This book is amazing. The story and the characters were done incredibly well overall. I think the story did an amazing job of tying into the rest of like the prequel trilogy and clone wars and showing us why the Jedi failed in that it was their loss of principles is what led to their downfall. I also love the per trail of the characters, they were exactly the way you think they would be. I also thought that Mark Thompson did a spectacular job of all of the characters. I think that his voice work on this audiobook is probably some of the best audiobook narration I’ve ever seen for anything…which is high praise because I listen to audiobooks for pretty much anything. The writing was also really good, the writer did a great job of conveying character emotions while also giving you intense action sequences. I also love how Count Dooku was utilized as a villain here. He is such a degenerate scumbag, and at the same time is so incredibly interesting and he ends up being such an incredibly well-crafted character that drives the story home. I think this cements the fact that this is probably one of my favorite Star Wars villains ever! And I thought the death of Asajj Ventress was genuinely well-crafted and what is emotionally satisfying, I would say that this book was really good.
Yes, I understand that this book does contradict stuff that was shown in the old expanded universe… But that’s OK. The reason for that is that in Star Wars, you’re bound to have different stories that contradict each other. And just because they contradict each other does NOT mean that those stories are any less valid. And I can appreciate both this book and expanded universe even though they are at odds with each other. They’re both awesome and I’m not morally obligated to choose either one. I love the original dark horse comics featuring these characters, and I absolutely love the story that they had for Master Vos. But I also love how this book took the same storyline but went in a very different direction with it. And I love both the Darkhorse comic and novel adaptations for these stories, despite how radically different they are.
However, the book wasn’t perfect.
For the beginning itself, I thought the biggest problem was that the missions that Vos and Ventress had to go on before actually performing at the assassination of Dooku were admittedly pretty dull. Like I can’t even remember how their first mission ended. That’s how forgettable that part of the storyline was. Though I thought the rescue of the pike family was admittedly pretty cool and I liked how it tied into the Son of Dathomir Comic by showing much of the crime lords involved were exactly the same ones that were a part of Darth Maul crime syndicate.
And I also thought that the power levels of some of the characters were kind of ridiculous. I feel like that Master Voss being able to defeat Count Dooku in a lightsaber fight is something that I find a little bit of a stretch… But it wasn’t too big of an issue since I thought it was executed well enough that it didn’t destroy the narrative or anything.
I give this book a solid 4.25/5.00 stars – a very welcome addition to the Star Wars continuity. As a story arc for clone wars, I thought it was really good. As a tie-in for movies, it’s spectacular and adds a lot of emotional depth. And as a book on its own merits, it’s really enjoyable and it’s really entertaining.
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