– Spoiler Review –
Dooku: Jedi Lost is an audiobook written by Cavan Scott and performed by a full cast, a first of its kind endeavor for Star Wars books. On Scott’s script alone, this dive down Dooku’s memory lane is exceptional, revealing some key and vital events to understanding the Count, as well as some much appreciated Asajj Ventress content, while the performance/audio work had its share of strengths and weaknesses that makes the risk mostly worth it.
Newly recruited by Count Dooku as his Sith apprentice, Asajj Ventress finds herself tasked with locating the Count’s sister, Jenza, as one of her first assignments. Jenza was taken by his enemies to reveal his secrets and damage him, and to help Asajj find her, Dooku gives her unprecedented access to his history to help unravel what’s happened to her. As Asajj dives deeper into Dooku’s past, her own personal demons resurface, as she struggles with her own past as Ky Narec’s Jedi apprentice and becoming Count Dooku’s Sith initiate. Most of the story unfolds via flashbacks as Asajj listens to the holocalls Dooku made to his sister once he found out she existed, a meeting which sets into motion a series of events which will push Dooku to leave the Jedi Order. And in the “present,” Asajj begins adjusting for her new life amongst the Sith, focusing and honing her anger and resentment, but the specter of her dead master, and his actions in training her, looms over her life as Narec’s disembodied voice dogs her still to keep her within the light, but is it an internalization or actually Narec himself? Both tales felt like they had similar narrative weight for their character, even if Asajj’s part was shorter, and it’s all thanks to the sprawling, intriguing, and often surprising script by Cavan Scott that’s full of teases of events to come and connections across the canon. Forget for a second for this story’s current medium and I can easily tell you it’s worth whatever medium it has been in/will be presented in.
For starters, finally seeing this unique slice of Dooku’s life is rather astonishing, especially due to the breadth of the story, several surprises, how it leaves plenty open for further exploration, and an abundance of expectations beaten. The story covers so many events in Dooku’s life, from his time as an initiate in the Jedi Order and eventual selection as Yoda’s apprentice and some of their adventures, how he comes to meet his family and becomes embroiled in their affairs, interactions with Sifo-Dyas, Rael Averross from Master & Apprentice, and Qui-Gon Jinn, and so much more. Jedi Lost covers so much content I was worried while listening that maybe someone messed up, as I’m surprised and ultimately delighted we were given such an overload on Dooku’s past and all those involved. Despite all the details we finally learn, there are delicious amounts of blank spaces left to be explored in the future, like years of his training of Rael or Qui-Gon or the time Yoda and Dooku saved an entire solar system, there’s plenty left to mine.
Part of the reason Dooku’s backstory was so entertaining was how his earliest years felt like, whether it was intentional or not, Harry Potter and the Jedi Temple: with initiate Arath as the Draco to Dooku’s “privileged” Potter; Sifo as Ron Weasley; Lene Kostana, who trains Dooku on beast mastery, advocates action over mediation, and is concerned about the Sith returning, as a pseudo-Dumbledore; Yula Braylon as a Snape-like Master with her own intriguing secrets; while Dooku’s father is more similar to Mr. Dursley and his brother Ramil like Dudley; but sister Jenza functions more like a Sirius Black, the only family member who seems to care for him and mainly speaks to him from a distance, though always ready to listen; there’s even a whole bit about a mysterious student from the past and their long lost journal (Tom Riddle, anyone?), pointing young bumbling initiates Dooku and Sifo to the Bogan Collection aka a hidden “restricted section” of the Jedi Archives! It might sound like a knock to call it similar to Harry Potter, but I found the way it used such familiar aspects and characterizations to ease us into a different era of Temple life and a ton of new characters, specifically Jedi exemplary.
Two aspects I enjoyed the most about the script, which made it feel fresh and surprising throughout, was the inclusion and introduction of Dooku’s family and how his decision to leave the Order isn’t specifically tied to Darth Sidious and his machinations. Meeting Dooku’s family, and seeing his connection to them evolve as he himself evolves as a Jedi was one of the main delights of the story, bolstered by the performances of the cast, as it adds even more depth to Dooku while it also creates a much more nuanced and layered path for Dooku’s trajectory to his role as we see in the films and The Clone Wars. It helps Scott writes Jenza, Ramil, and the Count’s parents so distinctly, while considering Scott has the freedom to develop them as he sees fit, he can go in surprising directions with their stories, with their fates being intriguing to say the least. The fact his disillusionment with the Jedi grows from his interactions with his family and the galaxy at large, especially as he spends time with Kostana and her action-forward approach, made this story refreshing because I always assumed Palpatine was involved somehow, but he’s perfunctory at best, swooping in during the blank space between Jedi Lost’s “present” and “past” stories. Instead, it’s a decision one Dooku makes on his own, and while what happens doesn’t try to make him any less of a villain as we know him currently, but instead offers an understandable trajectory for Dooku’s life. While Dooku making the connection between himself and his sister makes it seem like his fate is sealed, the vision-plagued Sifo seems to suggest he had options before choosing his path forward as Count Dooku, adding a little bit of tragedy to the proceedings.
But Jedi Lost isn’t just about Dooku, Asajj Ventress is also central to the story. While I felt like we were away from Asajj’s story a bit too much, and there were some obvious narrative conceits to keep her in one spot so she could listen to Dooku’s past, her part is as equally important to our understanding of the character as all the content about Dooku. I feel like we’ve seen a good deal of Asajj story, especially the middle section as she went from Sith apprentice to leaving it all behind in The Clone Wars, and of course we saw her end too (which I still consider a bit too untimely), so what about her beginning? While we don’t specifically get her time with the pirates who stole her from the Nightsisters nor her training with Ky Narec, though she and Narec talk about both a lot, seeing her struggle with her past as she makes her next big step is more than compelling. We don’t get Dooku’s transition from Jedi to Sith per se, but instead we get Asajj’s, as Narec haunts her from beyond the grave (or does he?), dogging her every choice and action. Her internal battle with the good Narec and his teachings represent against the new teachings and trajectory she takes by being Dooku’s apprentice is one that would come off well on page, but in audio form it’s captivating, from hearing him whisper in her ear to her having to explain away talking out loud to herself, making me really appreciate the medium.
Like a lot of the great novel content we’ve been getting in canon, Jedi Lost covers a character’s transition from one state to another that I didn’t really think about. Seeing Asajj rectify her new life with the righteousness she lead under Narec, and knowing her overall story thanks to TCW and Dark Disciple, it was an important and intriguing event to see unfold. It helps set up her early time in TCW as the villainess, but also her decision to walk away from it all, eventually being pulled back in, and making her ultimate sacrifice (even if I have my qualms with that). This story is just as essential for her as it is for Dooku tidbits, but like I said, I wished we got a little more with her.
Now you know my feelings on the story, how was the audiobook aspect of the experience? For starters, here’s part of the cast list (which I hope we get a full one soon):
Orlagh Cassidy as Asajj Ventress | Euan Morton as Dooku | Pete Bradbury as Gretz Droom | Jonathan Davis as Qui-Gon Jinn | Neil Hellegers as Ramil | Sean Kenin as Sifo-Dyas | January LaVoy as Jor Aerith | Saskia Maarleveld as Jenza | Carol Monda as Lene Kostana | Robert Petkoff as Ky Narec | Rebecca Soler as Yula Braylon | Marc Thompson as Yoda
I’ll be honest, this was my first full audiobook (via Audible), as I’ve only listened to clips of From a Certain Point of View and other books, while I even gave a reading of a clip myself at Celebration Anaheim 2015, but I’ve never sat down for the long haul. I avoided audiobooks for several reasons, and after Jedi Lost, I both understand and get why people enjoy and use the medium, but I still feel like it isn’t for me, though I’m happy they tried something like this so I did have the experience. Part of why I still won’t go for audiobooks in the future stems from personal reasons and from the performance/audio itself in Jedi Lost, though at times those intersect and intertwine so it’s hard to separate them.
One of the best examples of why I both enjoyed and still aren’t a fan of audiobooks is Chapter 15, where Dooku, Sifo, and Kostana are trapped by a mysterious group of Presagers on a planet teeming with the dark side. What I liked about the chapter was how the effects worked for the voices from the past, present, and future that Dooku and company hear, swirling around them, freaking me out a little; it’s like the Asajj and Narec stuff but on steroids, in a good way. But then there are the witches that trap them, who were given a creepy, snake-like voice as they are heavy on the “s,” which is hard to understand, while some of the screaming by Sifo or the witches feels a little too excessive or old school video game-y; this goes for the Tirra’Taka as well, a creature who becomes integral to the story and its screams were appropriately off-putting, but sounded, for the lack of a better term, cheap. And then there’s nitpicks I had which are due to my personal preferences, like Rael Averross’ voice, who sounds like an old Southern oil baron, weirdly at all points in life, young or older, which doesn’t match up AT ALL with how I imagined him to be in Master & Apprentice; though I will say at least the voice actor did a good job with the part. And while it took some adjustment to get used to new voices for some characters, of which I began to enjoy for the most part, sometimes my problems had less to do with the choices made about who voiced who, but rather how characters didn’t sound terribly different as they grew up, which just seemed like a bizarre choice and threw me off a lot. In the end, it’s little personal nitpicks that hold me back from wanting to dive more into audiobooks, but I ended up overcoming most of my initial misgivings and really enjoyed the production.
Here are a few other things:
- Fans who don’t enjoy or like audiobooks, and those who are hearing impaired who can’t enjoy this story at all right now, shouldn’t worry too much about being left out as Del Rey has said they are already considering other mediums to deliver Dooku: Jedi Lost. It would be pretty damn silly, and saddening, they wouldn’t make this story available for everyone at some point, so I imagine it’s coming and I can guarantee it’ll be worth the wait! If they do this again, maybe announcing a written version with a window of exclusivity to audio might be a small step in the right direction to handling this. UPDATE 7/28: At SDCC 2019, they announced a print edition of the story, featuring Scott’s script and stage directions, would be coming out in October 2019! I’ll update this review with thoughts on reading the story once it’s out. UPDATE 11/8/19: the script book is out. I haven’t had time to pick it up but hopefully before the year is out I will!
- Want more of Cavan Scott’s work? Make sure to check out IDW’s Star Wars Adventures, where he’s one of the main writers, as well as his excellent and spooky Tales from Vader’s Castle! Not only will Vader’s Castle get a sequel, but he’s also a part of the mysterious “Project Luminous” teased at Celebration Chicago 2019. There’s a lot of Scott out there…and for good reason! Also, really solid point about the prequel era Jedi!
- I did really appreciate how this integrated Ventress’ time in the fighting pits, as seen in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars animated series, into her canon backstory; The series is well worth the watch, canon or not!
- This also fits in well with Age of Republic – Count Dooku #1, as Jedi Lost shows why the Jedi would’ve trusted Dooku so much as his reasons for leaving were understandable and not shrouded in secrecy.
- Other little things I loved: Yoda talking about the Lost Jedi busts that adorn the Jedi Archives, particularly his sadness regarding one of them; Kostana having a convor; what sounds like a Lord Momin reference; all the little details regarding older Jedi, Sith, and events from older eras; the subtle way Master & Apprentice intermingles with this story, especially regarding prophecies/visions and how the prequel era Jedi deal with them; the mention of their being 4 founders for the modern Jedi Order; digging into Sifo’s past to make more sense of his role in The Clone Wars; it was really neat to see Yoda as a teacher in this era; the humor of a younger Qui-Gon Jinn; finally introduced to a Seeker, the Jedi who bring in Force-sensitive children; and getting to hear Dooku call and tell Yoda about his choice to leave the Order.
- Star Wars Explained has a super handy video with 32 facts from the audiobook, connecting its many details with Legends and canon content.
Dooku: Jedi Lost is a risk that pays off in dividends thanks to the strength of its expansive, intriguing script and overall performances/production, though it’s a shame such a good story might not be experienced by many due to either personal preferences or hearing impairment, but I urge those who are against audiobooks to give it a shot (as it almost converted me).
+ Fantastic, expansive story with tons of surprises and lore
+ Deep dive into Dooku’s history/revealing integral moments about the character
+ Excellent Asajj insight
+ Audiobook performances and production brings the story to compelling life…
– …though it can work against it
–
And I hope everyone will get a chance to experience it(Update: Now they can, so this point no longer stands!)
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
ALSO BY CAVAN SCOTT:
Tales from Vader’s Castle (comic miniseries) | Star Wars Adventures Annual 2018 (comic) | “Time of Death” – From a Certain Point of View (novel) | Star Wars Adventures Vol.1: Heroes of the Galaxy (comic)
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