New York Times bestselling author E. K. Johnston, author of the Queens series starring Padmé Amidala, brings fans an untold story about Qi'ra, portrayed by Emilia Clarke in Star Wars: A Solo Story.

Not everyone gets to be the hero.

Qi’ra listened to the dreams and promises of a boy with a reckless smile, only to be torn away from him and returned to the White Worms gang while Han made his way to freedom. Now freedom seems like a luxury she can’t afford while she concentrates on survival and despairs of ever leaving Corellia. But her fortunes seem to turn when a representative of the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn plucks Qi’ra from captivity and brings her to the syndicate’s leader, the mysterious and mercurial Dryden Vos. Vos offers Qi’ra an opportunity she’s never had before: the chance to build something resembling a comfortable life if she can prove her worth to his organization. With failure meaning certain death, Qi’ra knows she must immerse herself in the merciless, murderous world of Crimson Dawn. What she doesn’t know is just who she will be if she survives. . . .

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

Please note
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programmes I earn a small commission from items purchased using links featured in this post at no extra cost to you. Click here to learn more. Every purchase you make through Just Geeking By helps keep this blog running.

Qi’ra fascinated me in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and I fell even further in love with her in the Star Wars comics. The events that led to her joining Crimson Dawn have always been a mystery – until now! Crimson Climb by E.K. Johnston follows on from the moment where Qi’ra’s fate separates from Han Solo’s at the Corellia spaceport. Facing punishment that will most likely lead to her death, she is brought before Lady Proxima, leader of the White Worms gang.

As this is a spoiler-free review, I’m not going to go into details about what happens; we already know that Lady Proxima chooses not to kill her. What I will say is that I am even more impressed by Qi’ra as a person for what she has survived, and Johnston does a great job of impressing on the reader the cruel realities of life for orphaned children growing up in the slums of Corellia.

This was very much glossed over in the movie Solo, portraying the White Worm gang as a bunch of thieves. While they are, the level of abuse and manipulation the children are subjected to from a young age is horrific, and learning this about Qi’ra goes much towards understanding her as a character. It is also interesting to compare Han, as Johnston does through Qi’ra’s memories, and how, even as a youth, he stood apart from others and acted independently.

While Proxima doesn’t kill Qi’ra, she still makes an example of her, but Qi’ra is of more use to her alive,e and Qi’ra finds herself sold into captivity. It is during that captivity that she comes to the attention of a representative of Crimson Dawn, who brings her to the leader of the secret organisation, Dryden Vos. At first, Qi’ra believes that she has just swapped one prison for another and tries to escape over and over again without any luck.

When she realises that Crimson Dawn is different, Vos offers Qi’ra something she has never had before: a choice. Or at least something resembling a choice. His offer to join Crimson Dawn comes with a caveat: she must prove herself worthy of being a part of his organisation. If she does, Qi’ra will never have to worry about finding a place to live, food or clothing ever again. But the more time she spends with the organisation, the more she realises that underneath all the gilt and pretty words, there is just as much rot in Crimson Dawn as the slums of Corellia.

I found parts of Crimson Climb to be very interesting, although overall I was disappointed. First, there’s the major plot hole. After Qi’ra’s first mission for Crimson Dawn, Vos gives her a specific mission that has serious ramifications for her if she doesn’t complete it. Having proved herself to Vos, he decides to make her a lieutenant and her extensive training aboard the Crimson Dawn mobile headquarters begins. All the way through the book, we’re told how sharp and clever Qi’ra is, and yet during this training, she somehow manages to forget about this important mission. It seems unlikely that someone as detail-oriented as Qi’ra would let that slip her mind!

This is supposed to be a book about Qi’ra, and yet as soon as Crimson Dawn enters the picture, it feels as though Dryden Vos became the focus. While it’s expected that the leader of Crimson Dawn to have a large role in the book, it felt quite often that Johnston gave more emphasis to his actions and particularly his feelings. One thing I was particularly disappointed about was the lack of detail and time dedicated to Qi’ra’s training in Teräs Käsi. There is only one scene dedicated to it, whereas we are given many more details about Qi’ra’s training with other members of Crimson Dawn.

I expected there to be more action in Crimson Climb, and the whole pace of the book felt quite slow. I really enjoyed Johnston’s other book, Queen’s Shadow, and had high hopes about this one based on that experience. What I did enjoy was the new characters Johnston introduced, and the way that she wrote the pre-existing ones. She had Vos down perfectly, and his malicious personality jumps out from the page. What was also impressive to me was the way that she got inside Qi’ra’s head as an orphan, and consistently brought her thoughts back to her origins as someone from the slums of Corellia.

Crimson Climb ends in two cliffhangers. The first is Qi’ra heading off to meet someone, and we don’t see how that meeting ends. The second is written in the present tense and italics, and is one of multiple interludes outside the book’s timeline that Johnston has included intermittently throughout the novel. The final one appears to be set after the events of the Star Wars comic miniseries, Hidden Empire, and Qi’ra is approached by an unknown stranger. The way the book ends with these two cliffhangers suggests that there may be another book to come, although Crimson Climb does stand well as a standalone. Time will tell 😉

Thank you for reading my book review for Star Wars: Crimson Climb by E.K. Johnston. It is due out on October 10th 2023 and is available to pre-order from any of the links in this book review.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

---

Support Just Geeking By

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you did, please consider sharing it on social media using the nifty buttons at the end of this post <3

If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting my blog. You can do this in multiple ways (click here to find out how!) or by donating via Ko-Fi to help me reach my current goal.