#tarkin novel

Are you okay

I never thought I’d one day read a book about Grand Moff Tarkin but here we are. It’s actually not about him, rather that he is the main character but we do learn about his homeworld, youth and personality, all of which was very interesting. If you don’t care for the political side of things of Star Wars, this book is not for you. But I personally find that interesting so I enjoyed this book.

In this story, Tarkin’s fancy ship is stolen while he’s on a planet with Vader and the two of them are tasked by the Emperor to catch the thieves and unravel the bigger conspiracy at hand. Most of the chapters are from Tarkin’s pov but we also follow Palpatine on Coruscant and the rebels on the stolen ship.

It’s not a complex, dense story by any means but it’s well-structured and fitting with the Star Wars universe. While I’m not the biggest fan of military sci-fi - like overly-described and overly-long fights and battles and weaponry - here those things are kept to a minimum, which was good.

Luceno’s writing is good - sometimes very good - and a true breath of fresh air after two Star Wars books that, in my opinion, were not good enough to be published (excuse my hater’s bluntness). Luceno’s writing is solid, efficient and he can tell a story. Aditionally, being an experienced Star Wars writer, you can tell that Luceno knows his stuff and is very at ease with this universe.

The only complaint I have of his writing is that some of the longer dialogues feel more like info dumps rather than things someone would say naturally. I feel like this, in part, has to do with Luceno’s penchant for using fancy words here and there, as well as his abundance of adjectives, none of which are really flaws except in these dialogues.

Thought that's haunting me at work: how fucking intimate it is that even when their new relationship is still so new and Vader still resents Tarkin for Ahsoka'a trial:

Tarkin can still feel Vader's human eyes on him even if it's hidden by the mask that scares everyone else.

He feels those eyes and some part of him thinks it's Anakin's. Knows it’s Anakin’s. Recognizes the feel of Anakin's eyes. Through a mask. He knows the feel of those eyes.

He knows the feel of Anakin's eyes, knows the form of his lightsaber skill, knows how he treats his troops. It's not supported by the Citadel arc-it suggests more to their acquaintance during the war to transfer to this knowledge that this is a man the galaxy knows is dead.

But he suspected it first, from the gaze. And it leaves so much to wonder about-before and after the fateful day they met again for the first time. How well they knew each other. If they truly didn't know each other as well as Palpatine wanted.

(Note the asymmetrical front that Tarkin hates) He gets a new uniform tailored so it looks like the Imperial uniform that we all know and love:

What I wanted to know though is when that scene is set because at the very end of Revenge of the Sith, Tarkin shows up to look at the Death Star with Vader and Palpatine looking like this:

Which looks like the standard Imperial uniform to me. He also shows up in the Bad Batch looking like this: