Star Wars: Maul – Lockdown Book Review

Star Wars: Maul – Lockdown is written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Joe Schreiber. This novel is the sixteenth event on the Legends novel timeline. The tale takes place during the Rise of the Empire Era. It takes place 33 years before A New Hope.

SUMMARY

Darth Sidious sends his apprentice Darth Maul, to the prison colony, Cog Hive Seven. In this facility, prisoners are forced to fight each other, largely for gambling purposes. Maul is to seek out an individual known as Iram Radique, a dangerous and mysterious arms dealer, who somehow manages to run his crime ring behind bars.

Maul is given a false identity, a mercenary called Jagganath. He is to find this secretive individual, who no one really knows, and secure a nuclear device to place in the hands of a terrorist organization. The only other order Maul has from Darth Sidious, is to not use the force whatsoever.

Can Maul conquer the enemies placed before him? Will he find Radique? Will he get the weapon? Will he manage without the force? Darth Maul has quite the burden to bear.

CHARACTERS

While there are a ton of characters in this book, I’m only going to talk about one.

Darth Maul: He’s ferocious yet controlled. He’s a superior warrior and tested to the limit, he pretty much doesn’t have one. He is forbidden to use the force and he does a great job without it. I can’t imagine what damage he could do if he was allowed to use it. He’s focused and confident.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This book is dark and gritty. Like I said about Maul, he’s ferocious and controlled, which is what I hoped he would be. I liked the surprise appearance of Sidious and a certain someone who I won’t mention. Joe Schreiber brings in some gory moments, which is expected in a Schreiber book, he does it so well. The book could be categorized as a horror/thriller.

Honestly, I thought the book was kind of boring. It drags a bit and was a little repetitive. Even though the book felt really long and never ending, I was left irritated with the climax and abrupt ending. I think this story could have wrapped up a little better.

The concept of Cog Hive Seven was pretty neat though. Pitting the prisoners against each other in a gladiatorial fashion was cool.

So, do I recommend that you read Star Wars: Darth Maul – Lockdownt? Well, if you are someone who wants to explore Darth Maul as a character, yes. If you could care less about Darth Maul, no.

RATING

I will give this book a C. It was somewhat repetitive and felt like it took forever to get through.