Dooku: Jedi Lost (Star Wars‪)‬

In this story, Asajj Ventress, a dark Jedi both happily and unhappily in the service of Count Dooku as his personal assassin is tasked with locating the whereabouts of an unexpected quarry- Dooku’s sister. With the ghost of her dead master Ky Nerec at her shoulder attempting to sway her away from the dark path, Ventress is both compelled and threatened by Dooku to obey.

Gifted with his ship, Ventress is granted and later accesses by herself the complete journal entries and recorded messages of Dooku, granting her and the audience access into the early life of the former jedi master before he abandoned the Jedi order. They chronicle his life as a Jedi youngling and his budding friendship with the troubled seer Sifo Dyas, all the way through his knighthood and his friendship with the unorthodox Sith artefact researcher Master Kostana. During his ascension to jedi master, he is beset with fateful encounters with his estranged family which set in motion the climatic events that lead to him abandoning the order to become the Count of Serenno.

I started listening a couple of years ago before stopping then resuming mainly because of a few teething issues I found with the audiobook. The clone wars voice actors do not reprise their roles in this, but it was interesting and captivating to hear Euan Morton, the voice of the male Sith inquisitor in the old republic game take on the role of Dooku. He doesn’t have Sir Christopher Lee’s or Corey Burton’s presence or sense of imperious authority, but he makes up for it with suitable menace and moments of emotional vulnerability and intensity when needed.

My only drawbacks would be the choice of effects and voice acting quality. Qui Gon Jinn’s voice actor is spot on with adopting his soft Irish lilt, which was an unexpected treat, as of course was Yoda’s. Ventress’s voice actor was a bit weak at times with her screams and yells but otherwise provided an surprisingly professional and seasoned edge to the clone wars villainess. Movie soundtracks are reused a plenty and it’s a lengthy listen bound to keep you intrigued and hooked for a good four hours or so.
The other issue is the choice of sound for an important monster and it’s appearance in the later acts. It is clearly a man making roaring noises with a distorted voice filter which did ruin the immersion for me, which is a shame considering how a large successful franchise like Star Wars couldn’t shell out a few extra quid to make a quality monster roar from Skywalker sounds.

That said, in my search for quality sci fi and fantasy audio books, I quite enjoyed resuming listening to this. I do wish there were more fully casted fully effected and soundtracked audiodramas for us to listen to. With this and Doctor Aphra however, it appears to be slim pickings at the moment, and the only other place to find radio dramas is YouTube for the old Legends/non-canon stories like the original trilogy and the adventures of Kyle Katarn.

Hope to see more compelling audio dramas like this done by Star Wars too, and please give
UK Audible and Apple Books the license to play Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark, which is narrated by the cast of the clone wars but is only available in the US!

Good story that’s well dramatised. It covers the very credible evolution of Dooku from Jedi to Count but leaves teasers and foreshadowing in the journey from determined Count to callous Sith. Probably for the best that the final dark descent is left to our imagination as writing that part would be complicated and would draw the story out unnecessarily. As it stands it is very well paced and never dull. It provides great context to the state of the galaxy leading up to Episode 1, though not to the depth described in Star Wars: Darth Plagueis (which covers Plagueis and Sideous in good detail).

The portrayal of doko as a kid to a Jedi to count is amazing made me love his character more now that I understand his background .! Great story if only he had stayed a Jedi wee need a film !!