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neilrcoulter 's review for:
Before the Awakening
by Greg Rucka
It's been a very slow start to the new Star Wars canon. The first line of books were terrible: Aftermath being the worst offender, Lost Stars a close second, but everything (other than a couple of bright spots like Tarkin and Lords of the Sith) was awful. I assumed that this was the way the series was going to go, and it was disappointing. But recently I've enjoyed a few books. The graphic novels Darth Vader and Kanan: The Last Padawan were quite enjoyable, and now I've just finished Before the Awakening, and I was surprised how much I liked it. Before the Awakening is in three parts, each one focusing on one of the main protagonists of The Force Awakens, just before the beginning of the film. It's a good concept for a book, and author Greg Rucka pulls it off nicely. In fact, I'd say that this book was better in many ways than the movie, because these stories are freer to go in their own directions, rather than being tied to fan expectations and marketing research. The Force Awakens suffers badly from the extent to which it copies earlier Star Wars films; Before the Awakening finds its own pace, and because of that it delivers stories that feel fresher and more like Star Wars.
Of the three stories (Finn, Rey, Poe), the weakest is Rey's. There's little more to learn about her day-to-day existence than what's shown in the film. In short: she had a monotonous, hopeless life. The story develops her character by attempting to explain why she's so good at everything she's required to do in The Force Awakens. The explanation is okay; it doesn't feel too forced or artificial, but it's just not very interesting.
Finn's story is great in how it fills in gaps about what life is like under the First Order. However, many of the details of this backstory seem to contradict what's shown in The Force Awakens. Finn is not simply a sanitation engineer; rather, he is on his way to becoming the (of course) greatest stormtrooper ever. And there is no way that Captain Phasma wouldn't know who Finn was, which seems to be the case in the film. Like other books in the Star Wars canon, this story humanizes the grunts in the First Order, which I was surprised didn't seem to be a priority in The Force Awakens. Perhaps the rest of the trilogy will add more to the ordinary people serving the First Order.
The final story, about Poe Dameron, is classic Star Wars. It fills in the most gaps left by the film as it explains in the most concrete detail yet what the First Order and the Resistance really are. Stories like this would have been so much more interesting than the tired attack on Starkiller Base. What might have been . . .
If someone were looking for a recommendation of just one Star Wars book to read, I'd suggest Before the Awakening. Not only is it three good stories that all feel very Star Wars, but it's one of the first new Star Wars books that I could wholeheartedly recommend to primary school/middle school readers. There's nothing here that a parent need worry about, but neither is it a watered-down, "kiddie" version of Star Wars. Rucka's graphic novel Shattered Empire was a big disappointment, but he redeems himself with Before the Awakening, and I hope he'll write more like this.
Of the three stories (Finn, Rey, Poe), the weakest is Rey's. There's little more to learn about her day-to-day existence than what's shown in the film. In short: she had a monotonous, hopeless life. The story develops her character by attempting to explain why she's so good at everything she's required to do in The Force Awakens. The explanation is okay; it doesn't feel too forced or artificial, but it's just not very interesting.
Finn's story is great in how it fills in gaps about what life is like under the First Order. However, many of the details of this backstory seem to contradict what's shown in The Force Awakens. Finn is not simply a sanitation engineer; rather, he is on his way to becoming the (of course) greatest stormtrooper ever. And there is no way that Captain Phasma wouldn't know who Finn was, which seems to be the case in the film. Like other books in the Star Wars canon, this story humanizes the grunts in the First Order, which I was surprised didn't seem to be a priority in The Force Awakens. Perhaps the rest of the trilogy will add more to the ordinary people serving the First Order.
The final story, about Poe Dameron, is classic Star Wars. It fills in the most gaps left by the film as it explains in the most concrete detail yet what the First Order and the Resistance really are. Stories like this would have been so much more interesting than the tired attack on Starkiller Base. What might have been . . .
If someone were looking for a recommendation of just one Star Wars book to read, I'd suggest Before the Awakening. Not only is it three good stories that all feel very Star Wars, but it's one of the first new Star Wars books that I could wholeheartedly recommend to primary school/middle school readers. There's nothing here that a parent need worry about, but neither is it a watered-down, "kiddie" version of Star Wars. Rucka's graphic novel Shattered Empire was a big disappointment, but he redeems himself with Before the Awakening, and I hope he'll write more like this.