Last week I read Delilah S. Dawson's Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, and I really enjoyed it. It was as dark as you'd expect from this kind of book, explored the Jedi, Inquisitors and what it's like to fall to the Dark Side, and it did not hold back on having a delightfully unreliable narrator twisting the narrative and making you doubt everything that is before you. While most Star Wars novels tend to switch between the perspectives of multiple characters, we are only ever inside of the head of Iskat Akaris here, meaning that we get to see every thought process and attitude shift further and further into the dangerous deceit of the Dark Side, which is both sad and fascinating as the story pushes on. It is definitely an interesting read if you like messy characters and diving into their interiority, this is the book for you.
Spoilers ahead for Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson!
We are introduced to troubled padawan Iskat Akaris on a mission with her master to retrieve some ancient Force artifacts. At first, I did like Iskat quite a bit. She's young and struggles with a pull to the Dark Side, doesn't have a very strong bond with her master and is envious other padawans who do. However, when the Jedi are sent to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi, is when things start to go south for Iskat. She not only loses her master, but realizes how much she loves and relishes in killing and violence. From here, we see a twisted descent to the Dark Side begin.
I spent much of the early part of the book feeling bad for Iskat. She is the only member of her species in the Temple, and there aren't even records of what her species is. While the other Jedi never treat her poorly because of it, it is very lonely for her to feel like she sticks out so much. She also had an incident as a youngling where she pulled a stone column down on top of a fellow youngling, meaning that many of the other children in her class became afraid of her. She was certainly dealt a rough hand to start with. As she gets older and begins to slip deeper and deeper into Dark side ways of thinking, the other Jedi seem truly uncaring towards her, even dismissive and cruel at times.
However, as I got further into the book, I realized how truly deep within Iskat's head we are through the narration. It's worded very carefully- so many times when the book tells us the feelings or thoughts of other characters, it's usually started with "Iskat thought." It's easy to miss, but when I picked up on it, the entire book seemed to change. When I stopped letting Iskat tell me what others are thinking, trying only to pay attention to their exact words and actions, my entire perspective shifted, and the genius of this book was revealed. And while I was still sympathetic for Iskat, it made me realize how fast she was falling into the Dark Side.
A character will show any compassion towards Iskat, try to help her and reach out, and yet as Iskat is enveloped by the paranoia of the Dark Side, she reads their kindness as cruelty or mockery, and becomes enraged. When another character tries to reach out and get her to talk openly about her feelings, she consistently makes the choice to shut them out completely.
She seems completely allergic to true self-reflection. When the Jedi place her on an assignment to spend time working with the Jedi younglings throughout the war, she is again enraged. She does read correctly that the reason for this is the Jedi worry that the violence of the war push her towards the Dark Side, and rather than reflect on what that means for herself and how she can strive for peace, she instead just lets her resentment grow. She even admits she's good with the children, and that she enjoys it, but she is too stubborn to even start to admit that another person might be right about something where she is wrong.
She always feels like she can be the only Jedi who struggles to keep her rage in check, and yet the many times throughout. the book she sees another Jedi show signs of also having difficulty with anger or grief, she takes note of it- but never seems to take it into her worldview. She will still go back to getting trapped in the cycle of thinking she's the only one, that no one will ever understand her- and continue to shut people out.
All of this makes for a fascinating character. While my affection for Iskat fell dramatically as I read the book, she only became more and more intriguing for me to read, and I did enjoy the book immensely as we see a perfect step-by-step guide for falling to the Dark Side, exactly as the Jedi warn against. So many of Iskat's thoughts throughout the book just made me think about Anakin yelling at Padmé and Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith, how paranoid he has become and how much his anger overtakes the good parts of him we know are there.
I think this book is also is the clearest demonstration for the Dark Side as a metaphor for the dangerous depths of mental illness- how it can twist someone's mind into thinking that no one cares or understands them, and how that bias can make clear signs of the opposite into confirmation of these lies, leading people down a darker, more paranoid, and more lonely path.
The book strikes the balance perfectly of showing the cruelty of Iskat's actions shining through while still being completely dedicated to showing her point of view, and hers only. Towards the end, Iskat is sent to hunt down and kill a Jedi who was captured by a bounty hunter. She finds the Jedi, and it is a girl named Charlin. As younglings, Charlin wasn't the kindest to Iskat- her fear over what Iskat had done ruled her and she did things like ask pointed questions to their masters about what they should do if they are afraid of other Jedi. Iskat delights in Charlin's suffering, and takes the care to air out every frustration with Charlin and kills her painfully with the Force. Despite the fact that the narration clearly shows Iskat's glee at getting revenge over her childhood grudge (even though they are both now adults), it is horrifying to read Charlin's clear signs of fear and her pleads for her life. When Charlin first saw Iskat, she was even relieved and began trying to hatch a plan with her to save the other Jedi that are imprisoned, only to be betrayed. While Charlin's actions in childhood were wrong, she was a child, and the punishment certainly doesn't fit the crime.
I'm not saying other Jedi are perfect. It is revealed late in the book that Iskat's mother was a Jedi who similarly struggled, and ended up deciding to leave the Jedi Order. When she had Iskat, she called the Jedi and the woman who would become Iskat's mother arrived to take her to the Temple, after which Iskat's mother unfortunately took her life. This is hid from Iskat, and while it's understandable that the Jedi didn't believe the knowledge would do her any good, the questions cause some frustration for Iskat that could have been relieved- however, it is noteworthy that when Iskat does discover the truth, even she admits she doesn't feel any better knowing it.
There are also times, especially early in the book, where many of the older Jedi are too preoccupied to spend the time and attention on her she needs. It is the tragedy of this book- while I grew increasingly frustrated with Iskat and by the end I admit I was so horrified by her actions that I didn't really like her much at all, I still understood how she got to this point. I think that, much like Anakin, had there been no war and the Jedi not been stretched thin trying to save the galaxy, things could have been much different for her.
By the end of the book, Iskat is a hateful shell of herself. She's paranoid, trapped under the thumb of the Empire as an Inquisitor, and even killing is growing tired for her. The tiniest slights send her into fits of rage- Charlin tries to"take charge" of an attempt to free the other Jedi when she's found, for example, which truly sets Iskat off. Her story ends being killed by Darth Vader, where she is finally released into the Force, where she hopefully finds the peace she did not find in life. It is a sad ending, yet I couldn't help but feel a bit of irony that despite her constant refusal to see what the Jedi mean by saying to rejoice when one joins the Force in death, that the last line of the book is her finding freedom in joining the Force.
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