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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
I'm not proud I started this, let alone finished it, but I'm not too embarrassed to make a note of it here. Reading this made me wonder about the original plans for this movie and how it evolved. More characterisation was a welcome improvement? addition? I'm not sure what word I'm looking for here. Yay the Overinvested podcast for speculating enough about this novelization to provoke me into looking it up, and yay for NYPL ebooks!
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.5/5 stjärnor.
Älskar filmen — hade högre förväntningar på boken än vad den erbjöd, då den var väldigt lik filmen (inte så konstigt kanske). Hade hoppats på mer bakgrund, mer av karaktärerna, och blev varken helt tillfredsställd eller besviken. Storyn är fortfarande amazing och det är, allt som allt, en mycket bra bok.
Älskar filmen — hade högre förväntningar på boken än vad den erbjöd, då den var väldigt lik filmen (inte så konstigt kanske). Hade hoppats på mer bakgrund, mer av karaktärerna, och blev varken helt tillfredsställd eller besviken. Storyn är fortfarande amazing och det är, allt som allt, en mycket bra bok.
A superb novelization of a kick ass movie that sums up everything I love about Star Wars' universe. There was nostalgia aplenty, with appearances from heroes and villains from the original trilogy. Its best feature, undoubtedly, is the revelation of thoughts and feelings of Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor, the movie's protagonists, as well as thoughts from Vader, Tarkin, and Orson Krennic. I am so lucky to be able to kick of the new year with a great book! 5/5
It doesn’t differ much from the movie but it has great insights and just getting this personal look inside their heads and thoughts is worth it. By far my favorite story from the whole franchise.
This is one of those weird times when the movie is better than the novelization. But it's still Star Wars, so it's amazing.
At the end of 2016 I went into the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with a largely positive mindset. I'd liked (but not loved) The Force Awakens, but Rogue One looked a lot more like my kind of expansion of the Star Wars saga. Despite George Lucas' vocal liberal politics - from likening the Empire to America in early drafts of the first film, through the oval office of Emperor Palpatine and basing his ascent on both Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, to describing President Barack Obama as a Jedi Knight, and much besides - the politics of the films themselves were always more open to interpretation. Says Chris Taylor (whose [b:How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise|20578529|How Star Wars Conquered the Universe The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise|Chris Taylor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505202555s/20578529.jpg|39846944] I've been reading concurrently with Rogue One): "The magic mirror of Star Wars always reflected your enemies as the Imperial evildoers." Between its centring a white woman and men of colour and its release a month after the 2016 US election (as well as some outspoken positioning on behalf of the film's creators), Rogue One did a lot of legwork to clarify the saga's political position. I'd still argue that there's vagueness around certain elements, but I've always approached Rogue One positively for that.
Rewatching the film in early 2018 - in the glow of The Last Jedi, which I loved (don't @ me) - I started to notice a few more cracks in the movie. It has a lot of characters; it jumps around a lot; Jyn's character arc is essentially reacting to what her Dad tells her to think. Having heard, somewhere, that the novelization was actually really good, I decided to see how it affected my feelings on the movie. I had pretty much decided to give up on Star Wars books after struggling to enjoy the new expanded universe, but as my library had the audiobook (and I knew the story, so it wouldn't require 100% of my attention), I decided to give it a shot. My response to the novelisation of Rogue One can be directly contrasted to my response to Alan Dean Foster's novelization of [b:The Force Awakens|25387202|The Force Awakens (Star Wars Novelizations, #7)|Alan Dean Foster|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450520344s/25387202.jpg|45137868]: while I felt the latter only served to highlight the deficit in the storytelling of the film, obscured by warm performances and competent directing, this novelization serves to buttress the weaker aspects of Rogue One the film. When I rewatched it, I found myself thinking that the story might have made a better miniseries than it did a film. But the novelisation really fulfills that need. It makes me much more interested in reading more around Rogue One; no mean feat given how much I disliked [b:Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel|29662066|Catalyst A Rogue One Novel (Star Wars)|James Luceno|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509729394s/29662066.jpg|50028005].
One of the real beneficiaries of filling out this story, at least in the two novels I've read so far, has been Orson Krennic. If there's one thing the Star Wars saga has typically excelled at it's bad guys, from the faceless menace of Darth Vader and calculating Grand Moff Tarkin to the delightfully evil Palpatine and the emo rage of Kylo Ren. In the film, Krennic is perhaps overshadowed by CGI Tarkin or the complete misunderstanding of what makes Vader Vader that is his slaughter of the Rebels on the Profundity, despite Ben Mendelsohn's excellent performance. But to that performance the novels add Krennic's belief in the Empire and the Death Star, his frustration with his superiors, and the ways in which he negotiates (or rather, fails to negotiate) the Imperial hierarchy. While there's something unreal about Vader, Ren, and Palpatine, Krennic feels like a real human being that is doing something absolutely terrible. He is, in a sense, the villain the Star Wars saga needs at this point in history: the man who uses the rise of fascism to serve his own ends, regardless of the cost to others.
In contrast to Krennic we have the crew of Rogue One, all of whom take their own journeys to rebellion and finally standing up to the Empire. While much of this is in the film, the novel fills in a lot of background detail in a way that actually fleshes these characters out and puts us into their heads. To take Jyn, for example, her relationship to her father is complicated by her internal monologue, her reflections on what he did and how he abandoned her, and her realisation that what is happening is much, much bigger than her familial problems. That it takes a planet killer to make Bodhi Rook turn his back on the Empire is perhaps not a good sign of his character, but he provides a solid contrast to Krennic: someone inspired to go against the easy path of submission and to stand up against the evil of the Empire. The elaboration of these characters - particularly with the performances in the film in mind - makes the story much stronger.
There are a couple of missteps, some of which belong to the film and some to the novelisation. While I do like the production of the audiobook for the most part, and Jonathan Davis' reading, I'm sceptical about some of the sound effects and the voice distortion for certain characters. As much longer is taken over certain aspects of the story some elements begin to seem a little less believable -firing the Death Star at Scarif seems like a mistake on the part of the Empire that should send at least some of their personnel people flocking to the Rebel Alliance, but never seems to have actual consequences . While I like Chirrut's use of "the Force of Others" (an earlier version of the well-known greeting used in the 1973 draft of The Star Wars) and the elaboration of different perspectives on the Force, it's use sometimes in place of his prayer from the film "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me" doesn't really make much sense as it's not really a prayer itself. More pressing regarding Chirrut and Baze is that, while much of the novelisation suggests ambivalence about their relationship (they're "partners"), Baze's perspective generally rules out that they're an old married couple. It's disappointing, although hardly unsurprising.
Nevertheless, Alexander Freed (and Jonathan Davis) has taken a film that I loved and improved upon it in novel form. Of the four previous Star Wars novelisations that I've read, none has come close to managing this before. While I think that I am more likely to rewatch the film than to listen to the audiobook again, I will keep in mind the way it expands the story to make it even better.
Rewatching the film in early 2018 - in the glow of The Last Jedi, which I loved (don't @ me) - I started to notice a few more cracks in the movie. It has a lot of characters; it jumps around a lot; Jyn's character arc is essentially reacting to what her Dad tells her to think. Having heard, somewhere, that the novelization was actually really good, I decided to see how it affected my feelings on the movie. I had pretty much decided to give up on Star Wars books after struggling to enjoy the new expanded universe, but as my library had the audiobook (and I knew the story, so it wouldn't require 100% of my attention), I decided to give it a shot. My response to the novelisation of Rogue One can be directly contrasted to my response to Alan Dean Foster's novelization of [b:The Force Awakens|25387202|The Force Awakens (Star Wars Novelizations, #7)|Alan Dean Foster|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450520344s/25387202.jpg|45137868]: while I felt the latter only served to highlight the deficit in the storytelling of the film, obscured by warm performances and competent directing, this novelization serves to buttress the weaker aspects of Rogue One the film. When I rewatched it, I found myself thinking that the story might have made a better miniseries than it did a film. But the novelisation really fulfills that need. It makes me much more interested in reading more around Rogue One; no mean feat given how much I disliked [b:Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel|29662066|Catalyst A Rogue One Novel (Star Wars)|James Luceno|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1509729394s/29662066.jpg|50028005].
One of the real beneficiaries of filling out this story, at least in the two novels I've read so far, has been Orson Krennic. If there's one thing the Star Wars saga has typically excelled at it's bad guys, from the faceless menace of Darth Vader and calculating Grand Moff Tarkin to the delightfully evil Palpatine and the emo rage of Kylo Ren. In the film, Krennic is perhaps overshadowed by CGI Tarkin or the complete misunderstanding of what makes Vader Vader that is his slaughter of the Rebels on the Profundity, despite Ben Mendelsohn's excellent performance. But to that performance the novels add Krennic's belief in the Empire and the Death Star, his frustration with his superiors, and the ways in which he negotiates (or rather, fails to negotiate) the Imperial hierarchy. While there's something unreal about Vader, Ren, and Palpatine, Krennic feels like a real human being that is doing something absolutely terrible. He is, in a sense, the villain the Star Wars saga needs at this point in history: the man who uses the rise of fascism to serve his own ends, regardless of the cost to others.
In contrast to Krennic we have the crew of Rogue One, all of whom take their own journeys to rebellion and finally standing up to the Empire. While much of this is in the film, the novel fills in a lot of background detail in a way that actually fleshes these characters out and puts us into their heads. To take Jyn, for example, her relationship to her father is complicated by her internal monologue, her reflections on what he did and how he abandoned her, and her realisation that what is happening is much, much bigger than her familial problems. That it takes a planet killer to make Bodhi Rook turn his back on the Empire is perhaps not a good sign of his character, but he provides a solid contrast to Krennic: someone inspired to go against the easy path of submission and to stand up against the evil of the Empire. The elaboration of these characters - particularly with the performances in the film in mind - makes the story much stronger.
There are a couple of missteps, some of which belong to the film and some to the novelisation. While I do like the production of the audiobook for the most part, and Jonathan Davis' reading, I'm sceptical about some of the sound effects and the voice distortion for certain characters. As much longer is taken over certain aspects of the story some elements begin to seem a little less believable -
Nevertheless, Alexander Freed (and Jonathan Davis) has taken a film that I loved and improved upon it in novel form. Of the four previous Star Wars novelisations that I've read, none has come close to managing this before. While I think that I am more likely to rewatch the film than to listen to the audiobook again, I will keep in mind the way it expands the story to make it even better.
This novelization was just so good. Added depth to every single character in a way that will completely enhance my future viewings of the movie. If you liked Rogue One and wanted more from the characters, this is definitely worth reading.
Alexander Freed -- My hero!
As someone who loved the film Rogue One, I was excited to read the novelisation.
Things I loved:
- Tarkin and Krenic’s voice mail.
- Galen's inbox
- Jedha tourism information
- A poor woman thinking her breaking a relationship rite smote Jedha city
- Bodhi "defecting from his defection" (I laughed so hard reading that line)
Like the film, I know I will reread this many times. Do I hope it’s no surprise this book is on my recommendation list?
As someone who loved the film Rogue One, I was excited to read the novelisation.
Things I loved:
- Tarkin and Krenic’s voice mail.
- Galen's inbox
- Jedha tourism information
- A poor woman thinking her breaking a relationship rite smote Jedha city
- Bodhi "defecting from his defection" (I laughed so hard reading that line)
Like the film, I know I will reread this many times. Do I hope it’s no surprise this book is on my recommendation list?
This book captured the movie well. I love the insight into the characters, especially Jyn and Cassian. Also, I don't know why, but I was somewhat surprised at Baze in the book, in a good way. I fell in love with the characters in the movie and this is an excellent expanding of those characters. That ending... it's always going to make me emotional, be it book or movie. Easily my new favorite in the new universe. (Starkiller/Juno/Force Unleashed will always be my favorite in the old EU)
Re-read was just as good.. I love this movie
Re-read was just as good.. I love this movie