Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HF9YD3Y | Format: PDF
Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown Description
Set before the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, this new novel is a thrilling follow-up to Star Wars: Darth Plagueis.
It's kill or be killed in the space penitentiary that houses the galaxy's worst criminals, where convicts face off in gladiatorial combat while an underworld gambling empire reaps the profits of the illicit blood sport. But the newest contender in this savage arena, as demonic to behold as he is deadly to challenge, is fighting for more than just survival. His do-or-die mission, for the dark masters he serves, is to capture the ultimate weapon: an object that will enable the Sith to conquer the galaxy.
Sith lords Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious are determined to possess the prize. And one of the power-hungry duo has his own treacherous plans for it. But first, their fearsome apprentice must take on a bloodthirsty prison warden, a cannibal gang, cutthroat crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and an unspeakable alien horror. No one else could brave such a gauntlet of death and live. But no one else is the dreaded dark-side disciple known as Darth Maul.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 12 hours and 24 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: January 28, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HF9YD3Y
Maul: Lockdown was a book I anticipated with a mix of hope and dread. Maul is one of my favorite Prequel characters and I was also excited to see Darth Plagueis again. However, Joe Schreiber is best known to Star Wars fans for his Deathtrooper horror novels, which might suggest that the book would be a shallow bloodfest. While Maul: Lockdown isn’t a perfect Star Wars novel, I was relieved to find that it succeeds more often than it fails.
VIOLENCE WARNING
Joe Schreiber comes to Star Wars from a background in horror novels and as expected this novel is pretty violent. I’d definitely not recommend it for younger readers. The fights are pretty gruesome, not just because of the deaths but graphic detail with which those deaths are depicted. We see prisoners bludgeoning each other to death and even pulling out the bones. I think Schreiber does a decent job setting expectations and pointing out that the prison, Cog Hive Seven, is supposed to be a brutal environment, but, if you’re not into horror and violence, think twice about this book. I found myself barely able to tolerate some scenes.
PLOT
The plot is fairly basic. Darth Sidious tasks Maul to track down a weapons dealer, Iram Radique, who is allegedly hiding within a prison aboard a space station, Cog Hive Seven. It’s a bit of a contrivance, but that’s how Schreiber manages to get Maul deep inside a prison. If you can accept that stretch, I actually think the idea of throwing Maul into a prison works pretty well. It’s a brutal environment in which everybody is out for him or herself. The dystopian setting almost reminded me of one of Alien 3 (and, yes, there’s even a monstrous alien in Maul: Lockdown that goes around killing prisoners).
Joe Schreiber’s new Star Wars book Maul: Lockdown created a real conundrum for me. Darth Maul and his master are evil characters, completely on the side of the bad guys in the Star Wars saga. The things they do are not what you would want your heroes to do. However, I found that in Lockdown I was pulling for Maul to win a string of victories and accomplish his goals. Clearly, I am headed toward the Dark Side.
Mr. Schreiber is not new to Star Wars readers. He also wrote Death Troopers and Red Harvest. None of the books are quite what would be thought of as normal Star Wars fare, and Maul: Lockdown continues in that vein. They are just very different. However, as you can see from my rating of the book, I liked this one. I did. I couldn’t help myself. Part of my reaction may be because recently I have been reading the early books of the New Jedi Order series, and they occasionally bog down in deep philosophical discussions of the Force and whether or not a true Jedi should actually be using the Force. It was kind of nice to get to a book that is basically nothing but action.
Darth Maul is locked up on a space-station penitentiary, Cog Hive Seven, a place that is teeming with the galaxy’s most hardened criminals. Of course, he is there as part of a plan developed by Darth Sidious, and his purpose is to infiltrate a criminal empire that operates from the penitentiary. Entertainment in the prison consists of almost constant death matches between inmates. Maul wins a match against hopeless odds as soon as he arrives at Cog Hive Seven. From there he goes on to win match after match, and he does it without using the Force and giving away that he is a Sith.
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