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A review by crystalstarrlight
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves
5.0
"He can't be bought off, scared off, or thrown off the trail and he'll stop at nothing..."
Lorn Pavan hates the Jedi. So when he and his droid companion, I-Five, get access to a Sith Holocron detailing the impending Naboo blockade, the first person he goes to is a Hutt crimelord attached to the Black Sun, not the Jedi. But someone wants that Holocron back...and he will stop at nothing to get it.
NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.
I Liked:
WOW! I am astonished at how good this novel is! I remember when I had first read it eons ago, that I adored it and thought Reaves was an impressive author. And time has aged this novel favorably.
The writing is very engaging, very quick paced for the action, yet insightful and thoughtful for the character moments. Reaves balances the two well, not spending the whole novel on a underbelly of Coruscant race (Anderson might have) or having his characters sit around a fire gabbing all night (Traviss might have).
The characters are absolutely impressive. Lorn Pavan is your average guy. Sure, he lives in the underlevels, his best friend is a droid, and he sells information, but he isn't a Jedi, smuggler, Sith, Mandalorian, bounty hunter, assassin, or any of a million occupations that have been almost exclusively seen in Star Wars. In fact, he used to work in the Jedi Temple in finances. No different than the millions who go to work each day at Sterling Bank. What this "Everyman" character gives us is the chance to see how one guy, who isn't the best shot, pilot, or fighter in the galaxy faces off against a Sith Lord. He has guts, he has courage, and he has a friend who helps him along. Plus, we see a character who has a reason to hate the Jedi, yet when he faces on personally, realizes that there is more to them than meets the eye (unlike the Jedi-haters from Traviss' books). These qualities really stand out to me and make Lorn Pavan (Jax Pavan's father) a much more approachable character.
Then we have Darsha Assant. In some ways, she is a predecessor to Etain Tur-Mukan. She's a Jedi Padawan, trying to become a Jedi Knight, but totally ruins her first mission. She meets up with Lorn, who informs her of his find and now it is her task to see him to safety. I don't want to ruin the plot, but there is a scene where she faces off with Darth Maul that is up there with Ganner Rhysode from Traitor.
I-Five is probably the only droid I actually like to read about. C-3PO, R2-D2, and all the others always seems to get in the way or are just thrown in for a plot element. I-Five is actually a character, with feelings, with opinions, and with an excellent sense of humor. It was a good move on Reaves' part to have I-Five and Lorn banter as they do, and add levity to this intense novel.
Lastly, Darth Maul appears. If I could say only one thing, it would be this: Reaves needs to write more Maul books! He does a great job with Maul's single-minded hatred. My only complaint is there wasn't enough of him.
The plot was fantastic. The pacing was great, the flow was superb, the scenes made sense (no deus ex machina or other @ss-pulling), and the outcome was fabulous.
I Didn't Like:
Michael Reaves likes his vocabulary. He loves to dig deep into the dictionary and pull out words no one has ever heard of, such as "pyrric" and "rictus".
Obi-Wan is included, and while his part isn't inflated and does serve the purpose as to put closure for the characters, I wonder if we really needed such a prominent character in this role. Couldn't Reaves have invented a different apprentice or Jedi? Why Obi-Wan?
Lastly, Mahwi LIhnn, a bounty hunter going after Hath (who has the Sith Holocron), makes a comment that there are 1 trillion people on Coruscant, and, at a rate of 1 person/second, it would take her 100 Tatooine Sarlacc's lifetimes to interview them all. Being an ubergeek, I crunched the numbers and came up with 31.7 years. Either the character can't do math or Tatooine Sarlaccs don' live very long ;)
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Lorn spews b*****d and d***.
Obi-Wan finds Darsha good to look at.
Darth Maul is a ruthless hunter. Several people end up dead by the end. Hath wets himself from fear.
Overall:
This is a positively astounding novel, interesting, compelling, with great characters, great writing, and great story. I enjoyed rereading about Jax's father, I-Five, and their origins. About my biggest complaint is, for a "Darth Maul" book, there isn't enough Darth Maul. Otherwise, this is definitely going on my top 10 favorite Star Wars novels list, and I highly recommend Star Wars fans to read.
Lorn Pavan hates the Jedi. So when he and his droid companion, I-Five, get access to a Sith Holocron detailing the impending Naboo blockade, the first person he goes to is a Hutt crimelord attached to the Black Sun, not the Jedi. But someone wants that Holocron back...and he will stop at nothing to get it.
NOTE: Based on audiobook and novel.
I Liked:
WOW! I am astonished at how good this novel is! I remember when I had first read it eons ago, that I adored it and thought Reaves was an impressive author. And time has aged this novel favorably.
The writing is very engaging, very quick paced for the action, yet insightful and thoughtful for the character moments. Reaves balances the two well, not spending the whole novel on a underbelly of Coruscant race (Anderson might have) or having his characters sit around a fire gabbing all night (Traviss might have).
The characters are absolutely impressive. Lorn Pavan is your average guy. Sure, he lives in the underlevels, his best friend is a droid, and he sells information, but he isn't a Jedi, smuggler, Sith, Mandalorian, bounty hunter, assassin, or any of a million occupations that have been almost exclusively seen in Star Wars. In fact, he used to work in the Jedi Temple in finances. No different than the millions who go to work each day at Sterling Bank. What this "Everyman" character gives us is the chance to see how one guy, who isn't the best shot, pilot, or fighter in the galaxy faces off against a Sith Lord. He has guts, he has courage, and he has a friend who helps him along. Plus, we see a character who has a reason to hate the Jedi, yet when he faces on personally, realizes that there is more to them than meets the eye (unlike the Jedi-haters from Traviss' books). These qualities really stand out to me and make Lorn Pavan (Jax Pavan's father) a much more approachable character.
Then we have Darsha Assant. In some ways, she is a predecessor to Etain Tur-Mukan. She's a Jedi Padawan, trying to become a Jedi Knight, but totally ruins her first mission. She meets up with Lorn, who informs her of his find and now it is her task to see him to safety. I don't want to ruin the plot, but there is a scene where she faces off with Darth Maul that is up there with Ganner Rhysode from Traitor.
I-Five is probably the only droid I actually like to read about. C-3PO, R2-D2, and all the others always seems to get in the way or are just thrown in for a plot element. I-Five is actually a character, with feelings, with opinions, and with an excellent sense of humor. It was a good move on Reaves' part to have I-Five and Lorn banter as they do, and add levity to this intense novel.
Lastly, Darth Maul appears. If I could say only one thing, it would be this: Reaves needs to write more Maul books! He does a great job with Maul's single-minded hatred. My only complaint is there wasn't enough of him.
The plot was fantastic. The pacing was great, the flow was superb, the scenes made sense (no deus ex machina or other @ss-pulling), and the outcome was fabulous.
I Didn't Like:
Michael Reaves likes his vocabulary. He loves to dig deep into the dictionary and pull out words no one has ever heard of, such as "pyrric" and "rictus".
Obi-Wan is included, and while his part isn't inflated and does serve the purpose as to put closure for the characters, I wonder if we really needed such a prominent character in this role. Couldn't Reaves have invented a different apprentice or Jedi? Why Obi-Wan?
Lastly, Mahwi LIhnn, a bounty hunter going after Hath (who has the Sith Holocron), makes a comment that there are 1 trillion people on Coruscant, and, at a rate of 1 person/second, it would take her 100 Tatooine Sarlacc's lifetimes to interview them all. Being an ubergeek, I crunched the numbers and came up with 31.7 years. Either the character can't do math or Tatooine Sarlaccs don' live very long ;)
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Lorn spews b*****d and d***.
Obi-Wan finds Darsha good to look at.
Darth Maul is a ruthless hunter. Several people end up dead by the end. Hath wets himself from fear.
Overall:
This is a positively astounding novel, interesting, compelling, with great characters, great writing, and great story. I enjoyed rereading about Jax's father, I-Five, and their origins. About my biggest complaint is, for a "Darth Maul" book, there isn't enough Darth Maul. Otherwise, this is definitely going on my top 10 favorite Star Wars novels list, and I highly recommend Star Wars fans to read.