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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
As one of the first books of the new Star Wars canon, and a lead-in to the Star Wars Rebels television show, A New Dawn does a spectacular job at introducing the reader to the new characters of Kanan Jarrus and Hera.
This is Star Wars: Rebels prequel that tells the story of how Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla first meet and begin working together. It's a pretty good story that sets up enough mystery and intrigue yet keeps things moving. Other than the obvious Rebels connections, there aren't a lot of connections to other Star Wars stories, though the glimpses of young Kanan talking to Obiwan Kenobi are pretty great. The only downsides are the moments when Kanan starts channeling Han Solo (I never got that feeling from the Rebels TV show, but felt it strongly here; maybe because this is before Kanan started working with the Rebellion?) and the fact that [SPOILER ALERT] we never get to see Kanan break out the lightsaber (contrary to the cover; though not the first time Star Wars art was misleading—see A New Hope's lack of Luke wielding a lightsaber).
Tie-in novels are a bit hit or miss, but this one lands solidly. The villain is a bit of a miss, but the characters are recognizable as the characters from Star Wars Rebels. The tale has some actual relevance to real world issues of surveillance, and the adventure is fun.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
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
A fun read. Definitely a more serious tone than the shows but it was interesting. The first 20 chapters were a little slow but intriguing enough to keep my attention. The rest of the book was faster and a lot of fun.
As a huge fan of Star Wars: Rebels, I was really excited to read this book. The book is very segmented, but so far, that okay with me. Finally, I get to know more about Sloane. The overreaching surveillance of Imperial citizens gave me communist China or even KGB vibes.
Oh my goodness, Count Vidian was such a frustrating character. It felt like we were trying to be a mix of Count Dooku and General Grievous. How is Sloane surprised Vidian would randomly murder people?
I would have loved to get more of Kanan's escape story. I love the bits we got, but I craved to know more. I especially loved Dave Filoni's epilogue. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book.
Oh my goodness, Count Vidian was such a frustrating character. It felt like we were trying to be a mix of Count Dooku and General Grievous. How is Sloane surprised Vidian would randomly murder people?
I would have loved to get more of Kanan's escape story. I love the bits we got, but I craved to know more. I especially loved Dave Filoni's epilogue. Overall, I very much enjoyed the book.
Looks like I’m reading Star Wars novels now.
I love Kanan and Hera to a probably unhealthy level so I cherished every moment of this book to cope with finishing Rebels. Hera is already a badass rebel pilot at age 18 and Kanan is a fuckboy with a drinking problem to cope with order 66 and we love them both for it.
I love Kanan and Hera to a probably unhealthy level so I cherished every moment of this book to cope with finishing Rebels. Hera is already a badass rebel pilot at age 18 and Kanan is a fuckboy with a drinking problem to cope with order 66 and we love them both for it.
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"But seeing and doing nothing isn’t the worst thing,” Hera had said. “The worst thing is to see and not to care."
This book started out a bit slow for me, but by the end, I was absolutely devouring it. Perhaps I am a bit biased, as Hera Syndulla is one of my favorite characters in the entire Star Wars canon, but I really liked this story.
It's told in multiple POV that often switch multiple times within a chapter (and the chapters are quite short, so it can be slightly jarring at first). This book predated the labeling your POV character trend taking full force, but the frequency of switches would have made that somewhat excessive. Some characters' bits were more exciting than others, but the storytelling didn't change considerably between characters.
The plotting in this book is nice in that it really centers on one conflict which blossoms to include a few different action sequences. Sometimes books (and especially Star Wars books) try to do to much, but this one does just enough.
The Kanan and Hera backstory feels perfect for their relationship dynamic as developed in the show, and the inclusion of the Skelly and Vidian as obvious foils to each other makes it more than just an origin story. Vidian's POV sections are really well-written in that they establish the experiences of a person who has released his humanity without turning to the Dark Side, as is often seen in Star Wars.
This book started out a bit slow for me, but by the end, I was absolutely devouring it. Perhaps I am a bit biased, as Hera Syndulla is one of my favorite characters in the entire Star Wars canon, but I really liked this story.
It's told in multiple POV that often switch multiple times within a chapter (and the chapters are quite short, so it can be slightly jarring at first). This book predated the labeling your POV character trend taking full force, but the frequency of switches would have made that somewhat excessive. Some characters' bits were more exciting than others, but the storytelling didn't change considerably between characters.
The plotting in this book is nice in that it really centers on one conflict which blossoms to include a few different action sequences. Sometimes books (and especially Star Wars books) try to do to much, but this one does just enough.
The Kanan and Hera backstory feels perfect for their relationship dynamic as developed in the show, and the inclusion of the Skelly and Vidian as obvious foils to each other makes it more than just an origin story. Vidian's POV sections are really well-written in that they establish the experiences of a person who has released his humanity without turning to the Dark Side, as is often seen in Star Wars.