James Luceno's TARKIN & the Old EU

For those wanting a sneak peak at, Amazon has the first 16 or so pages up to read on preview, with a few excluded to keep you guessing of course!

Click on "Look Inside" just above the product image and scroll down.

http://www.amazon.com/Tarkin-Star-Wars-James-Luceno/dp/0345511522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413329468&sr=8-1&keywords=tarkin

 

I'm very excited for this. It was hugely disappointing to me Tarkin only made a cameo in the Prequel Trilogy. I always wanted to know the story behind that wicked, little man

 

Luceno is perhaps my 2nd favorite author to write for Star Wars...first being Zahn of course....that being said I am really looking forward to the one that holds vader's leash and the character back story that I hope might continue the story moving forward.

I am interested to see if Tarkin novel has much to say about kyber crystals....as it may be acquiring them as a cheif priority for Tarkin and the Death Star

 

Got home yesterday to a surprise in the mail. A friend of mine sent me a copy of Tarkin hot of the press. I can't wait to get started. I will post some sort of spoiler free review when I'm done. Still working my way through the new George RR Martin The World of Fire and Ice, which I'm hoping the new Star Wars story group will have something similar for us in the future.

 

I've been slacking on my reading this last week but managed to get a little over halfway through Tarkin yesterday. Great read, so far!

I can't remember where I read in a review, but someone speculated the purpose of this novel was to help fill in the world building gaps of the Empire to compliment what is being done with Rebels. I feel that's exactly what it's doing, along with fleshing out the relationship between Tarkin and Vader. I'm pleasantly surprised Vader has such a large role in the story. I also like that Tarkin, and the rest of the galaxy, don't know who Vader is or was.

 

Just finished it. I think he did a good job covering Tarkin's childhood and tying it in to the "current" timeline. He also makes mention of some of the events in his Plageus novel, so it appears now that at least portions of that story are cannon. I also liked the interaction between Vader and Tarkin, and the insight into what Tarkin knows or suspects about Vader and Palpatine.

I did think it was interesting when it listed other novels Luceno has written that "The Mask of Zorro" was listed with all of the speculation about a Zorro like role being involved in TFA.

There is a brief mention of the kyber crystals that expands a little on why they were collecting them in the Rebels episode.

 

I'm two Chapters in and I think I can say I'm gonna like it more than " A New Dawn".

 

It read better than A New Dawn in my opinion, but maybe because he was a villain I wasn't as engrossed. Still, this new back-story for Tarkin is really profound and does set him up to be the man he is. A New Dawn was a good place for Kanan and Hera, now we just need a follow up to see the older and more mature personalities of Rebels to appear for the characters, who are not quite there in A New Dawn. All in all, wishful thinking, and a great standalone book for Tarkin.