Crimson Climb

By: E. K. Johnston

Narrated by: Olivia Hack

Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

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. . . .

©2023 E. K. Johnston (P)2023 Disney Lucasfilm Press

Great intro book into Qira's rise thru the ranks!

I've been a SW fan since 1977. I listened to all the audiobooks about the series. Some are great, and some aren't. Thought this one was pretty good! Hope there's more!

An Interesting Spin on a Lackluster Film

I really enjoyed the deep dive into the story of Qira, since she was arguably the most interesting character from the Solo movie. However, the amount that the novel lingered on her inability to get over Han irked me. Additionally, the epilogue was frustratingly open ended, leading to what felt like quite a disappointing final moment.

Meh

I really wanted to like it, and I think he author understood the characters, but it just never got as good as I had hoped.

Emotionless Climb

I enjoyed learning more about Qi’ra’s climb out of the gutters, but wanted more of an emotional journey.

Great story

I loved that we get to see the development of Q’ira. I enjoyed it very much.

thoroughly enjoyable

miss hack has a great time found the voice of Dryden, and E.K. had the time of her love creating dialogue for Dryden and Kira.

Good performance, just okay story

I really enjoy E. K. Johnston’s writing on the whole (both within the Star Wars universe and outside of it), but this particular story just didn’t quite grab me. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and I occasionally had to Google the character list to try to remember who was who and why they were important. It was interesting to get the backstory on Qi’ra’s ascent into the syndicate, but she’s also not a character I feel very attached to, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t in love with the story. It was not bad, just not great, either.

A decent story that doesn’t involve…

A decent story that doesn’t involve…
- the need to promote some kind (real world) cultural debate. Whether is be politics, sexual norms or abnorms, race, or typical Disney injection. Just a “Star Wars” story.
- that feeling KK put her two cents in at every corner.

I like Quira’s (likely wrong spelling) story and this sets her start as leader of Crimson Dawn.

I want more!!

This story did a great job of filling in some questions from Solo!

Qi'ra is one of my favorite characters from that movie and this book tells an interesting story of how she goes from her place in the beginning of the movie to her standing at the end. I hope E.K. Johnston gets to write a sequel!!

I appreciate that this book wasn't plugged full of every kind of lgbtq+ characters like in some of Johnston's other books. It doesn't feel like forced representation which takes away from the story.

The Narrator did an excellent job with Qi'ra's voice but her range was a tad limited compared to some of the other narrators we get. Production is a full 10/10. I highly recommend this book!!!

I did like the dice

Considering the story is about a character from a made up history of Hans, it's not bad.