The Unofficial Clone Wars Site

STEVEN BARNES INTERVIEW
(PART 2 of 2)

Author Steven Barnes has written fifteen novels and as many teleplays. He has been nominated for both the Hugo and Cable Ace awards. He is most well-known for his alternate historical novels Lion's Blood and Zulu Heart. Barnes is the author of the new Clone Wars novel: The Cestus Deception, which will hit bookstore shelves in June! Now he been kind enough to answer a few of our questions.

Hello again Mr. Barnes, and thanks once again for taking the time to talk about your book.

TUCWS: This second interview is going to cover more information on the-book, so let's get started. First, what did you think of the cover that was done by Steven Anderson for your book?

SB: Loved the cover. Very dramatic--I wish I'd had it to look at from the beginning!

TUCWS: Something that I noticed on both the cover and in the character listing is Count Dooku, yet he never appears in the book, just mentioned several times. He's certainly a major character, so was he one of the Deceptions that the cover refers to?

SB: I'd say that's more impressionistic--his plans and actions color everything in the book. He has "presence" even when not physically present.

TUCWS: Anakin is another major character in the Clone Wars, yet he appears only in the first couple pages of the book, on his way to some more training. What type of training was he involved with?

SB: That's a Jedi secret I'm not privy to. No, seriously, I wanted to stay away from Anakin, because when I started the book, I had no idea why he turned to the dark side. This made it impossible for me to write the guy--how do I describe his thoughts when I don't understand his actions?

TUCWS: Droids have been a keynote of the Star Wars universe. We've seen astromech droids, protocol droids, war droids, bounty hunter droids and many others. In Cestus Deception, we see a new type of droid, a bio-droid that is force-sensitive. How did you come up with the idea for such a thing, and the fact that it's force sensitive?

SB: I couldn't tell you the exact process, but I wanted something devastatingly dangerous, and also something that would allow me to explore some of the implications of Force-sensitivity.

TUCWS: In the beginning of the book, we meet Advanced Recon Commando A-98, Nate, who's a major character in the book. He's a pretty complicated character who's devoted his life to the Republic, being a Clone Trooper. What was your motivation for using an ARC Trooper as a main character?

SB: I never bought the idea that they were simply machines with no feelings. I love taking characters and evolving them. The ARC troopers seemed a perfect choice for such a change.

TUCWS: In addition to Nate, we meet Sheeka, one of Jango Fett's former girlfriends, who sort of lost him. Given that there are now 1.2 million of Jango around, why does she go for Nate?

SB: He was the first Trooper she'd ever really spoken to. There may be 1.2 million troopers, but that's a miniscule number when spread across an entire galaxy!

TUCWS: To her, it's almost as if Jango has been reincarnated (which is sort of true). Yet she reacts with anger to Nate (later Jangotat) because of his devotion to the GAR. Can you explain a little of this?

SB: To her, Nate was denying his individuality. Jango was fiercely individualistic, so she was trying to recapture something of that previous relationship.

TUCWS: Through Nate and Sheeka, we're introduced to an entirely new theme on the Clones, whether they're human or not, and this brings up a larger issue on the meaning of being a soldier. Are the clones human, people? And what do you think about a literal army of one?

SB: Yes, they're human, even if genetically modified. But that touches on the question of nature versus nurture, and the human soul. Even though that subject isn't directly touched in the Star Wars universe, I thought it fair play to address it. Then there is the difference between being a soldier--a cog, and a warrior--an autonomous human being willing to die or kill for what he believes in.

TUCWS: Kit Fisto is an interesting character, only seen a couple times, like with his smile in Attack of the Clones and in the Clone Wars episode #5. What motivated you to use him as a character?

SB: Actually, Lucasfilm suggested it.

TUCWS: Asajj Ventress is another interesting character. How was it to work with her, with her novel debut?

SB: I liked her. There wasn't a whole lot of information, and I actually needed some help molding her personae. She's lethal and sexy, and I dig that.

TUCWS: We see Ventress play the same trick on Obi-Wan that she did with Dooku when we first saw her. Did you watch the Clone Wars animated series?

SB: No! I had no idea.

TUCWS: Okay, now to politics. The Cestus droid factories are building these bio-droids, but because of the war, it's illegal to sell them to the Confederation. So, they sell them under the guise of security droids, but they can easily be converted to war machines. What is your opinion of this sort of loophole trick that is used? Using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit and purpose of it?

SB: Well, that's business. Truth is, there are so many interested laws that businesses are almost always in technical violation somewhere or other. I just took that fact and ran with it.

TUCWS: Deception is part of the title, but there's more than one deception correct? Obi-Wan deceives the Five Families to get them to appreciate the Republic, the Cestians deceive the Confederation and the Confederation deceives the Cestians. Do you see this as an overall theme of the Clone Wars?

SB: Well, sure. It really is a tragic situation.

TUCWS: Much like some of our Special Forces do here on Earth, the Clone Commandos that are in the novel don't do the fighting themselves directly, they go and train locals to do the fighting for them, by putting the local people through their own training. We see one of the new soldiers reiterating some of what the Troopers see as their mission.

SB: There are obvious reasons for this, but is this another aspect on what it's like to be a soldier? Remember, 1.2 million troopers may SOUND like a lot, but it's not, really, when you consider an entire galaxy. So I figured that some troopers might be trained to recruit locals. It made sense to me, but was actually a bit controversial with Lucasfilm.

TUCWS: Do you think that the Clone Army is right, and that what the Republic did with them is justified?

SB: Well...its understandable, and I can't blame the Republic for trying to survive. But there are some unavoidably murky ethical questions, and I'm glad Lucasfilm allowed me to probe at them.

TUCWS: One of the characters says: "Never have I seen such a tangled web." When talking about the politics of the tensions. How important are politics, particularly when a war can be averted, such is on Cestus?

SB: Politics is the way you bond varying individuals and groups, each with their own agenda, into a cohesive whole. They exist as soon as you have three or more people in a situation. As repulsive as political actions and agendas sometimes seem, the problem isn't politics, the problem is the fallible beings who use political means to achieve their ends. There is just a limit to the efficiency of communication. When it breaks down, you get war. So I think politics is vital--I'm just not the kind of person who could thrive in that arena, and neither is Obi-Wan.

TUCWS: Do you think that this can be applied to what is going on in the world right now?

SB: I guess it isn't a stretch to say that we're looking at a failure of politics in the middle east right now.

TUCWS: Obi-Wan mentions that the Republic has no rulers, only guardians. Thinking about the theme deception, do you think that this is accurate?

SB: Nope, but that's the way he's thinking about it at the time. My guess is that will change rather drastically in the not too distant future.

TUCWS: Time for a little philosophical discussion. During part of the training, Kit teaches some of the Clone Troopers some basic force exercises, breathing exercises and some other things that are taught to the younger Jedi. Did you use your background in martial arts to draw from this?

SB: Absolutely. And also the very specific approach to physical conditioning found in the Russian health system of Zdorovye. Like I say in the book, you can find out more about this at www.rmax.tv.

TUCWS: Given your martial arts background, what is your opinion of the way that the Jedi see the force and interact with it?

SB: Lucas touched a truth there, and just exaggerated it and made it more cinematic. But I think Yoda would be well understood by a lot of old yogis and martial arts masters.

TUCWS: With the ARC trooper Nate, Sheeka brings him to a point where he seems to be no longer a soldier, where he has learned to love and to feel, probably for the first time. Do you think that only an ARC Trooper could be brought to this point, given their training, and do you think that Nate would put his own interests above his mission if forced a choice? What about leaving the military?

SB: I don't think he would put his own interests above his mission. But he might disobey orders if he thought they conflicted with his sense of right, wrong, and efficiency. Leaving the military? Possibly, if he felt he had fully fulfilled his military function. A warrior has autonomy, but still often chooses to voluntarily submit to the will of a righteous leader.

TUCWS: You refer to the Clones as a whole as brothers, even though they're identical to one another. How come?

SB: Human beings need emotional associations. These are people, not automatons. Therefore, I assumed that like other people, they live in a web of emotional/familial connections. Brother is the most natural term.

TUCWS: Nate switches names later on, from Nate, which refers to his number, to Jangotat. How important is a name?

SB: In traditional cultures, a name is of vast import, suggesting ties with ancestors, life skills, proclivities, even one's ultimate fate. Ultimately, of course, we are not our labels.

TUCWS: I noticed several references to the comics and cartoon series. Do you see Cestus Deception as a standalone novel, or one that should be read with the other Clone Wars material?

SB: Hopefully it dovetails with other Clone Wars material, but I won't lie and say I read and/ or saw everything out there. I just tried to write a good book.

TUCWS: In the book, there are several references to Jabiim, in the past tense, but the timeline in the front says that the book takes place before the battle. Do the events on Cestus take place before or after the battle?

SB: Hmmm. After, I suppose. Ah, well, glitches happen!

TUCWS: Palpatine, as we all know, goes and becomes the head honcho of the galaxy in a few years after this book. Did this have any effect on his character as you wrote him?

SB: Sure. We all know where this is heading, but we don't exactly talk about it. So there are little hints. There are other things that will make more sense after the third movie comes out--but don't ask me, I won't tell!

TUCWS: Did you make references to other Science Fiction epics in here? The pod dropped soldiers in the beginning was very much like Starship Troopers, and the Cyborg Galactica seemed to be a reference to the old (and new) TV show Battlestar Galactica. If so, are there any that I missed?

SB: Oh, probably. I was having enormous fun, and there were probably references to a dozen different science fiction motifs. There were also some plastic robots that first appeared in a story I wrote when I was about thirteen years old. I can't tell you how much fun it was to finally use that idea in a published work!

TUCWS: Because I don't have an e-book reader, what can you tell us about your novella The Hive? When does it take place in relation to Cestus Deception? Can one read it if they haven't read Cestus Deception?

SB: It takes place while Obi-Wan is in the capital city. Yes, it can be read alone, but is best in concert with the main book.

TUCWS: Now that the book is over, how was the experience, were you happy with the book and would you do it again?

SB: I'm pretty happy with it. There are things I'd do differently if it was purely "mine" and not a work for hire, but staying alive in the writing game requires flexibility. I might do it again if the project appealed to me. I just HAD to write one, though--who could resist writing a Star Wars novel?

TUCWS: Are you looking forwards to Episode III? What do you hope to see in it?

SB: I'm hoping it absolutely blows the screen off. I'll be there on the first day, at the first showing, as I've been ever since "Empire Strikes Back." I flat love the universe, and am keeping my fingers crossed that Lucas has kept the best for last. I could tell you some things I've heard, but they'd shoot me. Let's just say all the signs look pretty good for Episode III.

TUCWS would like to thank Steven Barnes for his time! The Cestus Deception hits bookstore shelves on Tuesday, June 1st!

Conducted by Andrew Liptak, June 2004.