Star Wars Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade
Review by Jordan S.
Delilah S. Dawson’s "Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade" is a fantastic standalone entry into the new expanded canon of Star Wars. It merges all the best elements of Star Wars: interesting aliens, cool setpieces, great action, and convoluted but fun lore. It’s also a Delilah S. Dawson book, and if you’ve read "Phasma" and "Ahsoka," you know that Dawson is a master of the more tragic side of the Star Wars galaxy, and this book takes that to the furthest limits yet.
Fair warning before we begin: It takes approximately the first two-thirds of the book for the Inquisitorius or red lightsabers to make their appearance. Instead, we get a long build-up to what sort of experiences would make someone unhesitantly join the Star Wars universe’s version of ringwraiths. Enter our tragic hero(?) Iskat Akaris, a mysterious young Jedi who doesn’t know what world she is from and finds herself most connected to the Force when she’s slaughtering Geonosians during the Battle of Geonosis. As can be imagined, this makes her distrusted by most of her Padawan cohort and further alienates her, especially after the death of her Master. As she is pushed further and further aside during the Clone Wars, she finds herself having to venture outside of the confines of the Jedi temple to continue her training in her specific brand of Force training. When Order 66 happens, Iskat finds she has drawn the attention of a certain powerful figure who decides that her powers could best be served in a different form: hunting Jedi as part of the newfound Inquisitorius.
A recurring question of Star Wars (at least the films) has been: are the Jedi the benevolent force for good that they think they are? The movies have wavered back and forth on this. The prequel trilogy would lead you to think that in an ideal galaxy, maybe, but this galaxy is far from ideal and thus they are mostly behind the eight-ball constantly. The sequel trilogy is less clear (mostly due to inconsistent writing from J.J.) but similar arguments are at least sort of raised in "The Last Jedi." "Rise of the Red Blade," I think, effectively comes down hard on the side of the Jedi being not nearly the force of good that they think they are. Honestly, if we take only "Rise of the Red Blade’s" side of the story, they are mostly overly self-righteous bullies. There are very few Jedi who treat Iskat as a peer and thus they ultimately turn her into a Jedi hunting antagonist. To offer some minor validation for the Jedi though; Iskat is definitely the Hannibal Lecter of padawans. However, that probably could have been curbed if there had been less bullying from padawans and masters alike.
Dawson has excelled with tragic heroes(?). Her "Phasma" is one of my favorite Star Wars new canon books, and "Rise of the Red Blade" is even better. Iskat takes the tragic hero to the furthest stretches of the word hero, and somehow we still hope that the story will end positively for her. Despite her murderous nature, I still found myself rooting for her and hoping for some type of character redemption. Unfortunately, what I think is intended to be Dawson’s redemption moment for Iskat didn’t work for me as a redemptive moment or as a denouement of the story. Ultimately, that final chapter is probably the weakest element of the whole story for me. It also does us the severe disservice of practically shutting the door on any future adventures with Iskat.
The supporting cast is also really great. Heezo is one of my favorite Star Wars characters in a long time and has one of the most interesting character arcs of the book. Dawson does an admirable job in creating a full-fledged cast of Jedi who all feel different enough that I never got them mixed up. Sember Vey was also awesome, and I wish we would have gotten to spend more time with her. She is probably my ideal Jedi master but definitely not the right choice for Iskat. I would love to spend my days flying around the galaxy tracking down lost Jedi and Sith artifacts with Sember, and I hope that she makes a future appearance someday in the canon.