DARTH MAUL:SHADOW HUNTER (Star Wars)
By Michael Reaves
Century (Random House) - February 2001
ISBN 0712684174
Movie Tie-In/SF

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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This novel is set a few years before the Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace when Obi-Wan Kenobi was a mere Jedi-in-training. Reaves turns his attentions to the villain of the piece Darth Maul, apprentice to the Sith Lord Sidious who is trying to bring down the Republic and crush the Jedi. During negotiations with the cowardly Neimoidians to blockade the planet Naboo and cause havoc with trade one person is missing and with him a holocube of vital information. It is Maul's job to track him down, kill him and bring back the cube but of course it is not as simple as that. In his path are a young Jedi trying to graduate to knighthood and with a testing mission to pass first and shady, embittered "information broker" Lord Pavan who has his own reasons to hate the Jedi…

Coruscant, the capital city of the Republic with its vast buildings and deep streets where the sun never shines and all manner of terrors lurk is well described but the array of colourful alien species rarely get any kind of a physical description. This is a pity as some seem to purely be created for this book and it would be a good thing to know what the beings look like, or the tale loses part of its appeal. It would also be interesting to know more about Darth Maul but despite the fact that he plays such an important part in the book he still remains shadowy and vague, a name and a tattooed face but little more. There are some fine fight sequences and plenty of excitement but these are ultimately marred by a poor ending, which comes as a disappointment after what is such a gripping tale. If you enjoy Star Wars then here is a novel set in its enchanting realm but more descriptions and a better ending would have improved it enormously.