Maul: Lockdown

Maul: Lockdown is a novel by Joe Schreiber featuring Darth Maul. The story takes place in the year before the events of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and follows Maul on a mission in which he must infiltrate a space prison. It was first unveiled on the website io9.com on January 24, 2013 and was released on January 28, 2014. Narration for the audio version was performed by Jonathan Davis. The paperback edition was released on January 27, 2015.

Hardcover
Back cover

The power of the Dark Side is never more dangerous than when it's cornered.

Internal flap

''It's kill or be killed in the space penitentiary that houses the galaxy's worst criminals, where convicts face off in gladiatorial combat while an underworld gambling empire reaps the profits of the illicit blood sport. But the newest contender in this savage arena, as demonic to behold as he is deadly to challenge, is fighting for more than just survival. His do-or-die mission, for the dark masters he serves, is to capture the ultimate weapon: an object capable of obliterating the Jedi and conquering the galaxy.''

''Sith Lords Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious are determined to possess the prize. And one of the power-hungry duo has his own treacherous plans for it. But first, their fearsome apprentice must take on a bloodthirsty prison warden, a cannibal gang, cutthroat crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and an unspeakable alien horror. No one else could brave such a gauntlet of death and live. But no one else is the dreaded dark-side disciple known as Darth Maul.''

Plot summary
Darth Maul is dispatched by Darth Sidious to the prison colony of Cog Hive Seven in order to find the mysterious weapons merchant known as Iram Radique. In Cog Hive Seven, Maul, under the guise of a mercenary known as Jagganath, finds himself in a prison that also holds gladiatorial contests between prisoners. Maul is forced to partake in several of these matches during his investigation into Iram Radique's whereabouts. However, as his investigation unfolds, Maul soon discovers the true nature of his mission; he is to contact Radique in order to buy a nuclear device that had been secretly built inside Cog Hive Seven. The purpose of buying this nuclear device is to sell it to the Bando Gora, whom Radique hates with a passion.

Unfortunately, during Maul's investigation, Cog Hive Seven's warden, Sadiki Blirr, finds out that Jabba Desilijic Tiure has sent several of his minions into the prison as guards in order to find Radique. Blirr has these guards summarily executed, provoking Jabba's wrath as he sends a team to intercept the prison barge known as the Purge. After Jabba's team hijacks the Purge, they attack Cog Hive Seven, prompting Blirr to initiate the prison's self-destruct sequence. However, Blirr is killed by the Syrox, a creature embedded in Cog Hive Seven who feeds on the ceased consciousnesses of dead inmates.

As Cog Hive Seven meets its destruction, Maul, with the help of inmate Eogan Truax, attempt to escape with the nuclear device that Maul bought from Radique. But when Radique betrays them by refusing to help them detach the bombs embedded in their hearts (which is what every prisoner in Cog Hive Seven gets when he enters), Eogun kills Radique just as the Bando Gora arrive. Maul and the Gora's leader, Komari Vosa, have a brief fight before they are confronted by the Syrox. Maul decides to help Vosa kill the Syrox so he can fulfill his mission of giving the nuclear device to the Bando Gora, and then Maul, Vosa, and Eogun escape the prison before it completely destroys itself.