OK, I'll be honest, I know the author, so part of my enjoyment was certainly delight that my friend wrote a freaking Star Wars book, but I also really did love it. I really enjoy Delilah's writing, and this was a fun caper--if you recognize the character in the cover art, this tells a bit of what she was doing before we see her in The Force Awakens. Good stuff. ( )

Fast, sharp and interesting. I did enjoy blasting through this short story. ( )

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens with this exclusive ebook short story set shortly before the events of the film, featuring a quick-witted mercenary who takes big risks for bigger rewards—and now faces the challenge that will take her to the edge.
The "perfect weapon" of the title refers to Bazine Netal, an assassin-thief-mercenary for hire. And she's just been hired to track down a mysterious package. And to watch out for another merc hunting for the exact same goods. If you watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens ((and you did, right? because it was great)) then you may have spotted Netal, she's the scary looking wan in the cantina who alerts the bad guys when the good guys show up. But you don't really need to know that, you just need to know that she's a woman who'll finish the job she's being paid to do. No matter what it takes.
This is only a short story though, so there isn't a huge amount of character development or nuance on show. This is the first Star Wars story I've read, I usually don't go for film tie-ins or novelisations as they are, often, crap. But I read and enjoyed a book by the author before, so took a risk on this one.
And it is an action-packed, adventure sci-fi story. Exactly what you'd expect from a Star Wars 'verse book. The story is well told and kept me reading, but to be honest, it wouldn't really inspire me to read more Star Wars books. It's a bit by the numbers. Also, I'm not sure why we're supposed to really empathise and support Bazine. She's not exactly a good guy, she certainly falls more on the Boba Fett side of Star Wars, although at least she gets the job done. ((I've never really gotten the love for Fett, is it just his armour? cause that guy was really inefficient.)) I'm guessing she'll appeal to that "ooh cool looking bad guys" segment of the toyline :) ( )

Not a badly written story, just a story that makes zero sense and riddled with cliches and tropes. For instance, WHY, would you keep your bombs and explosives hidden in your "12 centimeter" heels? Wouldn't the consistent walking or kicking (which she does with the bombs in said shoes) possibly arm or detonate said explosives/bombs?

Likewise, the entire plot leading up to the betrayal that all knew was going to happen (just maybe a different source than some would have thought) likewise made zero sense, given in-universe reasons and length of time, just to get to the betrayal and the end that we know has to come.

Just not a smart or consistent piece of work sadly. ( )

Enjoyable, a nice, fast caper story.
Not sure that I'll read all the pre-Force Awakens books, but this was enjoyable. ( )