Dark Disciple by Christie Golden is a standalone novel in the Star Wars universe set around The Clone Wars timeline. It stars both Jedi Master Quinlan Vos and ex-Sith member Asajj Ventress, both of whom this novel serves as my introduction to. It always feels great to come back to read a Star Wars novel from time to time, especially a standalone novel, and Dark Disciple serves that purpose extremely well. Other than the forbidden love between Anakin Skywalker and Padme, I don’t believe I’ve come across as much romance between any two Star Wars characters. It’s a bit refreshing even though I’m usually not much of a romance reader, and one of the main reasons why I can endure Star Wars as a series in general is due to the lack of it.

Dark Disciple is a quick and fun novel. I expected nothing less than a fair amount of the usual light saber fights and the battle between the Jedi’s and the Sith’s. Vos and Ventress make a fun duo and the character’s dynamic slowly builds as the story progresses. The setup in the beginning took I think about 30%-40% into the book but once it got going, it hardly stopped. With Count Dooku the main central villain, it was nice to see how even Sith Lords are not totally invincible to harm. Somehow I’ve always conjured imaginations of how Sith Lords rarely ever get seriously injured. While Dooku played a big part during the Attack of the Clones movie if I remember correctly, Dark Disciple offers little new insight into Dooku himself. For that task, I think my next read will be Dooku: Jedi Lost. In fact, I think I have my hands full with the amount of standalone novels available.