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A review by brassaf
Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno
4.0
It's hard, I think, to write a compelling novel that is a prequel, that will still be enjoyed long after the thing it is a prequel for is out in the world, yet still you're trying to set it up so the person reading it, years later in some cases, can still enjoy it. So it is with this novel and me the reader, reading it 20 years after it was published, and 20 years after Episode III of the Star Wars Skywalker saga aired in theaters.
I knew where it needed to end, and also watched the finale of Tartakovsky's 2003's Star Wars: Clone Wars in 2005, which was written contemporaneously with this novel, so I expected some overlap/reuse. I was not disappointed. Some of the TV show's scenes are forever etched in my memory for their shocking depictions of newly introduced Jedi falling battle, and the novel covers some of these same scenes, and so the call back (not really a call back except for those who watched the show in 2005 and read the novel in 2025!) was fun.
I did find the plot, which is basically Palpatine's manipulation of the Republic, the Senate, the Jedi and his own allies (ok basically the entire galaxy), a good addition to the lore, since we didn't really see much of that behind the scenes plotting and action in the Episode I-III movies. Yes, they should have put more of this in the movies, to make that trilogy more believable, but alas, I suppose that gap or omission or both is what purpose the prequel novels can serve.
There was some worthy character development of Anakin and Obi-Wan, although still not enough from Anakin to make his turnabout in Episode III make sense. But there's only so much a prequel novel can do!
Four out of five by my ever changing scale of ranks, but that's really rounding up from a solid 3 with some bonus points for some of the fan service, which I enjoyed, but was of course also completely unnecessary--specifically, the scene where Obi-Wan learns how to disable a massive ship's tractor beam, not that he'd EVER need to use that knowledge again! (Insert eye roll here, but still a fun addition!)
I knew where it needed to end, and also watched the finale of Tartakovsky's 2003's Star Wars: Clone Wars in 2005, which was written contemporaneously with this novel, so I expected some overlap/reuse. I was not disappointed. Some of the TV show's scenes are forever etched in my memory for their shocking depictions of newly introduced Jedi falling battle, and the novel covers some of these same scenes, and so the call back (not really a call back except for those who watched the show in 2005 and read the novel in 2025!) was fun.
I did find the plot, which is basically Palpatine's manipulation of the Republic, the Senate, the Jedi and his own allies (ok basically the entire galaxy), a good addition to the lore, since we didn't really see much of that behind the scenes plotting and action in the Episode I-III movies. Yes, they should have put more of this in the movies, to make that trilogy more believable, but alas, I suppose that gap or omission or both is what purpose the prequel novels can serve.
There was some worthy character development of Anakin and Obi-Wan, although still not enough from Anakin to make his turnabout in Episode III make sense. But there's only so much a prequel novel can do!
Four out of five by my ever changing scale of ranks, but that's really rounding up from a solid 3 with some bonus points for some of the fan service, which I enjoyed, but was of course also completely unnecessary--specifically, the scene where Obi-Wan learns how to disable a massive ship's tractor beam, not that he'd EVER need to use that knowledge again! (Insert eye roll here, but still a fun addition!)