“Be true to yourself” – Master Ven Zallow
Paul S. Kemp’s Deceived occurs in the years after the Great Galactic War, in the time of the Old Republic (prior to the rise of Darth Bane). The story takes place across three eventful days as the ancient Empire squares off with the Old Republic. The novel begins as a smuggler-with-a-heart-gold named Zeerid “Z-Man” Korr, a former marine from Havoc Squad, is running a weapons and ammunition delivery from the Mid-Rim world of Vulta to an island on the planet Ord Mantell, a hive of crime syndicates, mercenaries, bounty hunters, smugglers, weapons dealers, and spice smugglers (the planet was mentioned by Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back). Zeerid, whose ship is called “Fatman,” is working for a criminal operation known as The Exchange, a rival organization to the Hutts and other syndicates. He claims he is forced to work for The Exchange to pay-off his gambling debts, however we later learn that Zeerid has actually been forced into this dangerous line of work in order to pay for expensive healthcare treatments for his crippled daughter, Arra Yooms, who was injured in an air crash accident years earlier (the crash killed Zeerid’s wife Val). He hopes to be able to buy his daughter a prosthetic leg and a hover chair.
At any rate, there are rumors that lots of smuggling deals have been going sour lately, and sure enough, Zeerid is jumped on Ord Mantell and he loses a box of grenades (much to his chagrin) but he manages to escape with his life. His handler named Oren at The Exchange still punishes Zeerid by forcing him to do a few highly dangerous spice-run, including a cargo job to Coruscant of chem-engineered, highly addictive spice called “engspice” (dealers call it “the leash”). Zeerid feels traped, like he is on a “treadmill.”
At the same time, the Jedi and the Sith are undergoing peace negotiations on Alderaan, the site of a major Republic victory in the Great Galactic War. A Jedi named Aryn Leneer has been selected to be one of Jedi delegates, she is uneasy, alongside her associate Syo (other Jedi mentioned include Master Dar’nala and Jedi Knight Satele Shan). Her beloved mentor is Master Ven Zallow who is staying behind back at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
Suddenly, without warning, the Sith lead an all-out assault on Coruscant while the peace talks are underway on Alderaan. They are led by a nightmarishly fearsome Sith Lord named Darth Malgus, a rage-filled Sith whose body was badly burnt during the Battle of Alderaan and now he uses a breathing respirator (I imagine him to look something like a mix between Darth Vader and Bane). He is flanked by his servant and secret lover, a Twi’lek named Eleena (she knows his true name, “Veradun,” but it greatly angers him when she says it in public). It was actually Eleena who nursed Malgus back to health after he nearly died at the Battle of Alderaan. And when asked by Eleena why he continues his unending fight, Malgus says:
“Conflict drives a more perfect understanding of the Force. The Empire expands and creates conflict. In that regard, the Empire is an instrument of the Force. You see? The Jedi do not understand this. They use the Force to repress themselves and others, to enforce their version of tolerance, harmony. They are fools. And they will see that after today” (17).
Anyway, the invasion of Coruscant leads straight to the Jedi Temple and the fighting is ferocious (this is a very violent book). Malgus smashes a Sith dropship directly into the Jedi Temple, destroying much of the building, and amidst the terror and chaos, Malgus (with assistance from a Mandalorian) murders numerous Jedi before facing off with Aryn’s beloved Master Zallow. Their brutal lightsaber duel ends with Malgus impaling Zallow and, before Zallow dies, Malgus ominously utters to him: “It is all going to burn.”
During the carnage, thousands are killed on Coruscant, including the Chancellor. Darth Malgus delights in watching Coruscant in ruins, but it’s still not enough for him –the Republic has been wounded but not destroyed. Then he is betrayed by his fellow Sith, particularly Angral and Adraas (Malgus’s chief rival). The Empire merely used his invasion of Coruscant as leverage in furthering peace negotiations. But Malgus does not want peace.
Meanwhile, Aryn becomes consumed with revenge on the Sith who killed her master. In doing so, she seems to be flirting with the darkside, becoming a “a dark seed to yield dark fruit,” while her fellow Jedi Vollen and Keevo notice a chnge, and Aryn even has a dream in which Master Zallow seems to be offering her a warning. But this doesn’t stop Aryn from looking up an old friend on Vulta named Z-Man. If anyone can smuggle her into Coruscant it’s him. And wouldn’t you know it? When she tracks him down, he just so happens to be preparing for a highly dangerous spice-run to Coruscant. However, he is being tracked by an elite mercenary named Vrath Xizor (I wonder if he has any relationship to Xizor from Shadows of the Empire?) Vrath is a former elite sniper in the 403rd Company during the Great Galactic War but now he is working as a mercenary and has been hired by the Hutts to prevent Zeerid’s delivery to Coruscant. Along the way, he accidentally learns that Zeerid has a daughter, a fact that Zeerid has been keeping a secret.
Aryn goes rogue from the Jedi, teaming up with Zeerid, as they take his ship “Fatman” and latch onto an imperial ship (perhaps not unlike Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon maneuver in The Empire Strikes Back) and they narrowly manage to make it to Coruscant, but only after Fatman is attacked and destroyed mid-air… but somehow Aryn managed to use the Force and create a cocoon that saves them and braces their fall far below to the ground? This struck me as a ridiculously far-fetched plot contrivance, even for a Star Wars book. If the Force can easily swoop in as a deux ex machina and save people from exploding ships in the middle of the sky, why even worry about ever landing again in the future?
At any rate, Aryn and Zerid sneak into the Jedi Temple through the underground Works where they encounter none other than Tee-Seven, Master Zallow’s astromech droid, who helps guide them to a monitoring station where Aryn obsessively watches a video recording of Malgus invading the Temple and murdering her beloved master. She is distraught but she is tenderly cared for by Zeerid as a burgeoning romantic subplot emerges between the two of them.
The novel culminates with Aryn squaring off with Darth Malgus inside the Jedi Temple, not far from where Master Zallow was killed, but she reluctantly flees with Zeerid without killing Malgus. Instead, she goes after Malgus’s lover, Eleena. In the end, Zeerid realizes Vrath knows the secret of his daughter and, much to his personal lament, he is forced to kill Vrath. After a fierce fight (both men were formerly elite soldiers), Zeerid blasts Vrath out an airlock into open space, thus protecting his daughter’s anonymity. And Aryn does capture and consider murdering Eleena (Malgus’s lover), but she ultimately decides against it. In the end, Malgus gazes lovingly into her eyes as he pierces his lightsaber directly into her heart, killing her anyway. He realizes that he cannot afford to have a conscience nor any weakness that his enemies can exploit.
In an epilogue, Darth Malgus re-merges some time later from the Unknown Regions and he violently confronts his Sith nemesis, Adraas, inside his retreat palace as punishment for pursuing the path of peace with the Jedi. Their face-off is hideous and brutal, with Malgus turning Adraas’s Force lightning back on him, leaving his skin smoldering and burnt. Then Malgus severs Adraas’s arm with his lightsaber and Force-chokes him before finally finishing him off by breaking his neck with his bare hands. On the other side of the galaxy, Zeerid has finally managed to achieve his dream of retiring to a farm and vineyard on Dantooine along with his daughter and her aunt (Zeerid’s sister-in-law). He spots a small black dot moving toward him on the horizon and he panics, but it turns out to be simply Aryn. She has somehow managed tracked him down and, presumably, they can live happily ever after since she has left the Jedi Order. Zeerid is happy to learn that Aryn never killed Eleena and his daughter is satisfied with her prosthetic legs. The novel ends with the three of them laughing as Aryn says she will stay for a while and Arra invites her to play a game of grav-ball.
Final Thoughts:
Deceived is a violent, high-energy novel that explores a unique timeframe in the Star Wars litverse, about 3,653 years before the Skywalker saga (or 3,653 BBY). There is not a terrible depth to the lore added in this but it reads like a love-letter to fans of the Old Republic video games (which I have never played myself). But as far as I can tell Deceived remains highly regarded among fans of the old Expanded Universe. The novels is constructed around the thematic parallels between Aryn (the Jedi) and Darth Malgus (the Sith) –both feel betrayed and deceived by their respective authorities, and while they both explore the other side of the Force (Darth Malgus secretly falls in love and Aryn harnesses her anger), in the end they both stay true to their values: Aryn decides against murder and vengeance, and Malgus decides to kill his love to purge himself of any weakness.
I have been enjoying my slow reading journey through the Old Republic books and, in my view, Deceived is another terrific Star Wars novel. It’s especially great for fans of the Sith since Darth Malgus is surely one of the most savage, ruthless Sith Lords ever imagined.
Assorted Notes:
- Some of the ancient Jedi statues positioned outside the Jedi Temple are identified in this novel: Odan-Urr, Ooroo, and Arca Jeth. However, many of them are crushed in Darth Malgus’s attack.
- Construction materials like transparisteel and duracrete are referenced several times.
- Yinta Lake is a city on the Mid-Rim world of Vulta (where Zeerid lives).
- At the market on Coruscant, we see a scene in which vinefish is sold by a Zeltron woman.
- Zeerid carries a Z9 blaster pistol.
- Aryn’s droid is named Tee-Six. Master Zallow’s is Tee-Seven.
- Zeerid commandeers an Armin Speeder on Coruscant
- Darth Malgus’s ship is the Imperial Cruiser “Valor.”
- Vrath Xizor’s ship is a Dragonfly-class drop ship called the “Razor.”
- Paul S. Kemp also wrote an interesting prequel tie-in short story to this novel entitled “The Third Lesson” (published in Star Wars Insider magazine #124 in March 2011). The story concerns Darth Malgus surviving a Jedi ambush on Alderaan during the war while he experiences flashbacks to lessons he learned from his father, an Imperial biologist.
- The Essential Reader’s Companion to the Star Wars Expanded Universe (written by Pablo Hidalgo) includes an interesting note about the writer of Deceived. Apparently, James Luceno was originally slated to write the book, but his idea that Darth Malgus would be a former slave hardened by gladiatorial combat was rejected by BioWare and LucasArts. Paul S. Kemp then became the writer of this book while Luceno reworked some of those darker ideas into his seminal Star Wars novel Darth Plagueis. One of the ideas that was written out of Deceived was a scene of the triumphant Sith playing a ballgame, kicking around the severed heads of the Jedi.
Kemp, Paul S. The Old Republic: Deceived. Del Rey, New York, New York, 2011 (republished in 2022 as part of the “Essential Legends Collection”).