Tarkin: Star Wars Tarkin: Star Wars

Tarkin: Star Wars

    • 4.3 • 296 Ratings
    • $4.99
    • $4.99

Publisher Description

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .

Bestselling Star Wars veteran James Luceno gives Grand Moff Tarkin the Star Wars: Darth Plagueis treatment, bringing the legendary character from A New Hope to full, fascinating life.

He’s the scion of an honorable and revered family. A dedicated soldier and distinguished legislator. Loyal proponent of the Republic and trusted ally of the Jedi Order. Groomed by the ruthless politician and Sith Lord who would be Emperor, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin rises through the Imperial ranks, enforcing his authority ever more mercilessly . . . and zealously pursuing his destiny as the architect of absolute dominion.

Rule through the fear of force rather than force itself, he advises his Emperor. Under Tarkin’s guidance, an ultimate weapon of unparalleled destruction moves ever closer to becoming a terrifying reality. When the so-called Death Star is completed, Tarkin is confident that the galaxy’s lingering pockets of Separatist rebellion will be brought to heel—by intimidation . . . or annihilation.

Until then, however, insurgency remains a genuine threat. Escalating guerrilla attacks by resistance forces and newfound evidence of a growing Separatist conspiracy are an immediate danger the Empire must meet with swift and brutal action. And to bring down a band of elusive freedom fighters, the Emperor turns to his most formidable agents: Darth Vader, the fearsome new Sith enforcer as remorseless as he is mysterious; and Tarkin—whose tactical cunning and cold-blooded efficiency will pave the way for the Empire’s supremacy . . . and its enemies’ extinction.

Praise for Tarkin
 
Tarkin tells a compelling tale of mystery while revealing much about a character who has fueled debate among fans since 1977, as well as the oppressive regime he represents. [James] Luceno has proven once again that the villains of Star Wars are as much fun as the good guys.”—New York Daily News
 
“Another home run in the new canon . . . This is the highest and best distillation of Tarkin stories, old and new, we’ve ever been given.”Big Shiny Robot
 
“A spectacular novel, with the intrigue, action, and profound characterization we have come to expect from the pen of Luceno . . . [Tarkin] provides a nuanced, multi-faceted anti-hero who is captivating, ominous, and calculating; in many ways, this is an origin tale of the Empire [and] a fascinating portrait of one of the more popular characters in the Original Trilogy. It may very well be one my favorite Star Wars novels.”Coffee with Kenobi
 
“A fascinating look at the pathos of one of the galaxy’s most criminally underused characters.”TheForce.net

GENRE
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
RELEASED
2014
November 4
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
288
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Worlds
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
8.4
MB

Customer Reviews

TigersJC86 ,

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.

Captrip ,

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.

aA Girlscout ,

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.

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