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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In which a Star Wars romance proves itself to be a Star Wars romance.
Dark Disciple is an expansion of a batch of originally planned but canceled Season 7 Clone Wars episodes. As such, it definitely reads as a novelization of the TV show. In the animated series, all stories—even expanded stories like this one—follow the same sorts of arcs, with various battles throughout, and even if the primary characters of the episode arc are not the series’ primary main characters, the latter tends to appear to heroically save the day by the end of the episode run. In true Clone Wars style then, predictably, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker appear more heavily at the end to save the day and conclude our story.
The purpose of the novel is really supposed to conclude Asajj Ventress’s arc. Because she does fall away from the main plot in The Clone Wars, one is left wondering what happened to her. Dark Disciple does just that.
Dark Disciple is an expansion of a batch of originally planned but canceled Season 7 Clone Wars episodes. As such, it definitely reads as a novelization of the TV show. In the animated series, all stories—even expanded stories like this one—follow the same sorts of arcs, with various battles throughout, and even if the primary characters of the episode arc are not the series’ primary main characters, the latter tends to appear to heroically save the day by the end of the episode run. In true Clone Wars style then, predictably, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker appear more heavily at the end to save the day and conclude our story.
The purpose of the novel is really supposed to conclude Asajj Ventress’s arc. Because she does fall away from the main plot in The Clone Wars, one is left wondering what happened to her. Dark Disciple does just that.
Our plot summary: Count Dooku has once again committed genocide, and the Jedi Council must weigh in on whether it is permitted to assassinate Dooku for the good of the galaxy and to finally end this war, or if they must, you know, continue to follow the Jedi code. This leads them down a dark path, obviously, and they tap Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, who primarily acts as an undercover agent for the Jedi, to seek out Ventress and manipulate her into being his ally to off Dooku. The conundrum is obvious: the Jedi are sacrificing one of their own to the dark side (hence the title of the book), and the repercussions are what follows. There is the romance that blossoms between Ventress and Vos, and I would much have preferred a more slow burn exploration of their relationship, but this not the romance genre. It is a Star Wars story, and the romance suffers as such.
The best part of this novel is the focus on Ventress’s character. I really enjoyed getting to finally see how she evolved into the character we see post-Clone Wars in Bad Batch, etc. This book also unequivocally shows that Mace Windu is the Jedi foil and is willing to take the Jedi down the road that leaves it so vulnerable to Darth Sidious. Vos’s descent into darkness was hard to read, and I remain skeptical about his overall return to the light. Is that truly possible in the long term? Every poor choice he makes is a product of the Jedi’s horrific decision to set him on this path, and that is resolved in the end—or at least addressed.
The audiobook narrator is a little cheesy. I think he’s the same one I listened to read the one High Republic book I read, which I didn’t like very much. He did, however, do a fantastic Obi-Wan, Yoda, and clone impression. Disney adds sound effects to the audiobook as well, but I did mostly prefer to read my kindle copy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The plot was contrived and heavy handed. I didn’t feel that the coupling of Vis and Asajj was very compelling. Felt like they needed more time to flesh out their relationship. Broad story beats were still interesting. Audiobook was excellent though and the narrator was amazing.
dark
adventurous
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Okay so I have complicated feelings about this book. The first half I was all "STAR WARS AUDIOBOOKS ARE! SO! FUN!" And really, that still holds. They're so produced. They have all the official Star Wars music and sound effects, ambient noise, and voice actors. It's awesome. This one in particular was really effective because it sounded like some of the actual voice actors from The Clone Wars, which is nice because of this book being essentially unproduced episodes from that show.
I zoomed through the first half of this book, but as soon as
I'm also not entirely sure the adaptation from eight unproduced episodes into a novel was entirely successful. It felt like separate stories smooshed into one instead of one novel length story. I also thought the rules of the Light/Dark side were a little bit wavy. I would have liked more exploration of the strange balance Ventress seemed to occupy, more criticism of the way both the Sith and the Jedi get it wrong.
Anyway, I thought the story did very well by Ventress, which is the main thing I wanted from it, as a fan of the TV show. I wish it wouldn't have been canceled before they got to air.
I zoomed through the first half of this book, but as soon as
Spoiler
Vos started slipping to the Dark Side, I stopped having fun and it was a slog to get through it. Not necessarily because it was bad, just it was so unpleasant to watch that happen to him (even if it was accompanied by Ventress's redemption).I'm also not entirely sure the adaptation from eight unproduced episodes into a novel was entirely successful. It felt like separate stories smooshed into one instead of one novel length story. I also thought the rules of the Light/Dark side were a little bit wavy. I would have liked more exploration of the strange balance Ventress seemed to occupy, more criticism of the way both the Sith and the Jedi get it wrong.
Anyway, I thought the story did very well by Ventress, which is the main thing I wanted from it, as a fan of the TV show. I wish it wouldn't have been canceled before they got to air.
adventurous
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes