Rating: 
Summary: Further insights into Darth Maul
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter" for its insights into the feelings and thoughts of Darth Maul. I eagerly downloaded "Darth Maul: Saboteur" for more insights and was not disappointed. The premise of this ebook is a mission to further the aims of Darth Sidious in establishing the necessary events before the Naboo blockade of Star Wars: Episode I: the Phantom Menace. I truly savored the dialogue between Darth Sidious and Darth Maul. You are given to understand some inklings behind Darth Maul's total devotion to his Master. If you want more fighting, read "Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter" which was truly enjoyable. If you want to see the wheelings and dealings of the Sith Order, read "Darth Maul: Saboteur". I'm glad that I downloaded this book for it was an enjoyable way to pass the time with an intriguing character.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, but very short.
Review: I'm surprised that a book that is titled Darth Maul would have so little about him. The very short story spends so much time setting up why Darth Maul is involved, it doesn't leave much time for Darth Maul himself. Also has another conflict with another Darth Maul book. In the other book, Dark Maul's master found the plans for his lightsaber in a type of Jedi history book. In this one, Darth Maul made the decision to build it himself.Still, at under [price], it's still worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Heads up! This is also in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.
Review: James Lucerno has a smooth, quick-paced, style and this is definitely a page turner. He superbly adds to the diabolical intricacies of Darth Sidious' schemings and adds more background on the Trade Federation's rise to power. It is definitely worth the $$ but if you already have the paperback edition of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, this story, in it's entirety, is a bonus feature in the back of that book.
Rating: 
Summary: My first (and last) Star Wars eBook purchase
Review: Like most of the other people who have written reviews here, I purchased this eBook with the attitude, "Hey, it's only two bucks... why not take a chance?". I was nowhere near sold on the concept of eBooks going into this. To me it seems nuts paying hundreds of dollars for a hand-held reader (that could break easily if subjected to the same wear-and-tear a book gets put through carrying it around), while reading a book from your computer screen via a software reader sounds like torture. However, I figured I would just print out a paper copy and put it in a binder... I save money, the publisher has a higher profit margin, and everyone wins. Right? Wrong. Okay, it's a relatively new technology... that kind of thing is to be expected. However, the first thing I tried doing after the download was printing the book... only to discover that the publisher has disabled your ability to print a hardcopy. This is absolutely ridiculous, and the fact that such a "feature" is available to publishers in the first place is reason enough for me to never waste money on an eBook again. Someone please explain to me what on earth is the rationale behind this? I understand the need for the security and encryption methods with the downloads, to prevent people from easily spreading electronic copies of a book all across the Internet. However, what is the danger in having a hard copy of a book that YOU own? There's nothing I can do with such a hardcopy that I couldn't do with a traditional book. If I wanted, I could just as well use a scanner to create an electronic copy of a traditional book... so it's not as if this nonsense gives the publishers one iota of additional security. It's basically just the industry experimenting to determine how much consumers are willing to pay for rights that they have always had for free. The really crazy thing is that it took me all of fifteen minutes to come up with a crude workaround and print out my hardcopy. I think it's best if I don't reveal any details of how I did so... but the point is that nonsense like this will never prevent computer savvy people from doing what they want to do, it just needlessly restricts the rights of average consumers. Insane. As for the content of the book itself, two bucks would be a steep price even if this were in traditional paper form. This is no novel, it's a 50-page pulp fiction magazine style short story. What's more, the margins are stretched so far it looks like your average high-school student trying to "fluff" their term paper to fill the required number of pages... it would be more fair to say that this is a 40-page story. It's not necessarily poorly-written, but it's just a throwaway bite-sized nugget... not giving you any new insight to the character whatsoever. It seems to me that this little story was just an experiment on the part of the publisher, testing the waters to see if people would pay money for real Star Wars novels in eBook format. Knowing what I know now, I therefore wish that there was some way that I could "unpurchase" the book. Keep my two bucks, just don't count it towards any statistics used to promote the idea that this bunk should be tried again in the future.
Rating:
Summary: My first (and last) Star Wars eBook purchase
Review: Like most of the other people who have written reviews here, I purchased this eBook with the attitude, "Hey, it's only two bucks... why not take a chance?". I was nowhere near sold on the concept of eBooks going into this. To me it seems nuts paying hundreds of dollars for a hand-held reader (that could break easily if subjected to the same wear-and-tear a book gets put through carrying it around), while reading a book from your computer screen via a software reader sounds like torture. However, I figured I would just print out a paper copy and put it in a binder... I save money, the publisher has a higher profit margin, and everyone wins. Right? Wrong. Okay, it's a relatively new technology... that kind of thing is to be expected. However, the first thing I tried doing after the download was printing the book... only to discover that the publisher has disabled your ability to print a hardcopy. This is absolutely ridiculous, and the fact that such a "feature" is available to publishers in the first place is reason enough for me to never waste money on an eBook again. Someone please explain to me what on earth is the rationale behind this? I understand the need for the security and encryption methods with the downloads, to prevent people from easily spreading electronic copies of a book all across the Internet. However, what is the danger in having a hard copy of a book that YOU own? There's nothing I can do with such a hardcopy that I couldn't do with a traditional book. If I wanted, I could just as well use a scanner to create an electronic copy of a traditional book... so it's not as if this nonsense gives the publishers one iota of additional security. It's basically just the industry experimenting to determine how much consumers are willing to pay for rights that they have always had for free. The really crazy thing is that it took me all of fifteen minutes to come up with a crude workaround and print out my hardcopy. I think it's best if I don't reveal any details of how I did so... but the point is that nonsense like this will never prevent computer savvy people from doing what they want to do, it just needlessly restricts the rights of average consumers. Insane. As for the content of the book itself, two bucks would be a steep price even if this were in traditional paper form. This is no novel, it's a 50-page pulp fiction magazine style short story. What's more, the margins are stretched so far it looks like your average high-school student trying to "fluff" their term paper to fill the required number of pages... it would be more fair to say that this is a 40-page story. It's not necessarily poorly-written, but it's just a throwaway bite-sized nugget... not giving you any new insight to the character whatsoever. It seems to me that this little story was just an experiment on the part of the publisher, testing the waters to see if people would pay money for real Star Wars novels in eBook format. Knowing what I know now, I therefore wish that there was some way that I could "unpurchase" the book. Keep my two bucks, just don't count it towards any statistics used to promote the idea that this bunk should be tried again in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Hooray for e-books!
Review: More Star Wars e-books, please! What great value for US$1.79! In my mind's eye, I could vividly picture the athletic, albeit deadly, beauty that is Darth Maul in action. I'm looking forward to following up "Saboteur," with "Shadow Hunter." Darth Maul. He's pure evil, but great fun! Well done, Mr Luceno.
Rating:
Summary: Great Intro for Shadow Hunter!
Review: Not exceedingly long, but worth the read. The events that lead up to Darth Maul : Shadow Hunter. Worth the money to download and read! Maul is a great character, bound to be the Boba Fett of the first trilogy and worth reading about! If you're a Star Wars fan this is a must, and if you're not it's still a great sci fi read!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but a lengthy process to get it!
Review: The book fills in some intereesting minutiae of the SW universe, as discussed by other readers. So the book's worth reading, but the labyrinthine process of actually getting the download is not something I would repeat. I think prospective buyers need to be told about the major process necessary to finally get the file to download. You have to download a 3.5 Meg e-book reader, then install it and reboot, then get back on the net, then apply for a NET Passport (with de rigeur list of questions to answer), then "activate" your computer, then finally download this 55 page book. It took over an hour. And guess what... I also bought Darth Maul Saboteur, and it requires a DIFFERENT 10 Meg reader, along with its own process, which I haven't dared try yet. In addition, if you're planning to read the book while kicked back with your laptop, you have to hook the laptop to the web at some other time and install everything again, so you can "activate" the laptop too. I don't have my laptop on the web, so I can't even read the book where I wanted to in the first place. Not to be a Luddite, but for now I think I'll go back to paper.
Rating: 
Summary: DARTH MAUL: SABOTEUR
Review: This "e-book" (not really an e-book, an e-short story) is definately not what every Star Wars fan expected, but the story itself wasn't that bad. It was very short, but interesting. Thanks to James Luceno. I sure expected something else maybe a couple of fights and space battles, but not much of that here. It was mostly a plan that Darth Maul had been assigned to, as the title says a sabotage. Let's hope for all the SW novels to make the crossover to e-book format and let's hope that the next direct e-book novel will be something more interesting and longer.
Rating:
Summary: DARTH MAUL: SABOTEUR
Review: This "e-book" (not really an e-book, an e-short story) is definately not what every Star Wars fan expected, but the story itself wasn't that bad. It was very short, but interesting. Thanks to James Luceno. I sure expected something else maybe a couple of fights and space battles, but not much of that here. It was mostly a plan that Darth Maul had been assigned to, as the title says a sabotage. Let's hope for all the SW novels to make the crossover to e-book format and let's hope that the next direct e-book novel will be something more interesting and longer.
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