3.83 AVERAGE

jdaveschut's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 50%

A bland & blatant attempt to shoehorn Rey and Exegol into an earlier point in Star Wars canon. But without making an interesting story in the process. 

An important canon novel leading into the force awakens
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have come to the conclusion that short Star Wars is good Star Wars. And this was not short. It was an interesting story, but suffered from over-explanation and wordiness. The book would have been stellar if it had been at least 150 pages shorter.

You have Luke, you have Lando.. how could you possibly make it boring. How 

A perfect pre cursor to the Force Awakens

I really enjoyed the book...the plot was great and the characters were awesome old and new...it's beautiful to read Lando and Like in their middle ages

The writing was good but I see that the author is really good at writing horror considering he was a writer for Stranger Things...I would be highly interested if he writes another Star Wars book that's about the Acolytes
challenging dark emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Honestly this was more of a 3.5 than a 4. Not for anything related to the writing—I actually think this is a very well-written book in terms of character and style. I just think it should have been two separate books—one focused on the Dathan/Miramar/Rey storyline and one focused on the Sith artifacts storyline. They just felt so disconnected and they just didn’t compliment one another very well in my opinion (though when separated I thought both were very interesting!). Also every time I was forced to read an Ochi of Bestoon pov chapter I felt my will to finish this book drain away I hated them so much. 
adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A valiant and well written effort to make more sense out of the mess that is Rise Of Skywalker.
adventurous dark informative mysterious medium-paced

Adam Christopher had one hell of a task here. Not only did he have to make Palpatine’s return make sense, but he also had to tie in all the loose threads left dangling by the sequels disaster. And he tries valiantly. Unfortunately, the task was too big for a single book, and there’s still a lot of questions left by the end.

We learn how Palpatine got a granddaughter (and I am very glad it does not involve him having sex with anyone), which is probably the biggest ‘WTF’ audiences were left with after Rise of Skywalker. There’s also some Luke and Lando bonding, and we get to see how Ochi of Bestoon ended up on Pasaana. Like I said, a good try.

But here are the questions and criticism I’m left with:
1) the book needed another round of revisions. There’s a lot of rambling about mundane tasks and paragraphs that could’ve been tightened up.
2) who is Kadara? Who’s her mother? When did Lando get a child? We spend an entire book of him looking for his daughter but I still have no idea where she comes from or how she disappeared
3) I don’t think Adam Christopher knows how to write Black characters, even from a galaxy far far away (but I’d like to get a Black person’s opinion on this)
4) How do archeologists not realize the difference between metal and stone in a house foundation? COME ON! That was just stupid. 
5) why are Luke and Lando teaming up instinctively? I’m not convinced that Lando wouldn’t have also kept in touch with Han and Leia, but we see nothing of those two in this entire book. They’re mentioned in passing only, even when Lando talks about his time searching for his daughter.
6) “Luke Skywalker would never give up.” Dude… just… DUDE! You cannot say that in a book that is supposed to give us background for the sequels without acknowledging that Luke does just that in the Last Jedi flashbacks.

I did not know Kiza prior to this book, but I am satisfied with her characterization here.  There was enough to let me understand she is an established character and had an arc before this. I might look for stuff about her in the future.
However I lost all respect for Ochi. He’s a grovelling piece of garbage and a sorry excuse for the main antagonist in this book. I get that he’s past his prime, but I didn’t love his portrayal.

And finally, I have trouble understanding the timeline in this book. Ben is still very much a student in Luke’s Jedi “school” and doesn’t even exhibit dark emotions. Where’s the emo kid we met in the sequels? If this is 17 years after the Empire, how much older than Rey is he? At least 7-10 years, I’d guess. So he must be on the edge of turning? That is still completely nebulous to me.

So yeah, Adam Christopher tried, and this would have made a great movie, but ultimately still falls short to explain the sequels.

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