Set before the events of Episode one, Darth Plagueis takes the reader through the behind the scenes setup that foreshadows the prequel movies. In it we see Plagueis, Palpatine's master, rise to power, the training of Palpatine, and ultimately the rise of Palpatine to the position of power and influence that we see in Episode 1.

Darth Plagueis did two things that I didn't thing the EU could do, and it does them well.

First, while it does not redeem all of aspects of the prequel movies, it does tie many of the desperate elements together. Through the eyes of Plagueis and Palpatine we see the events unfold and answer many of the unasked/unanswered questions from the movies themselves and the EU as a whole. How was Palpatine trained, Who was Darth Maul, How was the Old Republic engineered fall, How does the Rule of Two affect the Sith through the thousand years from Bane to Palpatine? These and many more are revealed and explained within this novel.

Second, and most starlings, the novel uses the dreaded plot device (midichlorians) in a way that doesn’t make me hate it. [This will likely be a hot topic for diehard fans, but my recommendation is that they read the book before unleashing hate for the topic.] In the novel, Plagueis is Sith Sorcerer working on methods of extending his own life indefinitely through the force. Through well written experimentation and revelation the reader is given a much more palatable explanation for the relationship between midichlorians and the Force, and possible alternate causes for Anakin’s “miraculous” conception through the Force.
For all these reasons and more I recommend Darth Plagueis

**As a side note I got my copy of Darth Plagueis through a GoodReads contest for preview/review copies. So thanks to GoodReads for facilitating my enjoyment of this novel.