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A review by thepancreas11
Shadow Fall by Alexander Freed
4.0
It takes a little while to get going, but once it does, it's as good a character study as any of the "Thrawn" books are. Chazz na Chadic is of course the star of this show again, with the densest, most interesting, and most original of all the many story-lines. There is a real effort here to examine the affects of the war on its soldiers in ways that previous media--especially the movies--seems to ignore wholesale. Seriously, if Alexander Freed had written the Finn part for the sequel trilogy, we would have gotten the disaffected, rattled, haunted, complex character that John Boyega's performance deserved. If that version of Finn was even half as emotionally poignant as Chazz, it would have been one of the brightest character turns in blockbuster movies since the Frodo-Sam dynamic.
What these books do best is ask, "What if?" and then have the courage to actually follow the idea. What if you were the only survivor over and over and over again? What if you were a soldier and the war was coming to a close? What if you were forced to participate in horrific acts of war? What if you weren't forced, but instead, almost brainwashed into feeling it was your duty to do so? Quell writes herself. Of course she would be outed. Of course that would lead her to question her duty to the New Republic. Of course that would cause her to confront the people responsible for her moral quandary. It sound so simple, but it takes a lot of patience and commitment to honor the characters that you've setup, especially in something that should be just another pulpy, sci-fi showpiece.
If anything, the book relies a little too heavily on the previous material and the premise. The slow start is down to the heavy references to the plot of the previous novel. I think if I had read them back to back, I would have been fine, but I had trouble remembering what had happened in the climax of the first novel. Worse yet, Wookieepedia was very light on the details of the Battle of Pandem Nai, so I didn't even have a resource to go to. I almost wish more time had been spent reviewing what we already know. That's more realistic to the readership of series like these, in my opinion.
I so look forward to the third book. I hope Chazz gets everything she deserves--or maybe everything she desires? I'm not sure. I just want her to have a good ending.
What these books do best is ask, "What if?" and then have the courage to actually follow the idea. What if you were the only survivor over and over and over again? What if you were a soldier and the war was coming to a close? What if you were forced to participate in horrific acts of war? What if you weren't forced, but instead, almost brainwashed into feeling it was your duty to do so? Quell writes herself. Of course she would be outed. Of course that would lead her to question her duty to the New Republic. Of course that would cause her to confront the people responsible for her moral quandary. It sound so simple, but it takes a lot of patience and commitment to honor the characters that you've setup, especially in something that should be just another pulpy, sci-fi showpiece.
If anything, the book relies a little too heavily on the previous material and the premise. The slow start is down to the heavy references to the plot of the previous novel. I think if I had read them back to back, I would have been fine, but I had trouble remembering what had happened in the climax of the first novel. Worse yet, Wookieepedia was very light on the details of the Battle of Pandem Nai, so I didn't even have a resource to go to. I almost wish more time had been spent reviewing what we already know. That's more realistic to the readership of series like these, in my opinion.
I so look forward to the third book. I hope Chazz gets everything she deserves--or maybe everything she desires? I'm not sure. I just want her to have a good ending.