Tarkin: Star Wars

 

Grand Moff Tarkin (or is it just Moff, or Governor, or General? It's all a bit confusing.) is portrayed in the original trilogy as a stern and brilliant military leader, serving the Emperor at the highest level. Possibly third in terms of chain of command in the Empire behind Palpatine and Vader, Tarkin is famous for his actions at the Battle of Alderaan, where he used the Death Star to blow up the planet.  Despite his high ranking and importance in the Star Wars universe, very little time is spent developing his character. This is where this book comes into play. 

Tarkin grew up on an outer world planet (read: the boonies),  where his family had developed a military presence to help deal with smugglers and criminals. As a teen, he went through Tarkin family rituals on a remote area of his home planet, where he learned survival and military skills. Lessons learned from these rituals greatly influenced his career, as he was able to use them to sharpen his military and battle problem-solving. He eventually became the leader of his home planet (hence, Governor) and developed a relationship with Sheev Palpatine. This relationship began during the Clone Wars (I completely forgot that he was the one that prosecuted Ahsoka Tano), and progressed after the Clone Wars as it was becoming increasingly apparent that advancing the Empire's influence in the outer rim was important for various reasons. 

The majority of this book's plot takes place in the period between the Clone Wars and the original trilogy. Tarkin's loyalty to the Republic and then the Empire, as well as his military brilliance, elevated him to the top ranks of the Empire.   He was one of the first to acquire the Moff designation, and became the first person to be named a Grand Moff, where his assignment was to rule over the outer rim planets.  During this time he is in charge of a top secret military base (the Death Star) being built at Geonosis. While overseeing the project, a group of bandits stage a fake attack using deep fake video. While investigating the "attack" to determine who would have the ability to stage such a fake attack, Tarkin's ship the Carrion Spike gets jacked by the bandits. The remainder of the book is spent following Tarkin as he chases the bandits.  He works side-by-side with Vader during most of the story, as well as interactions and flashbacks to his childhood trials and previous conversations with Palpatine.

Like most of these Star Wars books, the plot is decent enough. The most interesting part, however, is the back story on how Tarkin's career developed, as well as his relationship with Palpatine. It fills a back story of a major character in the Star Wars universe not previously described. Interestingly, Tarkin worked with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, and suspected Anakin was Vader, but did not know that for sure.