Phasma
– A Star Wars Book Review –
SPOILER FREE
Star Wars: Phasma was written by Delilah S. Dawson. She wrote a short story for Star Wars in 2015, The Perfect Weapon. Phasma appears on the novel timeline after Bloodline.
A BRIEF SUMMARY
SUMMARY: Vi Moradi, a resistance spy, sent by General Leia to verify the First Orders presence at a specific location. When Vi drops out of hyperspace, she is immediately captured, caught in a tractor beam from First Order ship, Absolution.
A red clad stormtrooper meets Vi when she’s brought aboard his First Order destroyer. He quickly takes her to an isolated interrogation room before anyone else really notices. The trooper straps her into a torture chair and sends electrical shocks through her body. He gets straight to the point, making it clear he will do what it takes to get what he wants; information on Phasma.
Vi knows this trooper as Cardinal. What she doesn’t know, is that Cardinal knows that she’s a resistance spy, her name is Vi Moradi, and that she has family. Cardinal is aware that Vi recently visited Parnassos, Phasma’s home world. He wants everything she’s learned about Phasma. He believes Phasma is a threat to the First Order and she has already committed treason. He just needs to prove it.
The story Vi tells is of Phasma’s life and how she was able to get off her desolate world of Parnassos. It was a tough time, leading up to her joining the First Order.
ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
As always, I’m going to mention a few characters. With this novel, I’ll go ahead and talk about three.
Phasma: She’s a mighty warrior of the Scyre people of Parnassos, where the young rule over the elders. Parnassos is a barren world, its’s hard to survive. While she’s the fighter, her brother is the leader of the Scyre. She’s hard edged, she’s serious, and to her enemies, menacing. She doesn’t speak often, when she does it’s too the point. The other Scyre warriors look to her for guidance, and trust her with their lives. However, Phasma is a very selfish person. She’s all about herself and keeps others at a distance. Her entire life, she still remains a bit of a mystery.3
Siv: A Scyre warrior. She’s also tough, yet emotional. It is her duty to pass on the ritual of the detraxors. The detraxors are used to extract the essence of life (the fluid) from the fallen Scyre bodies. They put the salve on their skin to protect from the elements, “your today will help our tomorrow.” It’s a mystical type tradition and it’s up to Siv to continue this tradition by teaching it to others.
Cardinal: He’s taken under the wing of Brendol Hux, on Jakku. He was raised up as a First Order stormtroomer. He excelled in all his duties, granting him promotion after promotion. Cardinal was the first to done a unique trooper outfit!, and it’s RED! He became the right hand man of Hux, personal guard. Cardinal trains the youth to become stormtroopers, while Phasma fine tunes them and makes them great warriors. He’s supposedly a tough guy, but he’s a softy. He’s angry that Phasma seems to get all the glory that should be his.
NOW FOR MY OVERALL THOUGHTS
Phasma is certainly entertaining, mostly. I’ve gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of the way this story was told. There were many times this novel stepped over the line from Star Wars and reality. We’ve got that classic line you’ve heard many times, “it tastes like chicken.” So now we have chicken in Star Wars. There’s also that ridiculous sand quote from Anakin, from the mouth of Phasma! I literally put the book down and walked away from it a few times with irritation. The Scyre warriors pull a Poe Dameron from The Force Awakens… they meet stormtroopers, and as you know they have ID numbers, not names. Well, PT-number number number… we’re not gonna call you that, we’ll call you Petey… Petey! LE-2003, you’re Elly. That… is stupid! The mention of R&R time with umbrellas in drinks also irritated me… a lot.
The Detraxors thing, it’s interesting, but it’s extremely gross. Not complaining about that, thought it was a cool idea for the culture.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Phasma? Sure, parts are cool… but be prepared to get irritated by many earthly things.
AS FOR THE RATING
I will give this book a rating of 2 out of 5.
Check out another review… Thrawn, right here.