“No one in the galaxy knows your name…”
An innocent, simple, charming Star Wars YA romance novel, Zoraida Cordova’s A Crash of Fate has more than a few echoes of Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars, only A Crash of Fate takes place on a much smaller scale and it is intended to be a specific tie-in novel to the Galaxy’s Edge theme park attraction. Having recently read Delilah Dawson’s Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire (in conjunction with a theme park visit) I figured I would give this book a whirl. A Crash of Fate takes place after the events of Black Spire and a few months after the events of The Last Jedi (which makes it consequently after the destruction of the Hosnian System as depicted in The Force Awakens).
In an opening prologue, the novel introduces five-year-old Izal “Izzy” Garsea (pronounced “Garcia”). She has had an idyllic childhood with her family, often climbing the spires on Batuu with her neighbor and best friend, six-year-old Julen “Jules” Rakab. One day they encounter a large hairy creature and narrowly escape together. Jules then gives Izzy a special family heirloom, a black stone ring with flecks of gold inside it. All seems well until Izzy’s family suddenly takes her away from Batuu without warning. As she departs, Izzy promises to come back for Jules one day…
Then thirteen years later, we find eighteen-year-old Izzy on the polluted planet of Actlyon where she has joined up with a ragtag group of slimy pirates and smugglers. One of whom is a mean woman named Ana Tolla, and another is Izzy’s boyfriend of ten months, blue-haired Damar Olin, but they quickly abandon Izzy when the crew are suddenly jumped by bounty hunters. The rest of the novel occurs over the course of a single day. We follow Izzy as she grows disillusioned with her life; she accepts a transportation job from a mysterious green Rodian who knows about her family history (he once sold her late mother her ship “The Meridian”). Her job is to deliver a parcel to the Outer Rim, a planet on the edge of Wild Space known as Batuu.
Izzy has not been back to Batuu since she was a child, but she accepts the mission and heads to Black Spire Outpost. After landing, she immediately meets Salju, one of the lead “Gatherers” at Savi & Son Salvage shop. Salju offers to help Izzy with ship repairs, but she warns of “new arrivals” in Black Spire Outpost (i.e. First Order stormtroopers). While her ship is being repaired, Izzy heads over to everyone’s favorite Ithorian antiquities dealer, Dok Ondar, where she quite literally bumps right back into her old childhood friend Jules (in fact, Izzy goes up to Dok Ondar’s and knocks on the door but the door suddenly opens and she accidentally punches Jules in the face).
Reunited again, Jules and Izzy go on various adventures together around Batuu as Jules is sent to complete various tasks for Dok-Ondar (previously, Jules worked for Dok-Ondar but now he works on Kat Saka’s farm). Jules is flanked by his friend Volt, a tall bald human with an unnatural rage toward droids. These scenes offer a nice little travelogue as we are offered the sights and sounds of the planet Batuu, from Oga’s Cantina (led by the Bluoptian crime boss Oga Garra) and Bubo Wamba’s milk stand (Bubo Wamba is an Aqualish) to Smuggler’s Alley and Ronto Roasters, and even Hondo Ohnaka’s Transport Solutions. However, in the course of the day’s events, Jules and Izzy discover that Dok-Ondar has mysteriously left his comm link behind, and they notice an overturned dancing goddess statue lying off its shelf in his den of antiquities. This is all unusual. Later, they find Dok-Ondar entrapped after being inexplicably betrayed by someone, and Izzy finds out that her old gang (Ana Tolla and Damar) who abandoned her are also somehow on Batuu. Conflicts and mix-ups abound until Izzy finally delivers her parcel to Dok-Ondar, but she learns that the package is actually intended to reach the underground Resistance which is hiding in the old ruins beneath the spires (the Batuu Resistance base was previously established by Vi Moradi in the novel Black Spire). The romance between Izzy and Jules culminates in a steamy underground cenote pool sequence, before a final confrontation ensues as Izzy’s old crew kidnaps Jules and tries to destroy the grain on Kat’s farm, but naturally the good guys win in the end and Izzy and Jules decide to stay together. Izzy finds an old holodisk in her ship showing a video of her mother apologizing for her upbringing and wishing that she will lead a happy life.
In a brief epilogue, Izzy and Jules make plans for their future off-planet travels, perhaps working for Hondo Ohnaka together, before the First Order suddenly arrives in the skies over Batuu and a battle ensues. Here the novel ends.
A Crash of Fate is a pleasant little breezy story. It is a fairly superficial, inconsequential YA novel, one that offers very little to the expanded Star Wars lore. It relies on a variety of predictable contrivances and coincidences (such as Izzy and her old crew suddenly arriving on Batuu at the same time). Still, I can appreciate innocent stories like this sometimes. The push-and-pull dynamic between cynical Izzy and idealistic Jules is engaging (the chapters go back-and-forth, each alternately portraying the perspective of Izzy and Jules) and I appreciated the chance to return to the bustling streets of Batuu. I would recommend this book to fans and visitors of the Galaxy’s Edge theme park and Star Wars completionists, but not to serious deep-lore nerds.
“Everyone on Batuu is either looking for a new life or running from one.”
Other Assorted Notes:
- Among the many creatures depicted in A Crash of Fate, there are reptilian-faced Ketzalians, Nautolans, Quarren, a Karkarodon, and there is even a rare Gungan cameo.
- On Batuu, there was once a devastating fire and a virus that broke out. A Crash of Fate features a touching moment in the novel when Izzy and Jules revisit Izzy’s old burned-out family home.
- Actlyon – an Outer Rim planet with a polluted atmosphere.
- The golden lichen that grows on Batuu is referenced.
- The characters eat some yip-tip from Cookie’s. Cookie is a disfigured Artiodac and chef who used to work for Maz Kanata before the First Order blew up her castle (as depicted in The Force Awakens).
- Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities has many notable things on display, such as a dianoga in a tank (called “toothie”), a taxidermist wampa, a finger trap Dok-Ondar sometimes uses as a prank, the statue of a jedi priestess outside, a baby sarlacc terrarium, an ewok headdress, and many other odds and ends. At one point, it is mentioned that Dok-Ondar imported silk ribbons from the tropical moon of Linasals.
- In the book, it is established that Dok-Ondar still uses parchment for writing.
- Delta Jeet is a female working for Ohnaka Transport Solutions who appears in a few key moments in the novel.
- Belen is Jules’s pregnant sister. She confronts and cautions Izzy from pursuing her love for Jules, believing she will only bring trouble.
- Tooka cats appear again in this novel.
- The Wishing Tree is mentioned (it can be seen in the theme park). Jules says he placed some fabric on the tree once long ago, and that it took a long time for his wish to come true (this is a subtle acknowledgment that his wish was for Izzy to return to Batuu).
- “Lucky” is a loralora bird for sale at Bina’s Creature Stall. Jules releases the creature as a distraction and it later helps the main characters.
- The tentacle-like lekku appendages can reveal a Twi’lek’s emotions.
- Avent100 light freighter – the type of ship purchased by Jules.
- Frynocks are silicon-based creatures from the planet Anaxes.
- Spira – the currency on Black Spire Outpost.
- A spa on the Rizzo hot springs moon is referenced by Damar toward the end of the book.
- DJ R-3x is the droid DJ at Oga’s Cantina.
- Joh Yowza, formerly of the Max Reba Band (from Return of the Jedi), also plays at Oga’s Cantina
- Izzy and Jules mention their visit to a small ice moon called Ielo.
Córdova, Zoraida. Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate. Del Rey, New York, NY (2019).
To date, Zoraida Córdova has written two other books in the Star Wars canon line, both in the “High Republic” series – an adult book entitled Convergence and a middle grade book entitled Beware the Nameless. She has also published short stories in Star Wars collections like 2017’s From a Certain Point of View (“You Owe Me a Ride”) and 2020’s The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark (“The Lost Nightsister”).