Based on unproduced episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this new novel features Asajj Ventress, former Sith apprentice turned bounty hunter and one of the great antiheroes in the Star Wars galaxy.
The only way to bring down the Sith’s most dangerous warrior may be to join forces with the dark side.
In the war for control of the galaxy between the armies of the dark side and the Republic, former Jedi Master turned ruthless Sith Lord Count Dooku has grown ever more brutal in his tactics. Despite the powers of the Jedi and the military prowess of their clone army, the sheer number of fatalities is taking a terrible toll. And when Dooku orders the massacre of a flotilla of helpless refugees, the Jedi Council feels it has no choice but to take drastic action: targeting the man responsible for so many war atrocities, Count Dooku himself.
But the ever-elusive Dooku is dangerous prey for even the most skilled hunter. So the Council makes the bold decision to bring both sides of the Force’s power to bear—pairing brash Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos with infamous one-time Sith acolyte Asajj Ventress. Though Jedi distrust for the cunning killer who once served at Dooku’s side still runs deep, Ventress’s hatred for her former master runs deeper. She’s more than willing to lend her copious talents as a bounty hunter—and assassin—to Vos’s quest.
Together, Ventress and Vos are the best hope for eliminating Dooku—as long as the emerging feelings between them don’t compromise their mission. But Ventress is determined to have her retribution and at last let go of her dark Sith past. Balancing the complicated emotions she feels for Vos with the fury of her warrior’s spirit, she resolves to claim victory on all fronts—a vow that will be mercilessly tested by her deadly enemy . . . and her own doubt.
Praise for Dark Disciple
“Reading Dark Disciple really feels like you’re watching some of the best episodes of The Clone Wars.”—EUCantina
“Emotionally charged . . . Christie Golden does a wonderful job of capturing the characters.”—Roqoo Depot
“A cool inclusion into the Star Wars mythos . . . Ventress and Vos have a cool and compelling dynamic, and are used to explore more of what it means to flirt with the Dark Side of the Force.”—IGN
“[The Clone Wars have been] a huge part of the Star Wars brand for years, and [Christie] Golden manages to craft a story worthy of the themes and characters that fans have come to relate to. . . . [She] uses this opportunity to craft Dark Disciple into a spy/espionage thriller.”—Tech Times
“Golden especially excelled at bringing Ventress’s biting but appealing personality to life. . . . She’s very much a woman trying to find her way, and Dark Disciple adds nuance.”—Nerdist
“Smart, captivating, and unforgettable . . . among the finest in Star Wars storytelling.”—Coffee with Kenobi
"Vergiss nie... du hast immer die Wahl, besser zu sein. Du hast immer die Wahl, den richtigen Weg zu nehmen."
Ich bin absolut begeistert. Ich liebe starke Frauen und unerwartete Wendungen, damit hab ich mich bei dem Buch zu 100% abgeholt gefühlt. Nachdem man einmal im Buch drin war, hat sich die Spannung immer weiter aufgebaut, sodass man das Buch kaum noch weg legen konnte. Klare Empfehlung für alle Star Wars, insbesondere Clone Wars Fans.
Jul 19, 2023
5.0
"Vergiss nie... du hast immer die Wahl, besser zu sein. Du hast immer die Wahl, den richtigen Weg zu nehmen."
Ich bin absolut begeistert. Ich liebe starke Frauen und unerwartete Wendungen, damit hab ich mich bei dem Buch zu 100% abgeholt gefühlt. Nachdem man einmal im Buch drin war, hat sich die Spannung immer weiter aufgebaut, sodass man das Buch kaum noch weg legen konnte. Klare Empfehlung für alle Star Wars, insbesondere Clone Wars Fans.
1.75/5
Published by Del Rey, the 2015 book Star Wars: Dark Disciple is based on the scripts for the cancelled episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars series, including 'Lethal Alliance', 'The Mission', 'Conspirators', 'Dark Disciple', 'Saving Vos Part I', 'Saving Vos Part II', 'Traitor' and 'The Path'. It was written by Christie Golden. The plot is set towards the end of the Clone Wars and focuses on the Jedi Order's attempt to eliminate the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), Count Dooku, in order to end the war. The Jedi Quinlan Vos and Dooku's former apprentice, Asajj Ventress, are at the centre of the story. A relationship develops between the two as Vos tries to resist the temptation of the Dark Side. The novel also deals with the theme of redemption and finding peace with oneself, bringing the story of Asajj Ventress to a perfect conclusion.
Please note that this review contains spoilers and reflects my personal opinion.
The writing style of the novel is comfortable and Christie Golden knows how to write characters in the Star Wars universe. The author shows in this book, as she did in her Fate of the Jedi entries, that she is able to write a romance between a Jedi and a Dark Side user in a phenomenal way. Although the relationship between Ventress and Vos feels a little forced, the two have a wonderful chemistry that is just fun to read.
Ventress experiences a development in this book that leads to a satisfying ending and redemption. What will happen in the future (The Bad Batch) remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Ventress is the only character who is written consistently. Although her relationship with Quinlan Vos is well portrayed, the characterisation of the Kiffar Jedi leaves a lot to be desired. I'm somewhat biased by his storyline in the incredibly [b:Star Wars: Republic, #73|138607705|Star Wars Republic, #73 (Comic Book)|Dark Horse Comics|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697916240l/138607705._SY75_.jpg|154722115] comics, which have a very similar storyline to this novel. However, the novel fails to portray Quinlan Vos, one of my favourite characters, in any good way. The character of the Jedi Master has no references to his past in the book and thus remains an empty shell. His fall to the Dark Side isn't really strong either and happens offscreen. His motivation changes as the plot requires.
Let's take a quick look at the supporting characters.
In the second half of the novel, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are more or less forced into the story. They are now an active part of the plot. Yes, Obi-Wan is a good friend of Quinlan, and his appearance is entirely justified. But whether he absolutely has to complete several missions with Vos when his timeline is already completely overloaded is another matter.The same applies to Anakin, who is even asked in the novel itself why he always has to come along and replies "because it's always like this".In general, the Jedi in this story don't really behave like Jedi, especially Mace Windu. He says things here that I wouldn't even trust Sidious to say.He insists on killing everything and everyone immediately and the other council members say nothing. Yoda himself says it's wrong, but they do it anyway because the plot demands it. The same goes for Count Dooku, who is just an evil cartoon villain.
The novel feels like an episode from the Clone Wars story. For better and for worse. The war here, as so often in the show, is presented as a black and white. It lacks the depth that other books such as [b:Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil|14978|Star Wars Labyrinth of Evil|James Luceno|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420792446l/14978._SY75_.jpg|16926] or [b:Brotherhood|58890947|Brotherhood (Star Wars)|Mike Chen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637267088l/58890947._SY75_.jpg|92780039] offer. The characters always behave exactly as the plot demands, there are plot lines that feel like filler episodes, especially in the second act of the novel where Vos is on the dark side, there are 70 pages where pointless missions are made because the Jedi are too stupid to interrogate Vos properly.
As you can probably tell, I'm not a big fan of this novel. I loved the story of Ventress, but the whole premise just fails for me. Of course I'm biased because of the Republic Comics, I openly admit that. The Clone Wars was spitting on the EU anyway, so I wasn't expecting the story to be similar at all, but the fact that nothing from the comic is carried over or mentioned is just really weird to me. Aayla Secura could have played a major role, especially in the second half. She's Quinlan's padawan. She's not even mentioned. Quinlan's Master Tholme does play a role in this novel, but a very different one than in the comics, where he survives Order 66. In general, you get the feeling that Katie Lucas has read a short summary of the comics and thought to herself, "I'll write that in episodes now", something like "Quinlan Vos falls to the dark side because of Dooku and tries to kill him". The fact that Quinlan was actually sent to Dooku to get information about the second Sith (Sidious) is completely ignored here. Sidious is almost half-heartedly incorporated into the story at the end and is suddenly supposed to be the motivation for Quinlan's obsession with joining Dooku. This wasn't even hinted at beforehand.
Overall, I'm sorry to say that the novel was disappointing for me personally, although I know that many people appreciate and praise it highly. Nevertheless, it has motivated me to re-read the Republic comics and write more reviews in the future.
Jul 28, 2025
1.0
1.75/5
Published by Del Rey, the 2015 book Star Wars: Dark Disciple is based on the scripts for the cancelled episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars series, including 'Lethal Alliance', 'The Mission', 'Conspirators', 'Dark Disciple', 'Saving Vos Part I', 'Saving Vos Part II', 'Traitor' and 'The Path'. It was written by Christie Golden. The plot is set towards the end of the Clone Wars and focuses on the Jedi Order's attempt to eliminate the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), Count Dooku, in order to end the war. The Jedi Quinlan Vos and Dooku's former apprentice, Asajj Ventress, are at the centre of the story. A relationship develops between the two as Vos tries to resist the temptation of the Dark Side. The novel also deals with the theme of redemption and finding peace with oneself, bringing the story of Asajj Ventress to a perfect conclusion.
Please note that this review contains spoilers and reflects my personal opinion.
The writing style of the novel is comfortable and Christie Golden knows how to write characters in the Star Wars universe. The author shows in this book, as she did in her Fate of the Jedi entries, that she is able to write a romance between a Jedi and a Dark Side user in a phenomenal way. Although the relationship between Ventress and Vos feels a little forced, the two have a wonderful chemistry that is just fun to read.
Ventress experiences a development in this book that leads to a satisfying ending and redemption. What will happen in the future (The Bad Batch) remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Ventress is the only character who is written consistently. Although her relationship with Quinlan Vos is well portrayed, the characterisation of the Kiffar Jedi leaves a lot to be desired. I'm somewhat biased by his storyline in the incredibly [b:Star Wars: Republic, #73|138607705|Star Wars Republic, #73 (Comic Book)|Dark Horse Comics|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697916240l/138607705._SY75_.jpg|154722115] comics, which have a very similar storyline to this novel. However, the novel fails to portray Quinlan Vos, one of my favourite characters, in any good way. The character of the Jedi Master has no references to his past in the book and thus remains an empty shell. His fall to the Dark Side isn't really strong either and happens offscreen. His motivation changes as the plot requires.
Let's take a quick look at the supporting characters.
In the second half of the novel, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are more or less forced into the story. They are now an active part of the plot. Yes, Obi-Wan is a good friend of Quinlan, and his appearance is entirely justified. But whether he absolutely has to complete several missions with Vos when his timeline is already completely overloaded is another matter.The same applies to Anakin, who is even asked in the novel itself why he always has to come along and replies "because it's always like this".In general, the Jedi in this story don't really behave like Jedi, especially Mace Windu. He says things here that I wouldn't even trust Sidious to say.He insists on killing everything and everyone immediately and the other council members say nothing. Yoda himself says it's wrong, but they do it anyway because the plot demands it. The same goes for Count Dooku, who is just an evil cartoon villain.
The novel feels like an episode from the Clone Wars story. For better and for worse. The war here, as so often in the show, is presented as a black and white. It lacks the depth that other books such as [b:Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil|14978|Star Wars Labyrinth of Evil|James Luceno|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420792446l/14978._SY75_.jpg|16926] or [b:Brotherhood|58890947|Brotherhood (Star Wars)|Mike Chen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637267088l/58890947._SY75_.jpg|92780039] offer. The characters always behave exactly as the plot demands, there are plot lines that feel like filler episodes, especially in the second act of the novel where Vos is on the dark side, there are 70 pages where pointless missions are made because the Jedi are too stupid to interrogate Vos properly.
As you can probably tell, I'm not a big fan of this novel. I loved the story of Ventress, but the whole premise just fails for me. Of course I'm biased because of the Republic Comics, I openly admit that. The Clone Wars was spitting on the EU anyway, so I wasn't expecting the story to be similar at all, but the fact that nothing from the comic is carried over or mentioned is just really weird to me. Aayla Secura could have played a major role, especially in the second half. She's Quinlan's padawan. She's not even mentioned. Quinlan's Master Tholme does play a role in this novel, but a very different one than in the comics, where he survives Order 66. In general, you get the feeling that Katie Lucas has read a short summary of the comics and thought to herself, "I'll write that in episodes now", something like "Quinlan Vos falls to the dark side because of Dooku and tries to kill him". The fact that Quinlan was actually sent to Dooku to get information about the second Sith (Sidious) is completely ignored here. Sidious is almost half-heartedly incorporated into the story at the end and is suddenly supposed to be the motivation for Quinlan's obsession with joining Dooku. This wasn't even hinted at beforehand.
Overall, I'm sorry to say that the novel was disappointing for me personally, although I know that many people appreciate and praise it highly. Nevertheless, it has motivated me to re-read the Republic comics and write more reviews in the future.
