Curtis reviewed Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno
Review of 'Star Wars: Tarkin' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
An enjoyable story about an iconic character. Definitely worth reading if you were ever enthralled by the creepiness and tenacity of Tarkin from the original Star Wars.
Structurally, the novel does a good job of going back and forth between Tarkin's relatively new assignment as the director of a secret project to build a new weapons platform (wonder what THAT could be…) and his coming of age on the Outer Rim planet of Eriadu. Without giving spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed how the two storylines merged at the end, with Tarkin both embracing the lessons he learned as a teenager and young man while still being able to move out of his provincial homeworld and gain glory and renown for both himself and those upon whom his success reflects. Not that they were good lessons, per se, but they certainly were…effective.
Luceno is a competent storyteller and craftsman. …
An enjoyable story about an iconic character. Definitely worth reading if you were ever enthralled by the creepiness and tenacity of Tarkin from the original Star Wars.
Structurally, the novel does a good job of going back and forth between Tarkin's relatively new assignment as the director of a secret project to build a new weapons platform (wonder what THAT could be…) and his coming of age on the Outer Rim planet of Eriadu. Without giving spoilers, I will say that I enjoyed how the two storylines merged at the end, with Tarkin both embracing the lessons he learned as a teenager and young man while still being able to move out of his provincial homeworld and gain glory and renown for both himself and those upon whom his success reflects. Not that they were good lessons, per se, but they certainly were…effective.
Luceno is a competent storyteller and craftsman. There were handful of spots where the wording might have been refined (e.g., one sentence that read something like "Tarkin's followers followed him…"), but on the whole I like what he did with the story. He was able to keep the pace flowing, while still offering insight into Tarkin's mindset and thought process. There was one point where I thought the depiction of Tarkin might be a little too Thrawn-like (from the EU books – I still haven't read the newer canon [b: Thrawn|31140332|Thrawn (Star Wars Thrawn, #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468787895s/31140332.jpg|51766424]), strategically speaking, but I am happy to say that Luceno maintains the essence of who Tarkin is throughout the story.
The only book I have read by Luceno before is [b: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel|29662066|Catalyst A Rogue One Novel (Star Wars)|James Luceno|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509729394s/29662066.jpg|50028005]. I would recommend reading Tarkin before that one, given some obvious (at least, after you read them) connections, rather than in the order I did.
