By: Christian Corah
Descriptives
Page count: Kindle edition, 368 pages
Author: Delilah S Dawson
Timeline: Follows The Last Jedi, precedes The Rise of Skywalker
Main characters: Vi Moradi and Archex (formerly Captain Cardinal)
Brief synopsis: Following a major blow to the Resistance, Vi Moradi takes former enemy Archex to Black Spire to set up a new Resistance outpost.
Gut Feeling
I’m not sure if it was just the fact that my life has gotten busier, but this book took me almost three months to read, which is a long time. But the book certainly started slow. For the first quarter of the book it was rather uneventful. However, it really picked up near the end. This causes me to really have mixed feelings over it. It did some things really well, and others not as much. I was excited to read it after reading Phasma, also by Delilah S Dawson, but this one wasn’t nearly as exciting. That doesn’t mean that it was worse, it was just different. Let’s get into the details.
Characters (9/10 pts)
Oddly enough, I’d actually classify this book as being character led. This surpises me because the “Prequel” to this book, Phasma, was not character led. Not to say the book had bad characters, it was just led by one exciting adventure after another. The same is not said for Black Spire. While it did have good adventure, it was lead by the development of characters. I’ll get to Archex and Vi in a moment, but the characters that joined the Resistance all had their own unique qualities and depth. It is hard to introduce new characters into Star Wars and Dawson did a great job. Now for the best part, the relationship between Archex and Vi. Seeing as Vi was formerly tortured by Archex, the two certainly have an interesting relationship. Watching it develop from one with wavering trust to something more is certainly one of the most compelling parts of the book. I am giving a strong score of 9 points for this section.
Writing Style (8.25/10 pts)
All Star Wars authors are already well-established authors. Not just anyone is allowed to write a Star Wars novel (unfortunately). Del Rey really does a good job of picking them out. Dawson’s writing style is well-balanced that doesn’t really bring much to my attention. There aren’t many striking strengths, but the strength is that there are no weaknesses that come to mind. The writing wasn’t spectacular, but it was still very good. I am giving 8.25 points.
Plot (8/10 pts)
Like I stated in my Gut Reaction, this book started really slow. That is my biggest problem with the plot. Once Vi made it to Black Spire, she went through seemingly everyday events that I thought weren’t needed in the story. While they all did have some signifiance later in the story, I think it could have been done in a more efficient manner. That being said, the book did eventually get really good. There was a lot on the line regarding the characteres and lives at Black Spire in the climatic parts of the book. They definitely did not dissapoint. The book also reached closure and opened it up for a Sequel, which not all books can accomplish well. So, I didn’t really care for some of the book’s plot and loved other parts. This averages the score out to 8 points.
Intrigue (7/10 pts)
The intrigue I had for this book moved with the quality of the plot. When the plot wasn’t as good, I wasn’t as intererested in the book. When the plot was better, I was more intrigued. This certainly makes sense, but that isn’t all that goes into the book’s intrigue. Because the book was character led it makes it a little less exciting. Character led novels can still be very intriguing, but Black Spire didn’t quite do that for me. While the book was good I wanted to read on, but overall my interest in the book was lower than I expected. This is certainly a factor as to why it took me so long to read. I am giving 7 points.
What does it add? (8/10 pts)
This section certainly surprised me. Because Black Spire has mostly new characters and is set on a new planet, I didn’t really expect the book to add much to the Star Wars universe. While what Black Spire added wasn’t super substantial, it was sigificantly more than what other books siilar to this one have added to Star Wars. Even though there weren’t any Force users in this book, it doen’t mean that the characters couldn’t have experience with the Force. What this book essentially added is that certain people can detect the goodness (or lack thereof) in others through sensing the Force that surrounds them. This may be a kind of Force sensitivity, which expands what we already know about the Force. This a cool addition so I am giving 8 points.
Logic (0 pts)
There is nothing in the novel that added to nor took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe. So I am neither adding nor taking away additional points.
Final Thoughts
My final score for Black Spire is an 8.05, or a B minus. This is about an average score for books that I have reviewed. Some of you will certaily like this book more than I did and some of you will have little interest in it. I doesn’t really feel that Star Warsy and if you’re ok with that, it shouldn’t be a huge problem. If you are especially interested in the Sequel era, this book does a great job with expanding the limited universe. That may be its biggest strength. Pick it up, give it a shot, and you may really like it.
I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).