Customer Reviews

Star Wars: Clone Wars: The Cestus Deception: A Clone Wars Novel (AU Star Wars)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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."

The Cestus Deception is a story of Obi-Wan Kenobi's efforts on the planet of Ord Cestus to bring a halt to the manufacture of killer battle droids that are difficult for even Jedi to defeat. The story is rife with political machinations because the droid production has to be stopped without destroying the economy of Ord Cestus. Obi-Wan is joined in his efforts by fellow Jedi Master Kit Fisto and a team of ARC clone troopers led by A-98, otherwise known as Nate for most of the story. The efforts are also helped by Doob Snoila, a brilliant barrister from the planet of Nal Hutta.

Obi-Wan focuses on negotiations with G'Mai Duris, the official ruler of Ord Cestus. As the story progresses we realize that true power on the planet is held by the Five Families, descendants of one-time business tycoons who were held in the penal colonies of Ord Cestus generations earlier. The Five Families are under the amazing control of Asajj Ventress, the representative of Count Dooku and a long-time enemy of Obi-Wan. Asajj works behind the scenes to counter all of the moves made by the Jedi and has a memorable battle with Obi-Wan near the end of the book.

The story in The Cestus Deception is interesting, and we are introduced to a number of new characters. That aspect of the book is fine. It lost favor with me due to an excessive amount of time introducing us to the feelings of Nate, the ARC trooper as he struggles to follow the rules of life by which he was brought up and balance that strict code of conduct against more human feelings that are encouraged in him by Sheeka Tull, a local pilot on Ord Cestus. That part of the story could have been edited. Nate is an admirable character and performs valiant deeds, but I ended up knowing more about his internal struggles than I cared to know. I also tired of all of the political maneuverings in the tale.

On the whole, the book is a good effort but not one of the highlights of the tales of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Steven Barnes does a good job of capturing Obi-Wan's character in this book, as well as developing Kit Fisto.
There is a well balanced mix of Jedi Philosophy, Clone Trooper life, Politics, and straight up action.

The Good:
For those who just love Jedi, you'll enjoy this. Barnes explains a lot of Jedi battle techniques and a couple of the lightsaber fighting forms (my personal favorite). It was also very cool to see how the clone troopers interacted with eachother, and get inside their minds (Nate's in particular).

The Bad:
For those who tend to get too bogged down in those long chapters on political discussions, you might get a little bit bored near the middle of this book. Barnes does HOWEVER, use those chapters to develop the plot a lot too, to try to keep it exciting, so you won't get too bored. As far as the action goes, for those who have already read and enjoyed the fast paced, easy to follow action sequences of Michael Reaves and Timothy Zahn, you might find Barnes' action scene descriptives a little lacking at times, and hard to follow to the point where you might have to read it over again to be really satisfied.

Overall definitely worth my time, and a satisfying read, I recommend it as a Library pickup more than a "definitely buy it", though.
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61 SW Novels Read, 76+ to go.

THe first thing I have to say about this book is that its cover is very misleading. It displays three characters that you're probably familiar with: Obi-wan Kenobi, Kit Fisto, and Count Dooku. Strange thing is, Dooku does not even have a part in this story. No dialogue, no appearance, nothing. So obviously, it's very strange that his face takes up most of the book's cover. . .

The story (written by Steven Barnes) chronicles the mission of Jedi Knights Obi-wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto as they are dispatched to the world of Ord Cestus to dissuade the planet's leading corporations from selling lethal battle droids to the separatists.

Steven Barnes definitely has profound talent as a writer. His side plot of a clone trooper called Nate (later known as Jangotat) and his growing relationship with a woman of Ord Cestus is completely moving and beautiful. The chapters centering on Nate and the intriguing Sheeka Tull were by far the most enjoyable.

I'm sad to say however, that that's pretty much all I really care to remember about The Cestus Deception. The whole plot with Obi-wan and his political dealings with Ord Cestus' society was rather dull and uninteresting, even during the chapters that were supposed to be. . .well suspensful, I guess. And regarding the villain, Asajj Ventress, I really didn't like her at all. Barnes wrote her as some sort of Dark Jedi who was apparently "a big deal". Well, she wasn't.

My piece of advice regarding this book: read it for the love story. It's well worth it to trudge through the less appealing chapters.

3/5 stars. Barne's Nate and Sheeka saved this novel from a 2-star rating. Thanks for reading. :)

This book, as one can learn from interviews online, went from initial draft to published form with few changes. Steven Barnes' writing style is alternately moving and somewhat confusing. There are a lot of good ideas in this book, and Barnes includes many well-vetted references to the E.U. ( such as the Battle of Galidraan from Open Seasons #3 ); on the other hand, there is sometimes a sense of things being omitted.
The Jedi do not seem to utilize major Force effects; Barnes only gives lip service to Force kinesis on one page. In a way that's good; remember, in the experience of, say, the Diamala, Jedi that use as much power as, say, Luke always end up slipping to the dark side. Barnes' use of the Force is markedly different from the brute-force approach, focusing more on sensitivity to one's surroundings. I appreciated it more by my second reading of the novel. However, there are times where the characters do not seem as though they are being creative enough with their mastery of the Force. On the other hand, at this point in the chronology "our ability to use the Force has diminished".
Also, the only weapons used by the clone troopers are blaster rifles and the occasional adhesive mine...but they're going up against droids.
This brings me to my other major complaint about the novel. The early scene with the JK on Coruscant works for me. The problem is that it almost seems to have been written at a different time than the rest of the book, because it's inconsistent. When the JKs appear on Cestus, their energy-absorbing force fields seem to have been forgotten ( perhaps this could be explained by the issue of the Gabonna crystals, or perhaps the shielding made the JKs seem too much like droidekas from the editorial POV ).
Instead, we are shown that their outer casings are impervious to blaster fire ( which is referred to as being BLUE at one point ); even so, a JK goes out of its way to avoid blaster fire for some reason, to help show off that the biodroids are Force-sensitive and therefore precognitive in combat like Jedi. Maybe it was trying to protect its extruded tentacles? It stands to reason that Cestus Cybernetics, having been a Baktoid foundry world, would be able to produce a heavily armored shell, but the JK droids are rather small.
Since the droids are supposed to be the reason for the whole book, the inconsistency of their usage is disconcerting. However, in my opinion Barnes deserves credit for realizing that any droid would have to be Force-sensitive in order to even hold its own against Jedi. (Then we have the problem of Grievous...but that's another discussion.)
Even in light of the above, this book is saved by its good points. The development of Jangotat's character and of his personal identity are paramount here. Barnes tacks some of the samurai philosophy onto Obi-Wan, which is fine considering the origins of the plot for Episode IV. At first, I was unimpressed by Asajj Ventress' role in this book, but without spoiling it, I appreciate what it led up to. I feel like there was actually a point to her being in the book. I like the fact that the lightwhip ( originally from the comic "Duel With a Dark Lady" ) was used here, although Barnes does refer to it as a "toy".
Some effective moments in this book are almost staggering in their simplicity ( see "Warships rose. Towers fell." in italics ). Finally, I respect the author's decision to deliberately leave Anakin out of the story due to not yet knowing the full story of his fall to the dark side in Ep.III. That's fine with me.

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

Star Wars: The Cestus Deception by STEVEN BARNES is the first Clone Wars novel to come out since last years' Mace Windu book Shatterpoint. The Cestus Deception brings together, everyone's favorite investigative Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi along with Kit Fisto (the Jedi that knocked over C-3PO'c battle droid body). The two Jedi are sent on a mission to the world of Cestus, which has been bringing out a new type of droid known as the JK (for Jedi Killers). While Kenobi attempt to bring Cestus back into the Republic fold, Fisto along with 3 Clone Troopers attempts rally the desperate farmers and miners in a fight against corporate oppressiom. Filled with double and triple crosses, this book is certainly interesting and while it is full of surprises, this story truly holds the readers attention and is well-crafted. Most intriguing are the chapters regarding an ARC Clone Trooper Captain known as Nate. This is the first look in to the mind of a clone trooper and while Barnes is a little obvious with where the character ends up, his journey is both interesting and insightful. Overall, I give this book a high 5 stars. Anyway read and enjoy!

This book stars Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and a clone trooper named Nate. It starts off with a fairly interesting Jedi vs. droid fight but quickly changes paths as the plot veers more towards political intrigue and much more dialogue than action (not what I read starwars for but tolerable). The book starts getting exciting when Obi-Wan trades the diplomatic approach for the guerrilla approach. The most satisfying parts of this book, believe it or not, are the times that Nate narrates his side of the story and the reader watches his character growth. By the end of the book I found myself enamored with the clone trooper and brimming with intense emotions ranging from righteous rage to profound sadness. All in all I enjoyed this book thoroughly as a stand alone read and, if you can get past the unexciting beginning, then I believe that you will too.