4.0 out of 5 stars
Tax debates and assassination plots in the Star Wars universe, February 5, 2011
For many Star Wars fans,
Cloak of Deception will probably come off about as exciting as watching CSPANN. However, I'm also a political junkie and as such enjoyed seeing some of the political intrigue behind
Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace. Luceno's effort in this regard is somewhat of a mixed success, but still enjoyable if you like political intrigue novels.
First, the good. I thought Luceno does a good job showing Palpatine's political maneuverings without exposing him as Darth Sidious. Remember, when the book was published, that connection hadn't been revealed. Palpatine comes across as modest in public but incisive in private. He often has the best scenes and lays the best traps. Luceno portrays Palpatine as a politician with firm convictions about the need for a strong central government, which makes him a more subtly interesting character than just an evil Sith lord.
The plot device is also fairly simple but effective for a political novel. Valorum is convinced (by Palpatine!) to tax the Trade Federation in return for allowing it to arm itself against terrorist attacks. The rest of the book follows the Jedi as they attempt to thwart the terrorists and various assassination plots. The events clearly leads to the blockade of Naboo at the beginning of the film and also explain how Naboo fit into Sidious' larger plan.
I also thought Qui-Gon Jinn was more enjoyable than he was in the movies. We get to see a bit more of his "roguish" traits, which the movies hinted at but never really explored. Qui-Gon comes across as someone more at ease in the underworld of life and willing to push the Jedi beyond their norm of non-interference.
Unfortunately, the book is marred by Luceno's sometimes clunky, overly descriptive writing style. There is a lot of telling rather than showing. Also, the other characters in the book don't come across well. I constantly felt as if the narrator was trying to convince the reader that Valorum is a good, dignified leader, but ironically too often Valorum seems to pathetically malleable to Palpatine's suggestions. Meanwhile, all the Jedi besides Qui-Gon come across as a bunch of bumbling idiots. None of them seem to realize that that should do more than just sit around the Jedi Temple and that there might actually be a threat that they should counter. The Nebula Front terrorists also seemed pretty shallow. They kept repeating the same few lines (essentially, "boy, I should retire soon"), and the book spends far too much time on these bit characters that make no other appearance in the Star Wars universe.
Overall, the book merits 3.5 stars. It's a decent setup for the film and has some fun political intrigue, but aside from Palpatine and Qui-Gon none of the characters are worth our time.
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