BBY/ABY is used to position items along the Star Wars Timeline. BBY refers to Before the Battle of Yavin. ABY refers to After the Battle of Yavin. The Battle of Yavin in Episode IV: A New Hope occured in 0 BBY/ABY.
The Youtini Expanded Universe Ranking system is a 1-5 scale that ranks EU book quality, difficulty, and importance. Books closer to Level 1 are easier to read and understand, more important, and of higher quality.
After the Battle of Crait, General Organa's Resistance is decimated almost to the point of oblivion. But the fight is not over; they need allies and outposts. Leia sends her best spy, Vi Moradi, along with the newly reformed Archex to Black Spire Outpost where the pair will learn to deal with their past traumas, recruit an entirely new crew, and do their best to hide from the sinister First Order who has followed them all the way to Batuu.
In this prequel to the Disney Parks experience, General Leia Organa dispatches her top spy to Batuu in a desperate search for Resistance allies.
Minor gripes aside, Black Spire is an absolutely incredible ride. Once again, we see that the old trope of throwing together a band of characters with little to nothing in common makes for riveting storytelling. Vi...Archex...Kriki...Zade...these are all names that may not be known by casual Star Wars fans, but absolutely should be! As an Expanded Universe reader, these are the types of projects that you should feel lucky are reserved for you. Definitely pick this book up and give it a try.
Black Spire answers a lot of questions fans had after the ending of Vi’s last adventure and presents plenty more of its own as the last page of the epilogue concludes. The team that Vi assembles is warm, enticing, and a crew that you can’t help but cheer for every step of the way, and as I closed the back cover, I couldn’t wait for my next adventure amongst the spires.
Like A Crash of Fate, this novel was anticipated to be a marketing tactic in promoting the Galaxy’s Edge theme park. And like A Crash of Fate, that is absolutely not the case with Black Spire. Although I wondered about the story’s structure at some points, Black Spire is a fun adventure overall. It’s not completely necessary to read Phasma before picking up this book, but I imagine it would help a bit. The story mainly follows new and unfamiliar characters, but it’s hard not to love every single one of these heroes.
I was just one of many who were skeptical of Star Wars books being written around a Disney theme park. Thankfully my assumptions were completely misguided, and both this book and A CRASH OF FATE were amazing. You can tell within the first page that Delilah S. Dawson not only "gets" Star Wars, but loves it. She is a great storyteller, and her original characters never fail to disappoint. This book might be much more important to the Skywalker saga as a whole than we initially realized, and I feel confident in saying this is not a Star Wars book you should skip. If you thought the First Order was awful before, just wait until you're done here. This book is going to make you feel things. Be prepared. And get ready for an amazing ride.
Travel straight to the Resistance Base in Disneyland California in this incredible addition to the Star Wars EU. The book starts slow and uses the word "spy" approximately 2187 times, but once it picks up, it stays there. The characters are well developed and the world-building is top-tier. I'd definitely recommend this one to my friends.
I liked this book. It wasn't perfect, but I felt like it had more positives than negatives. From a plot standpoint, there were more than a few head-scratching moments for me, including some of the decisions made by Vi Moradi AKA "The Best Spy in the Resistance". However, a unique slew of original characters (including the best droid to ever grace a Star Wars novel) coupled with some lighthearted fun combined to make this an overall enjoyable read.
