Black Spire Part 3

[colls]

Welcome to our third of four check-in and discussion posts for our Book of the Month.

This month’s book is Black Spire (Galaxy's Edge #2) by Delilah S. Dawson
Chapters 22-40

Black Spire

1. Vi didn't seem to expect a rescue. Do you think her sense of obligation to her team has changed? (ie. will she feel over-protective)

2. Will the tip Kriki's former boss, Gol, give Kath be enough to seal her fate?

3. Savi and Ylena both seem eager to help Vi and The Resistance and both seem to have some sense of Jedi and The Force. Do you think any character we've met so far will be revealed to have some sort of force-sensitivity?

4. Anything else?



FYI - There's no need to answer all (or any) of the questions above - they're just talking points to get us started. Informal chatter is more than welcome! In-person book clubs often veer off-topic, it's okay if we do as well. :)
All I ask is that you try to avoid spoilers for things past Part 3 of the book.

Comments

[colls]

1. I don't get the sense from their current plans that she'll be overprotective, but I get the sense that she's teetering on the edge. Her nickname, 'Mother Hen', feels like a clear give-away. Combine that with the fact that Archex wasn't given a role - I don't think he was overlooked, I think she feels she needs to protect him for some reason.
I could be reading too much into it.

2. Something told me her former boss would be like a bad penny.
*sigh

3. I'm uncertain if the intent is to lay the foundation for future Force stories - or leave the door open for them. Parts of the sequel movies left some ambiguity about the future of the Jedi and Force-wielders. I gather they are force-sensitive in the way the Guardians of the Whills are and not able to actually exert any control over it like Jedi & Sith can. At least I think Savi is, I'm not sure about Ylena.

4. It was a tough section for Vi - there's really only so much torturing a person can take. I seem to often feel this way, but I sort of just want the protagonist to have time for a proper nap. I guess in this case she did actually get some rest, so I guess I can't complain.

Zade is both delightful and heartbreaking and I think he might need a hug. Archex definitely needs a hug. Heck... they all do. I hope hugs are in the epilogue.

[barbiejedi]

Naps and hugs for EVERYONE, they ALL deserve some REST.

[barbiejedi]

1. I can understand why she wouldn't, if her whole spy career up to this point has had her as a lone agent rather than as part of a team. It seems like she's been trained to resist a lot of different forms of torture, but even reading this section... yikes. It's reading as very clinical and disconnected to me, but I also have a big squick around anything relating to eyes so I'm trying to skim those bits.

2. Best not, I love Kriki and NOTHING BAD SHOULD HAPPEN TO HER EVER SHE IS MY DARLING. I love a cheerful character who has some honest and relatable fears about participating in the kind of nonsense our classic shoot-em-up heroes get up to, but still wants to do her best to be part of the team. (Is there a Star Wars/First Order equivalent of a red MAGA hat? I feel like Gol would be wearing one in this novel if there were.)

3. Honestly, we've had so many new characters that it wouldn't surprise me if it happened, but I kind of hope it doesn't because the story already feels pulled in too many directions for me to keep track of already. Ylena feels like someone you would meet at Savi's at the park, I like her.

4. I'm a little exhausted by the parade of new characters-- it feels like we're not getting enough page/face time with them for them to be properly fleshed out and rounded, they're all reading like TTRPG archetypes to me (which might be influenced by an actual play D&D podcast I started listening to recently, so take it with a grain of salt). I don't even remember Zade's name half the time, I just think of him as "the bard." (Kriki is of course "the rogue" and Dolin is "the muscle." Vi is "the brains" and Archex is "the other one.") (I hate that we're getting so little of Archex now that the cast has grown-- it seems like he only gets a POV chapter when no one else is in camp and there's some Vi-related action that has to happen there.)


EDIT: Did anyone else catch over the weekend that Disney announced it was ending the Galactic Starcruiser experience at the end of September, after only a year and a half? I'm a little sad because it sounded like fun, but it was also just SO expensive, like we mentioned during the first week's reading. I'm hoping they keep the building itself as a themed resort hotel so guests can still stay there, but instead of the LARP experience you can just come and go like any normal hotel stay. That's really what I wanted out of it in the first place. 😅

[colls]

I'm surprisingly keeping up with the characters in this one. I agree there are quite a few though.

RE: the Galactic Starcruiser - I heard it's closing. It's a shame because had it been more reasonably priced it probably would've done well.

[brokenmnemonic]

I really have to wonder what the perceived market was for the Galactic Starcruiser? I'm not a good measure for these things, but the cost for a two-day-stay for two people was about the same as the cost of going on a two-week cruise at UK prices.

[brokenmnemonic]

1. I think that while Vi is doing her best to build the rebel outpost Leia charged her with building, she's very much accustomed to working on her own and relying on herself. The various Star Wars stories and media move back and forth between how... hardcore? Realistic? they want to be. The safest route for Vi's resistance cell would've been to relocate to somewhere Vi didn't know as soon as she was captured, and write her off as an operational loss, with the survival of the cell and the mission being the most important thing. The fact that they hatched and executed a rescue plan is much more Star Wars heroics than that though, and it felt like we're getting a bit of a mix and match in how the story wants to do things. I'll admit that as soon as she got referred to as Mother Hen in the text, I immediately thought of Father Goose, the Cary Grant WW2 movie! It doesn't read to me as if Vi has a lot of experience in being in charge of a team, so I think it's going to take her a while to find her feet. This is one of the reasons I'm a bit frustrated that Archex hasn't had much to do, because he's someone who's been in a command position, and while the Empire is nothing like the Rebellion in terms of how people are led and managed, he's someone she could be talking with about how to make things work and would be a really useful sounding board, particularly as that could also involve a discussion about how the antagonism between Archex and Zade is or could be causing problems.

2. I'd like to think that Gol ends up getting shunned by the rest of the Black Spire community for being a greedy little informant, possibly with a long-range comms unit inserted into a part of his anatomy, but it feels too early for Vi to be killed as a character - there isn't someone I feel has been teased as being in a position to step up and take over the cell.

3. I'm not sure if we'll get any of the established characters turning out to be force-sensitive, but the way the novel has presented the scrappers makes me want the book to explore the idea that without the Jedi going around hunting for force-users and recruiting them, groups of force-sensitive people are naturally drawn to each other in some way (for good or ill). I like the idea that dotted all around the galaxy are little groups of people like Savi and Ylena who're drawn together because of their shared force sensitivity. After all, the groups that came before the Jedi Order all came together somehow, and with the tease in The Last Jedi that Leia and Rey were possibly going to be exploring the basic concept and teachings of the Jedi, it would be very nifty if this novel was showing us something about how the force works on/with people at a fundamental level.

4. I'm not sure I buy into the romance subplot yet (and it feels like a long time since I was that young) but I realised this week that not only am I finding the novel reads very easily, but that the characters sketches of a lot of the minor characters like Gol and the two little old laides and Oga's henchbeings are working well for me, even as I want much more detail on the characters in the Resistance cell.

[colls]

1. Very good point about how a cell should've reacted. I hadn't thought of that. I do think Vi lacks leadership experience (although is likely a good natural leader) and it'd make sense if Archex leaned into the role as her sounding board. She has said he's her 2nd in command. I think their history is probably a roadblock for now and think it could be resolved in the tail end of the book (not a spoiler, just a prediction - I could be wrong).

2. LOL @ the comm unit. heh.

3. I sense you're right and that'd be a logical tie-in. Although I don't gather it'll be fleshed out much here as there's not much runway left in this book.

4. I'm not sure I buy into the romance subplot yet I didn't notice one. Do you mean Dilon and Ylena?

[brokenmnemonic]

I do wish the story could give us more insight into Leia's thinking behind sending both Archex and Vi to Black Spire. I'd really like to know how much she leadership potential Vi has, and how much of it is simply not having anyone else to send.

Dilon and Ylena are who I was thinking of as the romance subplot, aye. It doesn't feel like they had a lot of screentime buildup? I get the feeling that if this was a tv series, we'd probably have had montages at the scrapyard or something similar to help set things up.

[barbiejedi]

1. a rescue plan is much more Star Wars heroics than that though

Definitely. Despite all the recruitment, Vi really hasn't trained anyone in anything, has she? There's some references to Archex being in charge of training them in basic "how to hold gun, pull trigger" stuff but I don't remember any references to actual tradecraft.

3. groups of force-sensitive people are naturally drawn to each other in some way

Kind of reminds me of Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One-- not Force-sensitive, but drawn to the way of life.

[brokenmnemonic]

I don't remember any tradecraft tutoring either, and given that they're living in boobytrapped ruins, I would've thought there should've beensome?

I really want to know more about this "glow" that Ylena and the others see around some people...