Amusing end not nearly as good as Tarkin or Thrawn

Too simple and lineair a story for my taste, though it does build the character.

7 people found this helpful

Very dark, very different, very good.

This book is quite the departure from a normal Star Wars novel, but that makes it memorable. More grim and graphic than most, although not gratuitous or without reason. I found the details of the warrior customs interesting instead of filler, the story engaging, and the ultimate payoff worth the trip. This is a helluva origin story for someone who was onscreen in The Force Awakens for less than five minutes and only had a handful of lines. I hope she's more prominent in The Last Jedi, after this read I definitely want to see her in battle on screen. Very different, but impressive, with a good performance as well, I found January's shifts to male voices to be particularly strong. The new EU has been good lately, with Thrawn and Catalyst being good standalone stories that tie in well and actually feel important, and this is on par with both.

13 people found this helpful

This story was just "Meh!"

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The entire thing. It was supposed to bring Phasma out of the shadows and make her important. But honestly its just a bit of a stretch. The story wants to make us see Phasma as a kickbutt warrior who will do anything to survive. But yet thanks to TFA this book does not make me see the character in a different light. If she was this great warrior, why did she give up to an old man and his dog and a snot nosed punk. TFA makes her seem weak. This book try's to fix it but it falls flat.

What could Delilah S. Dawson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Its not the fault of the author. I just feel that this book should have been released two years ago during the Journey to the Force Awakes instead of now.

Would you listen to another book narrated by January LaVoy?

Yes. Shes a good narrator and I liked her take on Leia in New Republic.

Could you see Phasma: Star Wars being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No and if you where going to you have to use Gwendoline Christie as Phasma.

Any additional comments?

It could have been better. Was looking for a story on Phasma that actually was being told from her perspective and not from a recounting.

6 people found this helpful

Spectacular! Despite weak start

Truly engaging, heartfelt and intense story. I'll admit I really wasn't sold on the first couple chapters, I didn't initially care for the main protagonist nor the framing device employed within the story.

However after an hour or two (at most) I was eating my words. This story is like Mad Max in Star Wars and features some truly memorable characters. Not to mention the title character herself, who almost feels mythic in this tale.

The third act of the story is bold, completely different and incredibly tense and pays off the framing device in a truly satisfying way.

6 people found this helpful

Star Wars Broccoli

Interesting ideas, terrible execution. This is elementary school level reading. Just bad. Doesn’t make Phasma any better and introduces Vi Moradi who is forgettable but important for some unknown, and stupid, reason.

2 people found this helpful

meh

definitely struggled to finish this book when it finally got towards the end, it was hard to put down. Didnt expect this kind of back story about Phasma and I wasn't exactly into it

2 people found this helpful

Disappoint Effort, Unoriginal Story

Captain Phasma was this huge surprise in ‘The Force Awakens’, a Female Storm Trooper, and a Chrome Plated Captain at that, full of mystery and looking spectacular. And then of course she was one of the most disappointing characters in the movie, with bare minutes in the movie and those she got, she was captured like a deaf newbie and thrown in a trash compactor. So much for the mighty Captain. Thankfully the film did have a fantastic Female lead in the form of Rey…
However, now we get to learn the background of this dark and mysterious character who is so easy to defeat. (Although to be fair, those helmets must impair your peripheral view something shocking!)
To discover the enigma that is Phasma, we learn that she has a counterpart, Cardinal, who was actually the first Storm Trooper to have a name, not just a number in the First Order, and he has Red Armour. He has caught a Resistance Spy, Vi Moradi, who he starts to torture for information on Phasma, as he wants to discredit her, and bring her down, get her removed from the Order.
And so begins the rather slow story of Phasma’s past, her upbringing on the planet Parnassos and how she started out as a warrior and creature born unto death. Phasma has no interest in anyone else’s welfare or future except her own, and she is willing to do anything to meet these goals. Unfortunately, it is a little cliché, and has been done before, barbaric tribe for whatever reason, overgrown slab of meat that only knows how to kill, takes on the leader who is maimed as he/she makes bad decisions and is going to lead tribe to bad end. Only this time, we have a few bonuses in that the First Order crash on the planet, so they are in the middle as well. And the hulking brute is Phasma if you hadn’t worked it out already.
The story has some interesting aspects, it gives us a good intro to some characters that hopefully we will see in future movies or stories – Vi, Cardinal and Siv, but at the same time, the character of Phasma is a loathsome horrendous psychopath without any redeeming qualities.
This is one of those things that is difficult, there is no possible way that she is a role model for Women, not unless you want to encourage your child to be something that only improves themselves through Genocide, or just being something that even Darth Vader might have locked his chambers to. But at the same time, we all Idolise Darth Vader, who is at the same time, a mass murderer, of children no less. So why shouldn’t she be idolised?
At the end of the day, all she is trying to do is live, thrive and be the best at what she does, it just happens to be killing, repeatedly.
Overall, this book did drag the story out a bit, the scenes between Vi and Cardinal where quite amusing, Vi has a sense of humour, which you kind of needed to balance out the Phasmacide on other pages.
One thing of interest is that Phasma is from the Ancient Greek for ‘Apparition, Omen, Prodigy, Phantom or Monster’, all of which fits the character of Captain Phasma from this book.
If you are a die-hard Star Wars fan, you will probably get something out of it, otherwise, it might be a bit too much like a lot of other stories of the same ilk.
I would have liked to have seen something a little less stereotyped for her, and a story with a bit more uniqueness. So many opportunities, the grandchild of a Clone and a Jedi or a Clone offspring, something a bit different than this. Disappointing.

2 people found this helpful

My First Return

I can't finish it. Between wholly unlikable characters and the terrible manner in which the story is relayed, it comes across as a bad first draft for a comic book. I wanted to like this. I wanted to give new Star Wars a chance. Like everything else in the Disney retcon it's a rushed mess incapable of delivering anything of substance or value. I genuinely feel bad for the narrator since I'm sure she is more than capable of delivering a solid performance given decent material. What an incredible waste of time and effort.

2 people found this helpful

decent narrator, bad book

There wasn't any interesting character development for Phasma. Honestly, this book can be avoided.

2 people found this helpful

First Star Wars new canon dud for me.

You will understand who Phasma is as a person, where she got her armor and some incite into the personnel & workings of the First Order but nothing that couldn’t be summed up in a 4 page summery.

This story dragged! About half way thru I realize that I was ready for it to end. At that point none of the main character were likable and really didn’t care about their journey.

The stories several “just so happen to have” this plot device, made me roll my eyes. To me it felt like poor story development due to meeting a deadline and the product was subpar but was pushed out anyways to grab some cash before the TLJ release.

The reading performance itself was fine BUT the recording frequently had noticeable hard stop/start points unlike anything I have heard with other Star Wars books. To me it seems the reading was also rushed for the release date before the movie.

2 people found this helpful