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A review by luc_3
Ronin: A Visions Novel by Emma Mieko Candon
4.0
Oooooh this one was good. Very good.
Premise: I began reading SW novels last year because I’ve been doing some catching up with the comics and the cartoons, and wanted to see how they’d expand on some characters I was enjoying. When Visions came out I liked most of the shorts but The Duel didn’t really stand out to me, it was a fun premise and some nice animation, didn’t think much more of it, so when this novel came out I didn’t think about reading it. But then, I was done with the Thrawn novels and was in the mood for some self contained story, and I came across this again, and some people whose tastes I vibe with were giving it glowing reviews, so I decided to give it a try… and loved every page.
Firstly, it is BEAUTIFULLY written, the prose is fantastic and melodic and has some poetic moments that light up your imagination. The alternating POV was smooth and clear and never handled clumsily, and it had nice touches like the style changing slightly depending on whose PoV we were following and the nicknames for some characters being different in the various PoVs.
Then, the characters are fantastic. They are painted with such vivid strokes where you can really get a sense of them, have interesting motivations and drives and are a delight to follow. Big chunk of the cast is queer and it’s not left to subtext and it’s handled beautifully, including the nonbinary and trans characters, which was a very nice surprise.
Lastly, story is very good! The reimagining of the SW universe is interesting and inventive, seamlessly blended with feudal Japan, and leaves you wanting to find out new infos about how things work here. Especially Jedi and Sith are given such an interesting spin.
So in conclusion, it’s a very good read and I highly recommend it!
Premise: I began reading SW novels last year because I’ve been doing some catching up with the comics and the cartoons, and wanted to see how they’d expand on some characters I was enjoying. When Visions came out I liked most of the shorts but The Duel didn’t really stand out to me, it was a fun premise and some nice animation, didn’t think much more of it, so when this novel came out I didn’t think about reading it. But then, I was done with the Thrawn novels and was in the mood for some self contained story, and I came across this again, and some people whose tastes I vibe with were giving it glowing reviews, so I decided to give it a try… and loved every page.
Firstly, it is BEAUTIFULLY written, the prose is fantastic and melodic and has some poetic moments that light up your imagination. The alternating POV was smooth and clear and never handled clumsily, and it had nice touches like the style changing slightly depending on whose PoV we were following and the nicknames for some characters being different in the various PoVs.
Then, the characters are fantastic. They are painted with such vivid strokes where you can really get a sense of them, have interesting motivations and drives and are a delight to follow. Big chunk of the cast is queer and it’s not left to subtext and it’s handled beautifully, including the nonbinary and trans characters, which was a very nice surprise.
Lastly, story is very good! The reimagining of the SW universe is interesting and inventive, seamlessly blended with feudal Japan, and leaves you wanting to find out new infos about how things work here. Especially Jedi and Sith are given such an interesting spin.
So in conclusion, it’s a very good read and I highly recommend it!