Max Nocerino 
Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon was a novel I wasn’t particularly interested in reading, but I have to say. It was written quite well, and I really enjoyed “getting to know” the characters
Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon is a prequel to the events of Star Wars Outlaws, the latest Star Wars video game, which I have not played and knew nothing about (I stopped gaming about 5 years ago). Reactions to Outlaws were mixed, but my cousin assured me it’s a fairly good game, so I entered this book with optimism.
REVIEW
The novel tells the story of the early lives of Sliro and Jayden Barsha, two young human males who are the heirs of the Barsha Starship Construction Corporation. Jayden is the elder of the two and the legitimate son of both Nyntyl and Roisem Barsha, but Sliro? He is also the son of Nyntyl, but his mother is (presumably) Nyntyl’s mistress. Because of the illegitimacy, these horrible parents refer to him as only half a Barsha and give him the bare minimum, while Jayden received everything he could want.
Nyntyl and Roisem are pompous socialites who have very little time even for Jayden, and the silent abuse and cruelty that showed Sliro growing up was just deplorable. I felt so bad for this kid, as he was basically treated from birth, like an accident, and was only kept around, perhaps for Roisem to silently punish her husband for being unfaithful. The only person who treats Sliro like family is Jayden, who, at the beginning of this book, is moral and just.
JAYDEN’S JOURNEY
We fast-forward to their early 20’s. Jayden is being groomed to be the new CEO of Barsha, while Sliro is given a desk job with the Empire. Jayden received the best education, yet he admits his grades were never as good as Sliro’s. The Barsha matriarch and patriarchs are retiring, and hope that Jayden will lead the company into a new golden era of profit in the nascent Empire. However, Jayden has other plans. He has done some digging and discovered that his parents have been using their corporation to engage in other illegal activities, up to and including drug-dealing.
Yes, the business is illegitimate, just like the younger son they so hated. How poetic. Jayden confides in his brother and reveals he wants to “fix” this situation and, in his upcoming CEO “coronation,” name Sliro as his partner in the company. The Barsha parents will undoubtedly be furious, but I so love how Jayden is looking out for his sibling. It is certainly what I would do with my brother.
Then, during the live event, the Empire bursts in and arrests the Barshas for conspiracy against the Empire. Stormtroopers cuff them, yet Sliro is nowhere to be found, and Jayden cannot raise him on the comlink. The Barshas are placed under house arrest and sent to their family mansion on an island on a tropical moon. It really is quite the best punishment I’ve ever seen the Empire dole out, and that ridiculous Roisem feels that this will be rectified and they will soon be freed. After all. They are quite valuable to the Empire, right?
IMPERIAL RULE!
At this point, I think anyone over the age of 9 can determine who snitched on the Barshas. While it is super-obvious, I did like compartmentalizing the “mystery” in Jayden’s mind as he uses his house arrest to try to find out what happened to his brother. Meanwhile, evil parents don’t care and even hope that he is in a labor camp or something. They are just despicable.
Now we switch to the second perspective of the novel, which I must say I am enormously impressed with. Mike Chen, the author of this novel and the other Star Wars novel, Brotherhood, brought to life something I had always wanted to see in Star Wars literature. The first perspective is that of a droid. All the way back at the beginning of the mythos, George Lucas himself was always of the opinion that Star Wars was a story told by a droid in the distant future, and the story we know and love was just very nuanced for human listeners. Yet the droid character in this novel, ND-5, is as cold, calculating, and robotic as any thinking machine could be. His perspective is conveyed through his overanalysis of everything, like a stereotypical robot, and he takes everything literally, without emotion.
IMPERIAL PARDON
He is secretly programmed by a mysterious person (sure, right) to infiltrate the Barsha mansion and basically kill everyone on the property. The Barshas were informed shortly after their exile that the Empire had pardoned them for their past service to the government, and that jerk Roisem had thrown a party to celebrate. ND-5 was placed on the property a few weeks before the work, undercover as a servant droid; it is actually a Commando droid (a model used in the prior Clone Wars) and is as deadly as they come.
DROIDS
He walks around wearing a strange, out-of-place jacket that he will keep for the remainder of the book, and nobody seems to care how out of place a military droid is in a rich person’s luxurious mansion. Then, when it is time to do the dirty deed, he does it so methodically and efficiently that I almost feel like I’m reading a horror novel. He picks everyone off one by one, effortlessly, and then locks the remaining guests in the mansion and tries to deliver a last message to the Barsha parents before he kills them. Honestly, I so felt the Barsha parents got what they deserved, but I was unsure why Jayden was included in the slaughter.
Surely, Sliro must love his older brother, who always tried to look out for him? That really is the main mystery we spend the rest of the book trying to figure out, but it could not be more obvious that Sliro is behind the murder plan. Jayden is initially spared death by luck and later by quick thinking. He can “jailbreak” ND-5 into serving him, and, assuming the Empire sent the droid to kill the family, he goes into hiding and becomes absorbed by the dark criminal underworld.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
The shift from Jayden being an ethical, bored rich kid to a scrappy, morally grey survivalist was subtle and well written. He quickly becomes an informant for criminals. While he previously hated ND-5 for killing his family, he begins to lose that morality and accept jobs that even involve assassination (occasionally).
He always lives in constant fear that ND-5 will revert to his primary objective, but forms a pseudo-friendship with this methodical droid, regardless, and when he learns the person responsible for killing his family is under the cover name “Low Red Moon”-he spends the next 9 years trying to uncover what it means, while rising in the criminal underworld.
IN SUMMARY
Aside from the lack of a surprise twist at the end, this was a fairly fun read, and I commend Mike Chen for crafting such relatable and morally gray characters. I personally think Jayden’s shift from an innocent socialite to a grungy scoundrel was quite well crafted and felt as real as something we would see in real life. Jayden became bad out of necessity, and in a franchise where light and dark are so clearly defined, it is hard to find a moral middle ground- but Chen has hit the spot perfectly. I was also so impressed by how he wrote from the perspective of a real “robot” character!
In fact, sometimes I think it was too good! I had to put the book down a few times because the monotony of ND-5’s thoughts was starting to irritate me. The switch-back to Jayden’s more “normal” perspective acted like a mental refresher in a way I’ve never experienced before
One of the only problems I had, however, was that sometimes I didn’t know whether the crew Jayden assembled was plotting against him or just weird. A very morally grey slicer was recruited to help Jayden with a heist, and I was sure she was chatting up ND-5 (largely unsuccessfully) to try and distract him, so he would make a mistake or kill Jayden for the Empire. Chen seemed to set it up for that, but then it turned out this woman was just weird and had an affinity for ND-5. I can’t tell whether being wrong improved or harmed the quality of the writing.
VERDICT
Lastly, I honestly love the internal struggle that was going on in Jayden’s head throughout the novel. After he was presumed dead, he changed his name from Jayden Barsha to Jayden Vrax (as he thought the Empire was the one to send ND to kill his family). By changing his last name, Jayden wanted to create a fresh start for himself and recreate himself as a brand-new person. This proved challenging throughout the novel, as he always felt his past resurfacing, and he often did mental gymnastics, trying to determine whether he should let go of finding his family’s killer (and Sliro, if he was still alive) or embrace his criminal aspirations as Vrax.
The push and pull were very powerful and interesting to read, and I honestly could not have found a more relatable character in Star Wars canon so far. As for the obviousness of the killer? Well, I’m 32 and can’t expect to be surprised by plot twists forever. Good job, Mike Chen.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
1.) Much like Star Trek, the denizens of the galaxy often use multiple datapads as “books” instead of using one device, as we do on Earth. This seems terribly inefficient and a waste, but the original reason Star Trek did it was that the show’s writers could not have foreseen how modular and multi-purpose personal computers would become. Yet, to have 5 iPads for 5 different things would be absurd in 2026, but back then, it made complete and perfect sense
2.) During a random throwaway bit of dialogue, there was an individual who was a teacher for children with disabilities. While that does not sound out of place here on Earth, I really wonder why children still have to suffer from intellectual disabilities, as brain implants are so advanced and ubiquitous. I’m certainly not an ableist, but I would like to live in a society where nobody is forced to struggle with handicaps.
Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon is available to buy now from all good bookstores.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
