Star Wars: Dark Disciple

*All posts in the Star Wars Canon series contain minor spoilers

 

28 weeks until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker!

“Nightsisters know the dark side better than anyone. We grow up steeped in it, but we can use it as a tool and stay ourselves—unlike the Sith. That balance is what you must learn.” –Asajj Ventress, Star Wars: Dark Disciple

Dark Disciple follows the story of Jedi Master Quinlan Vos and bounty hunter Asajj Ventress as they attempt to assassinate Count Dooku.

Written by: Christie Golden (author of From a Certain Point of View short story and Battlefront II: Inferno Squad)

Published: July 7, 2015

When does Dark Disciple take place?

Near the end of The Clone Wars and before the start of Revenge of the Sith, around 19 BBY.

Synopsis:

Feeling defeated over heavy losses during the Clone Wars, the Jedi Council have voted to make a desperate move: assassinate the Sith lord Count Dooku. They select Jedi Master Vos to take on the mission and ask him to pair up with Dooku’s old apprentice Asajji Ventress. Ventress agrees, on the condition that Vos learns the ways of the dark side in order to rely on all strengths of the Force to make the kill. As she trains him on her home planet of Dathomir, their developing feelings for one another threaten to compromise the mission.

As Vos and Ventress set out to assassinate the leader of the Separatist army, the struggling balance of the light side and the dark side must be faced—not only between the Jedi and the Sith, but internally as well.

~

Dark Disciple—also known as “the book that had me swooning over my new favourite Star Wars novel for the first half and screaming ‘what are you thinking?!’ in frustration for the second half.”

A little bit of background on Dark Disciple; this book is based on eight unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars series written by Katie Lucas. The show was cancelled before those episodes had a chance to air, but the story arc was so loved that it was turned into a book. The book includes a foreword by Katie Lucas about her time as a writer on the series and a bit about sneaking into movie theatres with her dad to witness fan reactions to a new Star Wars movie, which I thought was really sweet.

I loved the pairing of Vos and Ventress in this book; their relationship was well written with both the natural flow of falling in love and the tension of a Jedi’s forbidden attachment. After reading Dark Disciple right after Dooku: Jedi Lost, Asajj is quickly becoming one of my favourite Star Wars characters. Her story development over the two books mirror each other as she first chooses the dark side and then turns away from it. She has a strong antihero vibe in this book and I love it! As I was reading Dark Disciple, I kept thinking “this is my new favourite Star Wars book; this is my new favourite Star Wars book!” The tension, the romance, the action, the worldbuilding! All spot on.

And then I got to the halfway point.

The problem with a lot of Star Wars novels is that when a character is driven by a key motivation or goal that will be accomplished in a film, it makes for a weak plot in the book. Dark Disciple is the perfect example and it isn’t only because we know the outcome of the book since Anakin kills Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith. It’s because any attempt at accomplishing that goal ends up being half-hearted which makes it unrealistic. When Vos and Ventress finally go to assassinate Dooku, they casually challenge him to a lightsaber duel. That’s it. No sneaky sniper shot or poison in his drink or any desperate attempt to end Dooku’s life. And when that fails, there are multiple other opportunities to kill him during the second half of the book and they don’t take them! It was so frustrating!

So I honestly don’t know where that leaves me; I am very conflicted with Dark Disciple. However, I am very curious as to how the new Clone Wars season seven will work around the storyline of this book. I would recommend Dark Disciple to anyone who is a fan of The Clone Wars and especially those who want to know more about Asajj Ventress.

Have you read Dark Disciple? What are your thoughts on this book? I’m super curious to know what other fans think of it!

 

Next week: Ahsoka

Complete list of Star Wars Canon novels