Title: Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Author: Michael Reaves
Pages: 330
Type : Action
Time: 33 BBY

Novel quality
This books begins where Cloak of Deception left of. The Trade Federation is angry with the Republic for imposing taxation of their trade routes and continues to seek the help of Darth Sidious. They are however starting to feel uncomfortable with the semi-forced partnership with Sidious. A Neimodian named Hath Monchar decides to take information about the planned blockade of Naboo and sell it. Darth Sidious is immediately aware of the situation and sends Darth Maul to resolve it. This book is designed to give us some insight into the mind of the Sith and especially Darth Maul. It shows us how the Sith think and we see Sidious return as the puppet master. It's intriguing to read the thoughts of Darth Maul, everything he does is focused on a single goal: Annihilating the Jedi Order and achieve Sith rule. His loyalty to Sidious is unbreakable and he is constantly training himself to become a better tool for his master, who he sees as the ultimate Force-user in the galaxy. Maul is a true warrior, he likes people who put up a good fight and he honors them in his thoughts. Mr. Reaves also shows the weaknesses of Darth Maul, Maul has a hard time seeing the bigger picture and he is extremely overconfident. This overconfidence almost costs him his life a couple of times during the story and it will eventually lead him to his demise in TPM. Sidious gets a little attention as well, but he isn't really a prominent player in this book, it is interesting to see him ponder the similarities between the Jedi and the Sith however. The other side of the wall shows us Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant who is traveling with a Han Solo-type character Lorn Pavan and a droid named I-Five. Though their conversations and adventures are nice to read , these characters aren't really providing anything new to the Star Wars universe. The novel is a good read and is a real page-turner. The story line however is a bit thin and doesn't really cover a lot of ground. There are some nice twists in the end, but overall the story isn't that strong. What Mr. Reaves does very good is writing battles. He shows the emotions and thoughts of both sides quite elaborately, which makes the battles really enjoyable. All things considered this novel is a good read and it adds some depth to Darth Maul, which will make TPM more enjoyable. It's lack of interesting new characters and it's relatively shallow storyline are made up by the great battles and suspenseful moments.
Rating: 80/100

Personal tilt
Although I prefer a deep storyline over an action filled one, I did have a very good time reading Shadow Hunter. Darth Maul is a fun character and he deserves the extra focus this novel puts on him. His warrior ways and his sense of honor and loyalty appeal to me. The way Mr. Reaves approaches Maul adds a lot more depth to him and magnifies his strengths and weaknesses. His superior combat and stealth skills are very nice and it gives Maul sort of a "black-ops-feel" which appeals to me. His skill inspired overconfidence is also quite clearly present and it's obviously Maul's greatest enemy. This makes him a classic bad guy and Sith. Great character! Padawan Darsha Assant on the other hand is a very simple and standard character, there isn't really a lot going on there and she has the problems and thought patterns we've all seen before. Her travel companions are pretty standard as well, an essentially nice men who has issues with the Jedi Council and his multi-purpose droid with an attitude. The droid, I-Five, is actually a funny character but Lorn Pavan is quite shallow. The crush he develops for Darsha Assant feels out of place and it doesn't become very clear just how he got to where he is. The characters aren't bad, they just don't add a lot to the story and feel "familiar" in the wrong sense of the word. I'm sure every Star Wars fan would enjoy reading this novel and it does ad a lot to Darth Maul's character. It's not really a necessary book to read in order to follow the overall story though and if you are on a budget you could skip it. You would be missing out on some fun action and some Star Wars though. And that's never a good thing.
Rating: 80/100

Overall rating: 80.0/100

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