Star Wars: The Cestus Deception [Paperback]

Well, after reading the negative feedback on this novel from other online reviewers, I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised. Small, hard-to-read text set aside even, The Cestus Deception generally fails to impress and does not deliver upon what it promises.

Warning that this review might contain some spoilers.

First off, despite the fact that Count Dooku takes up an inordinately large portion of the cover, and indeed more than he takes up on the cover of Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, and despite the fact that he is listed in the Dramatis Personae, he's never seen throughout the whole book. It's like the author was going to put him in somewhere and had the cover art designed and stuff, but then decided to increase Asajj Ventress's role and wax over Dooku's part completely, then forgot to change the Dramatis Personae and didn't bother ordering new cover art for whatever reason, a time crunch most likely. And Dooku would have fit brilliantly in a political intrigue novel. We keep hearing about what a masterful political strategist he is, but aside from mentions of Separatist-Republic secessionist worlds and governments in other places, we haven't really got to see that. A few underacted lines in Attack of the Clones discussing Nute Gunray's obsession with having Padmé's head on his desk and then all of the other corporate leaders suddenly agreeing to form this confederacy for no apparent reason doesn't cut it.

Secondly, Asajj Ventress is pretty much out of character throughout the whole book. For one thing, her description as being "androgyneously muscular" with only her, ahem, female features distinguishing her as female was rather confusing, because everywhere else she is portrayed as a lithe, supplely-muscled, attractive woman who is clearly and distinctly female, and her strength is portrayed through her athletically muscled profile rather than conjuring the image of some 180-pound female body-builder. Her personality also seems to be mostly in the vein of the gemcutter ambush at Ithor in Dark Rendezvous, which was probably my least favorite chapter of that entire novel (though I do love that book as a whole) simply because of her dialogue. Her little thing with Obi-wan is really never explained, and I don't keep up on the comics and it certainly never featured in the cartoon miniseries. It just threw me. I suppose it was intended to somehow explain her behavior when she captures and tortures Obi-wan on New Holstice and why Obi-wan is so intent on killing her in the Obsession comics, but it just made it more confusing for me.

Another thing is the bio-droids. The dashta eels were more confusing than a lot of the Yuuzhan Vong bio-crap from the New Jedi Order, which is saying something. Tell me again how they can almost defeat a Jedi Master who is probably second only to Mace Windu, Yoda, and possibly Anakin Skywalker, if only because of the latter's raw Force power, in strength and lightsaber ability (if his status as being Mace's closest companion within his posse from the Republic comics and their being mentioned as the most powerful Jedi swordsmen in the Order is telling anything) when they are "sleeping" and being used as organic circuitry on a fancy-pants droid, just because they're Force-sensitive? And they go insane when they kill somebody? It's like nonsentient super-pacifism, and it comes across as a really cheap plot device. Asajj Ventress's declaration that the droids are part of a ruse concocted by Dooku (and why such a complex strategy for such comparatively little short-term gain when the dashta cloning deal, which is the big long-term gain, seems so dependent on good fortune?) seems very contrived as well.

I was hoping to actually see a competant and non-technobabbly threat to the Jedi, which was what was initially set up, until Mr. Barnes decided to watch a few Star Trek reruns and invented these dashta eel things, but instead I got another political play supposedly masterminded by far-off Count Dooku, who is crazy if he thinks that one incident with Cestus will turn the entire galaxy against the Republic. The Separatists have committed atrocities like the poisoning of Honoghr and the enslavement of the Xampsters of Xagobah and yet the whole galaxy isn't turned against them, and they don't even control the primary HoloNet News media outlet! The Republic could probably get away with covering up the whole incident and turning it into anti-Confederacy propaganda, and the whole thing would backfire. Dooku and Ventress are hardly known for a good track record of honesty and moral fiber, I would imagine.

Kit Fisto was also a letdown. Aside from Aayla Secura, he is probably the most popular "Jedi extra" in the prequels, with an inordinately large fanbase that happens to include yours truly. The humor elements seen in Star Wars: Tales, the Republic comics, and even Attack of the Clones where he just smiles and doesn't utter a word are completely missing, and he basically just sits around and scowls and comes up with terrorism innovations all throughout the book, and then when he duels Asajj Ventress, this Jedi who might well be the third most skilled warrior in the whole Jedi Order is soundly trumped and has to be saved by Obi-wan distracting Ventress from finishing the job. His human-like traits that seem obviously reflected by his merciless good humor in other source material obviously not referenced by Mr. Barnes is almost non-existent, and he seems a little more alien than he should. He seems more like an alien than Doolb Snoil, in fact, which doesn't seem quite right.

Doolb Snoil. The giant snail with a squeaky falsetto voice. Groan. My theory is that Barnes wanted to use the title of his book, Lion's Blood, somewhere in The Cestus Deception, so he decided that, when reversed, it would make a good character name. Hey, Snoil is kind of like snail! Let's make the character a talking snail! x.X

So was there anything about the book that I liked? Why am I doling out 3 stars for it (which is, admittedly, on the generous side) anyway? Well, the Kit Fisto-as-Nemonus scene was somewhat amusing, because it recalled the parts from Champions of the Force by Kevin J. Anderson (the book that is all climax, as I like to call it, because the entire book is the various endings of the different plotlines) with the idiots from Maw Installation testing out their superweapon prototypes and excitedly recording its effects, then eagerly deciding to call a staff meeting about it during the middle of an intense firefight. That's what the Five Families' dialogue in this scene reminded me of, anyway, and the Nemonus thing was pretty amusing, recalling The Mask of Zorro a little bit.

On a related note, it was great to see the enigmatic lightwhip finally truly explored in this book. We've had lightwhip action within the Jedi Apprentice books, and the old Marvel comics with Dark Lady Lumiya, but it was nice to see it finally referenced in mainstream, popular continuity. I doubt the old Star Wars Marvels are fresh on the average reader's mind.

I liked the militia fighters. The farm kid whose name I forget and the X'Ting female. In fact, I liked the X'Ting in general. It was a very cool species and it is unfortunate that they seem too centralized on Cestus to really appear with a major part anywhere else. Mr. Barnes did a good job explaining the culture of the X'Ting without thrusting the reader into a long, boring history lesson about a fictional extraterrestrial species.

It was nice to see the clones explored, but I have to say that I preferred the way it was handled in Karen Traviss's Republic Commando: Hard Contact over the way it was handled in this book. The training sequences were pretty cool, though I don't recall a planet by that name being in the Coruscant system. The Vandor names seem to be the names of Coruscant's moons at least prior to the rise of the Empire and the instatement of the New Order, but with it being described as a temperate planet, it is a tricky retcon. On the other hand, so is Rori (from Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine), but as a Star Wars junkie knows, the denizens of the galaxy far, far away do have such things as artificial gravity generators, atmosphere factories, habitation domes, terraforming, and orbital heat-reflecting mirrors. I kind of wish that the makeup of the Coruscant system would be firmly set in stone. I had thought that The Unifying Force would finally accomplish that, but apparently it did not.

Obi-wan's characterization is decent, nothing special. Definitely a 3-star performance there. There are a few parts where I can't picture Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan Kenobi saying his dialogue or performing his actions, but generally it isn't too bad. His interactions with Anakin Skywalker seen in Dark Rendezvous and Labyrinth of Evil are sorely missed, though. His friendship with Kit, which we haven't seen anywhere but here (his relationship with Kit, the Jedi Master having taken on Obi-wan's childhood friend Bant Eerin as his Padawan after her Master, whom Obi-wan and Qui-gon had both had close friendships established with, died, should have been an interesting one to explore, almost a sort of uncle-to-grown-nephew relationship, but Mr. Barnes seems to have forgotten that particular historical footnote) seems contrived and very wooden. It would have been great to see some more tension between the two Jedi, with Obi-wan being torn between following the superior Jedi Master's lead and tackling the problem with his own style that he finds to be more becoming of a Jedi like him, based on their different approaches to the conflict, and some more references to outside EU (though I suppose Sean Stewart and James Luceno have spoiled me on this matter) like the issue with Bant, who hasn't been mentioned since the Clone Wars broke out to my knowledge. As I said: disappointing.

Admiral Baraka was an intriguing character. A high-ranking Republic naval officer who is neither clone trooper nor human at all. His style seems more suited to an aggressive, hard-liner civilization like the Empire, but if he survives the Clone Wars there's a good bet that he would join up with the Rebel Alliance. Sort of a prequel-era counterpart to Ackbar. Comparing and contrasting two distinctly inhuman members of the same alien species with one another is usually pretty interesting.

Well, I'm not sure how to figure with the Sheeka Tull and Nate/Jangotat plotline. Definitely a 3-star, then. The romance wasn't overly contrived, certainly not as bad as the Anakin/Padmé romance in Attack of the Clones is, but not as well-developed as the Han/Leia romance in The Empire Strikes Back either, of course. And I was actually sad when Jangotat sacrificed himself to destroy the Five Families. I was expecting him to exemplify the archetype of the unstoppable elite Republic clone soldier and survive the novel. It was interesting to compare and contrast the feelings of an ARC trooper with the feelings of the clone commandoes from Republic Command and Hard Contact.

One very minor quibble. Sirty, the clone who tangles with the JK droid (literally) at the beginning of the book, is initially described as an Advanced Recon Commando (properly called an Advance Recon Commando, but assuming that the speaker's slip was intentional on the part of Mr. Barnes, it wouldn't seem surprisingly that civilians could get the name wrong in that way) but later in the book he is a regular clone trooper. There also seem to be implications that ARC troopers are just regular clones trained personally by Jango Fett, but according to other EU, they are created as near-identical copies of Fett from their initial "conception" and then raised separately from the other clones and hand-trained by Jango. So the possible explanation that Sirty got "demoted" for failing to beat the JK is shot down right there. I was also surprised by how little Mr. Barnes tried to make clear the differences between white-bread clone troopers and best-of-the-best ARC troopers. Again: disappointing.

I would award this book a 2.5 out of 5, but I can't do that and so I'll just round up. It's exceedingly generous, but 2 stars seems a little too harsh. If you like political intrigue or you are a true EU completionist, go ahead and get it; if you are not or are a newcomer to the Clone Wars-era EU, pick up Hard Contact, Dark Rendezvous, and Labyrinth of Evil first.

While the Clone Wars continue, the Republic learns that the remote planet, Ord Cestus, is mass-producing special bio-droids capable of defeating a Jedi in mortal combat. Apparently, a ban on producing battle droids ravaged the local economy leading to the Cestus bartering with the Republic's enemy, Count Doohu and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Taking the threat seriously, Chancellor Palpatine dispatches Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, fellow Jedi Knight Nautolan Kit Fisto, several trooper-clones, and the slug barrister Snoil to the orb to do whatever it takes including global genocide to insure that no Jedi-killing battle droids are produced.

Obi-Wan plummets into local intrigues as he senses a much greater diabolical plot behind what is happening on Ord Cestus. With the help of his team, Obi-Wan struggles to prevent the development and sale of the bio-droids, to avert a nasty takeover scheme and trying to prevent the planet from total annihilation from his side or their opponent. Neither the Republic nor the Confederacy can afford to allow their enemy to gain control of the bio-droids that could shift the balance of power.

Fans of the Star Wars mythos or Steven Barnes will thoroughly enjoy this fantastic entry that may be the best of the Clone War tales (comic book, novel or game). The action-packed story line contains plenty of enticing exotic characters from nasty bad dudes to the novel stealing Snoil, a brilliant legal genius. A touch of romance adds depth to a great Star Wars story that will bring new readers to the Jedi universe and showcase why Steven Barnes is one of the best novelists on the market today.

Harriet Klausner

"The Cestus Deception" has two problems. The first is that it's just plain horribly written. If this wasn't bad enough for the book, it also runs up against the great string of Clone Wars novels that have been coming out lately, raising the bar for how good it should be. Normally SW novels are a couple days of light reading, the fantasy fan's romance smut, but not lately. Lately SW novels have been astonishing, breathtaking, and they give just a little bit of hope about how good EP3 will be. Just not this SW novel. The simply truth is that everything "the Cestus Deception" tries to do in its 400 pages has already been done by another SW novel in the last year...and done better. One of the main themes in CD is about how the clone soldiers feel and behave, what they feel and can they grow as a human being? It's done in a decent way here, but in "Republic Commando: Hard Contact" it's done superbly. CD also tries to be an action novel and it's done in a tolerable way here but in "Shatterpoint" it's done masterfully. CD tries to play with characters from the movies and with the Jedi killer Asajj Ventress. In CD it's done horribly, but in "Yoda: Dark Rendezvous" it's done in a way that leaves you breathless (if you haven't picked up Yoda: DR yet go get it now).

All of this is bad for "Cestus Deception" but what is really bad is that the writing itself is terrible. It is done in a very amateur style that commits "young writer" mistakes over and over again. By "young writer" I mean they are things people do when they first start writing. I know because I have done them myself and realized how lame they were. For example there are about a billion point of view breaks throughout the course of the novel to just as many different characters and even worse than that point of view often changes from one person to another without a break. This leads to a very confusing read and it breaks flow, not to mention it destroys character development time. Other "young writer" mistakes include very vague word usage that allows the author and the characters to get away with a lot, including forgetting about very important things that they should remember. This makes the characters look really dumb and the villain look "oh my god, SO eval".

But perhaps the most glaring flaw is CD's structure. It has 82 chapters. It is only 396 pages long. Do the math and you will realize that the average chapter is only just under five pages long. Some are not even half a page long. Instead of reading and enjoying it you are left with this thought running through the back of your head "oh another chapter...and another."

Final Thought: "And another." If you are a SW fanatic you are going to read this book anyway, my review isn't going to stop you. But if you aren't and you only pick one Clone Wars novel to read, don't pick this one. Try "Yoda: Dark Rendezvous" or "Shatterpoint" instead. "And another."