Dark Disciple, Christie Golden

Publishers: Del Rey

Pages: 302

Main Characters:

Vos, Ventress, Count Dooku, Obi Wan Kenobi

I’ve only ever read one other book in the Star Wars extended universe and that was Darth Plaugeis by James Luceno . In my review I said it should have been renamed ‘the secret history of the fall of the Republic’ as the book was so packed with boring detail about politics and economics that happen within the SW universe.  Remembering this made me a bit hesitant to try other SW novels, as I was worried that they too would be full of important, though boring facts, about the SW galaxy.

Artist's impression of Vos

So it was my pleasure to find that Dark Disciple was totally different from Darth Plagueis. At its heart this novel is a love story between two star crossed lovers. I know; we’ve seen it all before in SW with Anakin and Padme’s ‘love’ in the prequel movies. However, the two protagonists in this novel: Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress (from SW Clone Wars) really made the love story seem believable. This is because they both work alone and don’t need a partner. Nonetheless, when forced to work together by the Jedi council and asked to do something morally wrong in assassinating Count Dooku, the couple find that they need each other to cope with the gruesome task, whilst also guiding each other around the Dark Side.

Ventress

And this dabble with the Dark Side is what I think makes this book extremely addictive as Golden does an excellent job of making you guess if Vos is a good guy or a bad guy. I think the author balances this question on a knife point throughout the last third of the novel by just showing the reader enough to think Vos may or may not be evil, which envelops the reader in Vos’s inner turmoil and his relationship with Ventress.

In addition, by adding well known characters such as Anakin and Obi Wan to the main plot line made this novel very accessible to readers like me who haven’t read that many SW books. This makes it easier for the reader to become immersed in the story as they know and love these characters and can picture them easily in their mind. Plus, it gives a different incite onto those established characters. This is because they are mostly in the background of the novel and the reader gets to see how they interact with other characters that were not in the movies.

Youtube review of the book

All in all, Dark Disciple was an amazing book and is definitely a good place to start if you are looking to get into SW novels. I would love it if Golden wrote more novels about Vos, especially if they were based before he met Ventress.

For author's official website click here.