Labyrinth of Evil
James Luceno, January 2005
Rife with action as well as character introspection, Labyrinth of Evil is said to lead directly into the opening sequences of Revenge of the Sith. One would think its cliffhanger ending should instead have served as the beginning of the film to come, but it does provide an exciting conclusion to this multi-faceted installment of the Clone Wars story. The first scenes of Episode III should be stunning indeed.
Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent on mission after mission as they seek to hunt down Nute Gunray, Count Dooku, and clues as to the whereabouts and identity of Darth Sidious. Every world upon which they find themselves presents its own set of perils the Jedi must fight their way through as they pursue each lead. Interspersed with the action is the omniscient view of many of the characters who will be major players in Revenge of the Sith – Count Dooku, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, General Grievous, Yoda, Mace Windu, and others. The story is played out in so many venues that to summarize the plot would take pages. Added to all the events are many ideas worth pondering longer, so this is a book that will leave you musing for days after you’ve finished.
Insight into the origins of General Grievous, Count Dooku’s fall to the dark side, and the true beginnings of the clone army including how Syfo-Dyas fits into the history is there, neatly filling in some missing pieces. Grievous’ story is especially chilling and persists in giving me the creeps even after two readings. True, Grievous himself gives me the creeps, but what was done to him was a cold-blooded deceit only a Sith would conjure and carry out.
Clear in this novel is the fact that Palpatine continues to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, but I find it a little hard to accept (read: frustrating!) that none of the major characters, friend or foe, has been able to figure out his little secret yet, not even an inkling. Yes, the dark side clouds everything, but that explanation has grown stale. This must be an area the author was asked to avoid.
Anakin has become a contradiction. On the one hand, his relationship with Obi-Wan has never been stronger. They understand each other and work (i.e. fight) together with a connection and precision even Dooku can respect. The emotional rift we anticipate must happen in Episode III will have to be sudden and gut-wrenching. On the other hand, although Anakin still believes in the precepts of the Jedi as taught by Obi-Wan, he knowingly and willingly embraces the dark side when and because it serves his purpose. He nurtures his anger to fuel him in battle; the odds are always stacked hugely against him but with strength born of the dark side, ultimately he always wins. Interesting that he feels guilty later for being angry, but he doesn’t feel guilty about using that anger to funnel strength from the dark side.
The idea that the Jedi are at fault for “allowing” the Sith to reassert power does not sit well. I can see why, from a certain point of view, some might make that claim, but “allow” implies they approve of or at least condone the rise of the Sith. Qui-Gon is remembered as believing that the Temple does not nurture each Jedi to develop individually, but instead molds or programs them into the Temple ideal; they (the Council) had become “inflexible” and “authoritative”. Individuality and creative thought had been stifled. This stagnation of the Jedi Order is definitely a source of weakness and part of the reason the Sith were able to conceal themselves for so long as they built their power base. I’ll concede that perhaps the Jedi did indeed condone the existence of the Sith since both good and evil are necessary for balance in the Force, but the idea that the Jedi “allowed” evil to perpetuate and take control of the galaxy, at the cost of millions/billions of lives, should be anathema to their province as Guardians of the Republic.
Events unfold quickly in Labyrinth of Evil, almost too quickly to keep up with. However, since each subplot is interesting in its own right, the flow is not too disjointed. It does bug me that Anakin and Obi-Wan get out of one weird and life-threatening predicament after another without major injury. Not that I wish harm to the protagonists (and Anakin is still a hero at this point), but even the best warriors cannot remain invincible forever - multitudes of other Jedi are being killed left and right. Furthermore, analogous to the kill-count competition between elf and dwarf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the two Jedi keep a tally of how many times each has saved the other’s life. While the former comes off as humorous, the latter with its explicit number of times mortal danger has been faced tends to be quite sobering. Perhaps it’s just a function of who is being killed and who is being saved since most people really don’t care about dead Orcs, but I found it distracting to be reminded how many times each of these Jedi would have died if not for the other. As already noted, no one is invincible.
Labyrinth of Evil is not just one of the many side-stories set against the backdrop of the Clone Wars. With it, author James Luceno does a fine job of preparing the stage for the final prequel installment of the Star Wars saga.
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