If you like the political intrigue from Star Wars episodes I-II-III this book is for you. It tells how Palpatine ascended to power in detail and it’s quite great to know how he became a Sith Lord. He is not a mastermind alone: he’s following his Master’s steps, Darth Plagueis. The book is well written and it feels you’re seeing the prequel trilogy from behind the scenes. Several important questions are answered in this installment. Darth Plagueis is a great character in this grand scheme of the Revenge of the Sith, although the book is misleading. Although the book is called Darth Plagueis, the character is practically secondary to his apprentice, Darth Sidious.

My problem with this title is that it’s quite exemplary of how bad old SW Expanded Universe has become in its final days (I’m not saying that the Disney Cannon is better either; I still prefer the old EU). It shows this unnecessary (and quite annoying) urge to connect all the dots between movies, previous books, videogames and comic books as well. I was constantly thinking about the huge library research Luceno did to “fill all the gaps” just to fulfill the LucasBooks Licensing editorial demands. Sometimes it seems it was more important to know when and where this or that came from than the story itself (ie. if you want to know why Count Dooku uses his well tailored cape, you will find the answer here; what that matters to the main plot Is the big question).

What do Dooku, Tatooine, Kamino, Jabba, the Hutt and those beautiful chrome-nosed Nubian starfighters of Naboo have in common? Apparently everything, and that is the problem. I have this feeling that Star Wars galaxy is amazingly small because everyone knows everyone and everyone lives and/or goes to the same places because of this unjustified need to connect all previous publications. I still don’t understand why they have to be at Tatooine all the time (I don’t know what’s so appealing with that huge dust ball) or even to meet Jabba the Hutt just because he’s an iconic character.

Anyway, if you’re looking to take a different look at what happened before the prequel trilogy and you really dig the political schemes from episodes I-II-III, it’s a must read.