Tarkin: Why His Backstory Matters
When Disney bought out Lucasfilm, we knew there was going to be awesome Star Wars stuff coming...but did we really know how awesome?
I recently finished the Tarkin novel by James Luceno, author of the extra-cononical Darth Plagueis novels and others. Man, it was worth the read. Here are a few of my favorite reasons why:
The whole Vader vs. Tarkin plot hole is nicely patched up. Everyone who has seen Episode IV a few times has thought about how the interaction between Vader and Tarkin doesn't seem right...why can Tarkin boss Vader around? Isn't Vader the Emperor's right hand man? Without giving away any spoilers, that character issue is subtly cleared up in Tarkin.
Tarkin’s cruelty matches his dark past. And his future role in the Alderaan incident makes total sense. He should be that cruel, ruthless and yet calm. He should be in charge of shutting down the rebellion. He should be who he is, and James Luceno made me believe that.
The whole Vader vs. Tarkin plot hole is nicely patched up. Everyone who has seen Episode IV a few times has thought about how the interaction between Vader and Tarkin doesn't seem right...why can Tarkin boss Vader around? Isn't Vader the Emperor's right hand man? Without giving away any spoilers, that character issue is subtly cleared up in Tarkin.
Tarkin’s cruelty matches his dark past. And his future role in the Alderaan incident makes total sense. He should be that cruel, ruthless and yet calm. He should be in charge of shutting down the rebellion. He should be who he is, and James Luceno made me believe that.
I kind of like Tarkin as a person now. Star Wars is overtly black-and-white in the original trilogy. Good guys are basically Jesus and bad guys are essentially Hitler. In Tarkin, you can start to see where the Grand Moff is coming from with the Death Star, as a measure to “keep the peace.” You also learn why he's the ONLY Grand Moff. He might not be right about everything, but I could see Tarkin happening in a real-world, Hitler kind of way.
Tarkin’s home world of Eriadu is awesome. The backbone of this story is Tarkin’s family and their life on Eriadu. You can imagine that Tarkin did not have an easy life, and that includes one very difficult, Hunger Games sort of trial. That trial lasts throughout the book in flashbacks and lives on Eriadu’s harsh wilderness. It's one of my favorite settings for a story that I've ever read.
Tarkin’s home world of Eriadu is awesome. The backbone of this story is Tarkin’s family and their life on Eriadu. You can imagine that Tarkin did not have an easy life, and that includes one very difficult, Hunger Games sort of trial. That trial lasts throughout the book in flashbacks and lives on Eriadu’s harsh wilderness. It's one of my favorite settings for a story that I've ever read.
It's all the genres. It's a mystery-heist-adventure-biography-survival-buddy-cop-thing.
That's pretty much it. I really liked it. There's always stuff I don't like in a book (Luceno can be a little too flowery in his language, I got lost in a landscape description or two, etc.), but there was nothing that really tainted my love of the book.
That's pretty much it. I really liked it. There's always stuff I don't like in a book (Luceno can be a little too flowery in his language, I got lost in a landscape description or two, etc.), but there was nothing that really tainted my love of the book.
If you want to compare our tastes, you can go to my Goodreads account and see what else I've read and the ratings I've given: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/23517275-luke-stoltzfoos
Let me know if you get the book on my recommendation...and how that pans out for you.
Let me know if you get the book on my recommendation...and how that pans out for you.
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