Riss Johnson

Claudia Gray is one of my favorite authors and I have read every single Star Wars book she’s written, but unfortunately this one is, in my opinion, the weakest. It felt as though her strengths in writing were not showing through, at least not in the way they previously did in books such as Lost Stars, Bloodline, and Leia: Princess of Alderaan. I felt that the character motivations did not have ample time to be explored and often did not make sense or remain consistent with the character’s personality or development. The twist was disappointing and had not been built up well, which was a shocker because generally I find Claudia Gray’s twists to be the best of any I’ve ever read. In this book, though, all it does is make a certain character unlikable. I personally struggled to read past the big reveal because I felt that it was a terribly written moment for that unnamed character. However, I do still love Claudia Gray’s writing, and she does have great moments in this book as well. It’s a fun, entertaining read, and has many high points—namely Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s relationship, touching upon what it means to be an apprentice and how parental most master/padawan relationships are, Dooku, Rael Aveross’s entire character, the exploration of prophecy and what it means for the Jedi and for the dark side, choosing the light “because it’s the light,” and Pax and Rahara. I loved the slavery ethics brought up and wish they were explored more. Overall, this was not a terrible book, but seemed to be a bit all over the place in execution. Though I have no proof, this book seemed much more bogged down by corporate desires than controlled by Claudia Gray’s own authorial ownership, judging by how she’s written books in the past. This just did not feel like something she wrote.