*All posts in the Star Wars Canon series contain minor spoilers
5 weeks until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
“It’s right there in the name. First Order. First, order. Fixing the mess left behind by the Republic and now the New Republic.” –Captain Cardinal, Star Wars: Phasma
Star Wars: Phasma is about Captain Cardinal trying to gain information from a captured Resistance spy about Captain Phasma in an attempt to show the First Order superiors she is not to be trusted.
Written by: Delilah S. Dawson (author of From a Certain Point of View short story and Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire)
Published: September 1, 2017
When does Phasma take place?
Around the same time as The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi in the year 34 ABY.
Synopsis:
Vi Moradi, Resistance spy, has been captured by the First Order Star Destroyer Absolution. However, her capture and subsequent interrogation is kept a secret from the rest of the First Order by Captain Cardinal who is on a mission to bring down one of his own. He is desperate for any secret of Captain Phasma’s past that will dislodge her as being the literal poster trooper of the First Order and lose General Hux’s trust.
Vi begins a long story of Phasma’s humble beginnings on the planet Parnassos and how she ruthlessly turned on her own family to escape beyond the stars.
~
Star Wars: Phasma was not at all what I expected. During the early days of The Force Awakens when the newest Star Wars movie was being heavily promoted, Captain Phasma got a lot of build-up. However, in both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Phasma did not appear to be nearly as major of a character as the promotions showed. For whatever reason, I expected the novel Phasma to rectify that and show Phasma’s time as being a star leader of the First Order’s Stormtroopers.
This book was not like that at all. About 90% of the book was Phasma’s backstory about her time on her remote homeworld. There she met Brendol Hux, who crash landed on her planet Parnassos, and began a long and excruciating journey to return him to the First Order where he promised her a position. It was not necessarily a negative direction to take the story, but it was definitely a surprising one.
Overall, this story was very dark; it was probably the darkest Star Wars novel I have read so far. There were very graphic torture and death scenes described and the primitive band Phasma grew up with took desperate (and gruesome) measures to survive. I would not recommend reading this as your introduction to the Star Wars canon novels or for anyone who likes a bit of hope and sunshine in their stories.
Star Wars: Phasma was published alongside Leia, Princess of Alderaan and Canto Bight as part of the Journey to The Last Jedi series. There are many ties to both The Last Jedi and The Force Awakens. Phasma also ties in with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at the Disney parks with some characters introduced in the book making appearances there.
I would recommend Star Wars: Phasma for anyone wanting a very detailed look into Captain Phasma’s backstory or anyone who enjoys stories centred around the First Order.
Next week: Canto Bight
Complete list of Star Wars Canon novels
Leave a Reply