book, there isn't enough Darth Maul. Otherwise, this is definitely going on my top 10 favorite Star Wars novels list, and I highly recommend Star Wars fans to read.
What do You think about Shadow Hunter (2001)?
Telling the tale of Darth Maul's activities immediately prior to the events in The Phantom Menace, Shadow Hunter follows the Sith apprentice as he tracks down a Neimoidian who has disappeared with information of the upcoming blockade of the planet Naboo by the Trade Federation. Maul's task is to find and eliminate the traitor as well as anyone the Neimoidian has come in contact with. The journey sees Maul traverse the seediest side of the galactic capital Coruscant as well as cross the paths a several characters and creatures, including a Jedi Padawan and her master as well a creature called a taozin. Thought to be extinct but alive and well in the lower most depths of Coruscant, the taozin has the ability to completely nullify the power of the Force. Filled with politic intrigue, lots a fights and more than a little heroism, I found entire passages written by Michael Reaves to be incredibly beautiful. Fast paced and fun, this novel is a nice addition to the Satr Wars mythos, even if it only falls under the "Legends" banner now. If you are a fan of the Star Wars universe, and that of Maul in particular, you will not be disappointed.
—Joe
Étant donné que je suis un fan de Star Wars, j'ai décidé en 1998 de lire tous les livres de l'Univers Étendu. Maintenant que j'en ai lu beaucoup, il est temps de faire mon compte rendu et je vais essayer de la faire par ordre chronologique de la série. Ce livre se passe à l'an 33 avant Épisode IV, Un Nouvel Espace, quelques mois avant The Phantom Menace.C'est un livre très différent de la plupart des autres de la série parce que l'histoire a comme héros un méchant (Darth Maul). C'est l'histoire d'un contrebandier qui obtient un holocron appartenant à la Trade Federation et qui veut le rendre au plus vite. Cependant, il sera poursuivit par l'abominable Darth Maul. Le contrebandier aura l'aided'une jeune Padawan et de son maître. à noter aussi l'apparition de Obi-Wan Kenobi qui est chargé par le conseil d'enquêter dur la disparition du Padawan et de son maître.J'ai vraiment adoré l'histoire. L'action ne manque pas. J'ai aussi aimé découvrir un peu plus la cité planète de Coruscant où se passe tout l'histoire. Ce livre permet aussi de donner une image plus méchante et plus dure de Darth Maul. Pour ce qui est de la fin, elle m'a vraiment jeté par terre. Le livre permet de mettre en place l'histoire d'épisode 1.
—Yves
After the misstep of Into the Void and the lackluster, but somehow enjoyable, introduction to Darth Maul in Sabateour, it was nice to pick up another Expanded Universe novel that recaptured my interest in the genre. This is no Darth Bane, but it at least reinvigorated my commitment to read the entire Universe throughout the year.The story follows about five different characters as they all follow their own story arcs until all of the moving pieces fit together to show the readers how the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo came into play. It was a great read, and the Jedi characters were decidedly less boring as the Jed'aii Lanoree was in Into the Void; but I felt that Darth Maul was far too subservient to Sydious.There was none of the Sith ambition that plagued Darth Bane and his apprentice, there was only complete obedience which was disappointing. I was hoping for a little more fire from the main antagonist, but even his thought patterns were only to further the goals of his master.Barring that, the book was a delightful read; and even though I knew how the book was going to end (Darth Maul winning and the blockade going into effect), it still made the journey enjoyable while giving readers some more background into the galactic setting prior to Episode I.
—Danial
