[Posting now because the links at Jedinet.com no longer work]

Whilst the two most recent offerings in the SW universe, Republic Commando: Hard Contact and Yoda: Dark Rendezvous ("DR"), were greatly entertaining and extremely well written chapters of the Clone Wars, Labyrinth of Evil is a magnificent story of the build-up to RotS.

Unlike some of Luceno's earlier SW books, this one takes us straight into the action with Obi-Wan and Anakin fighting on Cato Neimoidia, attempting to capture Nute Gunray and his Trade Federation cohorts. Although their quarry escape, Obi-Wan and Anakin locate the holo-transceiving mechno-chair that we first saw in TPM and discover the remnants of a recent message that enables the Jedi intelligence people to break the Separatists' code, leading to the discovery of some very important information.

In the story that follows we are given some quite significant information following from AotC and preceding RotS: we learn of General Grievous's background and his relationship with Dooku and Sidious, we learn the truth behind Master Sifo-Dyas and the erasure of Kamino from the Jedi records and of the early contact between Sidious and Dooku.

The story takes us through to the events that are the subject of the opening crawl in RotS, meaning that the ending is a cliff-hanger. Notwithstanding this it is an engrossing read with excellent portrayals of most of the major characters, including use of many phrases from or similar to those used in the movies.

We see the relationship between Anakin and Obi-wan continuing to develop through some difficult situations with subtle hints of the troubles to come. We see Mace Windu and several other Jedi hunting for Sidious and trying to protect Palpatine at the same time. We see the increased concerns of Senators Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Padme Amidala about where the Supreme Chancellor's power is heading, and we see quite a bit more of Palpatine and Sidious than we have seen in the past.

After reading of Yoda with a lighter perspective in YDR, his totally serious characterisation in this book was a bit of a jolt, but it suited the more serious tenor of this book.

The only character that didn't quite gel for me was Dooku. As with Yoda, this characterisation was different to that in the immediately preceding book but not, in my opinion, in a way that suited the situation. In DR we had a Dooku with a past that gave us some understanding of his motivations. He was also a character who was concerned about his Master's interest in Anakin to the point of being concerned that it was an interest that could lead to his (Dooku's) downfall, given the Sith Rule of Two. In contrast, in this book we have an almost nave Dooku who is his Master's lackey and does not question what having Anakin as an ally might mean. We are given some insight into what he is thinking about his Master's orders, but we do not get any sense that he is at all concerned about his own position. At a superficial level it could be said that this is not unlike the later Vader-Emperor conversation about turning Luke, but in that instance both parties are at the very least planning to have Luke join with them to overthrow the other, maybe even each being aware that this would be the other's plan. There is no sense of that sort of reciprocal duplicity here, just a sense of a simple minion doing his Master's bidding. It just didn't sit quite right, particularly after the characterisation in DR worked so well.

However this is a minor quibble in what otherwise was a fantastic lead in to the coming movie. It was full of action - beyond what we usually see even in SW novels - and was hard to put down before it was finished.