Dooku: Jedi Lost Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 460

Author: Cavan Scott

Timeline: Precedes The Phantom Menace

Main characters: Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress

Brief synopsis: In order to accomplish a mission involving Dooku’s sister, Ventress dives deep into research to find out more about Dooku’s childhood.

Gut Feeling

Since Dooku was just thrown into Attack of the Clones without much explanation, I’ve really been wanting more content on his infamous character. I knew that Dooku was a former Jedi and that Yoda was his master, but we didn’t have many details about it. This book definitely gives the content on Dooku that I was wanting. It starts at his childhood and paints a picture showing how Dooku went from a promising young Padawan to the villain that we best know him as. Because of that, the book was successful in my opinion. There was also some information about how Ventress fell to the dark side, but I wish it was given more detail. These background stories were the strength of the novel. It was background information that was much needed and I’m glad this book was created.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Characters were the strongest component for Dooku: Jedi Lost. Since Scott was dealing with existing characters in the Star Wars universe, I look for what additional content we can learn about them. I loved the Dooku that we saw in this book. Going from a padawan to Count, Scott significantly developed Dooku in a way that made a lot of sense. We obviously see a different side to Dooku than seen in the movies, and because of that, characters must get a strong score. But Dooku isn’t the only character that Scott gave more background information to. Both Ventress and Sifo Dias got fairly significant development in this book. While I do wish that we got more of Ventress, the content we got was very good. There were also strong new characters, one being Jedi Lene. She seemed different than any Jedi we had seen, and I thought she was very interesting. The only weakness I see for characters is that an emotional attachment to them was lacking. The character’s strength was more conceptual than emotional. So I am giving 9 points.

Writing Style (7.5/10 pts)

The writing style is quite different because it is written like a script. I was a little worried about this as I started reading, but I quickly adapted to the style. I didn’t feel that too many details were left out due to most of the content being dialogue. I still had a strong sense of what was going on at all times. So I am not deducting any points based on the book being told like a script. What I am going to take away points for is that some ideas seemed a bit undeveloped. I would sometimes have to re-read a section and I was surprised that so much happened in just a couple lines. It seemed uncharacteristic of the rest of the book. Because of that, I am giving 7.5 points for the writing.

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

While in the present, I enjoyed the content that I was reading, I had a hard time of predicting where the story was going. It seemed just like a cool story where we learned more about Dooku, but for most of the book, it didn’t feel like it was building towards something. Ventress’s storyline also seemed a bit awkward. It was a pretty insignificant part of the story, but it felt like it should have been more important. This will probably make more sense to you if you read the book. So despite having great content, the plot wasn’t developing very well for about the first three - quarters of the book. However, there were two main strengths that give points back to the plot. First, the book had a large scope. We got to see glimpses into Dooku’s entire Jedi career, from Padawan to him leaving the order. This was a great plus. Second, the book ended VERY well. While the plot was confusing for most of the book, it started to make sense in the end. Because of that, I am giving a good score of 8.5 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

I think the intrigue could vary from reader to reader based on their interest in Dooku’s character. I have a lot of interest in Dooku as a child, so my intrigue was fairly high, even when the story wasn’t moving very quickly. However, even with this interest, at points, I felt bored because the story wasn’t really going anywhere. I feel that I should have been reading this book quicker, especially because of the writing style (the script style made it an easier read). I simply put the book down too many times while reading it. And because not everyone will have the same interest in Dooku as I do, I am going to give a slightly less than average score of 7 points.

What does it add? (9.5/10 pts)

Along with the characters, this section is the book’s greatest strength. As mentioned before, Dooku and Ventress needed an “origin” story, and this book supplied that. But that was what I expected from Dooku: Jedi Lost, so it won’t receive a great score based on that alone. However, Scott gave us more information that also added to Star Wars. There is more information on the Force, Sith lore, and what the Jedi were like before any of the Star Wars movies. I was very pleasantly surprised about this, so I am giving 9.5 points for what the book added.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

Dooku: Jedi Lost was able to explain something illogical in Revenge of the Sith. This is the moment when Palpatine slices through three Jedi, before fighting Windu, with way too much ease. At first glance, the scene doesn’t make sense. But in the book, we learn that the Jedi’s lightsaber skills were mostly ceremonial. They didn’t have a need to actually fight with them, so they weren’t trained to fight another lightsaber user. This explains why the Jedi looked rather helpless fighting Palpatine. This was a great explanation, so I am giving an extra half point back for logic.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Dooku: Jedi Lost is a 8.4/10, or a solid B. The strength of the book definitely came from the book’s characters and what it added to Star Wars. The story itself is not as well developed, but it does not ruin the experience of reading the book. For Star Wars fans who want more content on Dooku, Ventress, and the time period before The Phantom Menace, this is a must-read.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Dark Disciple Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover 302, Paperback 359

Author: Christie Golden

Timeline: Follows The Clone Wars and precedes Revenge of the Sith

Main Characters: Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress

Brief Synopsis: An unusual mission, causing Jedi Master Quinlan Vos to team up with former Sith Asajj Ventress, forces Vos to decide which is more powerful, the seductive nature of the dark side or his new feeling of love.

Gut Feeling

When I first noticed this book and read a little bit about the plot, I checked many times to make sure it was canon. The whole idea of the book is just fascinating, and I was worried that the new Disney material wasn’t daring enough for a book like this. But it is! The overarching point of the book is Quinlan Vos essentially learns Dark Side powers to try and kill Count Dooku. Doing so, he teams up with Asajj Ventress. I love her character, so I was REALLY excited for this book. And it did not disappoint, like at all. The story was incredible from beginning to end. It exceeded my expectations when it came to it’s dark nature and the romance content was a welcomed surprise. My only complaint with this book is it seemed to wrap up quicker than I wanted. Beyond that, this is one of my favorite Star Wars books that I’ve read so far and it has also some of the best pure Star Wars content that I’ve experienced, in any form. I’m so glad this book was written as it was based on unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, it’s a story that had to be told.

Characters (10/10 pts)

The biggest strength to characters in Dark Disciple comes with character development and something I call character-defining moments. I may have mentioned these before, but they are specific moments that define a character’s identity. This book had many of them, and they steered both Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress in directions that I wasn’t expecting. Even though their directions were unexpected, they still seemed to make sense with how Christie Golden made it happen. This character development also gave our two main characters significant depth and relatability. This is impressive to do because both characters were fairly different, but I still related to the actions of them both. This relatability caused me to form an emotional attachment. This is fairly crucial because once I get an emotional attachment to the book, I’m hooked! So from this, I am giving full points for characters.

Writing Style (8/10 pts)

I mentioned this in my previous review, but I guess it is worth mentioning again. I’m not expecting many variations in my points to this section for Star Wars books because almost all the authors are New York Times Bestselling Authors. Dark Disciple was well written. There was a decent amount of depth and it seemed on par in writing style with other Star Wars books. It was seemingly easy to read with good flow. Overall, the writing was still good, but not spectacular, so I am giving 8 points.

Plot (8.25/10 pts)

Oh man, I was expecting to give Dark Disciple a full 10 points for this section throughout almost the entire book. It was just so unique covering dark aspects of the Star Wars universe, an unexpected romance, and lots of action that I didn’t expect anything else other than a perfect score. However, the conclusion of a book is important to the plot. As I was reading through the final climactic scenes, I was a little surprised by how few pages that were remaining. While what actually happened during the conclusion was quality content, it just didn’t seem to be given enough attention by Golden. If the conclusion was given about double the pages, I think I would feel much more satisfied with the overall story. Instead, I am left with a weird feeling where I am wanting just a little bit more. For the superb quality of the entire book, it just felt so out of place for the conclusion to not be of the same quality. So even though almost the entire plot was incredible, with the conclusion, it will get the slightly imperfect score of 8.25 points.

Intrigue (10/10 pts)

This book definitely benefited from a unique storyline with some equally fascinating characters. Assaj Ventress and Quinlan Vos are unlike anything we’re used to from the movies. And having them interact with each other creates gold automatically. So even before the book began, my interest level was fairly high. But beyond the content, Golden’s writing style and development of the characters kept my interest at a high level throughout the entire book. I burned through it and didn’t want to put the book down at almost any point. It was a very exciting ride through and through, and that is why Dark Disciple is getting a perfect score for intrigue.

What does it add? (9/10 pts)

This was a pretty difficult section for me to rate. There was a lot going on and there are a couple of major points of interest for this section.

First, it just adds a new perspective to Star Wars as this isn’t really a story of a hero, it is a story of an anti-hero. While Thrawn, I believe, is also an anti-hero, this time the anti-hero is Force-sensitive which makes this addition to the universe interesting. This perspective showed what it truly means to fall to the dark side of the Force and what it does to a person. I think we know a lot more about the light side of the Force with what canon is available, so this book’s anti-hero approach gave much new information on the dark side. That information was something I was looking for when I started this book, and it did not disappoint.

Second, it kinda gives more of an idea of what balance in the force looks like. If you read one of my previous articles, I mention that we really don’t know what balance in the Force means. However, it should include elements of both the light and dark sides of the Force. This is something that Vos tried to achieve and we learn more about that pursuit of balance. It is difficult to attain, almost like chasing the end of a rainbow. It is still unclear what balance means, but Dark Disciple gives more information to this problem.

Finally, Asajj Ventress is a REALLY cool character. If you aren’t familiar with her, I would suggest that you check the episodes of The Clone Wars that she is featured in. After Count Dooku betrays Ventress, and she becomes a bounty hunter, her character arc lacked closure. This book provided some closure for one of the more interesting characters in the Star Wars universe.

So Dark Disciple did add some fairly interesting and needed content, that is why I am giving 9 points for this section.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

I’m not sure about you, but I know that I’ve always been a little curious as to why Anakin’s eyes turn yellow in The Revenge of the Sith. Maybe what was more perplexing is that sometimes they were yellow, and sometimes they were not. It’s not a huge plot point or anything, but it is content that I wanted to be explained. Dark Disciple does provide some context for why some dark side user’s eyes turn yellow and the significance of it. You may not think it is that interesting, but I do and that is why I’m awarding a half point for logic.

Final Thoughts

The final grade for Dark Disciple is a 9.15, which is similar to the score I gave Lost Stars. These two books are some of my highest rated ones yet, while Dark Disciple in my mind has better actual Star Wars content and Lost Stars may be the higher-quality book in general that almost anyone can enjoy. If you only have an interest in the Star Wars films, Dark Disciple may not be right for you, but if you do have an interest in the expanded universe, this book is a MUST read. It is essentially the Relyo (Rey and Kylo’s ‘ship name) story that fans were desperately wanting from Episode IV. If you are interested enough to want to read this book, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).