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surakian 's review for:
Before the Awakening
by Greg Rucka
Many years ago when Star Wars: The Force Awakens released in theaters, I wasn't that big of a Star Wars fan. I never watched the films, I never read any of the Expanded Universe novels, and I certainly didn't care to know about the characters beyond what most people knew by cultural osmosis.
Then I marathoned the films the same day TFA released, then watched TFA, and promptly nose-dived into the chaos that was the Star Wars franchise. I decided to pick this book up to get a better idea of the characters I had quickly fallen in love with, made it about half-way through Finn's story, and then got distracted by my schoolwork and part-time job.
The book remained on my bookshelf for years like many others, and I forgot I had ever bought it.
Then COVID-19 happened, and I decided I needed to stress clean my bookshelf and purge any books I didn't want anymore. I happened to find this one, and since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was still fresh on my mind since it was one of the last films I got to see in theaters, I knew this book needed to go immediately.
Of course, I cleaned but had nowhere to take the books to, so I figured I might as well read them. I picked this one back up and made my way through Finn's story again. It disappointed me because none of what was shown about Finn in the book was never once shown or hinted at in the films. Then I read Rey's story and got bored of the whole thing. I stopped reading the book for months after that before picking it back up in 2021 and made it about 70% through Poe's story. His was the worst only because the films and animated shows and newer novels/comics had rendered his storyline in this novel to not be canon. (In fact, I still don't know what is canon for Poe. None of this story really ever comes together in any clear way. At this point, I'd rather let Oscar Issac tell me what Poe's canon is to him and just accept that than attempt to make any sense of his story from any of the tie-in media).
I stopped reading the book again and didn't bother to finish it until the end of 2021 because I felt like an idiot reading a book to the end but leaving 30 pages unread due to my issues with what came after this novel. None of this was Greg Rucka's fault. He's an excellent writer. He has a clear passion for the technical aspects of Star Wars, so his technobabble is believable and engaging. I could easily picture the space battles, the interiors of the ships being piloted or the ship Rey was repairing. His writing was direct and vivid.
That said, reading those last 30 pages was torture. I felt like throwing up. I'm genuinely not exaggerating. I had easily finished a 300+ page book prior to moving on to this book and read another 100 pages of another book after finishing this one, and I felt absolutely fine.
I think the combination of knowing what the state of the Sequel Trilogy was plus knowing that none of the characters in Poe's story hold no relevance to the film counterpart just completely disengaged me from the book.
But I finished it now. It's gone. I'm free.
Star Wars fans, don't read this book if you hate the Sequel Trilogy now. You will be left in a state of utter disappointment because Rucka had some great ideas and none of it ever amounts to anything.
It also makes me grateful I never picked up anymore of the "Before the Awakening" books that had released around the same time. I had every intention to prior to TROS. Oh well.
Then I marathoned the films the same day TFA released, then watched TFA, and promptly nose-dived into the chaos that was the Star Wars franchise. I decided to pick this book up to get a better idea of the characters I had quickly fallen in love with, made it about half-way through Finn's story, and then got distracted by my schoolwork and part-time job.
The book remained on my bookshelf for years like many others, and I forgot I had ever bought it.
Then COVID-19 happened, and I decided I needed to stress clean my bookshelf and purge any books I didn't want anymore. I happened to find this one, and since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was still fresh on my mind since it was one of the last films I got to see in theaters, I knew this book needed to go immediately.
Of course, I cleaned but had nowhere to take the books to, so I figured I might as well read them. I picked this one back up and made my way through Finn's story again. It disappointed me because none of what was shown about Finn in the book was never once shown or hinted at in the films. Then I read Rey's story and got bored of the whole thing. I stopped reading the book for months after that before picking it back up in 2021 and made it about 70% through Poe's story. His was the worst only because the films and animated shows and newer novels/comics had rendered his storyline in this novel to not be canon. (In fact, I still don't know what is canon for Poe. None of this story really ever comes together in any clear way. At this point, I'd rather let Oscar Issac tell me what Poe's canon is to him and just accept that than attempt to make any sense of his story from any of the tie-in media).
I stopped reading the book again and didn't bother to finish it until the end of 2021 because I felt like an idiot reading a book to the end but leaving 30 pages unread due to my issues with what came after this novel. None of this was Greg Rucka's fault. He's an excellent writer. He has a clear passion for the technical aspects of Star Wars, so his technobabble is believable and engaging. I could easily picture the space battles, the interiors of the ships being piloted or the ship Rey was repairing. His writing was direct and vivid.
That said, reading those last 30 pages was torture. I felt like throwing up. I'm genuinely not exaggerating. I had easily finished a 300+ page book prior to moving on to this book and read another 100 pages of another book after finishing this one, and I felt absolutely fine.
I think the combination of knowing what the state of the Sequel Trilogy was plus knowing that none of the characters in Poe's story hold no relevance to the film counterpart just completely disengaged me from the book.
But I finished it now. It's gone. I'm free.
Star Wars fans, don't read this book if you hate the Sequel Trilogy now. You will be left in a state of utter disappointment because Rucka had some great ideas and none of it ever amounts to anything.
It also makes me grateful I never picked up anymore of the "Before the Awakening" books that had released around the same time. I had every intention to prior to TROS. Oh well.