"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Luceno's prose has become grandiloquent, but he's still one of the best SW writers. He remains the master of conspiracy and continuity, but his novels all center around characters who make for terrible protags (Tarkin, Vader, Palpatine).
Ol' Wilhuff is a better protag than Plagueis or Palps, but it's still a fairly weak premise. Vader and Tarkin chasing Tarkin's personal starship around the galaxy? Really?