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(More customer reviews)"The Chancellor has little real power...he is mired down by baseless accusations of corruption." -- Senator Palpatine of Naboo to Queen Amidala, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
One of the intentions writer-director George Lucas had when writing the current prequels in the Star Wars saga was to illustrate how precarious democracy can be and how it can transform itself into a dictatorship. This little civics lesson, when added to the "main story" of how and why Anakin Skywalker becomes one of filmdom's greatest villains, was intended to answer such questions as "How did the Emperor take power?" and "Why were the Jedi nearly destroyed?" (Unfortunately, for many Star Wars fans, this civics lesson made Episode I seem like a galactic edition of C-SPAN, with all that talky maneuvering and manipulating in the Senate Hall.)
There are, however, some fans who do like the intrigue and political backstabbing that marks the end of the Galactic Republic, and James Luceno's Star Wars: Cloak of Deception gives willing readers a fascinating look behind the scenes of those "baseless accusations" aimed at Supreme Chancellor Valorum...the ones that are distracting the Republic's chief executive just as the Senate is about to be bogged down by the question of the taxation of trade routes in the galaxy.
Set shortly before the events chronicled in Michael Reaves' Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Star Wars: Episode I, Cloak of Deception follows Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi as they investigate the daring space pirate Captain Cohl and his gang, who have been striking at the heavily armed "freighters" of the Trade Federation...that greedy multi-system entity controlled mostly by the Neimoidians who have allied themselves with the mysterious Sith Lord. But is Cohl raiding the disguised warships just to steal from the rich and make a name for himself? Is he allied to those systems that are sick and tired of being extorted by the Trade Federation? Or is he merely one of many pawns being manipulated by Palpatine/Darth Sidious in his endless chain of schemes-within-schemes in order to create a major crisis that will push the well-meaning but ineffectual Finis Valorum out of office, thus paving the way for Palpatine's ascent to the Supreme Chancellorship?
This being one of several literary prequels to The Phantom Menace, savvy readers know the ultimate outcome of this story, but Luceno is one of the best Star Wars writers, and Cloak of Deception masterfully combines much of Lucas' back story and symbolism (Finis Valorum, the Supreme Chancellor's name, in Latin, roughly translates to brave or valiant end) with a suspenseful storyline replete with intrigue, action, and a more detailed look at Senator Palpatine and his cronies' plots and counterplots that will culminate in the Naboo Crisis.
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