Lit Stover's ROTS vs. Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

General consensus across the interwebz is that Matt Stover's adaptation of ROTS is the best EU novel. Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is a more obscure work but similarly highly-acclaimed.

Both are undeniably awesome, but which book is more so and why?

Discuss!

 

I don't think RotS was Stover's best novel. But I haven't read either RotS or DR since '05 and I can't even remember which one I liked more.

 

ROTS is a masterpiece.

YDR is a fun adventure piece that gives great insight into the psyches of Yoda and Dooku.

So it's kind of depends on what kind of story you want.

 

Failed! This is not let's-make-nice-and-escape-the-trap-with-differential-standards!

No, this is Sable's-evil-bastard-competition-to-the-death-between-two-works-of-EU-excellence-and-there-can-only-be-winner!

He's an evil git, true, but it's his thread so the sicko gets to set the rules!

 

Did Stover take us into the mind of a security monat? Did he make us care for this noble and hardworking piece of security equipment? Did he make us cheer when the ignored and overlooked device finally, finally, got to achive it's purpose in life?
Down with Stover! RotS novel is overrated.

 

Revenge of the Sith, without contest. Rendezvous is undeniably awesome, but I wouldn't put it up amongst the best novels I've read. I would put Sith up there.

 

Voted for DR on the sheer comedy angle. Yoda in disguise in the 'fresher.... priceless!

 

Yoda and the droid about Yoda's food.

 

What, what, what? Oh, I can't decide! Just kidding.

Dark Rendezvous for me. Stover's RotS is by far the best novelization, with many awesome moments, but it's dragged down by the movie, and too much Anakin Skywalker. The length is debatable about whether its too long or not.

DR is funnier and I love the minor characters introduced, as well as Yoda and Dooku's confrontation at the end. Both are excellent books of course though.


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Dark Rendezvous without a doubt.

While with both novels the outcome was a given, the topic of the mentor redeeming his pupil the common topic, DR made you care about its original characters, expanded the universe, gave us the best Yoda ever (forget the Moriband-arc of TCW) and lets not forget the interactions between Dooku and Asajj Ventress. And all the while Palpatine is pulling the strings behind the back to get the outcome desired by him, but in a way, that nobody gets suspicious or even notices, showing what a masterful manipulator he is.

 

I love DR, but there is way too much of the novel devoted towards the Padawans ("Scout" is one of them I believe?) ROTS is amazing in the fact that it give you so much more of a deeper insight into the character of Anakin, what he was thinking and how the Jedi Council also made mistakes in the fall of the Republic. If you watch the film alone, it's easy to blame Anakin and say he was just an evil brat. But if you read the novel you can almost feel Anakin's world crahsing down on him from all sides.

 

While RotS isn't Stover's best, it's easily one of the best Star Wars books. I really enjoyed Rendezvous but it doesn't remotely compare to Revenge, IMO.

 

No versus thre- oh, go on then.

 

As much as I enjoyed the ROTS novel I have to go with Yoda Dark Rendezvous. The original characters were a change from the usual Jedi, there's some great Yoda and Dooku scenes and it has good humour.

 

I prefer Stover's overall, but Dark Rendezvous has by far the best Yoda and Dooku portrayals.

 

The "Assets/Threats" bit for Dooku's thinking did seem a pretty good summary of Sith thinking though.

Maybe, between YR and ROTS, Dooku finally embraced Sith teachings, rather than retaining a self-image of himself as an "ends justify means" hero.

 

I like you. We are now friends.

 

Revenge of the Sith had all the expectations in the world, and it met them--but everybody wanted it to be awesome, because it was Stover, and because it was RotS.

YDR had zero expectations--it earned every last scrap of the love it gets.

 

heh

 

That was supposed to be Y:DR. But a colon followed by a D produced a smiley, and I didn't notice.

 

Stover's ROTS. And in this instance, it's not really a matter of DR lacking anything. Both succeed in the areas they focus on. Interesting plot, character expansion, the characters think and act true to themselves, every setting we see is unique and engaging, no time is wasted on meaningless points, etc. For me, I just think ROTS did it better. It's also a wider novel in scope, being literally the end of an era and a galactic war, whereas DR is something of a side-story. So ROTS really feels more important in the grand scheme, making it that much more meaningful when Stover hits all the key notes just right.

I've said before that to really understand ROTS, the significance of the events, and even what it all means to the characters of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, you have to read Stover's novel. It's that good, and does an amazing job of telling the same story as the film, but fully utilizing the power of a written text. Can never praise it enough.


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Rendezvous, without a doubt. It actually seems much more finished than the ROTS novelization. Both are good, yet the latter suddenly feels rushed after the first half. As though Stover had a deadline to rush to and not enough time to get us into the head of the other characters and events as he did in the first half.

 

Oh, this one is difficult.

I loved Dark Rendezvous for its original characters, Scout and Fidelis being standouts, in my opinion. Add to that one of the two best characterizations of Dooku, who has been criminally maligned in other works, and an absolutely hilarious portrayal of Yoda, along with the drama to balance it out, and you've got a real masterpiece for the EU.

Which begs the question, why hasn't Sean Stewart written more Star Wars? The guy is great!

On the other hand, Stover's Revenge of the Sith is a work of art. It makes up for all of the flaws in the movie, and then some. He manages to make Anakin relatable, pulls off the serious, yet humorous Obi-Wan better than anyone, portrays Palpatine at his both manipulative and maniacally cackling best, and has the other excellent depiction of Dooku.

If I were to recommend one of these to someone else, I'd probably go with ROTS, just so that they can get a better version of the movie. Just for fun, though, I'd probably go with Dark Rendezvous. Both rank up among the best in the EU, though, which I find funny, considering my disdain for most of the Clone War era stuff.

 

I do like both, but I went with Dark Rendezvous. The portrayals of Dooku and Yoda added depth not found in other works, and the original characters were not only fun but provided an interesting glimpse into the Jedi Order through the eyes of more "typical" Jedi than the ones we see in the movies.

Stover's novelization is great - it has some wonderful prose and depicts Anakin's fall in a way which is both thorough and tragic. But I feel like some of his characterization of Obi-Wan and Padme are iffy (not entirely Stover's fault, as I'm drawing partially from TCW), and there are a few moments which just rub the wrong way in terms of tone. And the last third of the book seemed rushed compared to the beginning. Still a book I'd recommend overall, though.