Have finished Champion.
It's all right - not my favourite fill-in, but better than some. The fact that it's not a part of the series I like very much probably colours my opinion.
It's quite an odd set of characters (due to the timing) - lots of names I barely remember reading before. This doesn't thrill me because what I like with the CS is feeling so familiar with the whole cast. Even the staff are a bit nothingy - Miss Wilson is missing throughout, which can't be helped, but the mistress most present is Miss Stephens who isn't really much of a character in canon.
Mixed feelings on the factions within the Third and among the prefects. Very plausible in a real-world sense, but that kind of prolonged disharmony didn't feel entirely EBDish. Also I did feel it was written v much as Good vs Bad, which does kind of reconcile that - but doesn't make for the most enjoyable read IMO. As I said earlier, I do realise EBD has done officious prefects before, notably in Peggy, so it's not technically 'wrong' to do it here, but I don't much enjoy it.
It has v minimal Jo, which is great. And it has Madge at a staff meeting, early on, being actively involved in the school etc, which is worth celebrating!
I did think it was convincingly EBDish, and for me it fits in at the point in the series at which it is set. But it's not a point I enjoy much at all - for me the series nose-dives after Gay and again after Rosalie, and this book (between Rosalie and Three Go ) definitely falls into the inferior Three Go bloc. Given the general disorganisation of the characters etc at this point I do think Fitzpatrick does a commendable job of reconciling vague events and telling a story, but I don't think it's a book I plan to read and re-read.