Maul: Lockdown | Joe Schreiber

Title: Maul: Lockdown
Author: Joe Schreiber


I guess this is one of the last books written before Disney acquired Star Wars and wiped out the Expanded Universe (EU) as canon. I was having a hard time finding a list of Star Wars canon books written in order (rather than in chronological order by timeline), so I just started with those published in 2014 and went from there.

The book itself is basically interesting. We have Maul on a mission from his Sith Master, Darth Sidious, to infiltrate a prison and acquire a piece of technology from someone who is hiding in said prison (on such a level that he is nearly mythological) and deliver it to what is essentially a cult led by a former Jedi called the Bando Gora--all without using the Force. The former Jedi leader of the Bando Gora, Komari Vosa (a former apprentice of Dooku), is not Sith either. She's just something else.

There's also a whole side plot about how Maul is being used as a chess piece by Darth Sidious and his Master, Darth Plagueis. 

All of this to say that from what I can tell, there is a lot you need to know about the EU to fully understand what is happening in this novel. Fortunately, the novel is not very complicated and is pretty easy to follow. 

There is a worm-like monster living in the prison that definitely feeds off people's fears, and seeing Maul kill it was somewhat gratifying. Maul doesn't seem to feel any emotion whatsoever. The only thing he seems to feel is loyalty, and even that is felt begrudgingly at best. 

We get to see Maul fight quite a bit, which I know is one of the many things that Star Wars fanboys whine about in The Phantom Menace--that this amazing villain is introduced and whoops! he's bisected, and that's the end of that. Unfortunately, all of the fighting he does up until the very end is all done without the Force, so if you're wanting to see epic lightsaber battles with Darth Maul, forget it. This is not the book for you.

The book is okay. This is my first foray into Star Wars literature, and I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. We'll see what's coming up next and take it from there.

Three out of five stars.

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READING PROGRESS:
The Green Mile by Stephen King: 48%
Last Day by Luanne Rice: 69%
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan: 22%
Razor's Edge by Martha Wells: NOW STARTING

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