Book Review: Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott

So first of all, that’s a lot of colons! (Note: that’s what she said)

Anyway, Dooku: Jedi Lost is an…interesting book. The most obvious thing is it’s barely a book – it started as an audio play, and at some point they just decided to publish the script. So it’s lacking direct descriptions, but full of lines like “look at these lush, green fields” or “what was that? It sounded just like a wolf howling.” Also, Ventress, who has a solo mission that frames the book, is conveniently “haunted” by her dead Jedi master Ky Narec throughout the story, giving her someone to talk to.

The story, which takes place during the “Clone Wars” era (prior to Count Dooku eliminating Ventress as his apprentice), has Dooku send Ventress on a mission to protect someone important to him. As the mission proceeds, Ventress learns through a series of holocrons Dooku’s history as a Jedi, and what led him to leave the order. It’s a pretty pedantic way to tell his Jedi story – it’s very reminiscent of the story structure in Phasma, and makes you wonder why they didn’t just tell Dooku’s story (although admittedly Ventress is a pretty boss character).

The history lesson has some interesting points. Dooku was always the top of his “class” as a youngling, padawan, and master, and was seen as a future member of the council. In his “class” were future Jedis like Ky Narec as well as Syfo-Dias.

Adding Syfo-Dias in a prominent role (Dooku’s best friend) was a great touch – he’s one of the most important Star Wars characters who never appeared onscreen. He starts out kind of vanilla, but really picks up once he becomes a padawan and develops premonitions. As he becomes a master, the premonitions become more and more intense, eventually incapacitating him.

A great touch with the premonitions is that the first time he develops them, he sees visions from several disconnected realities, including one where the Jedi really did take over the Republic (as Palpatine accused them of to execute Order 66). As Dooku grows older and continues to make choices, Syfo-Dias’s visions converge into one set of premonitions, which is supposedly what leads him to order the clone army shortly afterwards.

Dooku’s story also fits into the theme of the prequels (or at least what the prequels were trying to do) by showcasing the folly of the Jedi, specifically in two significant ways. The first is to ruminate on how people (namely children) become Jedi. As we remember from The Phantom Menace, even little Jake Lloyd was declared too old to train by Yoda. As this book highlights, future Jedi masters are basically taken from the crib, and thus have no idea where they are from or who their family is. When Dooku actually finds his family, he has to keep it secret from the rest of the Jedi as best he can. (Additional note: It was a really great touch that Dooku’s father was glad to get rid of him and talked about Dooku like he was a freak – very reminiscent of X-Men stories.)

The second way the book takes the piss out of the Jedi is in their relationship with the dark side of the force. As no Sith had been seen in 1,000 years (which always made me think Qui-Gon should have been a lot more shocked at meeting Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace), the Jedi were not very focused on preparing to battle the dark side. One Jedi (who became Syfo-Dias’s master) was searching the galaxy for Sith relics and dark side flashpoints in the belief that the conflict would be renewed soon, but she was continually shut down by…Yoda himself. This policy becomes even more important when Dooku shows intermittent dark side tendencies; however, instead of being cautious, Yoda and the rest of the Jedi masters make it seem like it’s something that can be trained out of him.

While the story features those dark side moments, it doesn’t show him deciding to be a Sith – instead, it ends with him deciding to leave the Jedi order. That means there’s another story where he meets Palpatine and is convinced to join the dark side. I’m not sure why this was left out (although it’s probably so I’ll have to buy a separate book), and it leaves this story feeling incomplete.

So I’ve got to put this book right in the middle – five out of ten hot dogs. If there’s a sequel, I hope it’s straight prose.