Book Review: Doctor Aphra

by Arezou Amin

Last summer, Star Wars and Del Rey teamed up to bring us the second installment in their audio originals: Doctor Aphra. This time, rather than focusing on an origin story, we are thrown right into the heart of the action.

Adapted from the 2015 run of the Darth Vader comics, Doctor Aphra tells the story of the titular doctor’s recruitment by the Dark Lord of the Sith, as she does his bidding and helps him piece together the mystery of just who it was that blew up the Death Star. 

Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is an archeologist who believes that technology doesn’t belong in a museum but rather in an arsenal. Ideally, her personal arsenal. Imagine the absolute chaos if she and Indiana Jones ended up in a room together. She steals components to build two droids of her own, BT-1 (Beetee) and Triple-Zero. One is a mechanic, the other is a protocol droid and both have murder and torture hardwired into their systems.

Once Aphra is recruited by Vader, she is sent out on solo missions to help him meet his mysterious ends. Along the way she recruits and tricks a group of bounty hunters, winds up apprehended by none other than Princess Leia and Han Solo, and even has a run in with Emperor Palpatine. 

She manages to talk her way out of every single problem. And we love to see it (or hear it, as the case may be).

The best thing about this audio drama - and by extension the book - is just how much of an unreliable narrator Aphra is. I haven’t read the comics, but knowing what I do about the medium, whatever she *sees* in the moment, the reader can quite literally see it too. But this story is being narrated by Aphra, directly into a recording device that she intends for someone else to listen to. So she withholds a lot of information until she decides to reveal it. 

Another great thing about this, is how effective an introduction it is to the character of Doctor Aphra. I’m not much of a comic book reader myself, and I was only peripherally aware of who Aphra was. Aside from one story in the first From A Certain Point of View anthology, she doesn’t really have a presence outside the comics. Hopefully this marks the first of many forays into the world of prose for the galaxy’s beloved, morally ambiguous archeologist.

The script itself, like the one printed for Dooku: Jedi Lost, is fairly straightforward, just dialogue and the occasional indication of a musical cue. It’s great if, like me, you want something to put on your shelf, or if - also, like me - you want to know how things are spelled while people are talking. Then of course, there are the accessibility aspects, making the story available to those who for whatever reason may not be able to listen to the audiobook. 

For my full thoughts, head over to my website here.

Doctor Aphra is available as an audiobook now, and will be released in print on April 6, 2021