Kindred Spirits - Short Story Review

My name is Lucas Wagner, and you may know me as the guy who reviews most of the Marvel comics. This time, however, I wanted to do something a little special as this is my 100th review for Tatooine Times! I dug deep into what we haven’t reviewed, and found something there that I hadn’t read yet. This was something that I was waiting for the right time to finally check out: Kindred Spirits.

Asajj Ventress has been my favorite Star Wars character for years, ever since she first appeared in the classic mini episodes of Clone Wars that aired before Revenge of the Sith‘s release! So it makes sense that Dark Disciple, the novel based on the unreleased final arc of Ventress’ saga in The Clone Wars series, would be one of my all time favorite Star Wars books. Dark Disciple was written by Christie Golden. The author had previously written Star Wars novels in Legends canon, but this was her first in the new canon timeline and the first book I’d ever read by her. I jumped on new Ventress content the instant Dark Disciple came out, but while I did expect to love the book, what I didn’t expect following this novel was to find a new favorite author. I’ve now read multiple novels by Golden and started a collection of her works. Kindred Spirits, however, was something I had always avoided. Knowing that at the time it was the last piece of Ventress’ story I hadn’t experienced yet, I was worried to have her story officially end for me, so I always put off reading the short story over the years. As of right now there’s been a few books and comics since that have continued to explore her character, so I finally felt ready to read it, and what better way to do that for my 100th review!

Kindred Spirits is the short story prequel to Golden’s Dark Disciple, and was originally published in issue 159 of Star Wars Insider before being reprinted in the paperback edition of the novel. Taking place before the events of Dark Disciple and after the events of Season 6 of The Clone Wars, Kindred Spirits finds the rogue Force wielder Asajj Ventress on one of her various missions as a bounty hunter. No longer serving the Sith, Ventress serves only herself and whoever she happens to be working for at the moment. This current moment finds her working for a black market merchant known as Sheb Valaad. The job she, and various other fighter pilots, was tasked with was escorting the cargo ship Steady On.

While on her mission, the Steady On and it’s escort were ambushed by pirates looking to acquire the ship’s cargo. Left for dead along with everyone else, Ventress actually survived (shocking, I know, she seems to survive almost everything!), and ended up being rescued by a second batch of pirates, known as the Blood Bone Order, and their leader: a Pantoran known as Lass Rhayme. After coming to, Ventress noticed that Rhayme had helped treat her wounds instead of taking her prisoner. Rhayme explained two things: the first being that her crew were also interested in raiding the cargo ship, but had unfortunately showed up late; the second being that she had found Ventress’ lightsaber and, assuming she was a Jedi, decided to ask her to assist her in retrieving the cargo from the first batch of pirates. Ventress, wanting to keep her credibility solid and get her original job done, decides to go along with Rhayme so that she can finish what she was hired for.

The following adventure finds the two infiltrating the pirates that stole the Steady On, with Rhayme posing as a defector who wants to “leave the dreaded Lassa Rhayme’s crew” and has brought a Jedi prisoner as proof of her worth. While the leader of the pirate crew they are infiltrating is out, a Weequay by the name of Jiro is left in command and takes the two in. As Lassa spins her yarns of conquest and dubious events, Ventress is led into a holding area where she inevitably breaks free and starts causing chaos. It’s not long before the jig is up, and none too soon for the Weequay pirates as their leader returns just in time to combat Ventress and Lassa. This leader might be familiar to The Clone Wars and Rebels fans as he turns out to be none other than Hondo Ohnaka! With both sides ready for battle, this story concludes in a fashion that could only be found in a wonderful Clone Wars follow-up story.

Now, as previously mentioned, Christie Golden is one of my all time favorite authors, and has never written anything less than stellar in my eyes. Her writing with Dark Disciple felt like I was literally watching new arcs of The Clone Wars in the best way possible, and that feeling continues in Kindred Spirits. Her voice is perfect for picking up these characters from the series, specifically Ventress and Hondo—matching the wonderful, exciting, and fun tone of the animated series better than I could have hoped. Where Dark Disciple feels like an arc of The Clone Wars, Kindred Spirits feels like a beautifully done single episode of the show. The twists and turns in this story are phenomenal, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Golden writes with such a fun ferocity that had this been an episode it would have been one of the best and a huge fan favorite. I will say, at first I was a little disappointed that Ventress wasn’t the main and only focus of the short. While Lassa was an awesome character, I definitely went in hoping for full Ventress focus. That’s on me, though, as I had my expectations pretty high having put this story off for so long. As it stands, though, it’s a phenomenal and wonderful short story that I plan on reading over and over again.

If you’re a fan of The Clone Wars, Asajj Ventress, or even just Star Wars in general, I highly implore that you check this short story out. It’s a wonderful prequel companion piece to Christie Golden’s Dark Disciple and absolutely worth your time.