Books Journey to the Last Jedi: Phasma

Captain Phasma has the distinction of being the first character to utter one of George Carlin's seven dirty words in the Star Wars universe...

 

I was hoping the book would be set between Ep7/8 somehow ..

 

The comic series is set between 7 and 8.

Gesendet von meinem SM-J510FN mit Tapatalk

 

Woah something my eye caught while reading

Spoiler

I've currently come to the part where cardinal goes to Armitage about the information Vi told him, and he mentions "if Admiral Sloane was here..". Then Armitage feels threatened by that for some reason. Can't wait to hear about what happened to her. Last thing we heard from her is when she travelled to the unknown regions in empire's end.

 

Spoiler

She traveled there specifically to join the other forces and establish the First Order, remember the Huxes were with her.

 

I can't recall precisely but

Spoiler

didn't the end of aftermath empires end , hint at least that when Hux was rescued from Jakku , Phasma was on board - a very tall blonde girl?

I'm guessing that potential point got debunked?

 

Quote from Empire's End:

Not many data to begin with, so easily debunked by the next available story, as this was the case.

 

Endol I thought the same thing when I read Empire's End (that the tall girl reference was Phasma), but the novel Phasma makes it impossible that the girl referenced by Wendig was indeed Phasma. I can't think of another reason why Wendig would have added that girl into the scene other than as an origin of Phasma.

 

New interview with Delilah S. Dawson.

Regarding those Jakku kids, well, the girl didn't turn out to be Phasma, but one of those became Cardinal.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/23...a-star-wars-interview-new-york-comic-con-2017

 

So after reading this I was wondering:

Spoiler

Who wants to see Cardinal in TLJ

 

So, finished the novel. In short, loved it.

Spoiler

More in-depth, I love how none of the characters, except Vi and maybe Siv, were truly "good guys." I mean, Torben, Carr, and Gosta were all right, but they were pretty much amoral, willing to do whatever Phasma said. Siv was pretty amoral too, but there were some lines she was unwilling to cross–i.e. killing Wranderous slowly. She was a fairly decent person in a terrible situation. But the rest of them were as morally complex as one would expect of a post-apocalyptic setting...except Brendol, of course.

I loved Cardinal–making him probably the first and only First Order character I can sympathize with.

I sort of suspected after the emphasis placed on Carr's death that it might come back to bite somebody (lol). Sort of expected it to be Brendol, too, so I was glad when I predicted it right–that makes 2 for 2 on big predictions in SW novels this year (I predicted *Inferno Squad spoiler* that the Mentor was Lux Bonteri just a few chapters after he was introduced).

The insight into Phasma's character is great, and really explains some of her actions in TFA and the Captain Phasma miniseries. It also leads me to suspect some things that may happen with her in TLJ (and IX, if she makes it that long).

Also, calling it now, after Cardinal's comment on how Armitage hadn't been crossed by Phasma...yet...that if Armitage meets his end in TLJ, it'll be at Phasma's hand, somehow, to ensure her own survival.

The battle between Cardinal and Phasma was pretty awesome (I feel like it also foreshadows her fight with Finn in TLJ, in a way). I was not in any way surprised by how the fight ended, of course.

More surprising is that both Vi and (probably) Cardinal survived. But I liked they left his fate ambiguous, so he either could return at some point in the future, or he may have died en route to Parnassos. But probably, he survived.

So yeah, really good, morally-complex book where no one's really the good guy (except the only actual good guy, who's a prisoner for most of the book).

 

Spoiler

Yeah I know, but still, it makes me more curious as to how the first order was really established and what her role was.

There was also a mention in the book hinting that there have been several leaders of the First Order, I wonder if Snoke wasn't the first.

 

Spoiler

I really hated this book and found it really hard to get through. For one thing, the tone didn't really seem very Star Wars. It's was way too survivalist for my taste, I found it to be overly graphic and gory in parts, and I didn't like any of the characters. This is the worst part of Star Wars for me, besides the Aftermath trilogy (which is somehow still worse). I didn't like the way most of the book was told as a "story" by Vi. Would've preferred it to be more normal, rather than relayed through Vi's words.

I don't understand how Phasma is one of the leaders of the First Order. All she cares about is herself. And the First Order really wants someone that self-centered and disloyal as one of their leaders? Guess the First Order is even more dysfunctional than I thought. I'm kind of surprised that Armitage Hux would stand for that, actually. In TFA, you got the sense that he was fanatically loyal to the FO. After all, he seemed ready to pounce on Kylo for even showing the slightest hints of disloyalty in TFA. Knowing that Phasma doesn't have an ounce of loyalty to anyone or anything (even the First Order) and doing nothing about it just doesn't seem like something Hux would stand for. I hope they'll improve Armitage's character; I feel like he still has the potential to be the most interesting villain beside Kylo in the ST if they're careful. I didn't care much for him in this book, though.

I'm honestly surprised that Cardinal made it out; I really expected Phasma to kill him. Although I did figure Phasma would be the one to kill Brendol - saw that coming from miles away. I'm not surprised that Armitage doesn't care and in fact was in on the murder, either.

I wonder what would have happened if Cardinal actually accused Phasma of being a traitor at the meeting. Kind of wonder what Kylo would've done. I'm guessing he wouldn't have cared, but it's still interesting to think about.

I didn't like Phasma's character (although I hated her before I even read this book, so nothing's changed there). Basically all there is to her character is that she looks out for herself - and that's it. I didn't need a 400 page book to tell me that.

 

Regarding the timeline, how many years is the book set before TFA?

 

Ok, just finished Phasma, and like I did with Bloodline, I'll give my review here.

Spoiler

The story kind of grew on me. There was definitely parts that were lacking, and there was also parts that was good. Part-typical-post-apocalypse-dystopia fiction (ala Mad Max Fury Road) and part "memoir" of Phasma. As per typical with Star Wars books that are titled after a character (looks at Lord Vader, etc.) the novel has a very sparing bit of (present) Phasma. Even the Phasma of the 'Heart of Darkness style stories' doesn't feel like a real character as well as lacks suspense because a) we know she lives and b) we know her main viewpoint [Siv] lives. At the beginning I was enjoying the Vi/Cardinal bits more, but as the story got further along and their moments were less I started to enjoy the Phasma tale, though the ending stuff on the Absolution felt really bad and forced, overall I thought the story worked. There were quite a few plotholes, some jarringly so, but overall I think this is a decent piece of work. Not 100% sold on the Phasma character - especially her usage in TFA; though this gives some light on why she acted the way she did in it - but this does do a fair bit of service to extending the continuity of the new universe; in a better way (IMO) than Bloodline did.

And here's a review I found on GoodReads, that after writing my review, I think actually brings up a lot of points. Spoilers and some language:

Spoiler

Let's be honest, the only reason I read this book was for Armitage Hux wearing a robe and how he doesn't want to keep Kylo Ren waiting.

Except for Armitage Hux (You're doing amazing sweetie), I did not like this book.

Every character made horrible decisions that made no sense or outright contradicted themselves.

Am I really suppose to feel bad/think Phasma is the Evillest Evil to Ever Evil who only cares about her own survival when everyone she killed kinda were asking for it? Not a single one was a good person and their actions directly endangered everyone. I'm so sorry but I don't feel that bad about the warlords getting ambushed, or the enslaving droids being turned off, or any of the other 'bad' things that happened in this Mad Max ripoff.

LOTS of a Spoilers ahead



We open with the most annoying Resistance figher in existence knitting a sweater when she's told to go to this planet where everyone else who goes to this planet disappears without a trace because surely it won't happen AGAIN. She's immediately captured by the First Order. Thanks Leia.

A stormtrooper in red with the stupid name of Cardinal (that doesn't even make sense. Do they have redbirds in space? Space birds?) thinks she has information on Phasma and really wants to tattle on her for something so he kidnaps, tortures, and interrogates Vi which is where we get most of the story... which is where a big technical fail happens: Vi is telling the story she heard from the POV of Siv and yet it reads as prose rather than a narration except for random first person bits like "Oh, I had to explain what a so-and-so was" that completed derailed everything. It's very jarring.

Anyway, we start with the Scrye, the clan we're told Phasma originally belonged to (which was retconned later in the book), who are a noble race of people just trying to survive and protect this ancient artifact/spaceship/mining base/whatever from the other maraudering clans in the area (of which there is one). Oh yeah, they got this sacred place, like, a few years ago after murdering Phasma's family when Phasma let them in because her family weren't into the whole 'not dying for stupid reasons' thing and thought the empty ship thing that provided shelter and not much else was worth getting their entire family slaughtered for - look, they got what they wanted. Phasma did save her brother though, by stabbing him in the leg so he couldn't help and they ended up having to amputate the leg because everything is poison (or something).

So the Scrye, who were no better than anyone else in this **** world, are just so into peace ya'll! Even when the warlord from the Claws - the only other clan in the area - is defeated Phama's brother and co-leader decides 'Hey, let's make peace with these guys instead of moving into their totally not a deathtrap land where we'd be safer and not, you know, hanging off of rocks over a shark infested ocean!' with Phasma being all "are you ****ing serious?".

Because it's totally reasonable to expect a bloodthirsty warlord to NOT try again once he's recovered. I mean, that would be silly!

(Also, I the warlord is suppose to be an alien who walks on his hands and uses his feet to hold his sword. I don't know, it's stupid but hilarious to imagine.)

OH LOOK, a way to escape/a fresh source of supplies just fell from the sky? Should the Scrye go for it? Nah, we'd have to go through Claw territory and break the peace treaty because that's so important in a wasteland where your current clan LIVES ON ****ING ROCK SPIRES HANGING OVER A SHARK INFESTED OCEAN. DID I MENTION THE SHARKS ARE REALLY BIG?! LIKE THE SHARK FROM JAWS TIMES 100 BIGGER!

Phasma: ... I'm going to get those supplies so we don't, you know, die.

So, RELUCTANTLY, they let her and warriors go and enter the Claw territory and look, it was an ******* who fell from the sky who promises to call for help! Warlord, kinda being obvious he wasn't going to tell the Scrye about this anyway, uses Phasma's prescense as an excuse to BARTER FOR THE ONLY CHILD THEY HAVE in exchange for not killing them.

Yelp, I feel so bad when this guy dies, truly only a heartless monster would murder such a sweet soul.

They bring General Abusive ******* aka Brendol Hux (also, since when was he a general? He was basically a high school principle before!) back to the Scrye to show them 'Hey, we can get off this death trap of a planet!' "...Nah, it cool." "...Well, how about a few of us go and bring back help?" "UH, HOW ABOUT NO." "ffs"

So Phasma takes General ******* and her warriors to go take him back to his ship so they can get off this hellhole of a planet and they encounter blood-drinking beetles that somehow live in the sand, a few mutated wolves, and a random scouting party who had sleds driven by lizards. We don't know where they came from or where they were going and they're never brought up again. Oh, and their mode of transportation was slaughtered instead of, you know, used by them to get to the ship faster.

Blah blah blah, we're shown, once against for the millionth time in a Star Wars canon book, that Stormtroopers are actual human beings with personalities that somehow survive that oh, so intense brainwashing the First Order puts them through that leaves them no better than mindless drones. Apparently, it's still okay to slaughter them wholesale because, you know, the good guys are doing it so that makes it okay! (Remember kids, it's not murder if they're on the opposite side!)

General ******* is poisoned and OH WHAT LUCK A RANDOM DROID APPEARS AND TAKES THEM TO A HIDDEN BASE.

"We'll heal your friend!" "Oh, great!" "How you going to pay us for that?" "uh..." "You can work for us until your debt is paid! Or we can throw you all out and let your friend die." "..."

So they work in the mine for a week or so with the droids being oddly cultish and worshiping their creators until Brendol turns them off at the main control panel and Siv, the character who told the story to Vi who's now telling it to Cardinal, JUST FEELS SO BAD YOU GUYS. I MEAN, I WOULD TOTALLY FEEL BAD THAT THE BEINGS ENSLAVING ME ARE NEVER GOING TO WAKE UP AGAIN. SO SAD YOU GUYS.

Also, Siv is pregnant. A point that'll come up later.

They get some jeeps or some **** and continue on and OH THEY GET CAPTURED AGAIN... by a bloodthirsty cult thingy that wants them to fight to the death for their entertainment. Phasma gets beat all to hell but they liked that so they got some food. Next day, they get weapons to fight the same goliath as yesterday who goes down immediately. At this point, Phasma orders Siv to kill him even though he can't move, is bleeding out, and is going to die before the hour is out anyway with no way to save him. Siv doesn't kill him and says it's mercy (Uh, honey, that ain't mercy.) This plot points comes in later.

Phasma kills the king - the crowd loves it - and is now the new king and she kills the guy who says 'uh, it doesn't work that way...'. I guess we're suppose to feel bad about these guys as well. Did I mention they were cannibals and made people fight for food while the other half of the population watched? Cuz that's a thing that happened.

Yep, totally unjustified deaths all of them.

They keep on trucking and make it to a fence separating them from General *******'s crashed ship where they meet a... random alien. Guess they had to throw one in SOMEWHERE and that's what it feels like: Thrown In.

They're talking to Insect Guy when they're attacked from behind!... By the Scyre and Claws (lead by Phasma's so noble and totally pacifistic brother) who can't be assed to leave their territory to save their own lives but going after a tiny group of deserters is TOTALLY WORTH LEAVING EVERYTHING THEY KNOW BEHIND AND BRINGING EVERY SINGLE PERSON WITH THEM ON THIS DANGEROUS MISSION JUST TO, YOU KNOW, KILL THESE 4 OR 5 PEOPLE WHO WERE LEAVING ANYWAY. (Sigh)

Phasma, her warriors, and the two remaining troopers kill everyone, including one of their own because she had a twisted ankle and would slow them down. This is one of the contradictions that annoy the hell out of me: They're suppose to be all for bringing people to join the Stormtrooper program (the promise ******* seems to be making them) and yet this fit, young girl with a twisted ankle is more of a hinderance than Tubby Mc******* is? Even carrying her wouldn't slow them down as much as his fatass would/did!

Anyway, they get through the fence and get radiation sickness because the people who lived on the planet before, despite being VASTLY more advanced than us, still used Nuclear power and did so badly and blew everything up because of dumb.

They find the ship (Which was Palpatine's favorite yacht... okay, sure, use artifacts from the regime you worship as personal vessels while scouting planets. That's totally not disrespectful or anything. **** off.) They call for help and OH LOOK THE REST OF THE SCYRE AND CLAWS ATTACK... and get slaughtered again but not before Siv's boy toy is murdered accidentally on purpose by his brother (what, did the guy come all this way to hug it out and the knife slipped? What did he think he was there to do?).

Soon, all that's left is Phasma's brother and the little kid that they brought along because that's a smart thing to do. Phasma kills him - as you do to people in post-apocalyptic hellscape planets who are too dumb to live - and is about to kill the kid as well (because why not) when General ******* reminds them they need children for the Stormtrooper program.

Okay, cool.

Rescue comes and they tell Siv "Lol, not you." Because she didn't kill the already dying guy and that was deemed 'soft'. First off: Guy died a horrible painful death instead of a quick one. Again, that ain't mercy. Secondly: SIV IS PREGNANT. LESS THAN A FEW SENTENCES AGO THEY WERE ALL FOR ANY RECRUITS THEY COULD GET BUT, NOPE, LETS LEAVE NOT ONE BUT TWO NEW RECRUITS BEHIND BECAUSE ???? ALSO, ISN'T THAT THE POINT OF THIS FAMED 'BRAIN WASHING/REPROGRAMMING' THING THE FIRST ORDER IS SO EVIL FOR DOING?

I just think, more and more, that this 'Stormtroopers are brainwashed' is just something someone made up and they can't even remember why they made it up but everyone just goes with it because reasons.

Anyway, Siv finds a bomb shelter or some bull**** full of not Cultish Droids who have all the meds and food she could ever want and Phasma leaves the planet and General ******* reminds everyone he's an *******.

(also there's a scene with Armitage Hux talking to the little kid they brought in and it's very cute and he's actually good with children? WTF?)

We get back to Vi and Cardinal and Cardinal's just '... that helps me in absolutely no way.' So Vi outright tells him "Hey, Phasma murdered your mentor, General *******". We're never given a reason why beyond Phasma doesn't want anyone to know her past FOR SOME REASON THAT IS NEVER EXPLAINED. No one cares where she came from, no one in the First Order cares about what she did, this changes absolutely nothing... and yet....?

Cardinal does the only tolerable thing and goes to tell Armitage Hux about this so we can see The Robe and have a whole new slew of Kylux smut fics to enjoy and look, Armie already knew. He knows everything.

(also, am I suppose to feel bad that General ******* who Abused his own son relentlessly all his life and is a mass murderer like everyone else in this book is now exploded? This book as strange morals).

Armitage calls Cardinal an idiot to his face (proving once again why he's the only good part of this book) and cuts him off more of his responsibilities and whatever.

Apparently, Cardinal's never learned that Snitches get Stitches and Phasma comes to kick his ass ( Or something like that, I'm 86% in and I've resorted to skimming, idk).

Book more or less ends with Vi escaping with Cardinal and Phasma going after them because "NO ONE CAN KNOW ALL THE COOL **** I DID". We're still not given a reason why this matters to Phasma when it changes absolutely nothing.



This whole book was, more or less, an attempt at an explanation for why Phasma caved instantly and let down the shields of Starkiller base.

This did not do that. If anything, it made it worse.

OH, SHE'LL DO ANYTHING TO SURVIVE!!1! What, did she think the rebel intruders were just going to let her go if she did what they said? That they weren't going to do something devastating to the base that would potentially get a lot of people, including herself, killed? "Oh, the traitor from before and a couple of old Rebel heroes want me to lower the shields? *Shrug* Okay, I don't see the harm in that! What nice guys."

If this was the case, she would have just pretended to let the shield down while sounding a silent alarm.

UGH.

I guess read it if you like Star Wars stuff or, like me, are Kylux trash and want to read about The Robe first hand.

Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts/opinions.

 

Another interesting and good review I found on GoodReads:

Spoiler

It’s a somewhat difficult time for Star Wars fans. On the one hand, there is a steady stream of new books and movies, and it’s fun to live in a world that is again Star Wars–crazy. On the other hand, the announcement that J. J. Abrams will direct Episode IX more or less ensures that nothing new or surprising will happen to conclude the new trilogy.

In such a world, it would be nice if a new Star Wars novel could be relied upon to be at least “okay,” or even “meh.” Unfortunately, and with rare exceptions, the standard for the new canon seems to be “blah.” It’s clear that the written word is not particularly important to Disney/Lucasfilm.

Phasma is one of the worst of an already mediocre canon of novels. To be fair, author Delilah Dawson was given a poisoned chalice: Here, write about this character that everyone thought was going to be awesome, but actually turned out to be lame. Oh, and you can’t write from that character’s own perspective. Nor can you describe what her face looks like without her helmet on. And you can only use General Hux, not Kylo Ren or Snoke. And even though this will be called “Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” this story will be set before The Force Awakens, so you won’t actually be giving any details about The Last Jedi. Oh, and one more thing—we want you to focus on a character who wears bright red Stormtrooper armor and is named Cardinal.

I imagine most authors would, rightly, walk away pretty quickly from such an arrangement.

Dawson repays that “deal that’s getting worse all the time” with some embarrassingly clunky writing. Though she avoids “I have a bad feeling about this” (how did that happen??), she does manage to reference just about every Star Wars film in uncool ways. Episode 1: “a particularly vicious Dug” (38); Episode 7: “more green than Siv had ever seen in her entire life” (169); Episode 4: “She’s getting too old for this sort of thing” (322). And Brendol Hux’s reply to Torben’s question “I’ve never walked on sand. . . . What’s it like?” (102) will either make you chuckle or make you chuck the book across the room. I don’t want Star Wars authors to show off what superfans they are by referencing everything possible, in the dorkiest ways, from Star Wars films.

The quoting isn’t limited to Star Wars. Dawson is also, apparently, a fan of The Dark Knight:

“You sound like someone who doesn’t even know he’s just a tool for a tyrant.”
“And you sound like someone who just wants to watch the galaxy burn.” (51)​

Sigh.

Dawson also has some verbal tics that are really odd. In particular, she loves using a “For all that” construction that is, to my ears, unnatural. And she uses it all the time. Here’s an excerpt where that phrasing occurs three timesin just two paragraphs:

For all that she had her bundle strapped to her chest, Ylva fought as ferociously as anyone, taking down two Claw fighters with the rusty saw blades Phasma had taught her to wield. Even Keldo took down a Claw for all that he could fight only in place, tethered to his stone spire by lines and forced to fight on one foot.
But Phasma was the warrior who did the most damage. Clad in her mask and climbing spikes, she was strong, tall, quick, and the master of every weapon she carried. For all that Balder had the physical advantage, Phasma fought like she craved death at the enemy’s hand, like she longed to fall on Balder’s b’hedda, a famed Dug weapon he’d painstakingly crafted from an old mining blade. (40-41)​

“For all that” appears over and over and over in this book. And it’s not meant to be a verbal tic of the storyteller within the story, because it happens in other sections of the book, too.

There are other little moments of “How did an editor stet this?” Lines like, “By the time she was five, Ylva’s child was old enough to hunt frogs and urchins and contribute to the clan, so she was given the name Frey” (37). Surely she meant “Ylva’s child was big enough.” “Old enough” is like saying, “By the time she was five, she was five.” (Also, there’s no further explanation of what “Frey” means. Does it mean “5-year-old frog-hunter”? Who knows.)

But you know, I’ll give Dawson extra points for the boldness to open a chapter with this line:

Once an ongoing peace had been established with Balder’s tribe, things should’ve been good for Phasma and the Scyre. Or at least as good as they could be on a primitive world where every day was a fight just to eat while also not falling between rocks and getting eaten by sharks. (55)​

Star Wars has been trying to replicate Boba Fett for all the years since the original trilogy. It hasn’t yet worked: Darth Maul (though they have tried so hard, bringing him back from the dead, repeatedly, to make him cool), General Grievous, and even a “related” Fett, Jango. But there’s just no way to engineer something that will be so satisfying and intriguing to fans as the original Fett. And having a new would-be Fett replacement put on a Mandalorian helmet (from the description on page 158, perhaps it’s meant to be Sabine’s?) just feels insulting and gimmicky.

Something new this story introduces into Star Wars: “That suggests there was either a nuclear weapon used here or an accident at a factory that made such weapons” (247). That seems to me a very dangerous idea to bring into Star Wars. If that galaxy has the possibility of nuclear weapons, then why does the Empire invest so many resources into weaponizing Galen Erso’s kyber crystal research? The Empire drains the galaxy of raw materials to build the Death Star, but why not just level a planet with atomic blasts? Surely that is cheaper and yields a similar effect, right?

The plot of Phasma is ridiculous—people can see the smoke rising from a crashed spaceship, but even on speederbikes and motorized vehicles traveling across flat desert land, it takes them days and days to reach the crash site, and en route they completely lose track of what direction they’re supposed be going?—and does nothing to further Star Wars other than introducing the very creepy “detraxor” devices that suck the “life essence” from recently deceased corpses. But the weirdest thing about the narrative technique is that it is essentially a Keyser Söze story—but without the twist at the end. I mean, it is completely obvious all the way through that [Vi is Siv (hide spoiler)], but the reveal never comes! The story doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

I don't know if there would have been any way to make Phamsa cool. But I know that she is now officially, canonically awful. Too bad.

I still think overall I like it, but maybe more in the 2/5 stars range rather than 3/5 range, and more in a 'was a fun story' than something that was truly 'GOOD' by definition.

 

Go here:
http://boards.theforce.net/threads/journey-to-the-last-jedi-phasma.50045028/

 

Spoiler

If Vi was even telling Archex the truth it doesn't explain why Finn only knew his designation if he was recruited as a child if they continued using that name until he was a teenager?
It would make more sense they'd start as early as possible with those numbered designations so unless they wasn't recruited as a kindergartener there is no reason they'd remember their birth name.
So Frey being Rey and the Clan Skyre being also where Schmi Scyrewalker came from before ending up enslaved and pregnant on Tattooine!

Sorry just an observation that I think Cardinal lied!

Spoiler

Clan Skyre were nomads before they gained their new home with Phasma's help!
It wouldn't stretch much if Phasma dumped Frey on Jakku given she could have easily killed both of them but didn't!

 

Never even drew a possible theory between Frey=Rey. I seriously doubt that's a remote possibility. The author even stated in an interview Frey was a name in the book because it's one of her kids (or something along these lines), so I doubt there's anything to link Frey=Rey.

 

Weird. I think this is the best novel of nu-canon

 

Care to give thoughts/opinions on why?

 

I finished reading it over the weekend and I thought it was a great. I thought it was a strong character study of the Phasma character and really liked the character of Brendol Hux, miserable bastard as he is. But I find the character fascinating. Cardinal was really good too and the book did a great job with the characters in general. I don't think they quite stuck the landing but I enjoyed it immensely.

I agree that Parnassos itself is like a character and one of the best elements of the book. Definitely a major Mad Max influence there but I would also saying everything they go through on Parnassos also reminds me of the Logan's Run novel (which FINALLY got reissued last year and I also read).

 

There's no definitive answer given, save that it's after Bloodline.