Sam Jacob

1/21/17
Honors English 9
Book Review

The Wrath of Darth Maul

Many would know the story of Darth Maul from the Star Wars Movie the
Phantom Menace. This book however goes more in depth to the origins of
Maul, detailing the ways in which he becomes a Sith lord. The story begins
with a prologue of what can be assumed happened to maul after the events
of The Phantom Menace. At the start of chapter one Maul is almost three
living in a small room on Mustafar. He is confined in his room for a long
period of his life, doing a series of exercises daily to build strength. Maul is
used to punishment when doing something incorrectly and has been
disciplined many times. He only knows two things that open the door to his
room, the droid that tests and tends to him, usually bringing pain and
someone he calls the man. An example of a test Maul was put through was
when the droid threw a snake into Mauls room, wasting no time to attack
him. Bitten, Maul crushes the snake angrily at what can be considered a very
young age. He then proceeds to eat the snake. As the story continues Maul
grows somewhat older and is introduced to the man who Maul must call
Master Sidious. Maul who has been somewhat educated by the droid in his
room will now begin a more elaborate training, physically and mentally. Maul
is taught to run up walls, flip, and fight. He leans about the galaxy through a
computer that delivers a painful shock if Maul gives an incorrect or sluggish
answer. One day when the droid is fighting Maul, the droid is winning when
he throws the staff at Maul. It hits him and lands in the middle of the
platform they are on. As the droid goes to reach it, Maul who is fueled by
anger from losing and unfair fight, catches the staff that seems to have
jumped from the floor to his hands. As he has never done this before, the
droid signals Sidious for his directions. Sidious listens to the story like it is
unsurprising and asks Maul how he felt when it happened. Maul tells him he
felt angry in which Sidious replies is good. Sidious and Maul then
immediately travel to Tosste, another planet. This is where Sidious teaches
Maul about the force, an energy field that radiates throughout the galaxy
flowing through everything. Sidious explains how there are some beings that
can manipulate and control the force and that Maul and he are one of those
beings. Maul continues his training back on Mustafar, occasionally traveling
to Tosste to use the force and weapons such as lightsabers. One day on
Tosste Maul ran into a Dinko, a small bug like creature, which spits venom
into Mauls eyes causing him flinch and wail in pain. Sidious then asks why
he flinched, and if he was afraid of the Dinko. Maul said no and that he used

the pain the venom gave him to fuel the anger he used to kill the Dinko,
Sidious still disapproved. Maul expecting punishment as always was
surprised to not receive it and eventually forgot about the incident. Until one
day he went back into his room to find a swarm of Dinkos shooting venom
and pinching his skin with their pincers. It took Maul at least an hour to kill
them all after which he fell unconscious. The door opened in the morning by
Sidious entering and saying, Never flinch again. After that, Maul didnt
flinch for anything. Later Maul is injured during a training exercise and uses
the blood of his wound to draw a picture of the window of his old room on the
wall of his new room. Sidious notices this and has the droid tranquilize Maul
and drop him off in the wilderness of Mustafar so he can have a better view
of it. Maul survives for seventeen days before trapping the droid and then
going home. Sidious later tells Maul he will be attending an academy while
Sidious is away. Maul is somewhat excited about seeing other people. Maul
attends the academy excelling greatly along with another student he has,
what some would call, befriended. Somewhat revealing his force powers, as
he wasnt allowed to, Maul is instructed that he must take care of the faculty
and students at the academy. Maul follows his masters orders without
hesitation. He slaughtered everyone there, even the girl he had been
somewhat friends with. Maul then accompanies Sidious off Orsis, the
academy, to then be given a final test of surviving for one month while being
chased by assign droids programmed to kill. After sustaining a painful leg
wound Sidious then makes Maul duel him as his final battle. Maul fights
formidably but is defeated by Sidious. Only after Sidious wins does he reveal
he was using a non-lethal training saber. Maul has now become a sith lord
and will accompany Sidious on their next mission to take over the galaxy.
After this sequence of events the book then details the events that happen
throughout the Phantom Menace. In the epilogue, it returns to the setting of
the prologue discovering it is ten years after the events that occur in the
Phantom Menace. Darth Maul is found by his unknown brother and is taken
back to his peoples home planet, assumed to live on seeking revenge.
This book was very interesting for in that I couldnt help not put it
down. As a lover of the Star Wars universe, I find this new information about
one of the greatest villains ever created to be amazing. To hear about the
harsh situations of his childhood and training only makes me hate that the
movie had to end his story so quickly. It does make me happy that in the end
of the book it implies that his story lives on as it should. I would rate this
book ten out of ten and I would suggest it for any other Star Wars enthusiast
out there.