Hello friends! It’s been a bit, as I’ve decided not to do the monthly entertainment update for a while. What I’m going to do instead is post about new Star Wars books or shows and what I think about them as they come up. (I will also continue to post my Legends Reading Challenges; I’m working on Knight Errant right now). The latest canon novel is Low Red Moon, based on the video game that came out last year.
As you probably know, I’m not a gamer. I almost decided not to read the book out of lack of interest. But this is a prequel to the story of the game and so, theoretically, you don’t need to know anything about Outlaws beforehand. And I heard there were cameos by Fennec Shand and Q’ira, so my interest was piqued. Also, I liked Mike Chen’s earlier book, Brotherhood.
So, I got the book, and watched a few story videos of Outlaws just to get a feel for the characters. And just so you know, if you plan to read the book or play the game, there are
TOTAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!
So, in the game, a man named Jaylen Vrax and his BX Commando droid ND-5 work with a woman named Kay Vess on various missions in the criminal underworld. This book takes place before they meet Kay, and the very beginning is about ten years before.
We meet the Barshas, a wealthy and powerful family who own Barsha Corp., which builds engines for various kinds of ships. The parents are Nytyl and Roisem Barsha, who are pretty terrible people, and two kids: Jaylen, the natural child of Nytyl and Roisem, and Sliro, the child of Nytyl and…some other woman we don’t meet. The parents favor Jaylen, of course, and treat Sliro horribly, particularly Roisem, who always reminds him he’s only “half a Barsha,” and Jaylen is the heir. Jaylen sees this, doesn’t really like it, but also accepts it as normal behavior. He’s fond of his brother Sliro and tries to maintain a good relationship with him, but it’s clear Sliro is resentful, of Nytyl and Roisem, and perhaps even Jaylen, on occasion. Jaylen is groomed to take over Barsha Corp., while Sliro is found a postion in the Empire, which has been in power for a few years now.
Jaylen decides he wants to run the company with Sliro’s help, but before he can announce it, his family is arrested on charges of corruption and exiled to a family compound on an island on the planet Gus Treta while the Empire decides their fate. While there, he tries to find out what happened to Sliro, who never showed to the official announcement, but there’s no word on him. They get the news that the Empire will not imprison them, but all their holdings are confiscated. That’s when the droid shows up.
ND-5 is a former Separatist Commando droid, created for battle and assassination. He has been reprogrammed by…someone, to kill the entire Barsha family. And he does, all except Jaylen. With another droid’s help, Jaylen manages to put a restraining bolt onto ND-5 to prevent him from killing him, but not before he witnesses the murder of his family. He manages to escape the planet with ND-5, unsure of what is next.
Nine years later, Jaylen Barsha is now Jaylen Vrax. ND-5 is still with him. They’ve been travelling the galaxy, looking for work in the criminal underworld to stay afloat. At this point, along with the restraining bolt, there’s a fused chip in ND-5’s neural core, and I’m kind of confused about the state of these things and why Jaylen has been lying to ND about it for years. Obviously, he was at first terrified that the droid would kill him, but along the way it turns out that, with adaptation and learning experience, he probably wouldn’t, but Jaylen wants ND-5 completely under his control, and so refused to remove the restraining bolt, and lies about his prior programming taking over, etc. etc. It was hard for me to keep up, lol. But basically, ND-5 is completely loyal to Jaylen, even wanting to prove his loyalty again and again, but Jaylen refuses to remove the bolt under the lie that if he does, ND might revert back to his original programming and kill him. He keeps telling ND-5 that they’re partners, but clearly Jaylen is using him for his own purposes. And in all fairness, the droid did murder his family, which is something Jaylen can’t get out of his mind. But you also feel bad for ND, because he just wants to be Jaylen’s partner and basically be his own “person” and make decisions on his own. So there’s a tension there.
Anyway, in the early years Jaylen tried to find Sliro and find any information on who might have sent the droid to kill the Barshas, all while trying to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld. Early on, he found a code name–Low Red Moon–associated with the slaughter of the Barshas, but could find nothing further for years. After nine years, he decided to let go of the past and focus on the future. This led to a mission with Fennec Shand, one that got him a datapad with a list of ISB agents and their code names, a list he could sell or trade in the criminal underworld to get himself ahead. The mission is a success, but the list contains a name–Low Red Moon. He’d almost forgotten about it, but now he wants to follow up and track this agent down.
The name attached to the code name is Madel Nureth, who they track down. She turns out to be an accountant who works for the ISB, cleaning up financial records between the Empire and the criminal syndicates. Jaylen and ND find her and follow her, as she’s heading to a meeting with Crimson Dawn. But before they can confront her, they’re incapacitated by a Hutt agent, who’s also following her. But then the Hutt agent is incapacitated by someone else, a shadow. The shadow takes Jaylen, while Nureth takes ND-5.
Turns out, the “shadow” is a Zabrak named Mill, who saves Jaylen’s life by killing the worm that was injected into his body (ew!). It’s not stated in the book at all, but Mill is a character created by the author in his other book, Brotherhood. She was a young Jedi Padawan who accompanied Anakin on a mission, but what she really wanted to do was to study medicine and heal. There are clues in Low Red Moon that she is a Jedi, but I wouldn’t have remembered Mill from Brotherhood if I hadn’t seen it mentioned elsewhere in a review of the book. Anyway, she and another former Jedi named Vivert travel the galaxy, collecting medical equipment and trying to help people. She doesn’t tell Jaylen they’re Jedi, but he’s bewildered by their altruistic motives. Vivert is being held by Crimson Dawn for…reasons, it’s all very complicated and has something to do with a bacta tank owned by a Hutt, a bacta tank they want, but now the Hutts want the tank back and to kill Vivert because she knows a Hutt is sick and vulnerable, and somehow Crimson Dawn is involved, and….I don’t know, I give up, lol.
So Jaylen and Mill decide to go to Crimson Dawn, for several reasons: Jaylen still wants to find Madel Nureth and how she’s involved with Low Red Moon, and to get ND-5 back, and also to offer the datapad to Crimson Dawn to get on their good side and further his underworld career. Mill just wants to get Vivert back, and maybe to get the elusive bacta tank. So in they go to meet with Q’ira, to offer her the gift of the ISB list. Meanwhile, Madel Nureth is cooking their books, and messes around with ND-5, who is in off-mode, or something, and finds out that this is the droid that she was ordered to send to Gus Treta to kill the Barshas.
Then the Hutts show up causing some trouble, wanting Vivert and the bacta tank. Vivert escapes and meets up with them, and they hatch a plan: Jaylen will smooth things over between Crimson Dawn and the Hutts, thus securing the trust of both syndicates; Mill will go with Jaylen, while Vivert and ND-5 will deal with Madel Nureth. There’s some details concerning who gets the datapad, and who gets the bacta tank, and somehow proving to the Hutts that Vivert is dead, but my brain is fried by this point, lol. Let’s just say the negotiation goes well, peace is restored, Jaylen and Vivert go back to her ship, and ND-5 and Vivert find Madel Nureth. ND-5 ends up killing Nureth, because she knows who Jaylen is. Even now, ND-5 is protecting Jaylen, and he doesn’t even have the restraining bolt on (can’t remember why, lol). But Nureth had unlocked some files in ND-5 that neither Jaylen nor ND-5 had access to, and these files revealed who it was that had ordered Nureth to send ND to kill the Barshas. And it turns out the perpetrator was…(drumroll, please!)–
Sliro.
Big surprise. I already knew this from watching some of the Outlaws story game play, but I didn’t mind knowing. Even if I didn’t, it’s pretty darn obvious throughout the book who sent ND-5. And Jaylen, smart in so many ways, never suspected. It throws him for a loop. Jaylen Vrax decides to seek vengeance for Jaylen Barsha, and to use his new underworld status to help him in that. And to keep lying to ND-5, about the restraining bolt, and his programming. Even though Nureth told ND that Jaylen was lying to him, the droid refused to believe it.
And so that’s where they are at the start of the Outlaws game, where Kay Vess gets involved with Jaylen’s schemes to destroy Sliro. Kay becomes very fond of ND, and in the end, after Jaylen kills Sliro, she removes the restraining bolt so ND can finally kill Jaylen–not out of programming, but because he wants to be free of him. There’s an epilogue in the book, showing ND with Kay and her little friend Nix on board her ship (their ship, I guess), and everyone’s happy. ND has found a family, of sorts, and can make his own decisions and be his own person.
So, I liked the book, despite being a little confused at times. I liked the cameos by Fennec, Q’ira, and Mill. I like ND-5. Jaylen is more complicated. Like ND, he needs to reinvent himself, learn and adapt after his original purpose is taken away from him. But unlike ND, those pesky human emotions get in the way. He’s traumatized by his family’s slaughter, naturally. He’s stuck with the droid that did the deed, and no matter how much ND proves his loyalty, Jaylen can’t let go of his need for control. One could argue that ND-5 is “only a droid,” but I think we Star Wars fans know better than that.
My rating: Three out of Five Lightsabers
Star Wars and Other Obsessions 