Dark Disciple

Dark Disciple is one of the new media released, the other being comics and story reels, that contain stories that would have normally appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series if not for its cancellation. This was the last one out of those I had to consume, but I think this was my favorite.

The novel focuses on Quinlan Vos, a quite unusual Jedi Master (he was known to bend the rules every once and a while) and with the ability to see and feel the memories of certain objects when he touched them. The Jedi Order feels the war has gone on long enough and feel Dooku needs to die by assassination, so they send Vos out to find Asajj Ventress so they can take him on together. However, the two form a connection, and things don't turn out as planned.

Once I got about halfway through the story, I didn't stop. It's quite an addictive read, and it was never dull. I took me a while though to see Ventress as someone who was able to love, be selfless, to care. All relatively quickly. But I guess this was because I wasn't used to seeing that from her. In the end I cared though, and I was somewhat rooting for her and Vos.
I also really loved the Jedi parts of it - I loved that Obi-Wan had an important role, and Anakin and Windu and Yoda. A lot of the new canon so far has been in the A New Hope/OT era, so it was refreshing to get to read about those characters again.

I think when starting this, I would have preferred (or just generally would have liked) to have seen this as one big arc in the The Clone Wars series, but as it went on, I don't think they would have been able to go into as much depth as they did here. The psychology of the characters and their relationship probably wouldn't have worked quite as well.

If you've just finished The Clone Wars series and are looking for more surrounding that era, this is a really great read. It gives you closure, and more characterization for Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos, both of whom are really interesting characters. I especially like that Vos was featured in this, since there's not much information on him yet in this canon.