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

[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.