Darth Plagueis - James Luceno Apparently this Star Wars novel had been highly anticipated since its announcement years ago, and I had no idea until after I finished it and decided to look it up. Now that I've read it, I guess I can see why. Darth Plagueis is probably worth reading simply if for no other reason other than how "canon" it is, if you're a big Star Wars fan. I heard that the author worked really closely with LucasFilms to get it just right. And yes, I did find that it explained a lot about the events of the prequel movies, and I now have a better understanding of the backstory behind them.

But I don't want to make it sound like that's the only reason to pick up this book, because there's a lot more that makes it a worthwhile read. For one thing, I was surprised at the quality of the writing, especially for a Star Wars novel. I've read some of Luceno's other Star Wars titles in the past, and as you can see from those reviews in my book list, I wasn't very impressed. But I was quite happy with his efforts with Darth Plagueis, to the point I couldn't believe it was the same author. It's obvious he put his full heart and soul into writing this.

Darth Plaguis is also quite different from many of the Star Wars book I've read in the past. It's less action oriented, and instead focuses more on political intrigue. There are some fight sequences and light saber action of course, but the bulk of the story is about the Sith lords acting and pulling strings behind the scenes.