The Cestus Deception

Star Wars: A Clone Wars Novel #3

by Steven Barnes

"Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi strides--and soars and plots and duels--again in this stirring new addition to the Star Wars saga. . . . This splendid adventure yarn offers a gut-wrenching surprise on nearly every page and a knock-the-socks-off ending."--Publishers Weekly

When the economically depressed government of Ord Cestus threatens to sell incredibly deadly battle droids to the Separatists, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine dispatches a team led by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi to the planet. Their mission: to halt the deal. A peaceful resolution is preferable, but if all else fails, the Republic will not hesitate to demonstrate the consequences of disloyalty by launching a full-scale attack--wiping out not only the means of biodroid production but countless lives as well. The prospect of such a slaughter only fuels Obi-Wan's growing suspicions about the sinister path the Republic seems to be taking. Facing a crisis of conscience, Obi-Wan must find the wisdom and strength to prevent a bloodbath and safeguard the Republic--while abiding by the ancient code to which he has pledged his life.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, War, Collections, Space Opera

480 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 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

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ord Cestus is an out-of-the-way planet that the Republic reneged on their payments with. Which turns out to be a bad thing when the planet begins negotiations with the Separatists over a new droid, a JK or "Jedi Killer". Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto are sent with Doolb Snoil and ARC trooper, A-98 "Nate", to repair the situation.

While listening to this audiobook, I ended up with quite a few notes. I'll let my notes speak for themselves:

1. Yay, Kit Fisto is in a novel! And his lightsaber form is Form I!
2. Uh...is this REALLY Kit Fisto? He kinda acts angry all the time...and really serious...does he have a headache?
3. Why do we bother including Anakin at all in this novel? He never reappears.
4. Uh, 80,000 credits per JK unit isn't that expensive. Plus, is it just me or does this technology sound like a rejected Star Trek plot point?
5. Why can't the Jedi sense the Force in the Darsha eels? They can sense the Force in everything else. In fact, not sensing the Force is a HUGE plot point for the New Jedi Order/Yuuzhan Vong storyline, sooooo...
6. Yay, the Koornacht Cluster is mentioned again.
7. Uh, why is Ord Cestus so critical to everything again? If it's so critical, why do Obi-Wan and Kit employ such a stupid plan that is a sure-fire way to get them in serious trouble? Isn't the whole deception thing kinda against the Jedi code anyway?
8. What's WITH the whole Dashta Eels thing anyway? First they aren't sentient...now they are but only some of them. And people interact with them? And then...they can't kill because they go nuts? HUH? How does that work with the first scene?
9. Are we done with all the backstory? Doolb Snoil has a backstory; Trillit has a backstory; Fizzik has a backstory; and Sheeka Tull has a backstory...ENOUGH!
10. What is the point of G'Mai's duel?
11. Where is Dooku?
12. Clones talk about humanity! Haven't seen THAT one before!
13. What's up with Asajj? Sitting along the sidelines and cackling about how great you are and how you are going to kill someone does not make you ominous. Neither goes cackling "Delicious" when thinking about destroying Obi-Wan. That was in Villains 101.
14. A person can learn a light whip in a few hours? COOL! (not)
15. What is up with Sheeka Tull? Don't people find it kinda crazy that she falls in love with Nate because he's Jango? And what's with all these former lovers being unable to move on after a relationship, even though it ended over a decade ago?
16. Can Sheeka's character be any more cliched? Jango's ex: check. Bad guy who is found to not be a bad guy, just someone who did something "against the law for her sister": check. Insensitive but supposedly the reader should sympathize with her: check.
17. STOP TELLING! SHOW US!
18. Jedi support...ANARCHISTS?
19. Could someone please explain to me the politics in this book? Because this doesn't make ANY sense.
20. Are Sheeka and Nate done falling in love yet? Because I'm over that plotline.
21. Can we kill Doolb yet? Please?
22. Did someone use the Cliche Book of Cliched Novels for writing this? "Use your heart"? "What do you feel?" Is this Pocahontas?
23. Wow, ARCs are so good, if someone comes up behind them and reads over their shoulders, they can't even tell!
24. X'Ting are sorta interesting.
25. Can we stop talking about humanity?
26. Can we stop watching Sheeka and Nate fall in love?
27. What the heck are Obi-Wan and Kit doing in the lightsaber battles?
28. Why does Obi-Wan tell Kit that delving into the Force is bad? Aren't Jedi supposed to do this?
29. Sheeka, barking with laughter is NOT attractive.
30. OMG! The audiobook SO DID NOT end like that!

If you've gotten through that, I commend you. Most of those are direct transcriptions of my notes (which covered both sides of two 5X8 sheets of paper).

This book isn't horrible. But it isn't brilliant either. Mostly, it's just...mind-numbingly dull. I never bought how important Obi-Wan and Kit's mission is, and right there, that's a major problem. If I can't buy the whole premise of the book, well, why bother reading? Learning about Nate's humanity was cool, but I just found Sheeka's love for him to be a little creepy. Plus, Karen Traviss did a way better job with clones falling in love in all her books (and I'm not even a big fan of the middle ones).

Ultimately, I would skip this novel. It contributes nothing to the Clone Wars (the conflict is pitifully small and the attempts to bloat its importance in the grand scheme of things are just embarrassing), nothing to the characters, nothing to the Star Wars universe. Read if you insist on reading them all, but I highly recommend you pass this puppy over.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not as epic as the Cartoon Network CG Clone Wars series, this book still holds its own...to a degree. Having a character named Doolb Snoil--which is the title of another one of this author's books backwards--was a bit ridiculous, and some of the details seemed out of place for "a galaxy far, far away," but it was still good for what it was. Though there are much better Star Wars books out there, you could also do a lot worse; The Crystal Star, anyone?

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written, with fully realised characters. Even made me forget at times that the alien race in question is basically a bunch of overgrown bugs. But that's one difference between the page and the screen. The story is an interesting study of duty and honour. The author really gets into Obi-Wan Kenobi's head and convincingly depicts how he operates within the Force. There's a very Zen feel to it. Obi-Wan's quiet confidence in himself as an instrument of the Force makes him powerful. He doesn't try to control the Force, his ego doesn't get in the way. Reading this book has actually enhanced my viewing experience of Revenge of the Sith.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ungh, so many mixed feelings on this one...let's just plunge right in to the review!



Positives: Barnes sure can write some tight, compelling prose, and his treatment of the Clone characters was insightful.

Also, the action sequences were above par, particularly the close-quarters fighting scenes in which the author was able to draw upon his own considerable experts (multiple black belts, etc.)

Lastly, I honestly wasn't expecting that one of the most noteworthy deceptions in the book would be carried out not by the nefarious Separatists but by the noble Jedi Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto. Nice to see the "good guys" get creative and try one on, even if it was ultimately unsuccessful and humiliating for poor Kenobi.

Negatives:

Probably too many characters, ultimately, to really service what was a fairly straight-forward story. The crime lord Trillot, and her cousin even more so, were pretty superfluous.

Also, Doolb Snoil gets killed off somewhat randomly, scant pages after barely getting rescued from an escape pod. Maybe this was meant to be the "Now it's personal!" stakes-raising moment, but it fell flat for me.

Though I liked the ARC Trooper character Nate, his romance arc felt a bit forced at times. And did Sheeka really need to be Jango Fett's ex? Kinda creepy.

And the less said about the complete non-event of a showdown between Duris and Quill, the better.

In Spanish, disappointment is decepción, which is what I felt about this book after a very promising start.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 22BBY

A standout addition to the franchise. Barnes expertly explores the dynamic between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker while introducing a diverse cast of supporting characters, each contributing to the richness of the story.

The plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns, seamlessly integrating themes of loyalty, sacrifice, and power. With vivid prose and gripping action sequences along with a simple but solid plot make for a nice adventure to add to the collection of the Clone Wars events.

[Jared · Rating 1 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #119

Background: The Cestus Deception was written by Steven Barnes and published in June 2004. Barnes's only other Star Wars work is the e-book novella The Hive, published as a companion to this novel. He has also written a few dozen of his own novels, mostly sci-fi, as well as some writing for television.

The Cestus Deception takes place approximately 1 year after the Battle of Geonosis, 21 years before the Battle of Yavin. The main character is Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with Nautolan Jedi Master Kit Fisto. The story takes place mostly on Ord Cestus.

Summary: As the Clone Wars rage on across the galaxy, Republic Intelligence makes a disturbing discovery. On the backwater Republic world of Ord Cestus, Cestus Cybernetics has begun producing a new line of particularly deadly droids dubbed "JK" for "Jedi Killer." The prospect of a droid that could pose a threat to even the most elite warriors of the Republic has attracted the attention of the Separatists. Determined to take no chances, Chancellor Palpatine dispatches Obi-Wan Kenobi to pursue a diplomatic solution and Kit Fisto to secretly foment a rebellion against the planetary government in case Obi-Wan's negotiations should fail. But there is plenty of treachery to be found on all sides, and little on Ord Cestus is what it seems; a reality that may doom the Jedi to failure regardless of the path they pursue.

Review: I can think of several Star Wars novels that I hated more than The Cestus Deception, or that I think were worse quality, but I can't recall one that I had a harder time reading all the way to the end. This book isn't so much aggressively terrible as it is relentlessly uninteresting. The writing is reasonably competent but stilted. It feels like Barnes isn't entirely comfortable with writing in-universe and it shows in the stiffness of the dialogue and the world-building and the utter flatness of the characters.

The biggest issue, though, is that the entire premise of the novel is ill-conceived to the core. It should have been killed and reworked from scratch at the outline stage.Obi-Wan's entire strategy is fundamentally dishonorable, which never seems to bother him. His mission's purpose is entirely self-serving and he and Kit show only a passing interest in the well-being of anyone they encounter on the planet except insofar as it serves their own ends. Obi-Wan casts the mission as an effort to save the planet from destruction, but it's the Republic that he's saving it from. This would at least be interesting if anyone in the novel seemed to notice that this isn't "good guy" behavior from the side who are supposed to be good guys.

And speaking of interesting, we immediately know Obi-Wan's half of the mission is doomed to failure because it proceeds in the most boring way possible. Obi-Wan recruits a friend familiar with the intricacies of galactic bureaucracy to come along and manage the legal side of things for him. This is a promising character who is both likable and a member of a new and reasonably interesting alien species, if only he weren't saddled with two insurmountable handicaps: He has nothing but the dullest possible purposes to accomplish within the plot, and his name is "Doolb Snoil" which is the title of one of Barnes's non-Star Wars novels, spelled backward, a grotesque abuse of artistic freedom.

So, there's no way Obi-Wan can succeed at the dry and dull task of diplomacy because then there wouldn't be any action. Of course, the Jedi effectively sabotage their own efforts on this front by utterly betraying the trust of their hosts, and being clumsy enough about it to get caught . . . a complete failure of both competence and virtue that they're never self-aware enough to own up to. So then it's time for plan B, to cow the planet's leadership through the armed insurrection Kit has been busy fomenting all along. And through it all winds the sub-thread of Kit's on-planet contact being an ex-girlfriend of Jango Fett who finds that she has some . . . erm, complicated feelings towards the mission's lead ARC trooper, "Nate." And still none of this is interesting. Plus, in the end, it turns out that none of it really mattered anyway, for reasons that I won't go into. You can decide for yourself whether that's because of spoilers or because it's not engaging enough to bother talking about further.

F

[carolyn m markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, the clone wars era is one my favorite to read about.. One of my characters in the book was kit fisto,it was nice to read something about him. The story take place on Festus with obi one and kit fisto costing the hive family Ventress is on planet to stir up trouble as usual.Another car after I like was made the clone,it was nice to see how mate interact with people of cestus and with himself. I like how author made mate more human than just cannon fodder. I would love more stories on kit gusto and some of the other jedis. Ventress is being bad ass and really want to get obi one.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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: the second adult novel in the Clone Wars multimedia project, The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes

SOME HISTORY:

Steven Barnes has written episodes for television shows like Andromeda, Stargate SG-1, and The Outer Limits, but he's predominantly known as a science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. Barnes is deeply interested in martial arts—his interest in them is very apparent in his works—and in 2004, he became the first Star Wars author who was a person of color. Even to this day, the realm of published authors is predominantly white, so that lack of diversity (especially within the subset of early 2000s sci-fi) shouldn't have come as a surprise to me, yet it still did.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

While the cover of The Cestus Deception looked familiar to me, the content of the book wasn't…so I'm not sure if I read it, or if I just saw it?

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

When the economically depressed planet of Ord Cestus makes a deal to sell killer droids to the Separatists, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine dispatches a team of two Jedi—Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto—to the planet to halt the deal at any cost. If diplomacy fails, the Republic will not hesitate to unleash an attack on Ord Cestus…and that is an outcome that Obi-Wan Kenobi very much wants to prevent.

THE PLOT:

The Cestus Deception felt like a war novel to me, but in a different way than Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover. The Five Families that rule Ord Cestus have developed these JK-class droids which are nicknamed Jedi Killers, and Palpatine wants them stopped at any cost. The first half of the book is pretty much Obi-wan trying to pursue the diplomatic route while Kit Fisto and the four clone troopers train the local populace to become a guerrilla terrorist movement. But the Five Families won't listen to Obi-Wan, the titular deception goes very much awry, and the situation on Ord Cestus is more complicated than Obi-Wan initially assumed. The indigenous people of Ord Cestus, the insectile X-Ting, were almost completely wiped out by a plague over a hundred years ago, and they have very little control over what happens on their own planet. When Obi-Wan's attempts at diplomacy fail, the Jedi and the troopers shift over to terrorist attacks against the factories and cities on Ord Cestus.

So throughout the novel, Obi-Wan is trying to reconcile his concern for everyone that lives on Ord Cestus with his concern for how the indigenous people have been taken advantage of and misused and become relegated to lower class citizens merely because they didn't have the political adeptness to realize what they were signing away. He doesn't want the Republic to step in and start bombarding Ord Cestus, but he's also not a hundred percent behind these terrorist attacks—yet these terrorist attacks seem to be the only way that they can get the Five Families to agree to stop production of these deadly droids.

THE CHARACTERS:

There’s a lot of different factions at play here: besides the Five Families, there's the Regent Duris (albeit a regent in name only); there's an X-Ting crime boss named Trillit, and Trillit’s relations; there's Desert Wind, the local guerilla group that Kit Fisto trains; and our sole clone trooper viewpoint character, ARC Trooper A-98, or Nate.

Even though Count Dooku appears on the cover, he's not in the story at all and instead we have Asajj Ventress as the main Separatist opponent. She’s been dispatched to get the Five Ruling families to hand over what they agreed to, and when she hears that Obi-Wan Kenobi's on Ord Cestus she becomes fixated on killing him. Her desire to kill Kenobi is described as “a fleshly hunger” at one point which is…pretty awkward.

Of the Jedi, I felt like I didn't get much of a handle on Kit Fisto because we spend very little time in his head. Most of the time we're in Nate's head, or Obi-Wan's head, and it’s how they perceive Kit. So all I really got is that he uses Form One for lightsaber combat, he’s always on the edge of anger, but he’s a very skilled warrior. I wanted a little more insight into his character, but that's all we got.

Obi-Wan is very zen here. I didn't get much of his snark (more of Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan, and less of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan), rather like in Alan Dean Foster’s The Approaching Storm, where you see him as a Jedi first and foremost and less so as a character with an individual personality. He's surprisingly balanced here; he's concerned about what's happening on Ord Cestus and whether he’s going to be able to fulfill his mission, he sympathizes with Regent Duris and questions what they're doing, but he's pretty calm about everything right up until the final battle with Ventress.

Barnes also made the interesting decision to not include Anakin in this story. At first, I was fine with it, as this is mainly an Obi-Wan and Kit story. But then I read an archived interview with Barnes on the StarWars.com website, where he said the reason he omitted Anakin was because he had no idea how Anakin was going to turn to the Dark Side. He couldn't get in Anakin’s head, so it was better to leave him out. But leading into Revenge of the Sith, I feel like a lot of people's sense of Anakin was that he was going to fall to the Dark Side because he's very angry and he's very attached to his family. Perhaps his fall was going to involve his relationship with Padme? So that made me side eye Barnes a little—like really? You don't understand how Anakin would fall at all?

I found Nate an interesting character here: he’s a clone trooper, one of a million identical men, but as we spend more time with the clones we see how non-identical they are. They received basically the same upbringing, but their training has been different, the situations they've gone through since the Clone Wars started have been different, and Nate is trying to find his identity apart from everyone else like him. I liked the idea of this, but I had some issues with the actual execution.

The Jedi’s local contact on Ord Cestus is a woman named Sheeka Tull. She’s also an interesting character, because it turns out she was Jango's Fett's ex from twenty years ago. But then her backstory seemed a little bit too Jean Valjean from Les Misérables for me; Valjean stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister's children, and Sheeka went to an interdicted planet because her sister and others needed medical assistance. I guess she can't be morally dubious at all, she still has to be good—and I had some definite issues with her arc as well.

I liked Regent Duris, who is definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place in that she's trying to not just serve in the best interest of her people, the X-Ting, but she's also trying to serve in the best interest of everyone who lives on Ord Cestus. But she holds no power, and her relative within the Five Families holds a lot of threats over her head.

I do wish that the X-Ting had felt more alien, though. They're these human-sized insects, and apparently every three to five years they swap genders so they go back and forth between being male and female. They just didn't feel particularly alien to me, especially for this insectile race; they speak basic and their names looked very human (I guess you could probably argue that’s a basic translation because their actual language is described as sounding like clicks). I wish they had been a little bit more strange or foreign to the human characters.

I also felt like the subplot with Trillit and the underworld X-Ting was rather unnecessary in the end. I think I would have preferred that Asajj Ventress came in and met directly with the Five Families, instead of introducing this underworld character who gave Obi-Wan and Ventress information but not wasn't utilized very well in the story.

ISSUES:

My first issue with The Cestus Deception is that Barnes made the choice to have a lot of very short chapters. The book is 82 chapters long, but it's like a midsized Star Wars book. Some chapters are only one or two pages long, and it affected the flow of reading for me. I think that when chapters are done right, you don't really notice how they're broken up; but when it's not working, you notice those separations more. There's so many chapter breaks, and I wondered why? Barnes would cut away to some character's viewpoint but it's just one page, and then there would be chapters that cut back and forth between viewpoint characters. So I didn't really understand what the distinction was, and it made the flow of the story feel a bit choppy and non-fluid to me.

There were also some inconsistencies throughout the story: Kit and the troopers recruit local Cestians, almost 200 arrive but they have 48 good prospects at the end of the first day, then Nate says they only lost 40%??

The Jedi’s actions seemed particularly unJedi to me, and I think that's the war novel peeking through. Obi-Wan comes here and wants to achieve a diplomatic goal, but at the same time he's been planning this deception from the beginning to make it look like Kit Fisto is a Separatist goon of Count Dooku. Kit abducts members of the Five Families, Obi-Wan swoops in and saves them, and this is supposed to turn them against Dooku and make them side again with the Republic. But in doing so, Obi-Wan is straight up lying to the Five Families and to Regent Duris.

Somewhat improbably, Obi-Wan gets caught in this lie—I guess Ventress recorded it, and it's obvious that he's not really killing the Desert Wind/Separatist people. They know he faked it, and they're so mad that they tell him to leave. Ventress blows up his ship, and Obi-Wan sneaks back to Kit’s camp and they start their terrorism scheme. I have trouble believing that Obi-Wan would be okay with this plan to begin with. I think that within the Clone Wars, the Jedi start to do things that they wouldn't have done in times of peace, and they start down a slippery edge. As we saw with Depa in Shatterpoint, the Jedi are doing things they were never meant to do, and this is going to have an adverse effect on them. Yet I'm honestly surprised that Obi-Wan didn't put up more resistance to this plan, because it feels like a step too far even for Mr. “From a certain point of view.”

Nate and his journey of self-discovery had a lot of promise, but its actual execution decidedly did not work for me. Nate is trying to figure out who he is beyond his identity as a clone of Jango Fett. And that’s interesting! I like digging into the clones here, and how people perceive the clones. In Shatterpoint, we saw that Mace Windu has trouble looking at them, because when he sees a clone he only sees Jango. I got the sense here that the Jedi don't always see the clones as distinct individuals and it makes them uncomfortable. So Nate's arc made a lot of sense to me, yet these revelations come about because of his interactions with Sheeka Tull.

Sheeka sees Nate, and she sees her ex from 20 years ago. They end up having a romantic relationship, she says that he needs to choose his own name that’s not a number and then she names him Jangotat (which apparently means Jango’s brother). Nate/Jangotat thinks about having a future with Sheeka, but returns to the clone troopers and sacrifices himself so that the Five Families can be eliminated.

We find out in the end that Sheeka's pregnant with his child…and here's the thing: I think there is a very creepy aspect to Sheeka having a relationship with someone who is a literal clone of her ex. Beyond the age difference, there's also the fact that she sees him and she sees Jango. Nate/Jangotat is not Jango, and yet he takes a name that Sheeka gives him which means Jango's brother. So much of his emotional journey is prompted by Sheeka, and it's exceptionally creepy. I don't mind Sheeka being a part of his journey here, but I think making her Jango's ex was a step too far.

I think there's enough questions you can get into about clones having romantic relationships when they've gone through a vastly abbreviated upbringing—that they did not have a normal childhood, they didn't have parents who raised them, and they age very quickly. Yes, he looks like a grown man, but he's really only lived ten years in the galaxy. You could get into loads of questions about the morality of these relationships here!

That was my biggest problem with this novel: Barnes had interesting ideas, but they didn't work for me, either because I found them creepy or because I questioned if the Jedi would really do those things. Kit and Obi-Wan and the Cestians become terrorists, and while they try their hardest not to kill people, they're still committing acts of terror! I had trouble with that.

The entire concept of the JK droids—that they're Force sensitive because they've got eels inside, but then it turns out that the eels are actually sterile juvenile eels and they can't commit harm so the droids never would have been a threat to begin with—felt like an excuse to get the Jedi to Ord Cestus. I found the droids hard to visualize, and in the end they’re sort of a non-issue anyway.

IN CONCLUSION:

The Cestus Deception was not one of my favorite Clone Wars stories. While some of Barnes’s ideas are intriguing, I didn’t like his execution of them. I find it fascinating how he fleshed out the inner lives of the clones, but the romance subplot between our ARC trooper and one of Jango Fett’s exes was creepy and off-putting. It additionally bothered me that the Jedi were behaving like terrorists here, and that Obi-Wan repeatedly lied to people with very few consequences.


Next up: an eBook novella set concurrently with The Cestus Deception, The Hive by Steven Barnes

My YouTube review: https://youtu.be/a6pFjArsmuo

“Steven Barnes: Inside The Cestus Deception” (May 2004): https://web.archive.org/web/200502050...

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better Star Wars books I have read. The plot is clever and the storyline is not too predictable.

The best part about the book was the descriptive writing. So many Star Wars authors offer odd names and poor description of alien worlds, technologies, and species. Steven Barnes shows the reader what his characters look like, where they are, and how they are interacting in their environment. Even the action scenes were shown to the reader instead of dictated in a dull/ inexperienced penmanship. It made reading the novel so much more enjoyable.

[Shawn Fahey]

I can’t rate this because I accidentally read the abridged version so the book felt really rushed but I enjoyed what I read!

Rip Doolb Snoil

[fenrir · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½ / 5

Volevo amare questo libro, e l'unica ragione è Kit Fisto. Si lo ammetto, ho sempre avuto un debole per Kit che è tra nella mia top 3 di Jedi preferiti e quando ho letto la trama di questo libro ho immaginato che (finalmente) invece che seguire solo Obi-wan (che adoro ma che alla lunga stufa vista la serie infinita di libri scritti seguendo il suo unico POV!) avremmo seguito anche lui.
Inutile dire che è questa la ragione maggiore della mia delusione, avanti ma dov'era Kit Fisto in questo libro? non c'era mai!
Per buona parte del libro c'era solo Obi-wan, ma andava molto peggio quando arrivava il clone dal numero che ovviamente non ricorderò mai detto Nate ma giusto per confonderti si chiama pure Jangotar! Ma insomma, già che i cloni sono tutti uguali, se ha già un nome perché gliene date un altro? solo per farmi fare confusione ho capito. La sua storia d'amore era banale, noiosa e pure inutile secondo me. Abbiamo capito che i cloni non sono macchine ma uomini, hanno sentimenti e bla bla bla, c'avete fatto su puntate e puntata di Clone Wars ma perché ci scrivete pure un libro?
Ventress poi è arrivata, è stata nell'ombra per tutto il libro e poi è sparita. Avrei sinceramente voluto più azione jedi (un bello scontro Kit/Obi-wan contro Ventress, fatto bene magari! non quella sola cortissima che il libro ci ha rifilato!) invece che tutta questa polita.
Poteva essere meglio.

[Ghostrunner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A list of important things in this book:
* Obi-wan has a lawyer friend who is a giant snail.
* the squid-headed people are called Mon Calamari. For real.
* the clone troopers have a complex military brotherhood culture.
* Obi-wan dances with a giant bee. The giant bee is impressed.
* Ventress is totally incapable of talking about anything other than how good it's going to feel when she kills Obi-wan. Even the giant bees are like, girl. Dig deep. Find some chill.
* Force- sensitive eels. With power of love.
* Every time Ventress thinks about Obi --wan she licks her lips. The words "fleshly hunger" are used more than once. Girl. Find some chill.

[Bailey Chadwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was the abridged version and it was still too long.

[Iset · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before re-reading this book, I realised that I couldn’t remember it all that well. Yes, I said I’d read the Expanded Universe multiple times and I was deeply engrossed in it. Cut me some slack – it’s been at least a decade since I did an EU marathon, and of course the EU had its less memorable entries. But here’s the thing, all that I did remember from The Cestus Deception was that it featured Kit Kisto, it was entirely set on an alien world, and I enjoyed it, practically devouring it. So honestly it came as a bit of a surprise to me upon re-reading to discover that I felt rather underwhelmed by this.

I’m going to run through the positives first, since they are actually the same as the very points that made me like this book when it came out, and haven’t changed. As I mentioned in my review of The Approaching Storm, I do like Star Wars novels that focus on one world instead of hopping all over the galaxy. Partially this is because it is a welcome change of pace, and partially because the ability to devote all those pages to one world can really create something well-thought out and an in-depth vision of an exciting, alien place. I also think it helps to make the galaxy feel large in scope when you can occasionally devote time to a detailed planet portrait like this, it emphasises the impression that every planet is as large and detailed and interesting. However, I couldn’t help but feel that I didn’t get as much description and thrilling alien encounters as I had been hoping for. Barnes doesn’t go into as much detail about the environment, or come up with as many cool alien ideas – and I admit I was mentally comparing it against The Approaching Storm, purely because I re-read that so recently. I don’t know, maybe this is an overly harsh criticism, perhaps it is unfair to compare books, and perhaps the fact that Cestus’ surface is pretty much a rocky wasteland just makes for a less intriguing locale. I liked the fact that we’re very much focused on the one planet, but I think that the rendering of that planet could have been better. Barnes’ accompanying novella, The Hive, which takes place during the events of this book, actually adds way more context and cool alien stuff than the main story! It should have been incorporated into the text instead of cut.

Another point that I enjoyed both then and now was Kit Fisto as a main character. Okay let’s just skip over the fact that his name sounds rather… dubious. In general, a lot of Star Wars main characters are human, and I get why, audience identification and empathy and all that. But when you’re paddling in the pool of sci fi adventures, alien characters – like alien worlds – are too good an opportunity to pass up. It adds a lot of interest to get inside their heads and learn about their culture and personal journeys. I approve of this. However… upon re-reading I realised that we don’t really get inside Kit’s mind at all. Yes, he’s there, sharing the limelight with Obi-Wan, but we see Kit as an actor and are inside Obi-Wan’s head most of the time. We barely learn anything about Kit’s homeworld and people, and even less about what he’s thinking. This is a disappointment. Still on the topic of main characters though, I consider it a plus point that Obi-Wan leaves Anakin behind on this one. Some authors do better than others in handling Anakin, but when done poorly he’s whiny, grating, and a huge jerk. Leaving him out of the story entirely (bar a quick cameo here), neatly dodges any worries about his irritating appearance marring the book.

Let’s turn to the negatives. I really am not feeling the romance between A-98 and Sheeka Tull. I agree that the clones are an excellent opportunity to explore associated ethical dilemmas regarding the nature of humanity, and even romance… but not like this. Pursuing a relationship with the clone of your ex-partner seems unhealthy at best and downright creepy at worst. I’m sorry, but I’m not buying it. The whole thing came off as desperate and stalkerish to me, and decidedly unromantic.

The other sticking point was that I just have a hard time suspending my disbelief about the main plot. The story isn’t bad in and of itself – using deception in war time to try and save lives – but it just seems so… un-Jedi. Am I being too much of a stickler about this? Maybe I just view the pre-Empire Jedi differently to the post-Empire Jedi. Luke comes up through the Rebellion and his Jedi are a different variety from what I perceive as Obi-Wan’s time, operating in a highly structured organisation with a codified set of principles that every Jedi is intensely aware of and strives to adhere to. Again, the book suffers in comparison to The Approaching Storm, where Obi-Wan is well aware of the Jedi mandate not to take sides in local disputes, but nevertheless manages to cleverly help one group “deal with” their traditional enemies by bringing them to the negotiating table. Jedi actions here would seem to contravene this very principle. Kit promises the disgruntled common people an uprising against the government, and while admittedly he is careful to suggest they will aim for a bloodless coup and avoid harming anyone, he and Obi-Wan are both well aware that the uprising may never be needed at all, if Obi-Wan succeeds in his negotiations. They therefore keep this force on ice until events turn and they are actually needed. Surely this counts as taking sides in a local dispute? It comes off as manipulative and deceptive, and, especially in a situation where one could easily guess that Separatist forces will be working against them, surely Obi-Wan must know that any deception could be disastrous for gaining trust and turning the tide in a war.

To be fair, I could easily argue that the Jedi supporting the Republic is the same sort of risky side-taking but on a grander scale, and that I would have thought that the structure of governments had little interest for the Jedi unless they were oppressive and particularly if worlds voluntarily secede – so to some extent I have some difficulty buying into the Jedi taking sides in the war at all. Again, pre-prequels, the picture painted of the Clone Wars was a fairly lawless time, where the clones were specifically stated as having gone insane, so it makes far more sense to me that Jedi would be involved, protecting innocents from rampaging former clone soldiers in the aftermath of a war. But the picture the prequels gives us is of a highly organised structure engaging in formal war joined voluntarily on both sides… and it just doesn’t make as good sense for the Jedi to be partisan here. But I’m taking a detour here – this is not a criticism of The Cestus Deception, as it goes beyond one book.

So to summarise, there were two major points that put me off this story, and the positive points that I remembered were not as great as I’d thought they’d been. The result is not a terrible book – I can even now think of worse entries in the Expanded Universe – but a book that just left me feeling underwhelmed. When I consider the question of whether to include it in my personal canon, I have to say that, at best, it is just mediocre and missable.

5 out of 10

[Graff Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars: Legends: A Clone Wars Story: 02 The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes

adventurous challenging hopeful reflective sad tense

Slow-paced

Plot or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? It's complicated

Slow-paced

3.5 Stars

After reading Shatterpoint, book one in this arc of the Clone Wars, I was pumped.

When I started this book, it was a let down from the very beginning. I wasn't connecting with ANY of the characters. Not even Obi-Wan Kenobi. What? That should've been the easiest one. Right?

Kit Fisto was fun to read about, but he didn't draw me in. It was just facts about a guy that I've seen in the movies/TV series. Ugh.

Since it's a Clone Wars story, I knew that the clones would be front and center, and they were for the most part...and we got some good stories around them...and I "sort of" connected with A-98 "Nate" and the name he associated with himself. That was cool...and what happens in the story was great (and sad), but I just didn't connect like I wanted to.

What makes me nervous about picking up the next book, The Hive...is that it is written by the same author. Hmm. This book was NOT short, and the plot was slow, and my enjoyment of the book was predicated on loving Star Wars, but I just didn't jive with the author's writing style and how he depicted characters and relayed the story to us (the readers).

I acknowledge that this may be a ME problem (which may be), but it will be ME reading the next book, too. So...it may take a bit for me to pick up the next book...though I'm dying to get further into the Legends books...and I have to go through, and not around this author. Ugh.

I'll end with this. He's not bad, and the story is NOT bad, but after I loved Shatterpoint, I was hoping he'd hold the bar at "that" level...and he didn't. Maybe the next book will work better for ME.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could have enjoyed this more, but the main plot didn't engage me in any way. The Cestus politics felt like a constant distraction from the bits of the story I DID like...particularly the tale of Jangotat, and the story of the Jedi learning to see the Clones and people. That particular plot strands comes second (and sometimes third), and I was irritated every time the novel turned away from it...because only then did I feel I was truly engaging with the story & its characters. Perhaps I was spoiled by the emotional intensity of other Clone Wars novels such as "Shatterpoint" and "Dark Rendezvous", but I'm afraid this particularly book doesn't do much for me.

[Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book was just “fine”. There are some weird things, like force-sensitive droids and Kit Fisto training a group of terrorists. I also found a romance between two of the characters to be creepy (iykyk). The mischaracterization of Obi-Wan is also wild here. There are a lot of decisions he makes here that I just don’t think he would do. Some of the Clone trooper characters are interesting and I like some of the action. The Ventress scenes are all good. I do think it could’ve been 100 pages shorter as it drags in parts. Also Dooku prominently featured on the cover but only being mentioned in the book is so cruel.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first Star Wars book, and I picked this one because of the hinting of a love story between Nate and the civilian woman (and my copy of the Republic Commando series hasn't arrived yet). Unfortunately, Barnes tried to cram too much into one novel. The novel wasn't long enough to give all the components proper depth. I like action and I like politics, but I spent the entirety of this novel waiting to get back to Nate.

The love story was kind of nice, but it wasn't drawn out enough - there wasn't that much chemistry between the two of them. I mean, she just so happened to be Jango's old girlfriend? Really? Was that even needed? It could have been because Nate was such a boring guy with a considerable lack of personality.

The writing is also jammed with low-impact metaphors and bland dialogue. It must have rolled my eyes a dozen times.

Obi-wan seemed to be missing his characteristic relaxed/sarcastic manner and took on this irritated and rather frantic persona instead. Not cool.

Basically, nothing in this book opens up the Star Wars universe. Obi-wan and Kit Fisto leave the novel unchanged and unaffected, as does the Republic.

[Magpie6493 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welp, I'm way more in the feels after reading this book than I thought I was going to be. I have so many emotions deep in my chest that I wanna share, but I don't want to spoil this book for anyone else as mannnnn does it ever build to something epic.

The author perfectly balances so much of the horrible moral position Jedi is in during the clone wars. He also does a lot to explore the helpless and often impossible position that leaders of many planets are faced with. Esspecially in the outer rim where they get caught between the sepratists and the republic the leaders of which may or may not care of that society fully survives afterward.

Again, it was just so interestingly we'll done. I absolutely lived the fact that the author dived into the complicated politics and power structure that has left this planet. I'm such an impossible position to begin with.

Characters and character loemnts are what, for me, at least shine brighter than almost any other element. The individuals' even characters that are sentient insect species feel so human and real. The x'ting are also depicted very well in the way that they don't nessesarilly act human, and many of their emotions or mannerisms are entirely beautifully their own thing.

The author is a martial artist and it shows in how well so much of the fighting and training segments are described. As funny as the sequence of Jedi learning dance as part of their training is, the way it's described shows such a great understanding on the authors part of how the force and being a jedi work.

I won't say much regarding the romance becaus ethen I'll get into spoiler territory however... as much as certain conversations between the pairing feel a bit forced their relationship absolutely does not and the process of watching them fall for each other had me soooooo invested.

Additionally my favorite Pov was tge ARC trooper and his journey in discovering personhood and what it means to be him. Which kind of surprised me considering Obi wans sections were also incredibly well done amd he's pretty much one of my favorite fictional characters ever.

Either way I can a hundred percent reccomend this esspecialky if you're a Star wars fan who's really into clone wars era stuff. I will not say why but I did some pretty good deep feeljng ugly crying after this so this book jumped from what had been a 4 star rating to a 5.
Not many books leave you with a feleing like this one did for me and I think that speaks to what an incredible job this author did with this book. Both in the writing itself amd one of the best understandings of the world and characters of star wars I've ever seen. I will be trying to get my hands on any other star wars books this author has done or will do as quickly as possible from this point onwards.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cestus Deception was a nice little surprise. A war story at its heart, there are two main storylines here: the A-plot, featuring Obi-Wan trying to navigate diplomacy and political intrigue on the planet Ord Cestus, while the B-plot sees Kit Fisto try and establish a local partisan cell with the help of some advanced recon clone troopers. Underlying both is a general feeling of corruption and decay, as well as questions of identity and the self; the latter is best witnessed in the character of Nate, a Clone Trooper whose arc in this novel acts as a character study of how the individuals who make up the Clone Army constitute as living, feeling beings. In that regard especially you could say Steven Barnes attempted to write more than just a pulpy tie-in novel with this book, which is something a lot of Star Wars writers do not seem to even consider.

It's not perfect, of course. Though I admire The Cestus Deception's goals as a story and perhaps statement, I think the execution does hinder it from reaching its full potential: most of the new characters aside from the aforementioned Nate are fairly one-dimensional, the book is drawn out at points, and I'm not a fan of how willing the jedi are to engage in terrorism as a strategic measure. New takes on established characters are something I generally embrace, but they have to work in accordance with their respective source material and I don't think Barnes' Obi-Wan does.

Still, the flaws don't completely take away from the good this hardcover brings to the old EU's Clone Wars storyline. The Cestus Deception is a decently good Star Wars adventure that it wouldn't hurt to check out.

[Nick Girvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cestus Deception is a great example of a lot of things I liked over a story I couldn’t get behind. For one, I love how we got an Obi-Wan story entirely removed from Anakin. They parted ways at the beginning, and then he and Kit Fisto took off with some ARC troopers to carry the story. I also really loved the focus on one of the clones, “Nate” and later “Jangotat” and dove into the mind of a clone. The realization of being a man created for a purpose, his deviation from that purpose, and even the love story arc that brought on human emotions that clones wouldn’t be privy to otherwise, were all very interesting. It was a tragic ending, but it was pretty cool that Nate died killing five people that owned every resource on a war torn and impoverished planet, Cestus (sounds familiar, huh).

But the story itself was pretty boring, and the climax was extremely underwhelming. There were way too many characters, way too many side plots, none of which gave enough to care about them, which didn’t give any impact when something happened. I think this would have been better either shortened and streamlined, or made into two books with more elaboration. Hey, at least Kit Fisto got SOME kind of story, even if it was mid. One of my favorite Jedi.

[TheGeeksAttic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clone training exercises are extreme! We follow arc trooper Nate on one exercise, the drill is deadly, claiming the lives of many clones, which some consider cheap and expendable. 

I highly enjoyed the first half of this book, witnessing the deep dive of Clone training and the perspectives that people have of the clones was great. The book does say something I disagree with, Kit Fisto is a superior fighter than Kenobi... ha!

I love that Jango's death is a mystery, the truth has been twisted. Some clones believe that Fett was loyal and heroic, that he was betrayed, that it took 11 jedi to take him down.

It's like a better quality episode of the Clone Wars. The story starts off strong but gradually gets less captivating.

I don’t care for the characters, I don’t care for the plot, I just… don’t care about this book and I’m ready to move on from it.

RATING:
For the rating, I give this book a D. The strong intro kept the book from failing all together.

[Books & Brews with Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, so close yet so far. This book offered a great perspective on Kit Fisto and his role in the Jedi Order, which I was so happy to read about. Steven Barnes knows how to write characters, and he writes them very well. HOWEVER, there are way too many characters to keep up with, and the story lacks depth. It feels like another "We have to save the galaxy or we are all dead!" moment, which there are plenty of stories about. I think this would have been a great graphic novel story for the micro series or the more adult graphic novels.

[Giulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i feel like in a way this shows the corruption of the Galactic Republic that i hope we are all aware of. By far the Jangotat and Sheeka scenes were the most moving, showing that, unlike droids, clones aren't just battle machines, but people.

[Samuel Saul Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but did not draw in my attention as much as others. Good storyline, with an unexpected Kit Fitso/Obi-Wan Kenobi team up.

I like that, although Legends, it made the Clones more human.

This book also has 2 different potential timeline placements, originally it was set about a year into the Clone Wars, but after the introduction of Ahsoka, was moved to the very beginning of the Clone Wars. Since Anakin is in this book for like .2 seconds, I don't really think it matters, but regardless it'll be a pre-TCW installation on the Chronology.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this one. The story was not that good, most of the time dull. I found myself skimming a lot of this one.

[Emily Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really loved this book. Steven Barnes writes beautifully and crafts a very interesting storyline.

The world is well-developed and intriguing, especially the X-ting culture and the movie-version of the clone army. I enjoyed the insights into ARC trooper training.

The storyline about Sheeka Tull, a beautiful black pilot, and her romance with Nate/Jangotat an ARC trooper, was amazing. So amazing, that it overshadowed the other storylines. I found myself slugging through Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto's POVs with annoyance just so I could get to the Sheeka/Nate parts.

Overall, amazing book, but kind of a lop-sided read for me. (It doesn't help that I love the clone troopers I guess...too much so...)

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a book by Steven Barnes before, way back in 1998. Iron Shadows. I remember nothing about the story, but I liked it enough to finish it. Going into The Cestus Deception, I figured I would get a higher-caliber Star Wars story since it would be written by an accomplished author. Then again, Salvatore's take on Attack of the Clones didn't impress me that much, either.

The Cestus Deception is about a plot against the Republic that centers on the planet Cestus, where a new wave of battle droids are being created. These are nicknamed "JK"s, short for "Jedi Killer", because their hardware includes a biological component that gives them Force sensitivity. They're able to anticipate a Jedi's movements and respond accordingly, and of course as soon as the Jedi council gets wind of these droids, they embark on a trip to Cestus to try to shut the process down.

In the end, the story was just okay. It touches on the same themes that Karen Traviss does in her Republic Commando series, examining the morality of creating an army of clones and treating them like supplies instead of people. Barnes doesn't capture the theme as well as Traviss does, and places part of his focus outside the clones. The clones -- or at least one of them -- are among the heroes of his story, but somehow they don't have the same heroic feel that Traviss gave her characters.

The story begins to show how the Jedi feel about the army, the war, and everything it entails. Obi-Wan features in the story, and he begins to question the usefulness of the war. He can trace all of the reasons the war began, and he understands why they're at that point, but he begins to wonder how it developed the way it did. In one scene, he's able to locate a missing tramcar by looking at the existing cars on the line and finding the gap that shouldn't be there. In the same way, he begins to think about all the events that led up to the war, and wonders what he has missed by not looking at those events the same way.

The biggest problem I had with the story is that the main plan the Jedi have for winning the planet over to their side is through deception. It doesn't ring true, not just for the Jedi, but especially for Obi-Wan. In the prequels, deception isn't a part of his personality, so when it does backfire, it's hard to feel sorry for him. The Jedi effectively become the antagonists of the story at that point, and it was hard to sympathize with them because once the deception failed, I felt like they were getting what they deserved.

The edition I read also included a bonus novella, The Hive, which is also set on Cestus and features some of the same characters. 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 the highlight of the book.

I was expecting the book to be better, which of course just set me up for disappointment. It's readable and compelling enough, and fills in some additional background to the Star Wars story overall, but it just didn't have the kind of oomph I felt like it needed. I get the feeling that, twenty years from now, I'll remember having read this book, but won't remember any of the details about it, either.

[Ernest · Rating 2 out of 5]

It cannot be easy to write a book that is set in a universe already beloved by many. What one gains by being able to work in a richly conceived universe is offset, sometimes heavily so, by losing the ability to set one’s own tone, to develop a history and/or future of one’s choosing or being constrained in any further number of ways. This is challenge that this book has.

This book sees a small group of clone troops accompany a team led by Obi-Wan Kenobi to a planet to deal with, hopefully diplomatically, a droid issue on a planet. Rationing due to the Clone Wars has collapsed this planet’s economy and their plan to sell droids that rival the Jedi’s fighting ability could swing the balance of power in the universe.

What was particularly intriguing about this book was a look at the Clone troops as a whole and at one in particular. This book went into some of the training of the Clone troops, which was an interesting backstory of how they came from their clone growth to the battle-ready troops (and eventual Stormtroopers). This book focussed on one particular Clone trooper, who is our (the reader’s) insight into this formerly unexplored aspect and is shown to have deeper thoughts and is a more fleshed out Clone trooper than the traditional cannon-fodder that they have been used as.

I was less interested in the larger plot of the book. Part of it was that I knew that Obi-Wan could not die as he is in the chronologically later Revenge of the Sith film. Similarly, it was largely unsurprising that the droids do not end up getting sold to the Jedi’s enemies as they do not feature in future films or books.

I also had issues with how the Jedi's use of subterfuge in faking a kidnapping and rescue to scare one party into a negotiated submission. While on one level I found it clever for the Jedi to attempt this, on another level and much more troubling was the notion that this would be something the Jedi would even try – this was not the Jedi I had come to see and know from both the films and the Expanded Universe.

Ultimately, I found myself rushing towards the end of the book merely to finish it and not with any sense of real sense of enjoyment, especially the last quarter to fifth of the book. As with much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, there is a larger world added to in this book that I feel only deeper Star Wars fans may get some enjoyment from. For me, a lasting enjoyment is something I did not get from reading this book, the element of the Clone trooper aside.

[Stacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kit Fisto (one of my favorite Jedi), Obi-Wan, Ventress, and ARC Troopers… This book was so much better than I anticipated based off of ratings. I absolutely loved it. I felt like I was in an arc of The Clone Wars. Force sensitive droid Jedi killers, fascinating new planet and species with all the typical Star Wars you come to expect and love. I may be biased because I love Kit Fisto, but I gave this book 5 stars

Also, do not be deceived by the cover. Dooku is not in this book 🙄🙄🙄 He’s mentioned a few times but not worthy of being the biggest face on the cover.