Labyrinth of Evil: Star Wars

“Labyrinth of Evil” takes place immediately before the movie “Revenge of the Sith” with its conclusion leading straight into the movie’s opening. The story is only mediocre. Once we get far enough to see exactly where it is in the Star Wars chronology, the conclusion is obvious, with no surprises. It’s chock full of references to the movies, somewhat interfering with actually telling a story. Having seen the movies, of course, I just groaned at them. One, for instance, when several of the Jedi Council visit Chancellor Palpatine in his office, looking around at the various sculptures he’s accumulated and remarking that one is a demigod of “disguise”. Another groaner is on an asteroid base Obi-Wan has to go with a local to disable a large tractor beam so their ship can leave, later telling Anakin, of all people, that it was nice to learn a new skill, but he’ll never use it again. Luceno mentions a lot of characters and a lot of races that don’t really go anywhere. It gets confusing having to figure out if they’re people to remember or to blow off and forget. And it gets awfully repetitive to keep mentioning Nute Gunray’s “mechno-chair” instead of after a while just calling it his “chair”. The “mechno” part just isn’t a significant part of the story. The writing starts off feeling quite juvenile, simple words, simple sentence structures and so forth, but does move up a few grade levels after about the halfway point. The editors, however, didn’t proofread very well, so there’s a number of misspellings, mostly missing letters. Overall, it’s a quick, mildly entertaining way to pass some time. But it’s far from one of the great Star Wars “Legends” novels.

A battle rages in space. Battle-weary soldiers yearn to put an end to the turmoil. Villains wait aboard a battleship. Canons fire. Blades clash. Death, darkness, and action work together to dazzle the minds of the viewer. The opening moments of Revenge of the Sith are regarded by many, myself included, as the most entertaining of the prequel films. We find ourselves at the end of an action-packed story known as the Clone Wars, and yet we never saw the Clone Wars take place beyond its opening battle on the planet Geonosis. Since the writing of this book, many of those gaps have been filled. Two animated series showed the ups and downs of the conflict and familiarized audiences with Count Dooku and General Grevious. But something still felt off. That’s how I felt until I read Labyrinth of Evil. Now I’ll never watch Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith with my brow furrowed, wondering why I should care about this war, Dooku, or Grevious at all. Now the Battle of Coruscant functions in my mind as the final act of the immense production of this galactic warfare, rather than simply the fast-paced opening act of a two-hour film. I’ve never been as infatuated with the prequels like I have been the original trilogy, but this book enhances my appreciation tremendously (in much the same way as Darth Plagueis did for the Phantom Menace). When I picked up the novel, I didn’t anticipate loving it as much as I do now. In addition to offering a compelling story that adds crucial connective drama to the Clone Wars, Labyrinth of Evil is expertly written. It’s my ninety-fifth Star Wars book for me to read, and I’d rank it among the very best. Luceno is in top form with this one. Wondering whether or not to pick this one up? Read it if you are dissatisfied with the plot of the prequels, if you love the prequels, if you like the Clone Wars animated series, if you like reading about the dark machinations of the Sith, if you like political thrillers, or even if you’ve never read a Star Wars book before – it’s a great place to start if you’ve only ever seen the films. You might just find yourself unable to put it down as you immediately open up a copy of Matthew Stover’s novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

Star Wars Labyrinth Of Evil is one of the best Star Wars novels I've read. The story is engaging and feels just like Star Wars Episode III. Although you can read and fully comprehend Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith without reading this book, this story is still well worth the reading and lays essential groundwork for episode III. I recommend this Star Wars Tale to any fan.

This is a great novel. Of the three prequel films each had a novel set just before it. This one is the best of the three. The main story of chasing Grevious around the galaxy wasn't too interesting to me, but the parts where Dooku tells the story of Syfo Dias was very good. That was a horrible hanging thread from the films. It was good to see it finally resolved in this book. The best part of the story was Mace Windu and Yoda dealing with the ever widening powers of the Chancellor, and and at the same time coming closer and closer to discovering the true identity of Darth Sidious. To bad stuff like that didn't make it into the films. Overall a good read with some great aspects to it. Read this with the Episode III novelization and you'll get the entire story of Revenge of the Sith in a way better version than the one we got on film.