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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Don't let my Two Star rating fool you: I love these characters. I am a fan of the show Star Wars: Rebels, particularly of Hera and Kannan's whole dynamic. I red through this book because of them. If I were not aware of these characters or the show ahead of time I might not have finished the book, or even made it half way.
Basically, this is an origin story for how Hera starts getting her team together, beginning with Kannan. There's lots of intrigue, politics, and scheming along the way but it sets in motion everything that leads to filling up the Ghost with its rebel crew.
WARNING: Despite the cover art, there is no lightsaber action. This is neither a good nor a bad thing, just a warning if you're looking for lots of Jedi-action. Kannan thinks about it a bit but it stays as an abstract idea. The second book following these characters will likely pull it out.
I had three main grievances from A New Dawn:
First, I never knew if this was a book for adults or children. Sex and one-night stands are alluded to as "romantic encounters" and Kannan hits on Hera really hard. But it isn't ever built upon or filled in. So are these sexual characters? Are they not? Was that just a treat for us older readers who were shipping the characters? It was confusing trying to figure out who I, as the audience, was supposed to be.
Second, it took a very long time for the narrators to converge. Throughout the book there are six narrators. The whole first half of this book bounced between these perspectives often without giving us new information or moving us forward. Zaluna and Sloane are good examples of this. While their perspectives under employment were good for world building, particularly from inside the Empire, they aren't active characters until deep in the story. Once they started actually participating the amount of time we spent in their narrative voices dipped dramatically or was cut down to snippets.
Third, Some descriptive details, please? Every once in a while, particularly moments of action, I didn't know where my characters were. I usually had to reread a paragraph or two to imagine the scene and that shouldn't have been necessary.
Now that that's done, here's what I loved about A New Dawn:
SO MANY FEMALE CHARACTERS! Hera was badass as always. There was a Sullutan woman named Zaluna who was great. Sloane was the captain of an Imperial Starship. Lal was the head of a moon mining company. Books like this make up for the movies that have either sidelined or completely ignored female characters entirely. All of these women were beacons of feminism, intelligence, and empowerment.
The changing tone of different character's voices. I could hear their voices distinctly in my head because the author paid attention to their differences. You wouldn't get lost in the dialogue because it was easy to recognize someone from the uniqueness of their speech.
You got some Imperial Perspective. In Sloane's voice we hear a side of the story that is often ignored in this Universe, the voice of those in power. Sloane is not a rebel. She is never a rebel. She probably hates rebels. But she is smart, ambitious, and genuinely believes in the good of the Empire. I liked the parts of this book where she would rationalize the Empire's actions, or try to interrupt the politics around her as it pertained to the Empire.
I would recommend this book specifically to people who have already had a taste of Star Wars: Rebels. This way, you'll be invested in the story before it even begins.
Basically, this is an origin story for how Hera starts getting her team together, beginning with Kannan. There's lots of intrigue, politics, and scheming along the way but it sets in motion everything that leads to filling up the Ghost with its rebel crew.
WARNING: Despite the cover art, there is no lightsaber action. This is neither a good nor a bad thing, just a warning if you're looking for lots of Jedi-action. Kannan thinks about it a bit but it stays as an abstract idea. The second book following these characters will likely pull it out.
I had three main grievances from A New Dawn:
First, I never knew if this was a book for adults or children. Sex and one-night stands are alluded to as "romantic encounters" and Kannan hits on Hera really hard. But it isn't ever built upon or filled in. So are these sexual characters? Are they not? Was that just a treat for us older readers who were shipping the characters? It was confusing trying to figure out who I, as the audience, was supposed to be.
Second, it took a very long time for the narrators to converge. Throughout the book there are six narrators. The whole first half of this book bounced between these perspectives often without giving us new information or moving us forward. Zaluna and Sloane are good examples of this. While their perspectives under employment were good for world building, particularly from inside the Empire, they aren't active characters until deep in the story. Once they started actually participating the amount of time we spent in their narrative voices dipped dramatically or was cut down to snippets.
Third, Some descriptive details, please? Every once in a while, particularly moments of action, I didn't know where my characters were. I usually had to reread a paragraph or two to imagine the scene and that shouldn't have been necessary.
Now that that's done, here's what I loved about A New Dawn:
SO MANY FEMALE CHARACTERS! Hera was badass as always. There was a Sullutan woman named Zaluna who was great. Sloane was the captain of an Imperial Starship. Lal was the head of a moon mining company. Books like this make up for the movies that have either sidelined or completely ignored female characters entirely. All of these women were beacons of feminism, intelligence, and empowerment.
The changing tone of different character's voices. I could hear their voices distinctly in my head because the author paid attention to their differences. You wouldn't get lost in the dialogue because it was easy to recognize someone from the uniqueness of their speech.
You got some Imperial Perspective. In Sloane's voice we hear a side of the story that is often ignored in this Universe, the voice of those in power. Sloane is not a rebel. She is never a rebel. She probably hates rebels. But she is smart, ambitious, and genuinely believes in the good of the Empire. I liked the parts of this book where she would rationalize the Empire's actions, or try to interrupt the politics around her as it pertained to the Empire.
I would recommend this book specifically to people who have already had a taste of Star Wars: Rebels. This way, you'll be invested in the story before it even begins.
3.5 stars.
Am intrigued to see what Rebels had in store now.
Am intrigued to see what Rebels had in store now.
Acting as a literary bridge between Marvel's "Kanan: The Last Padawan" comics and the Rebels TV show, this novel makes the wise decision of telling a tightly-focused story with clearly defined character arcs. It may be a slow burn, but once it gets going it becomes an exciting page-turner that packs an emotional wallop by the end. And while it may wear its Firefly influence on it's sleeve, this first novel in the "new canon" hits all the right notes.
Summary
Kanan Jarrus is trying to survive, to make a living, and to not get in anyone person's way, especially the Empire. You see, Kanan wasn't always Kanan, but Caleb Dumas. He was a Jedi apprentice, but for too short a time. Now, he hides who he is and doesn't get involved only caring for the next paycheck and drink to have. However, when a friend of his get's wind of the Empire and he meets an elusive Twilek named Hera things get a bit complicated.
My Thoughts
I know it has been a long time since I've read and reviewed a book. The short story: I've had a lot of major life changes I'm getting ready for, and I've also been in a major reading slump for close to two and half months. So, what do I do? I slide in gradually. I saw the premiere of Star Wars Rebels [Consensus: it has potential, and I like the characters. Dialogue was a bit on the weak side, but the next episode, which aired early online Disney XD streaming, is better]. I'm interested to see how the Kanan training with Ezra will work out, considering for all intents and purposes Kanan has the skills of a junior padawan. However, I'm reviewing the book not the show.
I will say I had high hopes. John Jackson Miller wrote "Kenobi," which I read earlier this year and enjoyed. "A New Dawn" looks at the characters of Kanan and Hera from a distance. The problem? Way too many characters, and we never got a chance to focus on the most important all that much. I think this was an interesting set up for the new series, and to see where Kanan and Hera were six years before Spark of Rebellion began. I would like to see how the other members of the team including Chopper, Sabine, and Zeb come on board.
All and all, this tie-in novel falls into the category with most Star Wars tied in novels: it's entertaining enough to read, but it's not that great at anything else. I didn't think the secondary characters were all that strong at all. Not to the extent as some of the characters in "Kenobi" were. It was a fun read for back story, but I really want to know about how the crew came together.
Kanan Jarrus is trying to survive, to make a living, and to not get in anyone person's way, especially the Empire. You see, Kanan wasn't always Kanan, but Caleb Dumas. He was a Jedi apprentice, but for too short a time. Now, he hides who he is and doesn't get involved only caring for the next paycheck and drink to have. However, when a friend of his get's wind of the Empire and he meets an elusive Twilek named Hera things get a bit complicated.
My Thoughts
I know it has been a long time since I've read and reviewed a book. The short story: I've had a lot of major life changes I'm getting ready for, and I've also been in a major reading slump for close to two and half months. So, what do I do? I slide in gradually. I saw the premiere of Star Wars Rebels [Consensus: it has potential, and I like the characters. Dialogue was a bit on the weak side, but the next episode, which aired early online Disney XD streaming, is better]. I'm interested to see how the Kanan training with Ezra will work out, considering for all intents and purposes Kanan has the skills of a junior padawan. However, I'm reviewing the book not the show.
I will say I had high hopes. John Jackson Miller wrote "Kenobi," which I read earlier this year and enjoyed. "A New Dawn" looks at the characters of Kanan and Hera from a distance. The problem? Way too many characters, and we never got a chance to focus on the most important all that much. I think this was an interesting set up for the new series, and to see where Kanan and Hera were six years before Spark of Rebellion began. I would like to see how the other members of the team including Chopper, Sabine, and Zeb come on board.
All and all, this tie-in novel falls into the category with most Star Wars tied in novels: it's entertaining enough to read, but it's not that great at anything else. I didn't think the secondary characters were all that strong at all. Not to the extent as some of the characters in "Kenobi" were. It was a fun read for back story, but I really want to know about how the crew came together.
So, I came to the Star Wars Rebels TV series a bit late. I only began watching at the start of Season 4, the final season, and had to back track and binge out the prior episodes. This isn't going to be a Rebels review by any means, but I think I need to say this. The Rebels show, which airs on Disney XD, is a very very mixed back of writing. Disney seems torn on which way the want to go with the show. Inherently Star Wars Rebels, and I don't care what anyone says, began it's story, writing and theme as a kids show. It's hard to argue against this, watching most of the first season. The story picks up and develops, and you can tell Disney, once an audience was established, they loosened the grip and let the story mature up a bit. Of course there are PLENTY of more juvenille catered episodes that still make me cringe. And the show follows this up and downs in terms of targeted age range. The book a New Dawn takes place a few years prior to Rebels, and for what it's worth, it's a pretty dark book, that aligns itself to the more mature reader and audience. And this is a good thing, I wouldn't want to have the first book in the new series of Star Wars canon, be for kids. But it plays into the same bumpy ride that Rebels presents, that makes it tough to get into at times. We start the series with a more mature novel, then the first episode of Rebels is this goofy kids show. It doesn't flow right, and it can come off as very jarring, probably to both age ranges.
Anyway I'm here to talk about A New Dawn. This is the first novel out, once Disney officially acquired LucasFilms...So sort of a big step that should sort of set the tone for the entire run of Star Wars related canon. Does it live up? Ehh Yes and no. First I should mention that I probably am a slight slight bit biased because it's about my two favorites of the entire Rebels show, Kanan and Hera, plus, I listened to this book via Audible, (Subscrible to audible for the best audiobooks...) and as with all Star Wars audio books, the production quality and sounds, and music just add so much to the enjoyment of the book. That being said, I think this book felt very steeped in the real world. I mean that with the highest praise actually. Let me elaborate. In Star Wars, because the fans seem to eat it up and demand it, we are way way over exposed to the "magical" side of the Star Wars writing. Every movie has the Jedi or Sith, or some sort of force effect. It's like they can't or won't give themselves the opportunity to write a story and script that doesn't shove these concepts down our throat. Now dont' get me wrong I freaking love the Force and its' users. But there is a time and a place. Ham fisting force things into stories where it doesn't need or fit just makes me groan even more than the childish writing that often crops up in Rebels.
The great thing about this book a New Dawn is that is pivots away from that. He we have a hyper realistic look at what a world and it's small corner of space would look like under the auspices of the Empire's thorough regulation. This does two things. It show cases what the Empire and it's rule is actually like. Honestly in a New Hope/Empire/Jedi, we never actually see the Empire do anything evil.(hmm? what's that Aunt Beru? Uncle Ben?) Okay fine, we see *some* evil... but we don't get a very good or deep look at what Imperial control of a planet really looks like. And darn it, Jackson Miller, does a good job in keeping the writing of this pretty realistic. No one really does anything too over the top, or anything that would make me say, oh he's acting completely out of character. Nor were there a ton of plot conveniences taken that were so obvious. There were some pretty steep jumps in logic and reasoning at times...but I'll let some slide.
The characters in a New Dawn...while I can't honestly say were completely fleshed out and brought to vivid life in front of my very eyes, they were surprising well crafted. Empathy flowed from them on both sides of the equation. Kanan Jarrus, who's real name Caleb Dume, is actually probably the more underused character. A lot of the action happens around him, and he finds himself in sort of "the only way is onwards" type situations. He meets up with the stealthly and easy on the eyes Twi'lek, Hera Syndulla, as well as a bunch of other cast of characters that all (thanks to the great narration of the eh...narrator) seem to have a pretty distinct personality. We're introduced to this very sympathy magnet of a character named Skelly, who's a survivor of the Clone Wars, and has a physical handicap (presumably from birth and not the War itself..?) in that his arm is like deformed and almost near useless.
Our antagonist "big bad" of the series is a really creepily described character that is human to a point, but so heavily modified and layered upon with so much cybernetic grafting that his barely resembles a human anymore. His deal is also genetic in that he contracted Shilmers Syndrome which fundamentally is a flesh eating disease. He was becoming a quickly rising "Effeciency Expert". What's cool is that this is the same type of role and work that we hear about in Star Wars Bloodlines that happened to Ransolm Casterfo's parents.
We also meet acting captain Sloane here. This is my first introduction to her, and she seems pretty cool. She's promoted temporarily to captain of the Ultimatum, a star destroyer send to Gorse to escort, and assist Vidian and keep the locals in line. I hope to read more about Sloane, in future future books. I know she appears sprinkled throughout the new canon, and in some comics. It was a good intro to her, she didn't overshadow anyone else, but gave us enough to peak our interest as to rather we'd see more of her down the road.
I'll also give the book vast amounts of credit in this regard…it shows us some really "cyberpunk" themed characters. While Vidian is almost all machine and parts, Skelly is a vet of the Clone Wars, but not a clone. He's a demo expert, and you can tell there's *something* slightly off with him. He's working now as a miner on Cynda, the moon of Gorse. Skelly is 'blackmarked' after he makes an off color comment about the Empire, and is put under surveillence and paid a visit to. He has an interest in keeping Cynda, the moon, as safe as possible during the mining, and wants to show the Empire that extensive explosions and demo chargers in the mines will eventually shatter and collapse the moon. Eventually he finds himself on the run and Hera saves him and eventually wishes to recruit the demo expert. I also can appreciate that the author does a fantastic job giving us a few of a grim gritty world in Gorse. It's night time 80% of the time, and it's filled with miners and people that are very run down, beaten up in life and also a lot of gangs and cartels.
We're also introduced to the concept (well intro for me) of privately owned but Imperial contracted Data collection agencies and firms. They basically spy citizens and create dossiers on everyone. They are not necessarily evil, but just go about harvesting information and sell it. Zaluna who is a Sullustan (Nein Neub's race) is a kindly woman, and helps Hera recruit for the rebellion. She's the one who urges Hera to pick up Kanan. Zaluna meets Hera in a bar for their first meeting. Earlier, Hera met with Skelly to see if he was fit to be recruited into the fledging rebellion. She determines that he's just too mentally scarred, and damaged to be reliable and of sound mind. After he explains his crazy sounding plot of the Empire to destroy the moon Cynda, she not only decides that Cynda's destruction isn't exactly high priority, but he's not quite right in the head.
The book really shifts focus actually towards the end, on focusing a lot of Vidian. He has a sort of rivial in the Empire that he has been sort of trying to shake. And we learn that Vidian apparently leads a sort of double life, cheating the system, but impersonating....himself. In an odd way he uses the size of sheer vastness of the galaxy as a way to game the system. He still pretends that his former "life" (before the disease began eating his flesh) is still around and active in doing his duties...as a sort of Imperial Quartermaster. He was charged with literally tripling the output of the mining of Thorilide that is near impossible for Vidian to meet. In these situations Vidian would pretend to gather the resources then "run it by" the person who he used to be, and sign off on his own approval. People in the Empire, due to it's sheer size and scale, just lost track of Vidian's prior "personality" and just accept whatever is signed by him as good enough.
We're given a cool use case for the element Thorilide in that it's used as Shock Absorbtion padding for the turbolaser batteries on ships. Things like this really add to the world building here… Something so small, yet important in ship design, very cool to see that each tiny pieces literally comes from somewhere. In frustration he kills her by pushing her into the simmering Thorilide. She's a 4 armed Besalisk, (like Dex) and her husband see's her death and is later killed by Vidian a well. (spoilers by the way). So the deaths here and there are a decent amount that are racked up in this book, don't exactly fill me with tears, but I'll admit, it took me a bit off guard, and I was surprised. I was genuinely worried actually about the saftey of Zaluna going towards the end, as I enjoyed her character. (I think Sullustans are invulnerable in Star Wars at this point!)
I've been pretty positive through out this entire review, and actually it made me realize that I think I liked this book even more than I thought I did. My trouble with it, I suppose comes from some of the dialogue. And this complaint is actually something that bothers me about a lot of the "classic" Star Wars writing. This comes off to me as very "cowboyish", yelling one liners in the midst of fighting... exaggerated statements... over the top witty snark. While this has it's place from time to time, listening to it read back to me, sort of makes it come off as pretty silly.
Now I suppose one could complain that the story itself is "mundane" or not star wars like. Literally I'm very glad about this. This was a story to give us a backstory of Kanan, how he meets Hera, and give us a new introduction of the tone of the Empire. To me I think it met those goals. That being said, I think it's a bit...unusual that's the direction that they would want the first book to lead with, but I'm not complaining. MANY will find the book often boring at times, but I really like the more down to earth, non force related stories. The best and most notable thing I love about Jackson Miller's decision in writing in this book? Kanan has a light saber. It's brought up many times. He never ignites it. What's that Chekov's gun?
Anyway I'm here to talk about A New Dawn. This is the first novel out, once Disney officially acquired LucasFilms...So sort of a big step that should sort of set the tone for the entire run of Star Wars related canon. Does it live up? Ehh Yes and no. First I should mention that I probably am a slight slight bit biased because it's about my two favorites of the entire Rebels show, Kanan and Hera, plus, I listened to this book via Audible, (Subscrible to audible for the best audiobooks...) and as with all Star Wars audio books, the production quality and sounds, and music just add so much to the enjoyment of the book. That being said, I think this book felt very steeped in the real world. I mean that with the highest praise actually. Let me elaborate. In Star Wars, because the fans seem to eat it up and demand it, we are way way over exposed to the "magical" side of the Star Wars writing. Every movie has the Jedi or Sith, or some sort of force effect. It's like they can't or won't give themselves the opportunity to write a story and script that doesn't shove these concepts down our throat. Now dont' get me wrong I freaking love the Force and its' users. But there is a time and a place. Ham fisting force things into stories where it doesn't need or fit just makes me groan even more than the childish writing that often crops up in Rebels.
The great thing about this book a New Dawn is that is pivots away from that. He we have a hyper realistic look at what a world and it's small corner of space would look like under the auspices of the Empire's thorough regulation. This does two things. It show cases what the Empire and it's rule is actually like. Honestly in a New Hope/Empire/Jedi, we never actually see the Empire do anything evil.(hmm? what's that Aunt Beru? Uncle Ben?) Okay fine, we see *some* evil... but we don't get a very good or deep look at what Imperial control of a planet really looks like. And darn it, Jackson Miller, does a good job in keeping the writing of this pretty realistic. No one really does anything too over the top, or anything that would make me say, oh he's acting completely out of character. Nor were there a ton of plot conveniences taken that were so obvious. There were some pretty steep jumps in logic and reasoning at times...but I'll let some slide.
The characters in a New Dawn...while I can't honestly say were completely fleshed out and brought to vivid life in front of my very eyes, they were surprising well crafted. Empathy flowed from them on both sides of the equation. Kanan Jarrus, who's real name Caleb Dume, is actually probably the more underused character. A lot of the action happens around him, and he finds himself in sort of "the only way is onwards" type situations. He meets up with the stealthly and easy on the eyes Twi'lek, Hera Syndulla, as well as a bunch of other cast of characters that all (thanks to the great narration of the eh...narrator) seem to have a pretty distinct personality. We're introduced to this very sympathy magnet of a character named Skelly, who's a survivor of the Clone Wars, and has a physical handicap (presumably from birth and not the War itself..?) in that his arm is like deformed and almost near useless.
Our antagonist "big bad" of the series is a really creepily described character that is human to a point, but so heavily modified and layered upon with so much cybernetic grafting that his barely resembles a human anymore. His deal is also genetic in that he contracted Shilmers Syndrome which fundamentally is a flesh eating disease. He was becoming a quickly rising "Effeciency Expert". What's cool is that this is the same type of role and work that we hear about in Star Wars Bloodlines that happened to Ransolm Casterfo's parents.
We also meet acting captain Sloane here. This is my first introduction to her, and she seems pretty cool. She's promoted temporarily to captain of the Ultimatum, a star destroyer send to Gorse to escort, and assist Vidian and keep the locals in line. I hope to read more about Sloane, in future future books. I know she appears sprinkled throughout the new canon, and in some comics. It was a good intro to her, she didn't overshadow anyone else, but gave us enough to peak our interest as to rather we'd see more of her down the road.
I'll also give the book vast amounts of credit in this regard…it shows us some really "cyberpunk" themed characters. While Vidian is almost all machine and parts, Skelly is a vet of the Clone Wars, but not a clone. He's a demo expert, and you can tell there's *something* slightly off with him. He's working now as a miner on Cynda, the moon of Gorse. Skelly is 'blackmarked' after he makes an off color comment about the Empire, and is put under surveillence and paid a visit to. He has an interest in keeping Cynda, the moon, as safe as possible during the mining, and wants to show the Empire that extensive explosions and demo chargers in the mines will eventually shatter and collapse the moon. Eventually he finds himself on the run and Hera saves him and eventually wishes to recruit the demo expert. I also can appreciate that the author does a fantastic job giving us a few of a grim gritty world in Gorse. It's night time 80% of the time, and it's filled with miners and people that are very run down, beaten up in life and also a lot of gangs and cartels.
We're also introduced to the concept (well intro for me) of privately owned but Imperial contracted Data collection agencies and firms. They basically spy citizens and create dossiers on everyone. They are not necessarily evil, but just go about harvesting information and sell it. Zaluna who is a Sullustan (Nein Neub's race) is a kindly woman, and helps Hera recruit for the rebellion. She's the one who urges Hera to pick up Kanan. Zaluna meets Hera in a bar for their first meeting. Earlier, Hera met with Skelly to see if he was fit to be recruited into the fledging rebellion. She determines that he's just too mentally scarred, and damaged to be reliable and of sound mind. After he explains his crazy sounding plot of the Empire to destroy the moon Cynda, she not only decides that Cynda's destruction isn't exactly high priority, but he's not quite right in the head.
The book really shifts focus actually towards the end, on focusing a lot of Vidian. He has a sort of rivial in the Empire that he has been sort of trying to shake. And we learn that Vidian apparently leads a sort of double life, cheating the system, but impersonating....himself. In an odd way he uses the size of sheer vastness of the galaxy as a way to game the system. He still pretends that his former "life" (before the disease began eating his flesh) is still around and active in doing his duties...as a sort of Imperial Quartermaster. He was charged with literally tripling the output of the mining of Thorilide that is near impossible for Vidian to meet. In these situations Vidian would pretend to gather the resources then "run it by" the person who he used to be, and sign off on his own approval. People in the Empire, due to it's sheer size and scale, just lost track of Vidian's prior "personality" and just accept whatever is signed by him as good enough.
We're given a cool use case for the element Thorilide in that it's used as Shock Absorbtion padding for the turbolaser batteries on ships. Things like this really add to the world building here… Something so small, yet important in ship design, very cool to see that each tiny pieces literally comes from somewhere. In frustration he kills her by pushing her into the simmering Thorilide. She's a 4 armed Besalisk, (like Dex) and her husband see's her death and is later killed by Vidian a well. (spoilers by the way). So the deaths here and there are a decent amount that are racked up in this book, don't exactly fill me with tears, but I'll admit, it took me a bit off guard, and I was surprised. I was genuinely worried actually about the saftey of Zaluna going towards the end, as I enjoyed her character. (I think Sullustans are invulnerable in Star Wars at this point!)
I've been pretty positive through out this entire review, and actually it made me realize that I think I liked this book even more than I thought I did. My trouble with it, I suppose comes from some of the dialogue. And this complaint is actually something that bothers me about a lot of the "classic" Star Wars writing. This comes off to me as very "cowboyish", yelling one liners in the midst of fighting... exaggerated statements... over the top witty snark. While this has it's place from time to time, listening to it read back to me, sort of makes it come off as pretty silly.
Now I suppose one could complain that the story itself is "mundane" or not star wars like. Literally I'm very glad about this. This was a story to give us a backstory of Kanan, how he meets Hera, and give us a new introduction of the tone of the Empire. To me I think it met those goals. That being said, I think it's a bit...unusual that's the direction that they would want the first book to lead with, but I'm not complaining. MANY will find the book often boring at times, but I really like the more down to earth, non force related stories. The best and most notable thing I love about Jackson Miller's decision in writing in this book? Kanan has a light saber. It's brought up many times. He never ignites it. What's that Chekov's gun?
This novel is a good start to the new era of Star Wars books. It provides background on Kanun Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, two characters set to appear in Rebels, and it really has a great villain in Count Vidian. It starts slow, but really picks up in the second half. I'm only giving four stars because I was hoping to see more of the actual rebellion developing, but it seems like that is being saved for the TV show. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing more of these characters and their stories when Rebels starts next month. If you go the audiobook route, voicework, sound effects, and music are all very well done, and it really adds to the atmosphere.
I enjoyed parts of this book, I'm in between a 3.5-4 for my over all rating. It was fun, but not my absolute favorite. I did appreciate what the book had to accomplish and how it was executed.
I pushed myself through the Rogue One prequel that felt like reading a textbook and was able to find interesting portions, yet somehow this lighter, friendlier, book was an absolute struggle. I've seen Rebels and I'm not a huge fan. I watched Clone Wars and loved the episodes that had substance and disliked the ones that did not. This is yet another overly long animated kids show episode. Lords of the Sith was kind of like that but I could stomach it...just so little is actually happening and the characters have such little depth that I couldn't find myself caring. The planets and the history of the planets is explained over and over again, yet it's not like these are crucial to the backstory of our two main characters. We get the idea of what is going to happen, it's all very straightforward. So with that linear plot and our cast of plain characters we embark on our overlong quest. I get it, one has a gift for remembering numbers, one is a little strange and doesn't understand that the empire is evil, our evil mastermind with his super secret and not at all obvious history is evil and makes calculated decisions based on facts with little regard for the consequences. That's just not enough, it's not...good. At least, I didn't like it. Yet I finished it, if what I did with the book can be considered finishing...onto the next canon entry.
Not a bad start for the new continuity
I was a huge fan of the Legends Canon, but if the story group is as tight as implied, this s new deal should be good. Not up there with the truly great Legends stories, but entertaining in its own right and quite promising.
I was a huge fan of the Legends Canon, but if the story group is as tight as implied, this s new deal should be good. Not up there with the truly great Legends stories, but entertaining in its own right and quite promising.