David's Review of Labyrinth of Evil

5/5 Rancors - Labyrinth of Evil does an excellent job of laying the groundwork for Revenge of the Sith. At the end of this book, you can sense that the Clone Wars will not go on much longer and that the plans of Darth Sidious are about to come to fruition. As the book opens, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are on Cato Neimoidia trying to capture the elite of the Trade Federation, including our old friend Viceroy Nute Gunray. Anakin is no longer a Padawan, and the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan appears to be stronger than ever. It is a real treat to listen to their repartee even as they fight their way out of perilous situations. They fail in their mission to capture Gunray, but they do manage to end up with his valuable mechno-chair that we all remember from The Phantom Menace. The chair is reverse-engineered by Republic technicians and important clues are found about the existence of Sidious. Anakin and Obi-Wan follow the trail of how the chair was constructed and discover leads which enable Mace Windu and other Jedi to focus on a warehouse in an area of Coruscant referred to as The Works. This apparently deserted site is where Sidious and Dooku have been meeting on Coruscant. The trail leads on from there to 500 Republica where Chancellor Palpatine and most of the other rich leaders live on Coruscant.

Sidious realizes that he no longer is as secure as he once was, so he initiates the major part of his plan to end the Clone Wars and establish complete control over the Republic by the Sith. Now General Grievous enters the picture as he leads a huge Separatist fleet through supposedly secret hyperspace lanes and attacks Coruscant. With a huge battle going on amidst mass confusion, Grievous gets to the Chancellor's quarters, wins an on-going fight with several Jedi atop a train, captures Palpatine, and takes him out to his cruiser Invisible Hand. The book ends with Anakin and Obi-Wan on their way to rescue the Chancellor. The next steps are shown in the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, and the rest is Star Wars history.

We continue in this book to get an excellent feel for Anakin's struggle with the temptations of the dark side, and you can't help but be amazed by the devious machinations of Darth Sidious as his plans unfold to win Anakin over to be his apprentice and learn the ways of the Sith. Sit down and read this book. Then watch Revenge of the Sith. Everything ties together beautifully. Mr. Luceno has done an outstanding job.