Title: Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
Author: Sean Stewart
Pages: 329
Type: Adventure
Time: 20 BBY

Novel quality
YES! Finally a novel just about Yoda, my favorite character! Even better, his "opponent" in the novel is Count Dooku, another one of my favorites (Doh!). This is going to be awesome! The above about surmises my thoughts before reading this novel. So it's safe to say that my expectations were high. It could be these high expectations, but I was a little disappointed by this novel, here's why: Yoda and Dooku are prominent characters in the novels description and on the cover, but they are missing from the story for quite some time. In that time we get to know a couple of "normal" and therefore considerably less interesting characters. I felt a little cheated because of this and I was getting ready to give this novel a beating of a review. However, when I looked passed my initial disappointment I found that the novel has a lot of qualities and I actually started to like it again. The first chapter of the novel is simply fantastic. We see Yoda thinking back of a conversation he had with Dooku about sixty years earlier, this discussion gives us some interesting background on their history and makes Yoda's remark in AOTC ("Fought well you have, my old Padawan) a lot more interesting than before. In the Sith camp we see great interaction between Dooku and Asajj Ventress and between Dooku and Sidious. We see him talking down Ventress, but we also see him tremble in front of Sidious. All of this in one, great, chapter. After the first chapter however, things start to slow down. The character by the name of Scout feels sort of forced on us and the other characters are to unfamiliar and flat to make them really interesting. The story itself also becomes a lot less interesting. The trip Yoda and co. have to make to get to Dooku takes just a little to long and there isn't really anything interesting happening during it. Sure there are some battles and Mr. Stewart even throws in some droids to make everything a little more interesting, but somehow it all just feels..... uninteresting. Luckily, when we get to the end of the novel, it starts to become very interesting again. The effect the planet Vjun has on Force sensitive beings is described wonderfully and the "confrontation" between Yoda and Dooku is simply amazing. Just this confrontation makes the entire novel worth reading. Why? Mr. Stewart does and amazing job to portray Yoda as the passive, but extremely potent Jedi we all know (or hope?) he is. The way in which he talks with Dooku and the way Dooku responds to it is just FAN-TAS-TIC. Really the best piece of dialogue I've read so far in any Star Wars novel. What's also nice is that we get a little Anakin and Obi-Wan as well. You could say that it is a little cheap to use these characters to make the novel more interesting. It didn't feel like that at all though, their appearance doesn't feel forced and just seems to fit right into the story. One last positive point about the last few chapters is the development the characters Scout and Whie go though in these chapters. When we first meet them they feel rather standard but in the later half of the story their characters really become a lot more interesting and their interaction becomes quite good. In short, everything comes together quite well in the end. This novel is kind of hard to rate. On the one hand there is the "not-so-good" middle part of the novel and on the other hand there are the awesome beginning and even better ending. It's not hard to give a recommendation though. I feel every Star Wars fan should read this novel, if only to read the fantastic interaction between Yoda and Dooku. Good novel.
Rating: 82/100

Personal tilt
As you can read in the part above, I have a bit of a double feeling about this novel. I find it very hard to give it a grade. The middle part of the story was really disappointing to me and I really felt cheated by the virtual absence of both Yoda and Dooku in this part. The good parts of the novel are so good however, that the overall feeling is quite positive. I'm sorry I can't be clearer about this novel. You should probably just pick it up and read it. If you absolutely hate the middle part, you will still feel good because of the good beginning and ending. If you like the middle part, you will probably feel this is one of the best Star Wars novels you've read. Just be sure to let me know your opinion on this novel.
Rating: 85/100


Overall rating: 83.2/100

- - - -

For an overview of all reviews and a ranking see my Book review summary