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A review by pushingdessy
Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
For those who don’t know me, I’m a sequels hater. When I watched The Force Awakens, I’d only recently watched and become a fan of the rest of the saga so, while not *happy* about the fate of Luke, Leia and Han, I both knew what to expect and hadn’t yet formed strong opinions on the whole. I was willing to wait and hopefully be surprised by a consistent story that provided satisfactory explanations about the choices they’d made, even if I didn’t like those choices…
That didn’t happen.
One thing I did like about TFA was the new trio: Rey, Finn and Poe. I thought, even if the story didn’t go well for the old characters I loved, at least they would pass the torch to a new generation of diverse, compelling heroes - a strong female lead, a Black Jedi, a Latino pilot, all of them breaking stereotypes, having more than a few lines and defying expectations…
That didn’t happen either.
But the seeds were there, and this little YA novel is proof of that. It’s comprised of three short stories, each focusing on one of the characters some time before TFA.
We follow Rey as she makes a big discovery in the Jakku desert, a story that highlights her cunning and her mechanic prowess. Then, we see Finn on the path of becoming a great Stormtrooper, until his compassion gets him in trouble. Finally, Poe defies New Republic orders to follow a hunch, and ends up being recruited into the Resistance. All of these stories hint at what we later see in the movie, what makes these characters tick.
It’s not a super deep read, and parts of it were later retconned by the following movies (for the worse, I may add), but it’s a quick and fun book if you’re at all interested in the backstories of the beating heart of the sequel trilogy. And it’s illustrated by Phil Noto, whose art makes me swoon.
That didn’t happen.
One thing I did like about TFA was the new trio: Rey, Finn and Poe. I thought, even if the story didn’t go well for the old characters I loved, at least they would pass the torch to a new generation of diverse, compelling heroes - a strong female lead, a Black Jedi, a Latino pilot, all of them breaking stereotypes, having more than a few lines and defying expectations…
That didn’t happen either.
But the seeds were there, and this little YA novel is proof of that. It’s comprised of three short stories, each focusing on one of the characters some time before TFA.
We follow Rey as she makes a big discovery in the Jakku desert, a story that highlights her cunning and her mechanic prowess. Then, we see Finn on the path of becoming a great Stormtrooper, until his compassion gets him in trouble. Finally, Poe defies New Republic orders to follow a hunch, and ends up being recruited into the Resistance. All of these stories hint at what we later see in the movie, what makes these characters tick.
It’s not a super deep read, and parts of it were later retconned by the following movies (for the worse, I may add), but it’s a quick and fun book if you’re at all interested in the backstories of the beating heart of the sequel trilogy. And it’s illustrated by Phil Noto, whose art makes me swoon.