Star Wars: The Hive

Star Wars: A Clone Wars Novel #2.5

by Steven Barnes

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Dispatched as a Republic envoy to the Outer Rim planet Ord Cestus—in a bid to halt the sale of potentially deadly “bio-droids” to the Confederacy—Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself enlisted in a mission more desperate, and dangerous, than diplomatic. The once self-contained world has long since been co-opted by unscrupulous offworlders, whose plunder of a vital natural resource has enabled the rise of a powerful corporation that controls the economy. Ord Cestus’s native population, the X’Ting, are now mere second-class citizens in their own society.

Enter the Jedi Knight, with news that a legal technicality has turned the tables—and the corrupt forces with a stranglehold on Ord Cestus are now at the mercy of the X’Ting. Circumstances, however, are more dire than the Republic suspected.

In the wake of a devastating plague, the X’Ting’s benevolent rulers are dead, and the once tightly knit race has splintered into battling factions. Reunification can only come with the rise of new royals, whom all X’Ting are bound by blood to serve. But the eggs that will spawn those sovereigns lie out of reach, secured in a secret chamber and booby-trapped by those whose knowledge died with them in the plague. Now, to salvage a people’s destiny, Obi-Wan will risk a veritable descent into braving the unknown horrors in the forgotten depths of an alien world, on a perilous quest from which none who went before have ever returned.

This short story features an exclusive author interview—plus an excerpt from Steven Barnes’  Star Wars  novel,  The Cestus Deception.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Short Stories, Fantasy, Space Opera

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2004

About the author

Steven Barnes (born March 1, 1952, Los Angeles, California) is an African American science fiction writer, lecturer, creative consultant, and human performance technician. He has written several episodes of The Outer Limits and Baywatch, as well as the Stargate SG-1 episode "Brief Candle" and the Andromeda episode "The Sum of its Parts". Barnes' first published piece of fiction, the novelette The Locusts (1979), written with Larry Niven, and was a Hugo Award nominee.

Reviews

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 22BBY

This one follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as they unravel the mystery of a missing Jedi on Sriluur. What's cool about this book is how it throws our heroes into the thick of it, facing off against shady organizations and making tough calls about who to trust and such.

Barnes keeps you hooked with a story that's full of surprises and keeps you guessing until the end. Plus, he adds in some seriously cool alien species and dives deep into the moral dilemmas our Jedi face. It's not just about lightsaber battles, there's real heart and depth to the characters, most importantly they do feel like the chars you know and love.

Is it a must-read? I don't know, but it's a decent enough adventure to read and pass the time with a cool story about Kenobi and Anakin during the Clone Wars!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun Obi-Wan adventure to round out my Prequels Era short story reading.



Kenobi is off practicing some aggressive negotiations without his Padawan and is called upon to perform some Indiana Jones-style derring do and heroics to bring unity back to a colonized species of sentient insectoids. I thought the climactic scene was particularly well designed.

[DiscoSpacePanther · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is a companion to The Cestus Deception, which is not one of my favourite Clone Wars era novels.

The setup is that an NPC gives Obi-Wan a side quest to complete. A new character then joins Obi-Wan’s party and together they enter the dungeon to pick up the treasure demanded by the NPC.

Obi-Wan’s small adventuring party travels through subterranean passageways, fighting off random encounters from cannibals and carnivorous worms. With a little bit of looting corpses they make it to their destination, wherupon Obi-Wan utilises his party member’s class skills to solve a few simple puzzles and claim the artifact sealed in what amounts to a magical treasure chest. There is a small twist that is not unwelcome, and a grand reveal that was telegraphed throughout the story.

This story could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better. The best aspects of it are the insights into a new species and culture, but it is all presented with cliché-ridden prose than never rises above workmanlike in execution.

I don’t hate this, but I can only recommend it to people with the time and inclination to delve into some Classic Star Wars EU deep cuts.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good story. I think I enjoyed this more than the book it went along with, Cestus Deception.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secrets of the Hive, Setup for the Cestus Deception

This short novella was a Clone Wars novel about an insectoid race who had requested assistance from the Republic, in the form of Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. This book also sets up the following book, the Cestus Deception. Before the larger issue of enslavement to a cybernetic factory, a ritual test must be performed. An untrusting warrior accompanies Obi-Wan during their quest and the pair discover horrors below, as well as the identity of the Jedi who previously visited their planet. An entertaining short story with a few twists and turns and an interesting setup for the Cestus Deception novel.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

For 2022, I decided to go back in time and reread all the Prequels Era novels published between 1999 and 2005, plus a smidgen of other novels (like Survivor's Quest and the Dark Nest trilogy) released during that time frame. This shakes out to 21 novels, four eBook novellas, and at least thirteen short stories.

This week’s focus: an eBook set concurrently with The Cestus Deception, The Hive by Steven Barnes

SOME HISTORY:

The Hive is an eBook written by Steven Barnes, released on May 27, 2004. It is also available in the paperback edition of The Cestus Deception. Unlike the other eBooks like Darth Maul: Saboteur and A Forest Apart, which served as separate stories from their corresponding novels, “The Hive” is more akin to Ylesia, being an extended story/deleted scene from its parent novel.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE STORY:

As with all the other eBooks, I had never read The Hive before, and welcomed an opportunity for Obi-Wan to have an Indiana Jones-like adventure during the events of The Cestus Deception.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

Dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to the Outer Rim planet of Ord Cestus, Obi-Wan finds himself fulfilling a much different role than he initially imagined—as he and a member of the X-Ting race are dispatched to retrieve the last remaining eggs of the royal family from a secret chamber. But danger awaits them every step of the way…

TIMELINE DISCLAIMER:

The Hive seems to be set immediately after Regent Duris and Caiza Quill’s ritual fight in Chapter 32 of The Cestus Deception, as an alternate version of what happened while Obi-Wan spoke with the hive council.

THE GOOD:

I almost wish that The Hive had been included in the story of The Cestus Deception, because I felt like it gave me a better grasp of the X-Ting race—of how alien and different their culture is than anything else we encountered in Barnes's actual novel. The story is all about Obi-Wan trying to come to a better understanding of the X-Ting, and trying to build rapport—however short it may be—with Jesson and the X-Ting he encounters along the way. I appreciated that, and again would have liked to see those interactions in the novel itself.

I think it also helped that The Hive is a very Indiana Jones-esque adventure story, where they're going through these secret tunnels and they have to fight things off and there's danger and they're swinging across things, complete with three vital questions asked by the security system at the end. It felt like a classic action/adventure story to me.

It's only seven short chapters (it covers about one day of Obi-Wan's time on Ord Cestus) but a lot happens in that one day: they have to face off against cannibal-like X-Ting and worms and rock falls and security measures, so it's very thrilling.

THE MEH:

I did wonder whether The Hive felt too divorced from the greater Star Wars universe; it felt a lot more like an adventure story that happened to feature Obi-Wan than a Clone Wars story. While I appreciated learning more about the X-Ting, it's completely focused on their history and their needs, and you don't get much sense of the broader things that are happening during the Clone Wars at this time. Which is probably why it's a deleted scene that got turned into an eBook; it doesn't really affect what's happening on Ord Cestus, being more of a self-contained episode.

I also felt like the reveal we got at the end, that the Jedi who had helped the X-Ting 150 years ago was Yoda and that they venerated him so much, was a little too on the nose. Obi-Wan's like “I wonder who this Jedi could have been, I had looked in the archive and didn't see anything but sometimes people are very modest” and then Regent Duris mentions Yoda by name, so I guessed it was Yoda from the beginning. The reveal where the X-Ting have erected this giant statue of Yoda in their Hall of Heroes was…a bit much.

And Obi-Wan doesn't go through much here. Obi-Wan goes on an adventure. Obi-Wan learns a little bit about the X-Ting, and Obi-Wan learns a little bit more about Master Yoda's past. That's pretty much it: a fun adventure story, but there's not a lot of depth here.

IN CONCLUSION:

“The Hive” worked better for me than The Cestus Deception did. It’s a quick read—only seven short chapters—and both fleshes out the X-Ting a little more as well as provides Obi-Wan with a swashbuckling adventure. (It doesn’t add much to its parent novel, though, so I can see why it exists as a deleted/extended scene.)


Next up: the first book in the MedStar duology by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry, Medstar I - Battle Surgeons

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/FSIcpufUG_M

“Obi-Wan enters the Hive” (April 2004): https://web.archive.org/web/200502050...

[Graff Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Wars: Legends: A Clone Wars Novel 03 The Hive by Steven Barnes

adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective tense

Fast-paced

Plot or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes

4.0 Stars

This was shorter than I realized. Also, the author is better at writing novellas, than full length novels (though, small sample size to judge this by).

This was a tight character story...between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jesson, the X'Ting hoping to save its race from extinction.

I was thoroughly invested in the story and the characters, and I was genuinely saddened that the story was completed. 

Lots of fun...though very tense at times.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I last read "The Cestus Deception" 5 years before reading this, so don't remember the boredom I felt when going through that one. Still, my review gives me enough information to know that there were many times when the Force could have been used but wasn't...and that is the case here too.

The reason why Obi-Wan and Kit go to Cestus is essentially the same in this short story, though Obi-Wan is roped into helping the X'Ting in a different way. The Hive believes their royal eggs, hidden after past companies similar to Cestus Cybernetics threatened the species via geonocide...and thus the continuation of the royal family. The eggs are hidden belowground, and Obi-Wan joins an X'Ting named Jesson to find them, to save them.

Along the way, they face cannibalistic X'Ting who were forced to survive from centuries before, and nasty, devouring worms. BLergh to the worms.

There is some very cool information on the X'Ting themselves, as well as a species symbiotic to them called the Zeetsa. Jesson learns a lot about himself and his heart, as well as about the hearts of Jedi.

Sometimes, we need an outsider to help us put our lives in perspective.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Tacked onto the end of the mixed reviewed tale of the Cestus Deception, this charming adventure gets the formula right. Not over the top, not drawn out, just a solid episode length piece of Clone Wars fun.

"And they call it a hive...A HIVE!!!"
- space Gimli

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be a somewhat standalone novel but it feels like it's actually more of a deleted scene from The Cestus Deception. And while Goodreads says to read this first, I suspect I might've liked this a little more if I'd read the big book first so I was already oriented in the story. On the plus side, it does kick off with enough exposition about the Xting so I can understand who the alien species is and why Obi-Wan is here. But the whole thing ends up feeling like a sidequest that I have to assume will never come up in the main book.

The story, while taking place during the Clone Wars, feels like it's only tangentially related. While being on the planet Ord Cestus to do Clone Wars stuff, the native bug aliens ask Obi-Wan to help retrieve a pair of eggs who will become the new king and queen. They were hidden away to prevent the royal line dying out from a plague, but there's a lot of danger around the hiding place and failure could lead to the eggs being destroyed. So with the chance to have a Jedi help, the ruling council sends Obi-Wan and a native warrior on the misson.

The actual story is alright, though kinda basic. It's essentially a dungeon crawl, with Obi-Wan and his new friend going through a series of tunnels and traps while fighting big worms and cannibals. The worms have shades of Dune with a machine summoning them to act as a defense for the egg cache. There is a neat twist to the process of retrieving the eggs, where the warrior must be strapped into a chair and forced to answer riddles only to be confronted with the consequences of failure. There's also a twist about a Jedi that visited 150 years before, but it feels a bit weaker since it picks one of the most obvious Jedi to use for it.

So overall I maybe could've skipped this one, and I probably should have read it after The Cestus Deception rather than before. But it was a perfectly fine story and I guess it gives me some extra info on the new species for the Cestus Deception. Even if it feels like the sort of thing that could happen basically any time before the fall of the Old Republic.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Include in future re-reads: I'm ambivalent. If this is included, just read a synopsis of the Cestus Deception and read this. You wouldn't understand this at all without the Cestus Deception.

This was an interesting short story set during the events of The Cestus Deception. I found the actual plot far more interesting that the story of the full length book, so it is somewhat disappointing. It would've been far superior if Barnes had included this short story in his full length novel and cut out some of the bloat from the novel as it exists now.

There isn't anything special about this, but it would've added a needed boost to the pace of the Cestus Deception. The thing I didn't like was how it was Yoda who had come to Cestus so long ago and was the Jedi who kept being referenced. They even built an enormous statue to him in their Hall of Heroes. This just felt really cheesy.

[Nate Tranell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of Ebooks, manly because I prefer print to an infinite degree. That’s probably the biggest reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 3–it’s hard to sustain stories for any long period of time if they’re not print and there’s no page break to feel like you’re getting somewhere.

This wasn’t a horrible short story, but I wasn’t wildly engaged. It was a fun side quest set in between Chapters 32 and 33 of The Cestus Deception; the best thing it does is expand the world a little bit; it feels a little richer as a result of this novella. Surprisingly, I’m enjoying the novel a lot more — I didn’t love his Mace Windu novel, but the world building of Ord Cestus is kinda growing on me.

But it does meander a little too much IMO; although the Yoda reveal was fun (but having read the book chapters first, I already knew that was coming).

[Lady Earth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Izgalmas kiegészítése a Cestus csapda c. könyvnek. Obi-vant felkéri az X'tingek nagytanácsa és a régens, hogy egy harcossal együtt keressék meg a királyi tojáspárt, amit egy mesebeli Jedi lovag segített elrejteni a Cestus zűrös múltjában.
Az útjuk földalatti barlangokban vezet, különös szimbionta lények, kannibálok, Dűne-férgek és trükkös csapdák során át a végső tesztig. A fiatal X'ting harcos és Obi-van vállvetve küzdik át magukat az akadályokon, s mindeközben sokat tanulnak egymásról és önmagukról.
Sőt a végén még egynémely rejtélyre is fény derül…
Elég érdekes és kalandos novella, egyetlen problémám csupán az volt, hogy nem bírtam eldönteni, a Cestus csapda eseményei előtt vagy után játszódik-e?!

[Jonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, fun and quick read

The Hive is a short Obi Wan centered story that features a lot of fast paced action. It was a quick read but still enjoyable. Like a few others have already stated, this seems like it would be a great episode of The Clone Wars. It’s light on the Force and other SW characters but I still felt like it fit within the universe. It’s worth the read if you are looking for something fun to pass the time.

[Burak Emiralp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cestus Hilesi kitabına daha sonra ek olarak konan bu e-hikaye, Ord Cestus gezegenindeki X'Ting'lerin hikayesine odaklanıyor.

Hikayenin sonunda bir zamanlar X'Ting'lere yardım eden bir jedi'ın heykeli gözüküyor. Bu da bu minik hikayenin en beğendiğim kısmını oluşturuyor. Spoiler olmaması için belirtmiyorum.

[Teri Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting.

Stories about bugs creep me out, bugs in general creep me out. But! These are big, intelligent, centuries old bugs. And they have a mission for Obi Wan. A mission to save their species, and their planet. Kind of disappointed that the ending doesn't really let you know what happens.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent fast paced adventure novella!

I’ve found a few of the Star Wars books a little too long and have a tendency to become bogged down halfway through.

The Hive, however, isn’t one of these; set during the Clone Wars (my favorite period) its a relentless action packed read from start to finish and a good precursor to the events of the author’s next novel “The Cestus Deception”.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is an epilogue to the previous novel “The Cestus Deception”. Obi Wan is tasked with a quick side mission before he leaves the planet. He has to rescue some royal eggs from their safe hides hole. What could go wrong? Well everything of course!
A quick 64 page read which was by far more entertaining that the preceding novel. And a much better finish!!

[Thurm · Rating 4 out of 5]

75

This was actually a lot better than I was expecting, feeling pretty much like a filler episode of The Clone Wars (nothing wrong with that) despite being published well before its release. It's a brief little story with an interesting plot, species, and problem that all gets wrapped up nicely in about an hour of reading. One could do a lot worse in 64 pages.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic companion to the Cestus Deception. It further highlighted Obi-Wan's chivalry. Definitely worth a read.

[Kat V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing like the book. So much better. Would definitely reread. Beautiful ending.

[THATGUY501 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little short story. I quite liked it

[Jurgen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's well written, 50 pages of action. But in the end it still feels like a deleted part of the cestus deception.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was pretty enjoyable

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love for Star Wars

I love the Star Wars universe. I grew up to the original movies. When books were add that made it much better. This is a great short story. Well worth reading.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #120

Background: The Hive was written by Steven Barnes and released as an eBook in May 2004. His only other Star Wars work is The Cestus Deception (my review) to which it is a companion. He has also written a number of his own novels and a smattering of TV episodes.

The Hive takes place during The Cestus Deception, about a year after the Battle of Geonosis and 21 years before the Battle of Yavin. The main character is Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Summary: As Obi-Wan continues to strengthen his relationship with the X'Ting government of Ord Cestus, and in particular with Regent G'Mai Duris, a new opportunity surfaces. Generations ago, a plague nearly wiped out the X'Ting and the eggs containing the last members of the royal family were secured behind layers of security measures deep beneath the surface. Secured so well, in fact, that multiple attempts to recover them have failed. One more failed attempt and automated countermeasures will destroy the eggs to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. G'Mai Duris believes Obi-Wan is the X'Ting's best hope to restore the royal leadership. Accompanied by one elite X'Ting warrior, Obi-Wan ventures into the depths to accomplish the impossible and save the future of an entire race.

Review: This novella is a bit of a weird animal. Ostensibly, of course, it is a companion to The Cestus Deception and it happens right in the middle of the events in that novel. But in almost every way it is a better, tighter story, and it doesn't even fit with the events of the novel. Obi-Wan in The Hive is a better-written, more likable character, and the most prominent side-character is better than any of the characters Barnes created for the novel as well. Thanks to the length, the plot is more focused and more action-packed, and there are coherent themes and motifs that run through the whole thing and actually pay off in the end.

Now, the payoff isn't great. In fact, it's kind of an eye-roller. I won't give it away, but it's certainly an overused device in Star Wars . . . but the point is that there's something there that feels like a solid, in-universe, well thought-out conclusion that the whole story was building up to. That's kind of the whole thing for me . . . It's mediocre, but it's serviceable, which is leaps and bounds ahead of the novel.

Now, if you're familiar with the plot of The Cestus Deception (as I was, having just read it), you spend the whole story wondering what's going to happen at the end that will feel like a satisfying outcome to the story but still fit with the novel. Well, it turns out he couldn't figure out how to do both of those things, so he settled for the former. This novella was published before the novel, but I assume it was conceived and written after the novel was already completed and submitted. Why else would such a significant, world-changing event not even be referenced anywhere in the novel? The outcome of this story should have changed the entire ending of that one. It makes no sense that it didn't.

You could try and come up with an explanation for why there doesn't appear to be anywhere to fit the events of this story into the events of that one, and why none of the characters mention what happened even though they should, or why Obi-Wan's companion in this story isn't even mentioned in passing in the novel . . . But there's no coherent explanation for why nothing that happens in this story appears to have impacted anything that happened in the other.

Honestly, this story, though not great by any means, is so vastly superior to the other in every respect that I'd just disregard the novel entirely and say this is the only story of the two that Really Happened.

C+

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an ebook novella that takes place during the novel The Cestus Deception. Obi-Wan is asked to recover royal eggs that have been protected for years.

I liked this short story better than the actual novel. This went straight to the heart of the matter. It was a nice adventure that required Jedi skills and intelligence. I also enjoyed the little twist at the end that fans will enjoy.

I didn't give this a four star rating because of its timeframe. This should have been included in the novel and this was probably a income supplement gimmick. If you plan on reading both the novel and this ebook do yourself a favor. In the novel when Obi-Wan befriends the X'ting Regent stop reading the novel and read the ebook. Then go back to the novel and I think this will enhance your reading experience.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella is set on Cestus and features some of the same characters from The Cestus Deception. In fact, it opens with a scene lifted directly from the novel, and then takes us on a side journey. I think I preferred the novella to the novel, simply because it moved faster, and highlighted the bravery of the X'Ting. Barnes added a thematic element to the story that felt a bit rushed (the X'Ting doesn't trust Obi-Wan, but comes to due to his actions), but otherwise it was an entertaining read.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seemed like a bunch of deleted chapters from The Cestus Deception that got repackaged into a novella. It baffles me that this actually got published, since the novella doesn't quiiiite fit in with the book's storyline, despite being set at some point during it. But who cares - it was MUCH better than the book. This adventure held my attention and I quite enjoyed it. Too bad it had to end so soon.

[McGooglykins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rating this four stars because it did everything I wanted it to do for me as a short story - sufficiently amused me during a nightshift. That said, it's not particularly standout, and I found a couple of the "plot twists" a tad contrived. I may read it again, I may not - but I don't regret reading it or feel my time has been wasted by doing so.