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A review by itsmatthew
Spark of the Resistance by Justina Ireland
3.0
I'm eagerly devouring any and all Star Wars content set between Episodes 8 and 9. While it was cool to see the interactions between Rey, Poe and Rose in this novel, it kinda seems as though they left Finn out of the story to avoid advancing his respective plots with any of the other three.
Additionally, this book (aimed at younger readers) played the war aspect a little odd - none of the heroes shot to kill (except in ship battles), and Poe takes the unusual step of stunning & knocking unconscious, rather than killing, his enemies... before blowing up the entire ship they are on. The author employs euphemisms when talking about the destruction in the book's climax, to the point of it being a bit intellectually and morally disingenuous.
I've read younger-aimed Star Wars books before, and they handled the war differently than this one did. (I should note that I lean pacifist and so I don't mind the lack of violence, but knocking people out instead of shooting to kill, before blowing them up, or feeding them to beasts, seems like a weird moral fake-out.)
The book also made it sound like Rose hasn't got much experience with the Resistance, which disregards the prior novel in this series ("Cobalt Squadron") which focused almost exclusively on Rose's missions, as well as her trajectory for the next film. This book treated Rose like a blank slate, but she has a history, some of which we have seen already, and more of which we have read.
Additionally, this book (aimed at younger readers) played the war aspect a little odd - none of the heroes shot to kill (except in ship battles), and Poe takes the unusual step of stunning & knocking unconscious, rather than killing, his enemies... before blowing up the entire ship they are on. The author employs euphemisms when talking about the destruction in the book's climax, to the point of it being a bit intellectually and morally disingenuous.
I've read younger-aimed Star Wars books before, and they handled the war differently than this one did. (I should note that I lean pacifist and so I don't mind the lack of violence, but knocking people out instead of shooting to kill, before blowing them up, or feeding them to beasts, seems like a weird moral fake-out.)
The book also made it sound like Rose hasn't got much experience with the Resistance, which disregards the prior novel in this series ("Cobalt Squadron") which focused almost exclusively on Rose's missions, as well as her trajectory for the next film. This book treated Rose like a blank slate, but she has a history, some of which we have seen already, and more of which we have read.