Yyyhw Read Ho

The Cestus Deception (Star Wars Legends)
​by Steven Barnes

​Ord Cestus, formerly a prison planet, is now the origin for deadly droids known as JKs - Jedi Killers. And the current inhabitants will happily take Separatist money. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kit Fisto are dispatched by the Chancellor with a mission that comprises of Plan A and Plan B. If either of these are to work, then there cannot be any surprises. Even worse would be a surprise who wields red lightsabers...

Oh, gosh. It's hard to review this book. Sadly, it was not greater than the sum of its parts, even though many of those parts were quite good. The setup itself was intriguing - I love a twisty insurgency plot. Obi-Wan actually read like Obi-Wan, though his role in the proceedings seemed a touch out of character. Kit Fitso was a a blast, which is what I've come to expect from his character over the years.

Onto the stuff I didn't like. When compared to Karen Traviss' work, Barnes' own attempts to humanise clones and introduce them to relationships just... didn't feel natural. There were also a couple of very jarring moments for me. One of those was the fact that the alien lawyer's name, Doolb Snoil, was such an obvious emordinlap of the author's novel Lion's Blood that even I, as someone who only saw that book referenced on the cover just before starting this one, noticed.

The other jarring moment... look, I know this book was published in 2004, but even back then I was starting to get really annoyed about how men were writing women. Reading this in 2023, I was really REALLY annoyed. I have to quote the offending section because it's so bad - "only her breasts and hips feminizing an otherwise muscular physique". Gah. Ventress deserves better than this. And so do I.

It's really weird how a few small things can sour my opinion of a novel. But there you go.

My paperback copy of The Cestus Deception has the companion piece The Hive in the back. 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.

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