Amazon.co.uk Review
Here's another
Star Wars spin-off novel, a brisk and extremely uncomplicated action-adventure romp set on planet Coruscant immediately before the events of
The Phantom Menace. After a few setting-up exercises, it's essentially a prolonged chase sequence whose implacable pursuer is Darth Maul--the almost absurdly villainous-looking Sith Lord with the biggest light sabre and worst make-up job in the entire saga to date.
The plot? Insidiously evil Darth Sidious is poised to launch the Naboo trade blockade featured in The Phantom Menace. But one of his alien henchmen has sneaked away to betray this scheme, and must die. So must the traitor's contacts, small-time crook Lorn Pavan and his uppity droid I-Five. Likewise Darsha Assant, the female Jedi Knight apprentice who gets entangled with Pavan through either mind-boggling coincidence or the mysterious ways of the Force.
Michael Reaves makes a reasonably slick job of all this nonsense, and is not afraid of clichés. "I've got a bad feeling about this", people say. "Too many questions, and not enough answers". Meanwhile in the Jedi council, Yoda makes characteristic remarks: "A good choice he would be ... No accident this was". Yoda's style to imitate, shooting fish in a barrel is.
Unfortunately, the well-known storyline of The Phantom Menace defuses suspense in Shadow Hunter. That trade blockade has to happen despite the good folks' doomed heroics, and horrible Darth Maul (already far more powerful and deadly than the puny opposition he faces here) is fated to win through. For dedicated fans only. --David Langford
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Not long before the events of The Phantom Menace, the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, is meeting via hologram with the Neimoidian Viceroy, Nute Gunray, and his seconds in command. But something is wrong: Where there are three Neimoidians, there should be a fourth. Where is he? No one knows. Angry and suspicious, sure that the fourth Neimoidian, Hath Monchar, is out there blabbing Darth Sidious' secrets, Sidious sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, out to investigate. His mission: Find and kill Hath Monchar. Then figure out whom Monchar might have spoken with, and kill them, too. Lorn Pavan is an information broker, who makes his living finding information and selling it to the highest bidder. When the Neimoidian, Hath Monchar, shows up with a very interesting holocron with information about an actual, living - and evil-plotting - Sith Lord, Lorn knows he's got something really hot. So when Monchar is murdered, Lorn manages to get his hands on the holocron anyway. His motives are anything but noble. Darsha Assant is a Jedi Padawan. She and Lorn find themselves thrown together unexpectedly, and when they realize that it is a Sith Lord on their trail, they realize that they must somehow get the holocron to the Jedi Council. But Darth Maul is too good a tracker. What's more, he's never failed his Master, Darth Sidious, and he doesn't intend to this time, either...
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