Dooku: Jedi Lost (Star Wars)

Written by Cavan Scott

Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Marc Thompson and 9 more

Delve into the history of the sinister Count Dooku in this audio original set in a galaxy far, far away….
 
Darth Tyranus. Count of Serenno. Leader of the Separatists. A red saber, unsheathed in the dark. But who was he, before he became the right hand of the Sith? As Dooku courts a new apprentice, the hidden truth of the Sith Lord’s past begins to come to light.
 
Dooku’s life began as one of privilege—born within the stony walls of his family’s estate, orbited by the Funeral Moon where the bones of his ancestors lie interred. But soon his Jedi abilities are recognized and he is taken from his home to be trained in the ways of the Force by the legendary Master Yoda.
 
As he hones his power, Dooku rises through the ranks, befriending fellow Jedi Sifo-Dyas and taking a padawan of his own, the promising Qui-Gon Jinn—and tries to forget the life that he once led. But he finds himself drawn by a strange fascination with the Jedi Master Lene Kostana, and the mission she undertakes for the Order: finding and studying ancient relics of the Sith, in preparation for the eventual return of the deadliest enemies the Jedi have ever faced.
 
Caught between the world of the Jedi, the ancient responsibilities of his lost home, and the alluring power of the relics, Dooku struggles to stay in the light—even as the darkness begins to fall.

Narrated by a full cast:
Orlagh Cassidy as Asajj Ventress
Euan Morton as Dooku
Pete Bradbury as Gretz Droom
Jonathan Davis as Qui-Gon Jinn
Neil Hellegers as Ramil
Sean Kenin as Sifo-Dyas
January LaVoy as Jor Aerith
Saskia Maarleveld as Jenza
Carol Monda as Lene Kostana
Robert Petkoff as Ky Narec
Rebecca Soler as Yula Braylon
And
Marc Thompson as Yoda

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9780593102817

Cavan Scott

Cavan Scott is a New York Times best-selling author, comic book writer and screenwriter. He created Shadow Service, The Ward, Dead Seas, and Sleep Terrors, and is a lead story architect for Lucasfilm's bestselling multimedia initiative, Star Wars: The High Republic. A former magazine editor, he lives in Bristol, UK, with his family.

Reviews for Dooku

[kylecarroll · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[kavinay-677830 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

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."

[clairefun-979518 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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! ;)

[philae_02 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dooku: Jedi Lost tells the story of how Count Dooku began his Jedi training as a boy. The story is told through a series of flashbacks (journal entries), when Asajj Ventress is asked to find Dooku’s sister. The story tells the complications between the family, and his connections with the Jedi Order. The story is part of the Star Wars canon, and gives a pretty good background to who Dooku is and his connection to the Dark Side.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cavan Scott’s Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost tells the backstory of Count Dooku from Jedi Padawan through his decision to leave the Order. As a framing device, the story focuses on Asajj Ventress undertaking a mission to find Dooku’s sister, Jenza, who possesses correspondence that she and Dooku exchanged over the years and that Republic forces seek in order to learn about Dooku and defeat both he and the Separatists. Asajj peruses this correspondence and, through her, the reader learns of how Dooku first met his family on Serenno: his sister Jenza, brother Ramil, and his father Count Gora. During the course of this meeting and afterward, Dooku’s friend Sifo-Dyas struggles with his powers of precognition, sharing visions with Dooku that lead him to question the Jedi Council’s policy of removing itself from much of galactic life.

Scott’s writing draws upon a great deal of Star Wars lore in his narrative. For example, much of the now-Legends content focused on Dooku’s prowess with a lightsaber and the various techniques, which Scott uses in his portrayal of Dooku training his students (pg. 264). Further, references to the former Sith Empire abound (pgs. 43-45, 99, 228, 410), perhaps as a way to help set up future narratives following the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga. Additionally, at one point Jedi Master Lene Kostana teaches Dooku and Sifo-Dyas a meditation that recalls The Ones from Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes, “Overlords,” “Altar of Mortis,” and “Ghosts of Mortis” (pgs. 256-257). The story itself serves as a companion to Claudia Gray’s novel, Master & Apprentice, which previously examined Dooku’s relationship with his Padawans Qui-Gon Jinn and Rael Averross. Linking the Jedi Order’s lapses of the prequel era with the events of the sequel trilogy, Scott portrays Yoda explaining the Lost Jedi to a group of Padawans. Yoda says, “Remember them, we must. Honor them, yes. Learn from our failure” (pg. 77). In this, he echoes (foreshadows?) Yoda’s lesson to Luke from The Last Jedi, “The greatest teacher, failure is.”

The story began as an audiobook, with this edition featuring both the dialogue and directions for sound effects and creature voices. Reading this book is similar to reading Brian Daley’s radio play for National Public Radio’s dramatization of the original Star Wars films or Laurent Bouzereau’s Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. Enjoyable as it is to read, one cannot help but realize the full effect of the story is best achieved by listening to the audio play. Still, Cavan Scott’s story is sure to delight Star Wars fans new and old.

[lucky2loki · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I might just be spoiled by the usual level of voicework on the single narrator Star Wars audio books -- and indeed, most do a good job here, too -- but for an "audio play" where every character has a different actor, surely they could have cast the title character by someone able to sound even remotely like Christopher Lee's incredibly recognisable voice. Throughout the entire story, this kept irking me, especially when even voices for tertiary characters like Qui-Gon went out of their way to sound like the movie actor. It honestly robbed the story of a lot of personality it might otherwise have had.

And unfortunately, it is personality it could sorely have used. The story has two narratives: A framing narrative following Ventress searching for Dooku's sister, and a main narrative set years before, revealed as she discovers various records of Dooku's long career as a Jedi before leaving the order. The former, surprisingly, was the stronger aspect of the story. Dooku's Jedi career is, frankly, a bit boring. Nothing that happened to him or by his actions was particularly exciting or surprising, nothing felt like a major reveal, and by the end when he does leave the order, I didn't feel like any real groundwork had been laid for him in his later years deciding on joining the Sith instead. For one of my favourite villains in the entire Star Wars universe, this feels like a huge lost opportunity.

But at least the Ventress sections worked fairly well, and I was quite happy with the ending it provided the story, even if the ending did not really feel earned by any of the actual plot, and only by my pre-existing familiarity with the characters.