Darth Maul Shadow Hunter
After years of waiting in the shadows, Darth Sidious is taking the first step in his master plan to bring the Republic to its knees. Key to his scheme are the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation. Then one of his Neimoidian contacts disappears, and Sidious does not need his Force-honed instincts to suspect betrayal. He orders his apprentice, Darth Maul, to hunt the traitor down.
But he is too late. The secret has already passed into the hands of information broker Lorn Pavan, which places him right at the top of Darth Maul’s hit list. Then, in the labyrinthine alleyways and sewers of Coruscant, capital city of the Republic, Lorn crosses paths with Darsha Assant, a Jedi Padawan on a mission to earn her Knighthood.
Now the future of the Republic depends on Darsha and Lorn. But how can an untried Jedi and an ordinary man, stranger to the powerful ways of the Force, hope to triumph over one of the deadliest killers in the galaxy?
Author: Michael Reaves
Cover artist: ToK
Narrated by: Sam Witwer
Release Date: August 2 2022
Length: 601 minutes
ISBN: 780593583821
Set just before the events of The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was a hotly anticipated book upon its release back on 30th January 2001. With Episode 2 coming in hot and the character of Maul already firmly ensconced in the pantheon of great Star Wars characters, any detail about his past was eagerly received, and the tale at hand – Maul sent out on a mission to tie up loose ends regarding the identity of the Sith by way of a holocron sold to an information broker by a Neimiodian official – is as relevant today as it was then, especially in light of the recent Tales of the Jedi episode ‘The Sith Lord‘ and the era of Episode 1 and the blockade of Naboo, also prescient given the Ghorman blockade referred to in Andor.
It’s worth noting that back in 2001 Darth Maul had only been – and at the time likely always would be – voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, but as history shows the arrival of The Clone Wars in 2008 and later Maul himself in season four in 2012 saw Sam Witwer inhabit the role, something he would continue to do during Star Wars: Rebels where he essayed the Dathomirian Zabrak’s death by the hand of Obi-Wan Kenobi and again back up the timeline in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story where he headed up the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn. Therefore, the opportunity to have Witwer record the unabridged audio version of the Michael Reeves novel (after the 2007 abridged version read by Michael Cumpsty) was too good an opportunity to pass up, and while never wanting to steer work away from the stellar team who usually perform these audiobooks, this gives us a unique opportunity to hear the onscreen voice of the character delve deep into the mind and deliver something very special indeed.
Being set before the events of Phantom, we know the outcome. Despite numerous attempts to evade the powerful Sith apprentice, Maul eventually hunts down all his quarries and ends them, most poignantly at the end of the book when he finds information broker Lorn Pavan and in an action as close to merciful as you’ll find from any Sith, grants him a quick death. The book is fast-paced, action-packed, gives extra dimension to the relationship between Maul and Sidious while laying down the groundwork for other authors to continue that in book and comic form (Darth Plagueis and issues of the Dark Horse run return to that well) and even removed from Canon as a book side-stepped to Legends status reinforces why the decision to bring Maul back (despite the devolution of his upper and lower halves) was a sound one. Well worth a read and a listen.
- Audible Audiobook
- Michael Reaves (Author) - Sam Witwer (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
- 08/02/2022 (Publication Date) - Random House Audio (Publisher)
