Reviews
I never thought I'd rate a Star Wars story with one star, but, here we go.. this was bad and if you're thinking of reading this one, please don't. Nothing interesting and a chore to read. But the problem here is not just the plot, which is basically a Sith Lord who takes students and he's trying to perfect an older formula from another Sith Lord(?) for trying to achieve immortality and he ends up making the Sith students zombies. Let me say this once: Star Wars + Zombies = NO. But, again, if the story and the characters had an ounce of interest and/or any development whatsoever, this would be tolerable, but it was cheesy and cliche, the way they talked to each other and their choices were pretty much dumb and convenient for the story to proceed. What was super bad here, was the writing. It was awful. It was so bad I wanted it to at least have something good in it so I won't rate a Star Wars book with 1 star because I'm a sucker for Star Wars but no. It couldn't even be just an ok story. And the important thing is that the author pretty much wrote this thinking everyone is dumb and no-one watches movies or reads books. He actually wrote and I quote " Listen to me, Trace told him. I don't know who you are, but I am in possession of a very special set of skills. If you bring my sister back right now, unharmed, then I'll let you go. But if you don't, I promise you, I will track you down. I will find you. And I will make you pay." And here is a random quote from the movie Taken starring Liam Neeson: " I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have, are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you." I mean.. really bro? Stay away from this book.
Set in 32BBY Maul in prison! What more can a Star Wars fan ask? This one was good. You're a fan of Maul? You'll like it. He's in character, and he's not replying on stupid questions, or even answering if it's not worth the time. His mind is on his mission and that is infiltrating a prison as an inmate and finding a guy who's known to have lethal weapons, all of that because Palpatine wants to...oh wait, you'll find out in the book. So Maul is searching for a guy named Radique and while searching for him, he's going against lots of prisoners over there (and not only prisoners), getting in fights and all that, but without his lightsaber (of course) and without using any of his force powers. “Don’t get too big for your britches or Iram Radique will come and get you.” - Zero And, in general, his search for this guy is interesting with lots happening and the story doesn't drag too much or anything, so that was good too. I would rate it 2,5 stars, but decided to go with 3 instead of 2 just because I had a good time most of the time while reading this. “I have killed men in eleven systems. I have fought well and withstood much and have not given quarter. I will not be broken by the likes of you today, nor will my son. And I will not beg for mercy.” - Artagan Truax I'm a sucker for stories that take place in prisons and also a sucker for a good Maul story and believe me, while I'm reading everything Star Wars chronologically, this one might be the very first that was really in character and it was fun to read without being a Maul story that has nothing to do with Maul but with secondary characters or something, like some previous stories *coughs* looking at you The Fury of Darth Maul and Saboteur “I’m asking you to stop hiding your inadequacy under the pretense of idiotic speculation.” - Darth Plagueis Is it worth your time? Sure, it's a fun read if you like the character. Is it a Star Wars must? I wouldn't say so, no. But a nice ride nonetheless.
So disappointing. The pace of the story, the actually story, every plot point made you wonder why it mattered. He normally writes horror, but I feel like if he leaned more into the horror genre then it would have been a better book.
