Joe Schreiber, the author behind “Maul: Lockdown” stopped by Full of Sith to talk about his first experience with Star Wars, to talk about the new book, and to chat about everything else we could think of. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the handling of Darth Maul in “The Clone Wars” and the other ideas pitched that would eventually turn into this one. We also talked quite a lot about his previous books, “Death Troopers” and “Red Harvest.”
For my part, “Maul: Lockdown” surprised and delighted me as a book.
I wasn’t expecting much out of it, but, to be honest, it really blew me away. This book feels very much like a direct sequel and sister-volume to “Darth Plagueis” by James Luceno, which works very well for me. “Darth Plagueis” has easily been one of my favorite books offered by the Expanded Universe, and “Maul: Lockdown” builds on its mystery beautifully. It skirts the mysteries we’re all most interested in, but at the same time gets us in the head of Darth Maul in a way I haven’t experienced before so thoroughly.
It hints at the fringes of things in the prequel era that just work for me. What Dooku might be up to, happenings on the moons of Bogdon, how Sidious and Plagueis’s relationship disintegrated, and how Maul fit into all that? Each of these questions is paid attention to in this story.
But that’s not what drives the story.
What drives the story is what drives Maul, and that’s the mission given to him by his master. He’s to infiltrate a prison and make contact with a mysterious arms dealer, all without letting anyone know that he’s an adept user of the Force. It’s a tense story that pulls no punches. Somehow, Schreiber is able to skate the line between hard-hitting prison story and the adventure and excitement I love from “Star Wars” in a way that doesn’t betray either genre.
It’s really quite masterful.
I would recommend this to any prequel fan, or prequel-fan to be, and definitely to any fan of “Darth Plagueis.” I’d also recommend it to anyone who really loves tense stories. I don’t like books that center around the Sith. Typically, I find them boring and one-dimensional, but Schreiber is able to avoid all of the standard “Sith” pitfalls and actually give Darth Maul a depth I hadn’t known before, save for my experience with him on “The Clone Wars.”
This is a great installment and the interview was a lot of fun, too.
“Maul: Lockdown” comes out this week. Pick it up wherever books are sold. Or Amazon. Amazon works, too.