Adventures in Wild Space: The Cold

Author: Cavan Scott

Time: 18 BBY, a year after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The Empire is beginning its rule.

Place: An ice moon in the Xala system, in Wild Space.

Lina and Milo Graf have been living with the Bridgers on Lothal for a while. At the end of the previous book, the Bridgers got some intel about the Grafs’ parents being held captive in the Xala system, but they decided it would be too dangerous to rescue them. It could be a trap. The Grafs' next mission is to repair a  radio transmitter on some planet. Lina decides to make a pit stop at Xala to see if they can find their parents. As soon as they get to the system, they get shot down on a moon covered in an ocean of ice. The Grafs’ ship is damaged because of the crash landing. Lina goes outside to survey the damage. A geyser breaks through the ice and the ship sinks, with Milo and their droid CR-8R inside. (Their Kowakian monkey-lizard Morq is in there, too, but I don't care about him anymore.)

Lina is confronted with the person who shot them down: Captain Visler Korda. He has been chasing them since the beginning of the series. He wants the maps of Wild Space stored in CR-8R's memory. Lina runs into an ice cave to escape. He follows. She climbs up an ice wall but eventually falls into his arms. She finds out that he is also on the run. He has been fired from the Empire for his incompetence. He stole one of their ships and is being pursued by snowtroopers. He and Lina decide to work together to recover Milo and the maps. Of course, he betrays her immediately, just like every other adult in this series. He set the trap for them. Their parents aren't anywhere near Xala. After he and Lina defeat the snowtroopers, he takes over the Imperial ship and uses its tractor beam to bring up the Grafs' ship. He plans to sell the maps and retire somewhere the Empire can't find him. 

Meanwhile, on the sunken Whisper Bird, Milo and CR-8R are attacked by a pair of giant sea creatures. They're so obscure that not even the Star Wars wiki has an entry for them. They're pretty cool, though: they communicate using their color-changing tails. Once Korda boards the Whisper Bird, Milo uses lanterns in the ship to tell the animals to attack again. Milo et al. escape. The creatures bring it down to the icy cold depths of the ocean. Korda barely gets out of there alive. When he surfaces, he sees the Grafs take off in his Imperial ship, marooning him on this moon.

Thankfully, the Imperial ship can find Lina and Milo's parents. They are slaves on the swampy Imperial mining planet Agaris. Ironically, the cartographers who first mapped this planet were the Grafs themselves. Will Lina and Milo be reunited with their parents? I bet so, but we'll have to wait until the next book to see.

Quotes: 

• Visler Korda wasn't going to die on an insignificant moon light-years from civilization!
  

Final Judgment: 4 out of 5 ice caves. I like that parts of this book showed Lina and Milo finally dealing with the trauma of losing their parents--as much as a children's book can explore that. The color-changing sea creatures were very cool. I wonder if they'll ever make an appearance in other media. I'm excited to finally finish this series and meet up with the Grafs' parents again.