Having read only a few books in Star Wars' EU in the past, I recently decided it was time to do a lot more reading to see if I could more thoroughly enjoy the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars cartoon. I really hadn't been hooked in to those nearly as much as I had the original trilogy, and most of my EU experience was with the Thrawn novles and that timeline anyway. While I started with James Luceno's Darth Plagueis -- an okay book with some great insights into Palpatine's character and the Dark Side of the Force, but otherwise a seemingly random series of scenes held together by the thinnest of plots -- it's been my second foray with Cloak of Deception that's truly changed the game in every possible way.
Cloak follows a few plot threads that merge beautifully by the end: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan pursuing a mercenary smuggler named Cohl, who has joined up with a terrorist cell led by the enigmatic Havac; the manipulation of the Nemoidians by Darth Sidious, leading to them gaining significant control of the Trade Federation; and lastly, the expert diplomacy of Senator Palpatine as he makes the last bold move to undermine Supreme Chancellor Valorum, and cast light on the depths of corruption throughout the Republic.
What makes Cloak so much better than Darth Plagueis, even though it's from the same author, is that the plot is strong, all of the characters are portrayed well, and the convergence of the plot elements sets up more than just the over-arching story of Episode I's political elements, but also nearly every move the key secondary characters make -- Valorum, the Trade Federation, the other Senators of the Republic. Whereas the Plagueis novel gave us everything we need to know from Darth Sidious' side of the story through several snippets of events, with no other characters besides the novel's name sake being at all portrayed with any depth, Cloak's characters -- new and old -- all have personality and add to the story. For the "old" characters, you have the entire Jedi Council, several galactic Senators, Wilhuff (soon-to-be-Grand Moff) Tarkin, the Trade Federation's Nemoidian leaders, and of course Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. In every case, the dialogue of each character reads just as if it had been said by the actors from the movies, almost eerily so. The new characters include mercenaries Cohl, Boiny, Rella, and Lope, plus a terrorist cell led by Havac. Though some of these characters have a short part in the book -- specifically Lope -- all are important, and each feels very different from the others, easily being able to carry a spin-off novel if necessary.
There's little else I can say, beyond the fact that this book would have been a better starting place for me than Darth Plagueis. Cloak of Deception is a necessary lead-in to Episode I: The Phantom Menace (whose novel I've just started, and already like better than the movie!), and provides an entertaining stand-alone story in addition to the excellent insights that will lead Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to head out to that Trade Federation flagship, only to kick off what will soon become the fall of the Old Republic, and the rise of the Galactic Empire.
As an aside, I found having the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia very helpful during my reading of the novel, or -- if a computer is handy -- using Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki. It helps me remember some of the less-well known Jedi council members, senators and so on. None of these are critical to enjoying the story -- Luceno does an expert job of describing all of the characters -- but it was useful for reminding me who Oppo Rancisis, Sei Taria, and folks like that were. A shining omission, I might add, was that Vergere shows up in this book with little description and only a small part, but I've since learned he's important later in the EU. It's not worthy of losing a star, but it's notable that this character shows up with little or no fanfare and shares an important scene or two with other characters, but otherwise is pretty much just "there."
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