Rise of the Red Blade - Part 2

[colls]

This month's book is Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson


1. How did you like it?

2. The premise was "What leads a Jedi to the Dark side?" how well do you think the book answered that?

3. Any overall thoughts?

COMING UP NEXT
March: THEME: Film Novelization
April: Specter of the Past (The Hand of Thrawn Duology #1) by Timothy Zahn

Book & theme suggestions can be left on on this post

Comments

[brokenmnemonic]

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's definitely not my favourite thing I've read by Delilah S. Dawson, and that's a shame because I really like the other novels she's authored that I've read so far.

I liked the first couple of parts; there were elements there where I really felt for Iskat's struggle with how frustrated she was at constantly being told how a Jedi should act, without any real engagement from any of the masters to try and work out what was actually going on with her. It felt a little like she was going through training that wasn't based on trying to understand and help her, but rather more like an industrial sausage machine designed to produce Jedi. It also made sense to me that she lacked another Jedi to confide in about how she felt after being in battle, and how she struggled with what felt like her purpose being completely at odds with what Jedi were supposed to be, even as the Jedi continued to participate in the civil war.

I think where it lost me was when Iskat so quickly decided that all of the Jedi were power-hungry liars and decivers. I was expecting some kind of internal struggle, but instead Iskat's rejection of the Jedi and all her training came too easily. I think I expected to see far more about the Sith places and artifacts she felt a connection with doing more to corrupt/encourage her over time.

I'm wondering if I've read more about Iskat via the comics without realising it, as I've read a fair number of the Darth Vader issues, including ones that deal with the founding of the Inquisitors. I'm still pondering the way Iskat was so quickly and easily able to justify killing people for convenience, like the shopkeeper, before escalating up to actively and nethusiastically killing Jedi.

[colls]

I'm still in the first part of the book, but feel her struggle with "how a Jedi should act" and am very frustrated on her behalf. I gather it's meant to make us sympathetic to her taking a different path. The pull of the Sith artifacts and the way the Jedi are all "just do what we say" with platitudes makes me cheer her on for leaving at this point.

I haven't gotten to the power-hungry liars and deceivers, but I can see where it can easily go there. She's already questioning where the clones came from, the supplies, how did the Jedi shift into war-mode so quickly, etc. All the things the Jedi should've been asking themselves all along.

I'm liking it well enough, but the writing reads like it's geared more towards simplicity than I had expected.

[brokenmnemonic]

I think simplicity is a good word to use here; now that you've mentioned it and I've thought about it for a while, I think I was expecting more complexity and depth to what happened.