Star Wars & the Inferno Squad

I wasn't exactly excited about another Star Wars: Battlefront book. Then I saw that Inferno Squad would be written by Christie Golden, who also wrote Dark Disciple, and I thought that perhaps the book would hold some interest for me, after all.

As I'm beginning to realize and talk about, certain of the Star Wars books interest me more or less depending on where they place the focus. Books about characters and places and emotional themes are best. Books about politics and battles not so much. The first Battlefront book was very much just a wartime, army book focusing on a team making it through the fighting. This book starts off as if it's going to be similar. There are some skirmishes. Then the setting changes.

Inferno Squad takes place directly after the destruction of the first Death Star. Inferno Squad is a small Imperial group that goes undercover in a rebel group based around Saw Gerrera's ideals. Basically they've living in a cave trying to act like people they aren't--and sometimes feeling gray areas develop. Perfect. The cave living almost reminded me of The Host at times (though it's nowhere near as rustic as that), especially given that you have a close-up look at a confined group of people trying to get along with one another. And all of these questions about identity and loyalty are exactly the types of things I like to get from Star Wars--and the type of character-based content that I expected from Christie Golden.

Sometimes I don't like when stories explore the gray areas, when they try to portray villains as not being wholly evil or show that neither side is perfect. I get it, and it does usually make for interesting storytelling. But Star Wars is great because of its themes of good and evil, so you do have to be careful in what ways you explore those gray areas. Somehow, even though Inferno Squad is all about showing the perspective of Imperials who are just trying to do their duty to restore peace and order to the galaxy, it works. The reason that it works is that it's straightforward: the characters don't really waver much in their ultimate loyalty because they believe in their cause. And it works because the rebels that they're seeing up close aren't the Rebel Alliance--they're like Saw's rebels.

Here, of course, we have the welcome tie-in to Rogue One. There are plenty of references to that storyline. And we have further exploration of the rebel groups who are quicker to action (and quicker to violence) than the Alliance. You can't argue with Iden choosing to stay loyal to the Empire versus joining this group.

So, yes, there's action in here, but it's all character-based, making this one of the Star Wars books I've enjoyed more rather than less.

Who Is the Dark Disciple?

Okay, now I'm getting a sense of what I like best and least in the Star Wars books--that'll help for eventually down the line when I'm ready to start reading some of the non-canon books and want to know which ones I might be interested in. 

Dark Disciple by Christie Golden has a lot of what I like--I really enjoyed reading it.

As the line on the front cover, it's based on unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, making me glad that I finally finished watching the show before starting this book. Now, when I finished the show, I had been expecting something more on Ventress, so the story that's told in this book is exactly what we needed. Ventress still had one more story to tell. Though, in fact, Ventress is only part of this novel; the other half is Vos. I know that he appeared in The Clone Wars, but I won't lie and pretend that I remember him from there. 

All the same, he become like a real person in my head. Ventress, too, I began to have more of a connection toward than I'd had while watching her in the animated series. And that's what worked so well in this book: it's character-driven. Well-developed characters that you want to hear more about and whose growth and trials become so important to you. You quickly see where part of the plot is going and after that you know that there are only a couple of options for how it ends (I mean, we all know that it's Anakin who kills Count Dooku), but none of that matters: the important things that you want to see unfold aren't exactly the basic plot elements--they're the subtle (or less subtle) progressions in character. 

And that is also what I love best in Star Wars in general. I like to watch Luke discover how, with simple actions, he can rid the galaxy of its tyrants. How Anakin lets a little fear turn into an enormous rage that he lets consume him--until his son is able to bring him back and remind him of the man he once was. Dark Disciple has many of the character themes that we're already familiar with; in fact, the story is quite similar (though with key differences) to Anakin and Padme's. That doesn't mean that it feels repetitive; it just means that it feels familiar, like something I like from this universe. 

I love the twist in the title: since Ventress is the baddie, I'd assumed the dark disciple was her. In reality, though, the location of the darkness is more complicated--and Ventress isn't a disciple this time. 

The tone is very much in line with The Clone Wars. In the brief moments when Anakin or Obi-Wan showed up, I found myself hearing the voices of the actors from the animated series instead of from the movies (or maybe it's because I just spent so much time watching The Clone Wars). That dash of humor is in there, as is the familiarity with certain planets and peoples that don't really show up in the movies but do in the animated series. Oh, yes, and there is Ventress.

Ah, Ventress, I didn't care much for her when she first turned up in the show but now I have such affection for her character. And Vos, too. I think they're both still alive inside my head: while I was reading, I would fall asleep thinking of the two of them and I think the tone of the book somehow colored my dreams. Their story, to me, goes down with the great Star Wars plots.