Star Wars Book Club: Phasma - by Delilah Dawson

[Charley]

Mildly spoilery review here

Guys, this book is FIRE.

I've been pretty vocal about my love of Lost Stars and how it's probably my favorite Star Wars book. I'm still 100 pages or so from finishing Phasma, but if it keeps me engrossed at its current pace, we may have a new winner. This book is RIDICULOUSLY good, and Dawson does such a good job at - not necessarily getting inside Phasma's head - but telling the story of those around her who try and fail.

Dawson describes the book as Mad Max meets Star Wars, and it's not hard to see why. Nearly the entire book takes place on the hellish wasteland world of Parnassos, and everyone involved in the setting is trying to survive against slowly ratcheting and desperate odds. The author doesn't pull many punches, and some of the fates here are grisly and grotesque.

Phasma, to me, comes off as a Legate Lanius type of character (for those who played Fallout New Vegas). She is fearsome and terrifying and inscrutable, and she's working for idealogues and following a group that she may not share their ideology. Phasma comes off as less of a true believer, and more of a dangerous wild animal that someone has cleaned up and given table manners. It's not hard for the reader to worry what happens, and to fear that this wild animal isn't tame, she just plays the part really well.

I can't stress enough that y'all have to read this one. For as touching and epic as Lost Stars was, Phasma is a completely different story by orders of magnitude, and every bit it's contender.

[Morgan Evanar]

So she's from Salusa Secundus basically.

[Charley]

So she's from Salusa Secundus basically.

That's not a bad comparison. Parnassos is definitely hellish enough.

The end product is different though. Sardaukar are indoctrinated and Phasma definitely is not.