Two things brought me to listen to my first audio book ever…
- My nostalgia of old-time radio: I’ve written a little about this on the blog, but I’ll make this quick. In the 80s and 90s there was still a station that would broadcast the old shows at night in California’s Central Valley, and my family would listen to them at our summer cabin. Shows like the Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet would fade in and out forcing my grandfather to have to turn the dial slightly left and right to pick up the signal. Good Times!
- Star Wars… I mean Star Wars!! And I just read Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray and Dooku, or the figure of Dooku, plays a role in the book as both Qui-Gon and Rael Averross were apprenticed to him. At that point in the timeline Dooku has quit the order and returned to Serenno. Listening to this book was a great way to continue my exploration of his character.
The prequels may have introduced the character of Dooku, but there were several questions that were left unanswered… namely: Why did he leave the Jedi Order and what turned him ultimately to the become a Sith?
The story starts in the timeline when Asajj Ventress becomes Dooku’s apprentice. She is tasked by her master with finding his sister. He gives her series of holos, journals, and other pieces of evidence to help lead her on the trail to his sibling. Through her research, we experience Dooku’s growth as an initiate and padawan. We learn of his family’s powerful status on Serenno and the politics of that world. We also learn of his growing discomfort with the Jedi teachings. His apprenticeship to Yoda is fascinating, but he is also influenced by several other Jedis, especially Lene Kostan, an expert in Sith artifacts.
The full cast and the sound effects were done well. Yoda is awesome; he even has a couple moments of anger that I thought was a good opening up of his character. The training and school/ academy scenes are juxtaposed with Dooku’s own teaching of Ventress. And the choosing of the apprentice by a master is something that I think I’ve read about, but there is a scene in Jedi Lost that I will not forget.
One character I was drawn to was Jedi Kostana’s apprentice, Sifo-Dyas. He is Dooku’s good friend and confidante, who really teases the straight-man Dooku about his uptight personality. These back and forths are pretty darn fun. He can see also visions of the future and is brought to the council to try to help in predicting a couple of disasters. This is a volatile gift that Kostana tries to help him learn to control. Sifo-Dyas is the perfect type of character that good writers are able to create within the universe.
I highly recommend this experience to any Star Wars fan. There’s also a dip into the dark side that will fully numb you!
Find it here.
Paul's Picks 
Great review! I loved the full cast, this was superbly done even by Star Wars audiobook standards. Yoda was cool but I did think he was kind of a jerk in this one, something I didn’t expect, lol. His lines I believe was read by Marc Thompson, who is like a Star Wars voices god, love him!
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