Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Fiction

As someone who enjoys both Star Wars and the Disney Parks, I’m pretty excited about Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. However, we are currently on a Disney Parks break; we haven’t been to one since last fall, and we probably won’t go to one until next spring. That doesn’t mean I haven’t visited Galaxy’s Edge, even if it’s only in my imagination. Disney and Lucasfilm have published a number of stories set in Black Spire Outpost, on the planet Batuu, which is the setting for Galaxy’s Edge, and I’ve been enjoying them all.

Before I go any further, just a warning that there are spoilers after the jump.. And also, I would remind readers that this isn’t a review of these stories, because this blog doesn’t do reviews.

While a couple of other books have touched on Galaxy’s Edge to a greater or lesser degree, I want to focus on the three stories that are clearly labeled as tying in to the park: Black Spire, an adult novel by Delilah Dawson, A Crash of Fate, a young adult novel by Zoraida Cordova, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, a comic book series by Ethan Sacks and Will Sliney. All three of these were marketed as Galaxy’s Edge stories, so they’re the ones I’ll talk about this week.

The first book out was A Crash of Fate, which tells the story of two young adults, Izzy and Jules, who were childhood friends on Batuu. Then Izzy’s parents took her away, for reasons initially left unexplained. The story picks up years later, with Izzy alone—having been unwillingly separated from her space-douchebag boyfriend and his gang of small-time thieves—and trying to make a go of a life as a pilot, using the ship she inherited from her parents. She takes a job delivering a package to Dok-Ondar, a somewhat shady shopkeeper on Batuu, in Black Spire Outpost. Of course, she almost immediately runs into Jules, who works doing odd jobs for Dok.

The story—told over a 24-hour period—ends up encompassing the whole of Black Spire Outpost, and takes some twists and turns as Izzy’s former gang shows up to pull a job. And, of course, Izzy’s own delivery job doesn’t go so smoothly, and she has to work out her own problems before ending up on Dok-Ondar’s blacklist (or “Dok-list”). But mostly, the story stays focused on the reunion between Jules and Izzy, and how they’ve grown and changed over the years since they last saw one another.

The Galaxy's Edge comic visits Ronto Roasters

I read an interview where Zoraida Cordova cites Before Sunrise as an influence on this book. That’s one of my favorite movies, so I’m kind of embarrassed that I didn’t make that connection myself. However, because the book established that a relationship between the characters already existed, it feels more natural that the two would grow close fairly quickly, rather than just giving us a “love at first sight” scenario. 

Cordova sets her story against the backdrop of Black Spire Outpost as it is at the Disney Parks, so the events take place after those of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Resistance is on the run, working to build its forces back up after the events of that film. Izzy and Jules encounter folks from both sides, but that’s not the focus of the story. However, it didn’t feel like those elements were shoehorned in just because they were part of the park; they are just part of the background.

Dok Ondor's Den of Antiquities from the comic

Similarly, while the story visits a number of places that exist in the park, I didn’t get the sense that they were mentioned as a form of product placement. Instead, I felt like they were integrated into the story relatively naturally. I mean, we don’t really go to many place that don’t exist in the park, but it’s not like the characters go to Oga’s Cantina or Docking Bay 7 and order—or even mention—every single item on the menu. It’s clear that the book is very much intended to tie into the park and flesh out the setting with additional story and background, but it doesn’t feel like Disney told Cordova, “Be sure to mention that they can buy plush toys and a lightsaber!”

Perhaps the ultimate in product placement

Regardless of the setting, I really enjoyed the time I spent with these characters. I found myself caught up in their story, and kind of hope this isn’t the last we see of them. I particularly liked the twists on the standard tropes: Izzy is the slightly shady one, who can’t settle down and roams the galaxy, while Jules is the farm boy who was happy to stay at home with his family. I also appreciate that neither of the characters is white, and appreciate even more that not a big fuss is made about that. 

I’ll discuss more about A Crash of Fate in a bit, but first, let’s move over to Black Spire, the “adult” novel by Delilah Dawson. (I put “adult” in quotes, because the Star Wars movies are pretty much made for a general audience, without graphic violence, nudity or swearing. And those restrictions—which I have no problem with, by the way—seem to apply across the entire brand. So what makes this book “adult” seems to be that it’s published by Del Rey and marketed as an adult novel, and not published by Disney Press and marketed as a Young Adult novel, like Crash of Fate.)

Black Spire is something of a follow-up to Dawson’s last Star Wars Novel, Phasma. That book, while ostensibly telling the backstory of the chrome-armored First Order officer, introduced Resistance spy Vi Moradi and First Order stormtrooper trainer Captain Cardinal, who tortures Vi for information before ultimately defecting when he realizes that the First Order isn’t everything he thought it was. Black Spire gives us the next chapter in their respective stories, as General Leia Organa assigns Vi to establish a Resistance base on Batuu, and to recruit new fighters from the local population. To help Vi in her mission, Leia assigns a man named Archex, who used to serve the First Order under the name… Captain Cardinal!

As you might imagine, this novel features events tied more closely into the main conflicts of the movies. However, it also delves a lot more deeply into subjects that the movies aren’t able to show as effectively, by nature of their points of view. For example, in the movies, we are surrounded by characters from the Resistance (or, in the original trilogy, the Rebels), and we understand them to be the good guys, just as the First Order—and the Empire before them—are the bad guys. Books like Black Spire and Crash of Fate tackle head-on the realities of living in a galaxy like that seen in Star Wars.

When all we see are the good guys and the bad guys, as we pretty much do in the Star Wars movies, things seem pretty clear-cut. But, realistically, how could a fascist, authoritarian regime come to power if it was obviously nothing but evil to all points of view? I mean, you don’t have to look all that hard at events in today’s world to understand that things aren't always so simple, and Black Spire really takes that approach and runs with it. Yeah, the residents of Black Spire aren’t particularly excited about the possibility of the First Order coming to their world, but neither do they really want the Resistance there, either. As far as they are concerned, probably the best course of action is to keep their heads down, stay out of the conflict altogether, and nothing will change for them. Or so they believe.

This page features a lot of elements I've seen in photos of Galaxy's Edge

Seeing Vi’s struggles to win over the populace of Black Spire Outpost forms one of the major threads of this story. The other is the relationship between her new partner and former torturer, Archex. Again, the movies tend not to have the opportunity to spend on the long-term consequences of trauma. That’s fine; that’s not the story they are telling. That is one of the stories this book does have the time to tell, and it tells it well. I really felt like I understood the complex mix of emotions both characters felt as they grew to work with each other and care about each other as individuals, not just First Order Officer vs Resistance spy. And that lent some pretty hefty emotional weight to the ultimate resolution.

Vi Moradi is one of the walk-around characters at the park, so visitors can actually encounter her as she attempts to recruit still more fighters into the Resistance. That, on its own, is pretty nifty for a character who started out in one of the novels. But now that I’ve read both her books, it’ll be that much more fun for me once I see her in the park.

I bet there's a toy shop in the marketplace that sells lots of model space ships

The Galaxy’s Edge comic focuses on a trio of smugglers attempting to steal an artifact from Dok-Ondor’s shop. In the first couple of issues, we get some somewhat self-contained stories, as the Batuu setting acts as more of a framework to set up flashbacks explaining where some of the artifacts found in Dok’s shop come from. For example, in the first issue, we see how Han Solo and Chewbacca capture Dok’s sarlaac-in-a-jar. 

To be honest, the first issue left me a little disappointed on first read. I had hoped for a story that showcased the sights and characters of Galaxy’s Edge, and instead only saw them briefly, pushed aside to make room for what was maybe just another Han Solo adventure. Fortunately, my first impressions were completely wrong.

As the series goes on, we see more and more of the characters in Black Spire Outpost. And the flashback adventures become increasingly connected, and also bring together characters from across the Star Wars franchise, like Greedo and Chirrut Imwe from the movies, and Doctor Aphra and her murderous droid companions from the comics. Perhaps more importantly, because comics are a more visual medium than prose, this comic seems to deliberately choose a different approach to tying in with the park.

I understand that part of the fun of visiting Dok-Ondar’s shop is looking at the wealth of visual detail, and spotting all the easter eggs, like the sarlaac in a jar, or Ki Adi Mundi’s lightsaber. This comic literally shows us these objects and where they came from. I now feel like I can go into that shop for real, and it won’t feel like it’s just cluttered with random junk. I’ll be able to recognize objects that I saw in the comic, and know their context. That isn’t something that I would necessarily be able to do with a novel. Instead, the novels give me a greater context to the locations and the sense of history.

Oga's Cantina, again looking pretty much like the photos I've seen. Including DJ Rex!

I give credit to writer Ethan Sacks for creating a story that pretty much needed to be told visually. I give just as much credit to artist Will Sliney for making those visuals so effective. Faced with the tough task of setting his story in a place that actually exists, but only on a limited scale, he really made the world of Black Spire Outpost feel like a real city that extends well beyond its theme park boundaries, and yet is still 100% consistent with the photos I’ve seen of the park.

Across the board, what I loved the most about all these Galaxy’s Edge stories is that they showed a side of the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance that we rarely get to see: how it affects the regular folk of the galaxy. In the movies, we see what Rey and Poe and Finn do to affect the fate of the galaxy, which is a lot of fun. However, if you ignore the people trying to just lead ordinary lives in that galaxy, then it doesn’t really matter how the fate of the galaxy is affected, and it just comes down to good guys and bad guys shooting at each other, and none if it really matters if there isn’t something bigger at stake. I think that perspective is important, although I may be at odds with a segment of Star Wars fandom, given their reaction to just those elements in Solo and in the Canto Bight sequence in The Last Jedi. Me, I loved Solo, and felt the Canto Bight stuff was essential to the character arcs and story of Last Jedi, so, you know, whatever.

(For context: I have seen every Star Wars movie multiple times in the theater since my folks took me to see Star Wars in the summer of 1977. I’ve watched Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance on TV, and I’ve read a bunch of comics—mostly Marvel ones—and a bunch of novels since Disney/Lucasfilm decided to make them all consistent (or “canon”) with each other. I absolutely consider myself a Star Wars fan, even though there’s a segment of fandom that I feel would insist that by actually liking most of Star Wars, I can’t possibly be a “true fan.” That segment can go jump in a lake, along with the racist, sexist, and bigoted segment of fandom that I see behaving so loudly online.)

So, to me, that’s what was so beautiful about all these Galaxy’s Edge adventures. It wasn’t about Resistance folks fighting First Order storm troopers (although that’s there, particularly in Black Spire and in the comic). Instead, all three presented stories of people—humans and otherwise—leading their lives against the backdrop of a galactic conflict between the Resistance and the First Order. Well, mostly against the occupation of the First Order. And in a time that I feel like we’re seeing the rise of a contemporary equivalent of the First Order, I found that gave me some hope.

As I’ve hinted from time to time on this blog, current events have been dragging me down like crazy. Maybe it’s having grown up with Star Wars (and a dad who loved those movies) as a major influence on my own moral compass. I sometimes feel like I need to pick a side, because those stories mainly tell us about the guys who fight for the side of right, and the guys who fight for the other side. But even though I try to do what’s right, I’m not a fighter, and I don’t know that the stories in the Star Wars movies tell someone like me what I can do. 

If you're a Star Wars fan and not reading the Doctor Aphra comic, I feel bad for you

These books, though, help me out. Here, I see the people who are just trying to live their lives and stay good in the face of a corrupt, authoritarian, fascist regime. Andy they have their own lives, and their own priorities, and their own adventures. And just because they aren’t flying X-Wings against TIE fighters, or shooting storm troopers on daring raids, it doesn’t mean that their lives aren’t important. Just because the love story between Izzy and Jules isn’t being directly affected by the war doesn’t mean that it is any less challenged, or that I am any less invested in the outcome. And so maybe it’s okay that I do what I can in my life to help the world, even if I’m not joining the Resistance and flying an X-Wing or whatever the real-world equivalent would be. (Standing up in front of an armed militia, maybe? Because the thought of that scares the poop out of me.)

Ultimately, I really enjoyed these stories because they showed Batuu and Black Spire Outpost to be a fully-fleshed out place with real people with believable lives. I suppose I won’t really know until I actually visit the park, but I feel like everything will have a deeper meaning for me, because I’ll know the things that have happened there. When I order a ronto wrap at Ronto Roasters, I will think about Vi brining one back to Archex at their camp. When I eat at Docking Bay 7, it will be with the knowledge that Chef “Cookie” Tuggs only lands there once a month to serve food. And when I see Vi Moradi on the streets, it will be with the full knowledge of everything that she experienced in Phasma and Black Spire.

Having said all that, there are a couple of other books that connect to Galaxy’s Edge. Thrawn: Alliances is set on Batuu, and really gave my my first literary look at the location. Star Wars: Myths and Fables by George Mann (author of the Newbury & Hobbes series) has some stories that explore the folklore of Batuu. And Star Wars: Pirate’s Price, a children’s novel about Hondo Ohnaka and his adventures with Han Solo and Chewbacca, sets up the Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run ride. Those were all really fun books, and I recommend them to the Star Wars or Galaxy’s Edge completist.

Some fan-pleasing storm trooper-shooting scenes

For those who insist it's not Star Wars without lightsabers

Gonna skip the 2000 AD highlights again this week, in the interest of not delaying an already-delayed blog post any further. Probably coming up in the next couple of weeks: a post catching up on 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, and a post about the new reprint of Max Allan Collins’ and Terry Beatty’s Ms Tree.

See you soon!