Seize Your Copy Darth Maul: Saboteur Written And Illustrated By James Luceno Distributed In Booklet

Maul is in the shadows but his work is as devastating as ever, " The subtlety of Darth Sidious is reflected in Maul, This type of espionage is how I would have preferred Rogue One,
As usual Luceno delivers, Darth Maul as agent of chaos, Elric would be proud.

James Lucenosnovella, Darth Maul: Saboteur provides a fun backstory for Darth Sidious behind the scenes machinations occurring before the Phantom Menace and his use of Maul as an agent provocateur.


Just as in sitelinkTarkin, Luceno does a great job in expanding the Star Wars vision into economic and sociological realities that help to provide depth and at least a semblance of realism into the fantasy.


And it has Darth Maul action hes cool with the two sided light saber!

sitelink Star Wars Legends Project

Background: Darth Maul: Saboteur was published in earlyas the first Star Wars eBook.
It was later republished in the paperback of a novel released at the end of the year, It was written by sitelinkJames Luceno as a prequel to his novel sitelinkCloak of Deception, Originally hired to help oversee the development of the New Jedi Order series, Luceno ended up writing three of the novels himself, including the final book, He has gone on to write several more Star Wars novels, including one of the first to be included in the new expanded universe continuity, Outside of Star Wars, Luceno has written several standalone novels and a few film adaptations, He also collaborated on thebook Robotech series with his closer friend and fellow Star Wars author Brian Daley,

Saboteur is setyears before the Battle of Yavin,year before The Phantom Menace, As a prequel to Cloak of Deception, it features in addition to Darth Maul many of the same characters and locations as the novel, including the planets Dorvalla and Eriadu, local governor Tarkin and various members of the Trade Federation, etc.


Summary: Two rival mining companies on the planet Dorvalla, InterGalactic Ore and Lommite Limited, are locked in a mutuallydestructive struggle for control rife with sabotage and intrigue, but neither is quite devious enough to finish the other off.
Enter Darth Maul, who has been dispatched on his first solo mission to manipulate the situation to the advantage of the Trade Federation, thus securing his master the loyalty of a certain Nute Gunray.
. . Maul's skill at destruction are sure to serve him well here, The trick will be getting in and out with no one the wiser to his dark presence,

: As I hinted in my initial description of the publication history, this is a fairly short work, but too long to be a short story and too short to be a novella.
I believe that makes it a "novelette," which is a term I don't hear very often, Honestly, I'm not sure it isn't longer than some of the slimmer Jedi Apprentice volumes,

I feel like maybe I'll appreciate this story a bit more once I've reread the novel it's supposed to tiein with, As it was, I just suddenly began realizing some of the connections partway through when Tarkin makes a brief appearance, and I remembered that Luceno wrote that other novel as well.
Luceno isn't my favorite Star Wars author, but I don't tend to actively dislike his books, I just find them a bit bland at times,

Saboteur suffers from a couple of flaws that aren't really Luceno's fault, First, the story barely scratches the surface of exploring Darth Maul as a character, We get just the bare minimum of some personality and no background, Now, part of that may be because this isn't very long, but I'd guess that at least some of it had to do with a lack of latitude to develop things about the character that hadn't been established yet.
And that just means his portrayal is all over the place across different stories,

Second, there aren't really any characters

that we can really latch onto, because having a story centered around Darth Maul that doesn't really do much with him as a character means that whatever sympathetic characters we do spend time with are probably going to end up dead if they play an important role.
Luceno tries to give us at least one interesting character, but it felt like we didn't spend enough time with him to earn that, Yeah, I guess I'm complaining that this short novel is short, However, after seeing how well the Darth Bane trilogy dealt with having an evil protagonist, this seemed like it could have done better as well,

That said, it was just fun seeing Maul in full Agent of Chaos mode, expertly sowing confusion and destruction without anyone noticing that there is ard party manipulating the situation.
I feel like Luceno lowered the bar for Maul a bit by explaining how incompetent everyone else is so many times, but it's his first mission out on his own.
Plus, it's clear that he's never really tested to anywhere near the limits of his abilities, which just makes him that much scarier as a force of darkness, Overall, this isn't supermemorable, but it's fun in spots and it ties in with a larger story,

C A Nice Intro to the World of Darth Maul

Find out what happens as we start leading up to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Enjoy the story. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Star Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter,

A dazzling new short story featuring Darth Maul, merciless apprentice of evil, . .

On the distant planet Dorvalla, precious ore is mined by two competing companies: InterGalactic Ore and Lommite Limited, Neither rival suspects that they are central to a sinister plot masterminded by Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, himself,

Dispatched by Sidious on his very first solo mission, Darth Maul infiltrates Lommite Limited, There, his unique gifts of deception and subterfuge will set off an explosive chain of events that could destroy both companies, leaving them ripe for takeover by the Trade Federation.
But a vengeful Lommite Limited Manager with his own thirst for retaliation against InterGal could blow Maul's coverand all of Sidious's fiendishly layed plans, . . Króciutkie opowiadanie z Maulem w roli głównej, Mało to jednak wartkiej akcji, Całość raczej ogranicza się do krótkiego opowiadania o szpiegostwie i subtelnych metodach rozwiązywania problemów przez Sithów, Ot tak do szybkiego przeczytania na jakiś wieczór, A somewhat interesting short story of Mail being sent on a little mission to further Sidious machinations, My eyes were glued to their conversations, but this was before Mail was really given any personality, and so he has less of a presence here in a way.
Very short but excellent story, As long as you have seen at least Star Wars: Episode I you have everything you need to get into this book,

This makes the fourth Star Wars book I have read from Luceno, All of them have been good, with this being the second to make it to my "favorites" list, I have two more yet to read "Cloak of Deception" and "Millennium Falcon", If those hold up, Luceno will be right up there with Timothy Zahn as the best Star Wars writers :/,

Darth Maul engages in corporate espionage, Didn't have enough substance. Should have been a full book, This novella was okay, but I wanted more Darth Maul,
Like with Darth Plagueis, Saboteur was more concerned with the bigger picture of the political landscape of the Prequel era galaxy than providing an entertaining Darth Maul character story.
The plot focused on two rival mining companies and Darth Sidius's desire to take them out for the benefit of expanding the power base of the Trade Federation, Darth Maul was a silent shadow in the story, He was not as present as many of the other characters, This is the first Star Wars fiction I have ever read, Its wellwritten, but theres not much to it, I was hoping to learn more about Darth Maul but the focus is really on the Trade Federation and beginning to set the scene for the events of The Phantom Menace.
I will check out book two in this series to see what happens next, Darth Maul Saboteur by James Luceno is a short story detailing a quick mission taken by Darth Sidiouss young apprentice, Darth Maul, prior to the events of The Phantom Menace.
Put me in the category of being a Darth Maul fan without knowing actually why, Sure, he has the classic vicious villain look to him or it could be because he wields a dual sided lightsaber, Whatever the case may be, Im glad there are dedicated stories and novels based on his character, Never would I have guessed though that Darth Maul is actually gifted in other arts besides being a Jedi sword master,

“What is done in secret has great power, ” Darth Sidious

Not much is known in regards to the Darth Maul character if you were like me who just watched the Star Wars movies and never getting to actually explore beyond that.
He was a mysterious and quiet figure serving as apprentice to Darth Sidious but we all underneath that demeanor lurked a very powerful Jedi skilled in the way of fighting with his awesome looking, if unorthodox, duel sided red light saber.
With Saboteur, we get to see that Darth Maul isnt just all about using his lightsaber, Instead, we learn one of his other prized gift as a Jedi is actually in the arts of background deception and manipulation, Being able to sense and read peoples feelings allows him to better predict and manipulate an outcome of his choosing, This makes him the ultimate saboteur and perfect for stealth missions, That shocked me a bit at first but I really shouldnt have been, Darth Maul is Darth Sidiouss apprentice and we all know how well of a manipulator he is,

“You need fear me only if you fail me, ” Darth Sidious

Saboteur is nice quick read on Darth Maul before going into other of his more length novels, If youre just getting into the Darth Maul character like I am, be prepared for a surprise, .