[CaptainCrunch]

Just read my first new Star Wars novel in a couple of years. After Disney purged the EU I tried to read the new novels, and found them mixed. The Thrawn books that I read were ok. Aftermath trilogy I thought was terrible.

But I've always been interested in all things dark side so I picked up Sith Inquisitor Rise of the Red Blade.

I did enjoy it. It follows Jedi Padawan Iskat Akira who is a Jedi that is not trusted by the Jedi due to an incident in her youth, she's maligned by her fellow Padawans and her Master is cold and aloof. When the Clone Wars comes along, she's promoted to Jedi Knight and sent on a first mission that is deemed a disaster.

She's basically banished to the Jedi Temple for two years as the Jedi fight and die in the Clone Wars. She feels repressed and has no freedom.

She finally gets another mission with another Jedi Knight who maligns her when Order 66 happens, and she's given a choice. Be free, free to explore her past. Free to do as she wants. Free to punish the Jedi who marginalized her while they betrayed the Republic, Free to stay alive.

She joins the Inquisitors and given permission to explore all sides of the Force, to have possessions, to search for her past. To kill. And she does. She even gets a chance to get revenge on the Jedi that treated her so badly.

The ending is a surprise, not surprise, but I'm not going to spoil it.

Delilah Dawson the writer does a decent job of getting into the main characters head. She does a good job of making the Inquisitorous out to be a twisted version of the Jedi temple where the Inquisitors are constantly trying to injure or kill each other, how they steal credit, and how again the main character is marginalized and forced to scrabble for approval from Vader and the Grand Inquisitor.

If I have a complaint. The book seems rushed, almost like the writer had a ink budget. There were areas that came to unsatisfying conclusions, like her search for her mother that ends up fueling her rage. The time between the last chapter and the epilogue and the relationship with Vader would have been nice to see some fleshing out.

Its not a bad book, its written well, and you can understand the choices that the main character made, especially when she willingly joins the Inquisitors. Its interesting that most of the initial inquisitors were willing joiners, and most were former Jedi Knights and Padawan's. Eventually we meet Inquisitors who were "Convinced" to join.

We also get hints of future storylines like we saw in Rebels and Obiwan.

Its a solid 6/10 book.