Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra Gets A New Backstory In Star Wars: Crimson Climb
This review contains major spoilers for "Star Wars: Crimson Climb" by E.K. Johnston. We highly suggest you bookmark this review and return later after you've read it.
As far back as she could remember, Qi'ra always wanted to be a gangster. And "Crimson Climb" shows us how she makes that transition from scrumrat to the big time. Set just after the prologue of "Solo: A Star Wars Story," E.K. Johnston's "Crimson Climb" tells the tale of Qi'ra's ascension from the White Worms on Corellia all the way up to the high ranks of the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn. Covering about a year and a half of her life, she grows from scrumrat to cunning criminal operator in the lethal "Star Wars" underworld. She's put through brutal test after brutal test and finds herself in the service of Dryden Vos. After working with various groups of criminals on other planets, Qi'ra is drawn into Dryden Vos's inner circle and given a mission to complete for the head of the Shadow Collective himself, Lord Maul.
The book bridges many of the gaps in Qi'ra's character from her humble beginnings to when Han catches up with her on Vandor, although there are still many blanks left to fill in, leaving room for E.K. Johnston to do more with the character or even for Emilia Clarke to return to the world of "Star Wars."
Qi'ra's context
The biggest thing this book is able to do is shed more light on Qi'ra's character. In "Solo: A Star Wars Story," she is a smooth operator who is taken aback by Han Solo coming back into her life. It wasn't anything she expected and she might have even been dismayed about it, but Han has no idea what it was she went through in order to get to that position of some power on Dryden Vos's yacht and in his inner circle. Johnston's book takes us through some of the sacrifices that she needs to make.
Like any good gangster story, there's the scene where she has to kill someone to prove herself. Dryden Vos drags in a protesting Quarren. The Quarren inks them before Qi'ra dispatches him and Dryden Vos has the Crimson Dawn logo tattooed onto Qi'ra with this ink. It's a particularly brutal moment in the book and a definite turning point for Qi'ra. This moment, like many others in the book, re-contextualizes everything Qi'ra blithely passes over about her past in "Solo: A Star Wars Story," making that movie an even more enjoyable watch.
Maul's bidding
One of the most interesting things about the book is how the danger of Maul looms like a shadow through every interaction Qi'ra has with the higher-ups at Crimson Dawn. The final mission in this novel sends her to a planet to retrieve an unspeakable artifact from the antiquity of the Jedi and Sith wars. In an old temple, she finds an object that a Jedi designed to "seek out the darkness" and destroy it, as a weapon against the Sith, but even still, it burned him badly and he created a temple to hide it in, setting traps that no Force user could get through. Qi'ra, though, not strong in the Force at all, is able to make her way through, though so many of the people in her crew die along the way. For Qi'ra, it's a harrowing experience and cements her willingness to do anything she has to in order to survive.
The book definitely leaves us with the impression that she is going to spend time working specifically for Maul, retrieving artifacts for him. And it makes one wonder if Qi'ra might be responsible for Maul's exile on Malachor, which we see in "Star Wars Rebels." There are no definitive answers here, but it's a tantalizing possibility.
Details to watch out for
The biggest tie to "Solo: A Star Wars Story" is naturally going to be Han himself. There is a sadness and resignation in Qi'ra that E.K. Johnston captures so well. Every time Qi'ra has to conjure fake happiness for her disguises, it's Han she thinks of. The book also shows us exactly the lengths she'll go to in order to keep her hands on Han's dice. If you remember, he gives them to her before they're separated and she gives them back to him on Kessel. In the film, it seems like they've been separated for about half an hour, but this book really helps us understand how long and how hard she held onto them.
There were two big cameos in the book that I was delighted by. The biggest is the appearance of Veers, just a lieutenant here and not yet a general. For those who don't remember, General Veers commanded the ground battle on Hoth from the safety of his AT-AT and was played by Julian Glover. His appearance here, meeting with Dryden Vos, certainly raises more questions about his character than it answers, though.
The second was Dok Ondar. Those familiar with the Disney parks and Galaxy's Edge should be familiar with Dok Ondar and his shop of rare antiquities. The Ithorian was name-checked by Qi'ra in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" before the park even opened. This book gives us a little bit more meat on the story of why he would be associated with Crimson Dawn.
Then, the last thing to really dive into is that E.K. Johnston took the mention of Teras Kasi in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and Dryden Vos training Qi'ra and expanded it for the book in much greater detail. For those who are familiar, "The Masters of Teras Kasi" was a "Star Wars" fighting game for the original Playstation and was much beloved, but still looked at as one of the worst fighting games ever made.
Capturing the voice
The thing I loved most about this book, aside from the way E.K. Johnston is able to write spycraft and skullduggery, is how well she captures the voices of the characters. It is easy to hear Paul Bettany and Emilia Clarke saying every line of dialogue from this book because Johnston has crafted it so masterfully. Even though we're seeing these characters do new things, she's captured them in such a stunning way.
For those looking for a hard-hitting "Star Wars" book that changes the status quo, you might want to look elsewhere. This book is for fans of Qi'ra, Dryden Vos, and underworld shenanigans. I would hope that counts most of us, but there's also no accounting for taste.
This is the fifth "Star Wars" book from E.K. Johnston, and I would be more than content to read another five. She is able to capture the feeling of the universe, regardless of the milieu. With Ahsoka, she created something that felt like a continuation of "The Clone Wars." The Padmé Amidala books she wrote wind in and out of the prequel trilogy and just exude a love for it in exactly the right ways. "Crimson Climb" does the same thing for the underworld elements of "Star Wars", proving Johnston's knack for writing to make you feel like you're watching a brand new installment of "Star Wars."
And that's really what you want.
"Star Wars: Crimson Climb" is available on October 10, 2023, wherever you buy books.