Yoda: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart
Oct. 17th, 2021 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorGuess who finished Yoda: Dark Rendezvous? I've been meaning to read this book for a long time, but other tasks, and other books, kept intervening. My story research tends to be a big motivator for reading things, though, and I've been trying to research Dooku for Heart of Shadow, so I finally got around to it.
This book ripped my heart out and stomped on it. 10/10 would recommend.
A big problem that prequel stories can have is to just serve as a sort of filler exposition. Let us explain in stultifying detail how we got from point A to point C. There is no emotion, there is boredom.
But this story understands that expositional specifics cannot drive a prequel. There are two angles to approach such a story: to introduce an element whose outcome cannot be predicted from the start of the story, and to explore the emotional angle of the events. This story does both, and does them expertly. Furthermore, it connects its OC characters to the canon characters thematically.
This story also understands what the Star Wars prequels, specifically, are about. It understands that a tragedy is not simply an account of bad things happening, and not a matter of mere body count. We know exactly which characters can die within this story, and which cannot. But death is not the only tragedy that can befall a character.
While Yoda is the title character, the story is as much about Dooku as it is about him. And it is specifically about the relationship between these two characters, though it also deftly explores the relationships between other characters as well. I loved seeing the flashbacks between them from when Dooku was a youngling and Padawan, as well Yoda and Dooku's tense meeting near the end of the story.
Also, this quote killed me:
"Every Jedi is a child his parents decided he could live without."
I've seen this quote many times, but I never knew it was from this novel, or that it was Dooku who said it!
The portrayal of Ventress here is one of my absolute favorites, partly for agreeing with some of my own major headcanons of the character and also because of how much insight we get into both her past and her relationship to Dooku.
I really enjoyed the Jedi in this story, quite in contrast to how I feel about them in works like Light of the Jedi, or in every tiresome fandom meta that tries to minimize or scrub away their flaws. It seems to be a trend that I like the Jedi best in the stories that seem to best understand the motivations of their enemies.
Theres also some quite interesting political references here regarding not only the Jedi, but the Republic as well. The Chancellor Palpatine Spaceport scene comes to mind.
In summary, Sean Stewart wrote a straight-up Shakespearean tragedy for Dooku and Yoda, with no shortage of worldbuilding or lightsaber battles, either. This is absolutely one of the best Star Wars novels I have ever read.
This book ripped my heart out and stomped on it. 10/10 would recommend.
A big problem that prequel stories can have is to just serve as a sort of filler exposition. Let us explain in stultifying detail how we got from point A to point C. There is no emotion, there is boredom.
But this story understands that expositional specifics cannot drive a prequel. There are two angles to approach such a story: to introduce an element whose outcome cannot be predicted from the start of the story, and to explore the emotional angle of the events. This story does both, and does them expertly. Furthermore, it connects its OC characters to the canon characters thematically.
This story also understands what the Star Wars prequels, specifically, are about. It understands that a tragedy is not simply an account of bad things happening, and not a matter of mere body count. We know exactly which characters can die within this story, and which cannot. But death is not the only tragedy that can befall a character.
While Yoda is the title character, the story is as much about Dooku as it is about him. And it is specifically about the relationship between these two characters, though it also deftly explores the relationships between other characters as well. I loved seeing the flashbacks between them from when Dooku was a youngling and Padawan, as well Yoda and Dooku's tense meeting near the end of the story.
Also, this quote killed me:
"Every Jedi is a child his parents decided he could live without."
I've seen this quote many times, but I never knew it was from this novel, or that it was Dooku who said it!
The portrayal of Ventress here is one of my absolute favorites, partly for agreeing with some of my own major headcanons of the character and also because of how much insight we get into both her past and her relationship to Dooku.
I really enjoyed the Jedi in this story, quite in contrast to how I feel about them in works like Light of the Jedi, or in every tiresome fandom meta that tries to minimize or scrub away their flaws. It seems to be a trend that I like the Jedi best in the stories that seem to best understand the motivations of their enemies.
Theres also some quite interesting political references here regarding not only the Jedi, but the Republic as well. The Chancellor Palpatine Spaceport scene comes to mind.
In summary, Sean Stewart wrote a straight-up Shakespearean tragedy for Dooku and Yoda, with no shortage of worldbuilding or lightsaber battles, either. This is absolutely one of the best Star Wars novels I have ever read.