Just finished the Star Wars novel Tarkin (listened to it via Audible) during our road trip to and from Indiana:
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Tarkin-James-Luceno/dp/0553392905Great stuff overall! The book felt a little disjointed, due to the shifts back and forth between the "present" and various points in the past. Still, I enjoyed it overall. There were all kinds of neat moments for the Emperor, Tarkin, and Vader, and you really get the sense of the chemistry between this "Dark Triumverate" that allowed them to administer the Empire so effectively. The audio book was also well done, incorporating snippets of music and the sparing use of sound effects at key moments. It wasn't quite a full on audio drama, but it did have a little more immersion than many audio books I've listened too.
A few neat tidbits I picked up (Spoilers):
[spoiler]
-5 years after the end of the Clone Wars, and TIEs were just starting to come online. Most of the Imperial fighter squadrons were running V-wings, ARC-170s, and Vader was cruising around in an ETA-2 (which appears to be the same type of fighter he was flying as Anakin at the beginning of Episode 3).
- Lots of Clone-Wars era ships were in use still, like the Venator-class SD. I REALLY hope we get to see some of these pop up in SW Armada.
-Tarkin's Ship, the Carion Spike, sounds completely bad-ass. Again, I hope we get to see this ship in either SW Armada or X-Wing.
-Also interesting is the cobbled-together capital ship the dissidents were using, which consisted of canabalized parts from a number of Seperatist factions. This ship suggests that there could be some room for a Scum & Villiany faction in Armada.
-Tarkin was much more of a bad-ass than one might have thought from A New Hope; the trials he undertook on his native Eriadu were pretty impressive! I also never realized he was a skilled pilot in his own right.[/spoiler]
