My first stop in the Star Wars Canon challenge! I’d say this is probably more of a 3.5 rather than a 4 star though. I wasn’t a big fan of it being set up like a script (although it did make for quick reading). I did however, enjoy getting to read a little more in-depth about the jedi training and the library (I’m a sucker for a book with library cameos I know), as well as getting to understand more of Dooku’s backstory. I’m hoping that since it’s already all written out that this will get adapted one day. ( )

Maybe 3.5 Stars. This was an 'Audio Production' only. It was very well done, and felt like I was watching an episode of The Clone Wars with my eyes closed. The story was there, but some of the voice actors bothered me. ( )

Cavan Scott’s “Dooku: Jedi Lost” sheds light on a severely under-developed character from the Star Wars prequels. The great Christopher Lee was hired on to provide star power to the George Lucas films, but he was horribly under-utilized in all three films as the Jedi-turned-Sith Count Dooku, a character that was given no backstory and barely even a motivation as a character.

Like “Tempest Runner”, “Dooku: Jedi Lost” is a script for an audio production that I have not listened to. Scott is quite good at this format, and he succeeds at providing something that a lot of the “new canon” stuff has been missing: depth.

The character of Dooku is finally given a back-story and a motivation for his actions.

To be fair, I have not watched the now-classic cartoon series “The Clone Wars” all the way through. (My wife and I are still on the third season. It’s good, and I like what I’ve seen, but we have watched way too many Disney+ cartoons, thanks to my daughter, to want to watch one more cartoon, even if it is Star Wars related. I’m starving for adult shit on TV, which is why I’ve recently become hooked on “True Detective” and “GLOW”.) My understanding is that Dooku is given a bit more screen time on that show than he was in the movies, thankfully.

In Scott’s script, we finally learn that Dooku is a real, honest-to-goodness Count. Born from a royal family on planet Serenno, Dooku was given to the Jedi Order as a child to train as a Jedi. By a weird twist of fate, Dooku discovers his true identity, and it gradually becomes a source of contention between himself and his Master, Yoda. It is not the only source of contention.

Dooku feels that Jedi Order has, occasionally, made errors in judgment regarding what they should or shouldn’t do in regards to being galactic peace-keepers. Yoda tells him that it is not his place to question the decisions of the Jedi Council. Dooku disagrees. One can see the slippery slope toward the anger and hatred that leads him to the Dark Side.

Scott does a very good job of showing Dooku’s progression and evolution over time from Jedi to Sith, and he also demonstrates the many grey areas that legitimately make him question the Jedi’s black and white philosophy. Dooku is that very rare of villains: one that we almost agree with.

Much like “Tempest Runner”, “Dooku: Jedi Lost” demonstrates a maturity in Scott’s writing that has not been demonstrated in many of the other new canon novels I have read. It helps that Scott devotes an entire story to developing one character rather than telling a story with an ensemble cast of characters, none of whom we can relate to because none of them are ever clearly developed. ( )

I never quite realized that Dooku was his first name. Sure, it makes sense, he's Dooku of Serrano... but that also means the entire Clone Wars revolve around guy using a honorific that's basically "Count Bob." ( )

So! As I'm spending so much time at home at the moment, I've decided it's finally time to read some Star Wars books (prompted a little by recently watching Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and playing Jedi: Fallen Order all within the space of two weeks - I am embracing the Star Wars overdose wholeheartedly). I'm a little terrified of how many there are and how bad some of them are, so I've decided on a slightly arbitrarily made up list of the canon books and the "important" legends books, or at least some of the better / non-clashing with canon books. Basically I'll read the canon books, watch the canon films and tv, play the canon video games, and include a few non-canon-but lore type legends books. It makes some sense to me, okay?

This is currently the first canon Star Wars book, chronologically, so I've started here, and I listened to the audiobook. Bear in mind I don't really enjoy listening to audiobooks as I need to be doing something with my hands, and then I distract myself, and then before I know it, the annoying talking in my ear is stopping me from getting on with the things I'm trying to concentrate on...so it took me a few days. I thought the actors were mostly very good - the Asaji Ventress was great, luckily, as she's the main narrator. Some of the others I found myself listening for the differences between their voices and their screen voices more than I listened to what they were saying, so I found that distracting too. The story is basically a flashback to the life as a young padawan, of Dooku, and a tiny 'now' bit of adult Dooku and Asaji (who is the one reading all these journals and holocrons of Dooku's youth). Bit weird, tbh. Didn't really feel the idea that Asaji is reading all these things to find out what Dooku was like before. The YoungDooku plot kind of stretches across his entire career from unapprenticed padawan to him leaving the Jedi order, and told a slightly disjointed story because of it. I think in the end I found the story fine, not amazing, not terrible. It was alright.
I *did* enjoy all the little details that weren't plot as much as they were continuity , and all the information adding to our canon knowledge of life before The Phantom Menace. Masters and Padawans, who were friends, why these people turn out as they do, that sort of thing. You meet some characters who crop up again in later books, but not in the films - this especially ties in well with Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray, the current next book in the canon timeline. Reading these two books and then moving on the The Phantom Menace gives you more insight into the Master/Apprentice chain of Dooku - Qui-Gon - Obi-Wan in what feels a very satisfying way, and *thats's* really why I'm doing this. I'm looking forward to Dooku turning up in my prequels re-watch and seeing how/if I can see this young earnest Dooku from this book, in the older film version. Hearing Dooku struggle with his apprenticeship under his master and then his own teaching of his assorted padawans, and then reading Master and Apprentice and the struggle of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to work together, makes their strong and mostly effortless bond in Phantom Menace feel a much more rewarding thing to experience. I liked most of the supporting characters and they felt like characters you could imagine seeing in other Star Wars media without any surprise. I'm sure I'll see more of some of them as I go through this process! (No spoilers, please! I've only done the films, some games, and Rebels, so I've got a lot to look forward to in The Clone Wars). If I find the book reduced at some point I'd consider picking it up and reading it as I'd imagine I'd get into it a bit more than the audiobook, but if there's a future canon release that's initially only audio, I'd...hmm, I'd *consider* it. This wasn't too bad an experience for me! ;)
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