Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel) [Mass Market Paperback]

James Luceno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2005

The war that erupted in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones is nearing its boiling point, as the dauntless Separatist forces continue their assault on the teetering Republic–and the diabolical triumvirate of Count Dooku, General Grievous, and their Master, Darth Sidious, fine-tune their strategy for conquest. In Episode III Revenge of the Sith the fates of key players on both sides of the conflict will be sealed. But first, crucial events that pave the way to that time of reckoning unfold in a labyrinth of evil. . . .

Capturing Trade Federation Viceroy–and Separatist Councilmember–Nute Gunray is the mission that brings Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, with a squad of clones in tow, to Neimoidia. But the treacherous ally of the Sith proves as slippery as ever, evading his Jedi pursuers even as they narrowly avoid deadly disaster. Still, their daring efforts yield an unexpected prize: a unique holotransceiver that bears intelligence capable of leading the Republic forces to their ultimate quarry, the ever-elusive Darth Sidious.

Swiftly taking up the chase, Anakin and Obi-Wan follow clues from the droid factories of Charros IV to the far-flung worlds of the Outer Rim . . . every step bringing them closer to pinpointing the location of the Sith Lord–whom they suspect has been manipulating every aspect of the Separatist rebellion. Yet somehow, in the escalating galaxy-wide chess game of strikes, counterstrikes, ambushes, sabotage, and retaliations, Sidious stays constantly one move ahead.

Then the trail takes a shocking turn. For Sidious and his minions have set in motion a ruthlessly orchestrated campaign to divide and overwhelm the Jedi forces–and bring the Republic to its knees.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author James Luceno returns to the prequel biz with Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil, a novel sure to be required reading for die-hard fans of George Lucas's galaxy far, far away. Written with Lucas's blessing, Luceno's tale leads right to the opening sequence of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, setting the stage for the fiery conclusion of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire.

As the action begins, the Republic and Jedi have seemingly pushed the Separatists and Sith back into the outer reaches of the galaxy thanks to the clone army deployed in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. But as victory seems near, the ruthless General Grievous--think Darth Vader on steroids--emerges from the shadows. In the battle against Grievous, Anakin Skywalker--who is a little Vader-ish too these days--and Obi Wan Kenobi find themselves in a race to discover the identity of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and unravel the web of duplicity surrounding the Separatist uprising.

While essential for obsessive fans, Labyrinth of Evil is a clunky novel and Luceno struggles with Lucas's ungainly and Byzantine plotting. Full of cumbersome, Star Wars technophillia, the novel merely serves its purpose by fleshing out the thin line between Episodes II and III. True believers will revel in the level of technical detail and tantalizing nuggets of trivia while the less zealous could satisfy their Star Wars cravings by checking out Timothy Zahn's masterful post-Episode VI works. --Jeremy Pugh --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, now a Jedi Knight, pursue old enemy Viceroy Gunray, who has been oppressing the intelligent beetles on the planet Cato Neimoidia, in bestseller Luceno's jaunty contribution to the Star Wars franchise. As the pair venture deep into interstellar space, to some well-drawn if unappetizing worlds, they also cross paths with Separatist leaders Count Dooku, Darth Sidious and General Grievous. Meanwhile, intrigues simmer back on the home planet Coruscant, and doubts grow about the loyalties of the Jedi Knights. The action builds smoothly to the climactic attack by the Separatists under General Grievous on Coruscant, where Anakin's wife, Senator Amidala, finds herself in mortal peril. While the author does a good job of maintaining excitement without revealing any secrets of the forthcoming final Star Wars movie, this tie-in, unlike some other Star Wars novels, has no features to give it interest apart from its link to the popular film series. Agent, Eleanor Wood at Spectrum Literary Agency. (On sale Jan. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: LucasBooks (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345475739
• ISBN-13: 978-0345475732
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins

More About the Author

JAMES LUCENO is The New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novels Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial, Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse, and The Unifying Force, as well as Star Wars: Cloak of Deception, and the eBook Darth Maul: Saboteur. He also co-authored the popular ROBOTECH series with his close friend the late Brian Daley. Luceno wrote the film adaptations for The Shadow and The Mask of Zorro. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and youngest child.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Luceno doing what Luceno does. . ., November 26, 2004

By 

Nathan (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel) (Hardcover)

James Luceno, walking EUncyclopedia, returns once more with yet another of the type of novel he's best suited to write. His particular strengths and weaknesses are ill-spent on smaller novels such as Agents of Chaos; however, with his comprehensive grasp of GFFA minutiae, he's very well suited to novels such as Cloak of Deception and this newest, Labyrinth of Evil (and to an extent, The Unifying Force), which exist as much to tie multiple plots together into a comprehensive, coherent whole as to tell stories of their own. Here he manages to take a very impressionistic view of the Clone Wars, told piecemeal in various media and through various relatively unconnected novels, and meld it all into a whole, as well as tying events back to pre-TPM and doing his best to make it look like there actually has been a lot more structure and continuity and causality in the stories we've gotten of the Clone Wars than there really has been.

There's not really much need to talk about his style; by now you already know whether you like it or not. He has an odd mix of typical third-person POV and near-omniscient viewpoint, without a particularly memorable writing style and with a sometimes-annoying but often useful and fun (at least to the more-than-casual Star Wars fans like me) tendency to infodump and show off just how much he knows about what he's writing about.

This novel doesn't stand terribly well on its own, but then it's not supposed to. It's more a summation and drawing-together of what's gone before in anticipation of Revenge of the Sith. To that end, the first two-thirds of the book follow a very straightforward connect-the-dots plot, with the dots being a lot of fun action sequences and the connectors being lots of encyclopedic, almost history-bookish descriptions tying together all that's gone before. Then, for the final third, the book takes a dramatic turn for the better -- and more exciting (especially for me, since I've been keeping myself spoiler free for Revenge of the Sith) -- as the book leads straight into what will prove to be the HUGE opening moments of the final Star Wars film.

Here we see Anakin and Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda all in fine form. Padmé, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and other familiar faces also all show up. Dooku, while not quite as fleshed-out as in Dark Rendezvous, is still an interesting character. Palpatine and Sidious are as good as we've ever seen them, if not better (and worse). And finally, finally we get an introduction to the character of General Grievous, whom we've seen in comics and television shows but has been conspicuously absent from the novels. Also in this book we've got some pointed political commentary that those leaning more to the right probably won't particularly appreciate, we've got a fine antecedent for a key moment in ANH, and, in true Star Wars fashion, plenty of dis-arming and other dis-memberment.

In the end, this is for the most part an okay Star Wars novel that blossoms in the end into one of the better ones, and leaves you salivating for Revenge of the Sith.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reading., March 25, 2005

By 

George H. Glass Jr. "George Glass" (Lewiston, ME USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel) (Hardcover)

An excellent prequil to the third movie.

The first half of this book, admittably, starts off a little slow. Somewhere near the middle it fires up and intensifies. It goes in a pattern of 1)dividing the story: between the perspectives of Anakin and Obi-wan, and the of everybody else on Coruscant, and of course the villains; and 2)chapters of character developement, with plenty of pages of plot and depth that were left out in the first two movies. Want to know the origin of Grievous? It's in there. What about the plots of Sidious to rule the galaxy? That too. And, what about Anakin and Obi-wan following Dooku, and all the space battles in-between? Yup, all that too. A good buy. Just don't stop half-way in the middle.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book, you must!, February 18, 2005

By 

K. Franzese (NY, USA.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel) (Hardcover)

Do you want to know who trained Darth Sidious? If Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas actually placed the order for the clone army? Who killed Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas and why? How Count Dooku found and was trained by Sidious? How Jango Fett was actually recruited as the template for the clones? It's all here!