Tarkin: Star Wars Book Reviews

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Slow pacing. The origin story part of this book is great, but it felt very slow to read. I had trouble finishing this one, but it did fill out Tarken as a character in my mind.

Riveting. After reading this, Tarkin may very well be one of my favorite characters in Star Wars lore.

Gripping and insightful. Couldn’t put this book down!!! Read it in a day.

Great. Great book, especially since it is a part of the new Star Wars canon. Makes you wish Tarkin didn't die in a New Hope.

Very enjoyable!. This was a great read, I loved the depth added to Tarkin. I also enjoyed the subtle tie-ins to Luceno's Plagueis. It was nice to see familiar characters from that novel continued in this effort. And cannon confirmation that Plagueis was master to and killed by Sidious.

Solid novel. It’s a good novel but not great. I think Tarkin and Vader working together as well as the interactions with the emperor were the highlights of the novel. I like the lead up to the Death Star. I do wish we had gotten more history of Tarkin’s rise as I felt this barely scratched the history and the “challenge” of his childhood didn’t ring as something true to the character but that might just be me.

“Star Wars: Tarkin” – Fear Keeps Them in Line. Like some other recent Star Wars releases from Del Rey, I did not get what I expected from this novel. The hype I’d heard leading up to this release was basically – “Wilhuff Tarkin gets the Darth Plagueis treatment.” I assumed this was more than simply because they had the same author. I was braced for a decades-spanning biographic narrative - similar to Plagueis & Sidious - telling Tarkin’s story from his backwater birth to his meteoric rise within a fledgling Galactic Empire. I did not get that. And, in truth, I got something far better. Wilhuff Tarkin has made enough appearances (in and out of Canon) in the past that there are just too many things to fit in and too many things to exclude. Luceno takes an excellent approach and tells a very narrow tale that spans only a week or two in the span of galactic history. Through that tale, though, he has woven smartly-placed flashbacks showing us Tarkin’s most formative years as an early teen and young adult. He doesn’t spend unnecessary pages on this – just enough to give you an idea, and then it’s back to the story. I found this approach to be very effective and enjoyable. This particular story shows us the mind of Tarkin in sharp detail – his cunning, his analytical process, and his ruthless pursuit of order. Much like in Darth Plagueis, the reader simply can’t help but root for the bad guys. The plight of the “dissidents” in this story doesn’t particularly engender any sympathy in the reader as we might expect. I found myself actually wanting Tarkin and Vader to squash these guys like bugs. Speaking of Vader, he plays a supporting role in this story but an important one. Like in “Lords of the Sith,” we see hints of the humanity that still lurks inside that helmet and armor – not to be confused with sympathy or empathy, but at least the raw emotion that fuels him. There is recognition of his past experiences before the epic duel on Mustafar that claimed his former identity. Make no mistake, this is NOT Anakin Skywalker, but you can see that he once was Anakin, and his memories are carefully dealt with by Luceno. I found some of my favorite moments to be the personal discussions between he and Tarkin – two unlikely partners in the shaping of galactic events. One would never mistake them for friends, but this novel does an excellent job of painting their relationship as one of mutual (if grudging) respect – perhaps even admiration. Ultimately they both want to serve the Emperor, the Empire, and (perhaps most crucially for Tarkin) the establishment of order. This book was a quick read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were accurately portrayed and my brain couldn’t help but play out the dialogue in my head in the voices of James Earl Jones and Peter Cushing. The Emperor appears slightly more fallible here than we saw him in “Lords of the Sith” but a powerful presence none-the-less. The would-be rebels in the tale are largely forgettable (as perhaps was intended) but the ending leaves open the possibility of at least one of them appearing again – perhaps in the “Rebels” series? Time will tell.

Grand Admiral Thrawn meets Darth Plagueis. Tarkin by James Luceno follows the life of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin from his upbringing in a noble house on Eriadu through his mission with none other than Darth Vader to quell a group of rebels opposing the rule of the newly-established Galactic Empire. Maybe the word “rebels” has too many positive connotations, especially in regards to the Star Wars universe. Better words to describe them would be “dissidents” or “terrorists” as they go on a reign of terror destroying Imperial strongholds, killing innocent citizens, and spreading anti-Imperial propaganda to incite fear in the echelons of the Imperial government. Believing in the glory of the Empire’s cause, Tarkin is eager to work with the Emperor’s personal executioner to end this threat once and for all. Tarkin may be my favorite Star Wars antihero novel to date. This is because, unlike many other Star Wars books I’ve read, this book doesn’t have to rely solely on huge space battles, lightsaber duels, or crazy force powers to tell a consistent narrative, though there is some great action in this book. Instead much of the story is told through more subtle modes of storytelling: dialogue and narration. This helps to streamline the story by focusing it on the development of Wilhuff Tarkin which is absolutely necessary for antihero stories. Without this focus antiheroes simply become unlikable protagonists. No matter what scene he’s in, Tarkin always comes off as a precise, disciplined, and pragmatic individual. Simply from the way he acts to the way he speaks, more can be said about Tarkin’s character in a few pages than has been said about Luke, Leia, and Han over several books. It was also fascinating to read how other characters react to Tarkin, some with disgust, others with awe. This really helped to add additional depth to Tarkin’s character. Additionally the progression of the story in regards to Tarkin’s character is extremely well done. Although he comes from a noble household on Eriadu, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. While it is definitely one of the more civilized planets of the galaxy, it still rests in the Outer Rim. As such Tarkin had to grow up experiencing both upper class life and the wilds of the galactic outskirts. This logically caused him to develop into a disciplined, efficient, man unafraid to be ruthless when necessary. When he finally grows up to be the man we all know in A New Hope, it is not only appropriate, but also inspiring given the trials he faces. Other interesting characters include the dissidents themselves who act as great foils to Tarkin. Luceno makes it no secret that the tactics they use aren’t too different from those of Tarkin’s. The Moff’s quote from Episode 4, “Fear will keep the local systems in line”, most certainly applies to the actions of the terrorists, only instead, they use fear to keep the Empire in line. (The definition of terrorist is “One who uses violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.” Doesn’t that make Tarkin a terrorist too? Hmm…) This really helps to make a black-and-white Star Wars concept, Empire vs. Rebels, into something most definitely wishy-washy grey and provokes the reader to ask the question of who is actually in the right. On top of using fear, both sides play mind games against the other by trying to predict the actions of the other. As expected from any good game of cat-and-mouse, these predictions don’t always ring true. This gives a Moriarty to Tarkin’s Holmes or perhaps a Superman to Tarkin’s Lex Luthor if you prefer. When this book was first announced I came in expecting Darth Plagueis meets Grand Admiral Thrawn and boy was I not disappointed! Just like Thrawn, James Luceno has crafted an extremely complex antihero who believes in order above all else and frequently has us rooting for him when the chips are down. In the end, if you can’t sympathize with Tarkin as a character, at the very least you will most definitely respect him. Though we may never get the Thrawn origin story fans so desperately want (between the Disney acquisition and the fact that Timothy Zahn is pretty tight-lipped about Thrawn’s past) I truly believe this makes up for it. ALTERNATE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: How about a few other great anti-hero stories in the Star Wars universe? I recommend Darth Plagueis also by James Luceno, Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover, and Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn. These books follow the lives of Darth Plagueis (and Palpatine), Mace Windu, and Darth Bane respectively. Additionally while Path of Destruction is the first of the Darth Bane trilogy it still serves as a standalone story so reading the second and third books is entirely optional.

No!. This book was horrible. People will read it because "Star Wars" but I hated it. It dragged on and on going back and forth between Tarkins past and present. I know technically it's all the past "a long time ago in galaxy..." But you know what mean. It's very confusing to be reading about Tarkin and Vader, and then the very next sentence Tarkins a boy on his home world. It took me a month to read it because it felt so tedious I just couldn't bring myself to read more than a few pages a day. It's disappointing because I felt like this could have been an interesting story. I'm actually worried about buying anymore of the books from the Disney era of Star Wars.

James Luceno hits a home run. Phenomenal writing by Luceno. Adds so much depth to a well known villain of the Star Wars universe. The relationship between Tarkin and Vader sets up their Episode IV interactions perfectly, with plenty of references to the hit show Star Wars: Clone Wars, and nice nods to previous EU works. Highly recommended for any Star Wars fan, new or old.

I was completely surprised!. I'm not going to lie I didn't want to read this book, but I saw that it was James Luceno and I thought why not he's never disappointed me before. From the start I was pretty much hooked. I have no idea how James does it but he really knows how to bring the whole Star Wars universe together. I would strongly suggest reading this book especially if you enjoyed Darth Plagueis.

Very one-dimensional. This is a biography of Tarkin. It's like looking at a blueprint of an X-wing. Interesting, but superficial. An X-Wing zipping through space and blasting away at TIE fighters is much more exciting, and so is a book with some character development. There is no "spoiler alert" because nothing actually HAPPENS in this book. We find out that Tarkin had a childhood and became a man and that his development process involved no higher thought or reasoning process than Pavlovian conditioning. Also, Tarkin worked his way up to Grand Moff. And finally, Tarkin and Vader get together to chase some rebels. The most interesting part of this is that Tarkin suspects Vader was once Anakin. This is like Lois Lane finally suspecting Clark Kent is Superman (except, you know, with a good guy, instead of the dark lord of the sith). The events of this novel have almost nothing to do with the Clone Wars tv series or the movies with the exception of the fact that they fit in the timeline. I could use one fourth of the 5120 characters remaining for this review to summarize the relevant parts of this novel, but I think those characters would be better spent encouraging readers to implore Disney Publishing to commission Timothy Zahn to write novels for the official Star Wars Canon.

A solid read. This is the first book based on film characters and film events in the new Star Wars canon, and it is a solid read. It reveals the history of Governor Tarkin, one of the saga's best villains and the least explored. The main tale is set five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, but Tarkin's story is told from youth to gaining the title of Imperial Grand Moff, the third most powerful being in the galaxy. This is also the story of Tarkin and Darth Vader learning to respect one another and work together. The book was billed as giving Tarkin the "Darth Plagueis" treatment, but this book isn't as memorable or as interesting as Lucenos' exploration of Palpatine and his master. The history of Tarkin as a youth and his rise to power was fascinating, but the main story, particularly during the middle of the book, was hard to keep interested in. The end pulled everything together though and left me satisfied. The story of how Tarkin's upbringing would leave him a man willing to destroy an entire world to maintain order is a story worth telling, but there are several things in the book that make you wonder what the author was thinking. The best example of this is the first chapter, which is almost solely devoted to Tarkin and a fashion droid (yes, a fashion droid) designing Tarkin's Imperial uniform. What this really necessary? With regards to the new canon, this book could have been released two years ago and would have fit into the EU fine. It references several old books and lots of information established in the EU. But this is done in a way that someone who hadn't read those stories wouldn't even notice that they were references of something else. The big thing that many Star Wars fans with notice is that Palpatine is given a first name, "Sheev." The thing I found odd about this was that the name is said to have originated from George Lucas, who is now retired and didn't bother to give this name out at any point in the last 35 years. On top of this, Luceno was the author who gave the perfect explanation in Darth Plagueis that Palpatine choose not to have a first name. All in all a good story, but not a great one. And I am left wanting to go read Death Star which I imagine will make a good continuation of this story for me.

Tarkin Review. James Luceno delivers again, and while I loved this book, I do think nothing really stood out about it or broke new ground. It is a story that is definitely worth a read or listen but to me nothing was really memorable about it.

Exceptional Back Story. To learn of the back story of such a beloved Star Wars Classic Character on this journey was beyond words. The character development that you'll encounter is second to none.

The Man With on the Moon Base Lazer Cannon. To many of us Governor/Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is the Imperial Officer who wielded the power of the Emperor’s greatest weapon, stood on even ground with Darth Vader, and destroyed an entire planet to make a point in his small but effective screen time in the original Star Wars movie. Now you can experience his childhood. Thus providing him the foundation to conquer the galactic Politics in a galaxy far far away, and the nerves to mercilessly lead in Imperial Navy. If you truly want to know how he becomes the man on the moon sized battle station you will have to pick this book up and be astonished.

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Excellent!. One of the better novels I've ever read, SW or otherwise. Maturely written, with a very compelling story. Rarely do I read a book that I don't want to end, this was one. I'll be reading more James Luceno, canon or not.

Terrific Read. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Definitely worth picking up for anyone who enjoys good background Star Wars stories.