I hope to get a lot of Star Wars book reviews on here. I basically read either books on religion, or Star Wars novels. Weird combination I know.
The novel begins with Count Dooku sending a message to Yoda in a secured box, in it is a message extending an invitation for Yoda to meet him on the planet Vjun to discuss a peace treaty as well as the Jedi Order. The location of his dwelling, Chateau Malreaux. Yoda and Dooku both know the invitation is a trap, although Yoda still thinks it is worth the risk to meet with Dooku on the off chance he is genuine or on the off chance Yoda could get through to him.
It may seem ridiculous to fathom the thought of Yoda believing Dooku could return to the light side of the Force, but throughout the novel various flashbacks to Dooku's training are shown and the connection between the two of them is very deep. A standout example is when Dooku and Yoda were training in one of the courtyards for the Jedi Temple. Yoda was teaching about the Force and Dooku raised concerns on how focusing exclusively on the light side can blind anyone seriously studying the Force. This eventually becomes the downfall of the Jedi Order and is exactly what Darth Sidious used against them. It can be hard to imagine how focusing only on the light side could blind someone, especially seeing how destructive the dark side is. Although this is from a more dualistic perspective, the Living Force, which is the part of the Cosmic Force that the midichlorians can interact with. The Living Force needs to be in balance, a kind of homeostasis, which the universe will naturally balance out. Hence the role of Anakin Skywalker and Son of Suns prophecy. Too much of either the light side or dark side will disrupt that homeostasis. And as Palpatine knew, the Jedi had skewed the balance of the force towards the light side which blinded them towards the intentions of the Sith. While Dooku did not say this directly to Yoda, the underlying concern is what eventually led to the end of the Jedi Order. This is the kind of dynamic Yoda and Dooku had. He immensely respected him as his Master although couldn't deny some of his concerns.
The two padawans of Yoda that are seen in the movies are Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn. Both having been trained by Yoda, heard the dogmatic views of the Jedi straight from its leader which naturally raised some concerns in both students. The difference between Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn was that Dooku used his perspectives for selfish reasons, while Qui-Gon was an avid critic of the council and the Jedi Order, still saught to do good within it. This dynamic showed the weaknesses of Yoda as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. While he was profoundly wise, his dogmatic views often light side repressed the dark side within him. Throughtout the book it is elluded that Yoda carries a darkness with him which is his conscious regarding the Clone Wars. Within season 6 episode 12 of The Clone Wars, a show which resides within a greyzone in the Expanded Universe continuity, we get to see the repressed side of Yoda made manifest in a vision while Yoda is conversing with the Whills of the force. This compliments the novel by showing a physical representation of Yoda's inner turmoil during the war. Despite knowledge of this, Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council met their end in Revenge of the Sith since they were all too blinded by the light side of the Force to see Darth Sidious hiding in plain sight.
The next part of the book is about how Yoda recruits two young Jedi, Whie and Scout, who are only in their early teens to accompany him to Vjun as well as two adult Jedi. The mission was supposed to be covert so an actor was put in Yoda's place. Asajj Ventress is then introduced and throughout the rest of the book there is some interesting conversations between Dooku and Ventress. The best example is when Ventress tries to convince Dooku to allow her to be his apprentice, he asks for a reason, and she replies that she is unquestionably loyal to him. Dooku responds to this by stating that if she is unquestionably loyal to him, then he wishes for her to remain an assassin and not his apprentice citing the reason that the role of an apprentice is to defeat the master which he knows she would not succeed in. It is an interesting double standard since she is posing as loyal, yet wants to be placed in a position which would result in defeating her master. And combined with Sith philosophy, Dooku really doesn't owe her anything.
Ventress then captures the Yoda impersonator who then reveals the location of Yoda and the other Jedi who are taking civillian transportation to avoid detection. Another interesting insight from Ventress was when she cornered Whie and Scout and illustrated how dogmatic the Jedi are, and how there really isn't any inherent meaning in the universe which makes the dark side more enticing given that it harnesses that chaos to give the universe some kind of meaning. Later, Yoda responds to this and states that while the universe is full of darkness, there is also immense light from the stars across the universe and that solely focusing on the darkness is shallow and speaks volumes about how pathetic Ventress truly is. This is similar to other perspectives on Nihilism given that the universe doesn't have any inherent meaning and that it is the responsibility of each person to make their own meaning, this exposition from Ventress and Yoda just shows how they both grapple with that reality.
The last part of the book is really the best part and pretty much what the entire book had been building up to. Yoda, Whie, and Scout finally arrive on Vjun and Yoda sits down with Dooku. They catch up for a bit until eventually Dooku tries to convince Yoda on the merits of the dark side citing that it gives him power and a broader understanding of the force. Yoda then asks what Dooku has that he doesn't have and Dooku can't come up with an example. Yoda has power and immense knowledge of the force, he doesn't need the dark side to achieve any of that. Eventually Dooku gets mad and Dooku asks Yoda to name anything he could possibly want, stating that the dark side can provide it. Yoda states that he wants a flower. At first Dooku is taken aback given how random of an example it was. What Yoda meant was that the dark side is destructive and something like fostering life is not possible within its framework showing the limits of Dooku's power. The best part of the book is when Dooku claims that Yoda doesn't even know anything about the dark side, which Yoda responds by contorting his face using Force Illusion similar to Darth Sidious showing himself warped by the dark side. Dooku, taken aback by this, realized that Yoda would be the most pwoerful dark side wielder in the galaxy if he were to go to the dark side and he drops the subject.
The book concludes with Dooku and Ventress turning on Yoda, Whie, and Scout who all narrowly escape back to Coruscant. Overrall, for a book that gives next to no details about Yoda's backstory, Yoda Dark Rendezvous provides so much in terms of characterization of Yoda combining both his characterization from the prequel era and original trilogy. Yoda is depicted as gleeful, humourous, and constantly hungry in the book although he can quickly become dead serious. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the prequel era, or was dissapointed with Yoda's characterization in The Clone Wars or the prequel movies. It is a great Clone Wars book, despite not having any clones in the book whatsoever.