Pomojema here with an advance review of James Luceno’s newest Star Wars novel, Tarkin. One of his earlier books, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, was one of my favorite stories in the Legends continuity, and I’ve heard great things about Darth Plagueis (which was more about Palpatine than the titular Sith Lord, amusingly enough). Does lightning strike thrice with Luceno’s Wilhuff-Tarkin-centric title? You’re one click away from finding out.

So, you made the click? Good. Before we get going, I’d personally like to recommend watching the Citadel and the Jedi Fugitive arcs of The Clone Wars (episodes 62-64 and episodes 105-108 respectively), both of which feature the title character and feature events that are referenced within the book. While they aren’t necessary to enjoy the story at large, they do provide a greater context to the story and make the narrative that much more enjoyable. Anyway, let’s get down to business.

The story follows Wilhuff Tarkin five years after the end of the Clone Wars and the formation of the Galactic Empire. While Tarkin is eager to develop the space station that will become the Death Star, circumstances call him to deal with a small outbreak of a few Separatists stragglers. While Tarkin is able to handle the revolts in the Outer Rim, the insurgency grows in size, and leads to Darth Vader having to step in in order to crush any revolt before it can begin. Ever the opportunist, Tarkin takes advantage of the situation, both as a military leader and as an aspiring heir to the Empire, leading him to ultimately seek Darth Vader’s approval while tactfully and tactically dealing with the threat to Imperial sovereignty.

Tarkin is above all else a character study, like Dark Lord and Darth Plagueis before it, and as such focuses on his upbringing and his state of mind instead of dedicating the greater part of the 288-page chronicle to assorted battles in space. That’s not to say the book is devoid of any action whatsoever, or that the pace of the novel is slow; there are a number of cool action sequences in the book. Nonetheless, a lot of the narrative is driven by the intrigue of Tarkin’s personality and seeing how he became the utterly unfettered individual that we first saw in A New Hope. Granted, who wouldn’t want to figure out what was kind of thoughts would go through his head when he was first introduced blowing a peaceful planet up to make a demonstration?

Well, as luck would have it, living in a long-declining government as it turns into a more oppressive state had something to do with it – but ultimately, the blame of the monster that Tarkin became falls upon himself, as his ambition-driven rise in power and his increasingly merciless actions go on to show. You never quite feel sympathy for the character – after all, he already tried to have Ahsoka Tano executed for a crime she did not commit, and was hardly concerned about her innocence or guilt as long as it meant striking a political blow against the Jedi order – and you aren’t supposed to. Still, you’re able to understand why he carries out the actions that he does, no matter how heinous they are, and a villain with depth is fascinating to read about. I won’t reveal what happens in the climax, but you’ll know what causes the metamorphasis of the future Gran Moff when you read it, leading to his complete transformation from a (quite literally) petty officer to the callous despot that takes more offense to being lied to about the location of a Rebel base than killing billions of people. It’s satisfying to read in the most horrific way.

Aside from Tarkin, his superiors are also featured prominently in the novel – Darth Vader and Emperor Sheev Palpatine (yes, I’m still getting used to that weird-sounding first name, too). Both characters have the right amount of balance between their Prequel-Era selves and their incarnations in the first three films to hit the silver screen – for instance, Darth Vader is still internally upset about what he has done in the past, but he is also more uncompromising and imposing than he ever was as Anakin Skywalker. Likewise, Palpatine still acts a bit like the affable chancellor figure that he was in spite of his scars, but is ultimately the wicked tyrant that has everything done according to his designs. Luceno proves again that he is able to bridge the gaps of time in the canon meaningfully, and brings greater depth to characters that we’ve known since our childhoods.

Tarkin is a good sign of what’s yet to come from the new canon – even with the Legends decision wiping out most of the old continuity, the book lifts a substantial number of references from the former Expanded Universe and refits them into the narrative (and in a more cohesive way, thanks to the growing influence of the Lucasfilm Story Group guiding the new canon). I also spotted a pair of references to The Clone Wars and Rebels in the same chapter – which, true to form, occur early on in the novel and only further indicate Luceno’s love of the lore of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. I can only hope that Disney keeps him around to write more novels, as someone with such an understanding and dedication to the fictional universe is simply too good to pass up when world-building proves itself to be an important undertaking after the continuity reboot.

In any case, the book explores a number of aspects in the Star Wars Galaxy that most writers don’t touch upon, and for that the story becomes all the more unique and interesting to read. The pacing of the book is just right, leaving descriptions of the title character’s tact-yet-firm positions on his crew’s next course of action entertaining to read as ever, all done without forsaking the good old-fashioned space battle that we’ve all come to love Star Wars for. Even when the narrative discusses something unremarkable, such as the tailoring of Tarkin’s uniform, it still manages to be engaging by granting us a window into his psychology. If you like political intrigue and character development, give Tarkin a whirl. You won’t regret it.

Tarkin hits the shelves on November 4. Special thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey/Random House for providing the advance copy of the text – I will deal with buying a physical copy soon enough.