Star Wars: Spark of the Resistance (2/5)
This book is bad. Like, really bad. It's marked as YF, though should really be JF by the standards of its writing. But even then, it's still bad - the argument "it's for kids" (even if it was intended for kids, which is iffy) doesn't stop it from being bad.
I've got a theory that Justina Ireland struggled to write this. The way the sentences and dialogue is structured, it comes off as someone who's trying to write for a younger audience, but is struggling to do so. And I actually sympathize with that - being someone who writes a lot, even if it's only on hobby level, it's very difficult in my experience to actually write for a younger audience, because you have to fight your own instincts and desires. However, again, that doesn't excuse the novel's lack of quality. I know (or assume) that Ireland can write YF/AF fiction, if only for the existence of the Dread Nation duology and the praise it got, but if I'm right, then she was really poor suited for this.
Whatever. The book takes place between Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, detailing a mission of Rey, Rose, Poe, and BB-8 to some planet that's under attack by the First Order, as they seek out a mcGuffin. That by itself isn't a problem, but how the book is written is. Often, it relies on telling rather than showing - we're "told" about how Rey regards Rose as a close friend or somesuch, but little of it comes through. But that aside, the title is "Spark of the Resistance," and the novel repeatedly makes reference to the "spark of hope" or "fire of hope" or some other variant that's repeated throughout the work, be it through narrative or dialogue, and it gets very old, very quickly. Congratulations, you reference the title, which references Poe's lines in Last Jedi, have a cookie.
Oh, and the First Order characters are two-dimensional - evil people who do evil things, who the author constantly reminds you are evil. Again, I don't need to be TOLD the First Order is evil, I know it. It's only a few steps short of the Jedi Apprentice series where Moff Hissa literally said "dark tidings" to an assembled crowd. Rule of writing, "bad guys don't see themselves as bad guys," and while you can break this rule and still have fun, the rule is there for a reason.
So, no. There's absolutely nothing to reccommend for this book. Not for adults, not for children, and for Star Wars fans, nothing in this book has any bearing on, well, anything. Least as far as I can tell. I've previously sung the praises of some EU works that have delved into the First Order and its associated time period, but this sure as hell isn't one of them.
Avoid like bantha poodoo.
