Book Review: Star Wars-Maul-Lockdown by Joe Schrieber

Star Wars: Maul: Lockdown is an indirect sequel to James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis, arguably, the best Star Wars novel since the original Zahn trilogy. Whereas Plagueis was a sprawling, decades-long epic focusing on the training of Palpatine, his growth into Darth Sidious/Emperor and how he wove together the strands of his plan in tandem with master, Lockdown, is a much different book. Firstly, as is obvious from the title and cover, this book is Darth Maul’s. A minor supporting character in Darth Plagueis, this book is 80% Maul. That’s not to say Sidious, Plagueis and some other familiar and nefarious faces don’t make an appearance, but this book is Maul: Unplugged. Literally, actually. Maul has been sent by Sidious to a prison colony to obtain a powerful weapon from a shadowy weapons dealer who uses the prison as a front for his operations.