SW Novel Review 5
The Fight for Justice by Luke Skywalker by John Peel
Luke Skywalker always felt a call from space, and eventually learned the ways of the Force and became a Jedi Knight. Now, Luke tells the inside story of his battle with the evil Empire!
Captive to Evil by Jude Watson
Princess Leia makes regular entries into her data pad, a palm-sized computer hidden in her belt. In each entry she recalls all the details of her intergalactic capture and rescue--and how she really feels about Han Solo and Luke.
Combining the reviews for both of these journals since it'll be pretty repetitive at some parts. Basically both journal was about the events happening during A New Hope; but from the perspective of Luke and Leia, on their respective journals. Luke... because what boy wouldn't want to keep a diary of himself; and Leia, because she wanted to keep records of the things she did.
Both journals had some pretty interesting entries... and you get to read their thoughts an opinions about things revolving around them. Or thoughts about each other. We get a glimpse of Luke's childhood... and we get to read about how Leia ended up with the mission to retrieve the plans for the Death Star. We also get to some some very personal entries as they recorded their thoughts and feelings. Some parts would be non-canon considering the many edits Lucas did that ended up clashing with some of the journal entries. Most of it involved Biggs.
All in all, we get to know more about Luke and Leia. It's still basically A New Hope but from the characters' pov.
Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure by Greg Rucka
Han Solo and Chewbacca return in an all-new adventure!
In this story, set between Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Han and Chewie must fly the Millennium Falcon on a top-secret mission for the Rebellion, while evading ruthless bounty hunters and a relentless Imperial agent.
I wished I had much good to say. Ever since Moving Target, my enthusiasm about the new line of novels with the new canons have decrease exponentially. Partially because of the out of place setting (seriously... ranked female officers during the Emperor's reign?), but also because many of the characters-- new and old--are too stiff. You can say anything about the EU/Legends stories, but at least--for many titles and series--the respective writers that were given task had put a certain amount of care to keep the characters as lively, interesting and witty as possible. Because for characters like Luke, Leia, Han Chewie... they are quite witty and full of life themselves! So to have those characters losing many of those wit and life during the earlier periods when they should still have that youth and feistiness, it's just disappointing.
It's even worse than having to bear with some of the odd changes Lucas have made over the original trilogy. I'd rather have those than these new canons that tried to make everything dark and gritty.
Anyway to the novel, basically the story is about how Leia managed to convince Han through Chewie to help out a bit to save this guy at some planet. In the mean time there was an oddly placed one robotic-eyed female Imperial Commander going after that guy. Han went to planet to find the guy, that happened to be Hutt controlled. So he also get bounty hunters on him. Shortcut to meeting the guy and tryna escape but then get road-blocked by psycho. They managed to get into Falcon and after a bit of very reckless firefight, escaped. Narration was a bit too lengthy, like I see some people complaining that Wyndham's writing was lengthy they don't read this one. At least Wyndham's narrative IS enjoyable. You wanna read a boring narration, you'd want to read THIS novel.
I see reviews saying this novel was the strongest of all the novels in the series. But no. In contrast, Weapon of a Jedi was much better... followed by Moving Target. Despite how Moving Target was too full of 'strategy plot'. I thought struggling through Moving Target was hard. This one was harder. It felt like a chore.
There were a few instance where Han had some thoughts about Luke and Ben. That should be fine, though it bothered me that even in a narrative... the writer had Han referred to Ben and Luke as 'the old man' and 'the kid'. Like seriously... as much as Han did refer to them vocally as such, he should still know their names and referred them by name inside his head occasionally. Because 'old man' and 'kid' can apply to a lot of people in the Alliance actually. Like Dodonna. That really bothered me. Like... for Han to end up naming his SON as the pseudonym of the person he barely interacted with, he should at least be able to refer to that person by name. Even 'Old Ben' should suffice. Because half the time those thoughts appear out of random, you're left to wonder about who he was referring to. And that was really jarring, and took you out from enjoying the novel. Emmat was boring too, to the extent that I probably find Madine or Dodonna to be much more interesting to read about.
The main villain here, Lieutenant Alecia Beck... was nothing interesting. While there was effort to give background details on her... it felt off. It felt less convincing than say... Zsinj or Thrawn. From the few writings I've read so far of those latter characters (and I wasn't even reading the novels that introduced them for the first time!), those said characters still exudes the feeling of dread and depth of characters that made them good villains (even when they weren't written by the original writers that created them). But with Beck... even written by the original writer the character felt robotic. Even Piett, Ozzel, Motti from the film's canon had more character than Beck; and that's saying something. They were even more human, regardless how shallow or narrow-minded they have been. And I'm still not including the issue about how strange it was to have female officers serving the Empire in this particular period; even more as ranked officers. Especially higher ranked officer Since I always had the image that the Empire was much more male-dominated and racist in its structure. Like yes, even if that was supposed to change in line with TFA... that change should start after the Empire's fall.
The pacing was odd too. Like at least give the setting several days after the Battle of Yavin ended. Because the news of Death Star's destruction enroute to Yavin should still take time to circulate back to the Imperial HQ. Even more, for subsequent reactions to be relayed to all the available Imperial bases all around the sector to start hunting for the rebels more aggressively. Like I'm not saying I'm the most expert of the Star Wars lore, but at least give the characters more reaction time like... few days after Battle of Yavin. Or indicate that it still took some time for Emmat to have escaped to Cyrkon, or that have the whole novel to happen in a span of at least a week or so. Because it felt like ppl in this novel barely slept or rest or take a break and you can't expect me to buy that all this event on Cyrkon was just a day's worth of action. This is not Star Trek!
Regardless, the narration was often times too lengthy and monotone (a quality I can't help noticing is constant so far in the series despite difference of writers), dialogue are much more awkward than how Lucas's lines tend to end up sounding; some often too cliched or stereotypical. Like seriously...
“You will never stop us. We will not be broken. However long it takes, we will never stop fighting.”
Even Admiral Ackbar had better lines than that. I mean the some of the lines in this novels were quite cringe-worthy and not convincing. Like you're supposed to feel like some of these characters (Rebels or not) have some kind of convictions to what they were doing it. But no, I am NOT feeling it. I usually do while reading many of the more interesting Pre-Yuzhan Vong, EU stories especially if they were quite good. Because truthfully, it's harder to make me hate something on a genre that I loved.
Anyway, here's the accompanying motion comic clip.
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That said, I really don't get why the series even called the 'Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens' series. Because apart from the beginning and end of the novels which depict the characters (besides Luke) at the present time period prior to TFA, all the main stories were all revolving around the original trilogy timeline... while trying to shove in settings that don't quite fit or connect to the events in the original trilogy. You might as well just skip this series and just jump to Before the Awakening, Perfect Weapon if you're looking for more stories set around TFA. Or having any pre-TFA vibe. Like I wouldn't even mind a pre-TFA novel where it don't involve a flashback of an event 30+ years ago instead of the present. I mean I'd even read a story on how Han and Chewie went on Rakhtar smuggling business. Or have a story about Luke while not featuring Luke by focusing on how did the Resistance managed to retrieve Artoo and how the rest of the rebels AND Leia were worrying about him! Or have a story on how Leia had been trying to lead the Resistance without Luke and Han by her side. Anything's better than this!
*breathes*
Not gonna read Lost Star any time soon. Unless I needed to gather enough emotion to become a Sith. This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.
Luke Skywalker always felt a call from space, and eventually learned the ways of the Force and became a Jedi Knight. Now, Luke tells the inside story of his battle with the evil Empire!
Captive to Evil by Jude Watson
Princess Leia makes regular entries into her data pad, a palm-sized computer hidden in her belt. In each entry she recalls all the details of her intergalactic capture and rescue--and how she really feels about Han Solo and Luke.
Combining the reviews for both of these journals since it'll be pretty repetitive at some parts. Basically both journal was about the events happening during A New Hope; but from the perspective of Luke and Leia, on their respective journals. Luke... because what boy wouldn't want to keep a diary of himself; and Leia, because she wanted to keep records of the things she did.
Both journals had some pretty interesting entries... and you get to read their thoughts an opinions about things revolving around them. Or thoughts about each other. We get a glimpse of Luke's childhood... and we get to read about how Leia ended up with the mission to retrieve the plans for the Death Star. We also get to some some very personal entries as they recorded their thoughts and feelings. Some parts would be non-canon considering the many edits Lucas did that ended up clashing with some of the journal entries. Most of it involved Biggs.
All in all, we get to know more about Luke and Leia. It's still basically A New Hope but from the characters' pov.
Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure by Greg Rucka
Han Solo and Chewbacca return in an all-new adventure!
In this story, set between Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Han and Chewie must fly the Millennium Falcon on a top-secret mission for the Rebellion, while evading ruthless bounty hunters and a relentless Imperial agent.
I wished I had much good to say. Ever since Moving Target, my enthusiasm about the new line of novels with the new canons have decrease exponentially. Partially because of the out of place setting (seriously... ranked female officers during the Emperor's reign?), but also because many of the characters-- new and old--are too stiff. You can say anything about the EU/Legends stories, but at least--for many titles and series--the respective writers that were given task had put a certain amount of care to keep the characters as lively, interesting and witty as possible. Because for characters like Luke, Leia, Han Chewie... they are quite witty and full of life themselves! So to have those characters losing many of those wit and life during the earlier periods when they should still have that youth and feistiness, it's just disappointing.
It's even worse than having to bear with some of the odd changes Lucas have made over the original trilogy. I'd rather have those than these new canons that tried to make everything dark and gritty.
Anyway to the novel, basically the story is about how Leia managed to convince Han through Chewie to help out a bit to save this guy at some planet. In the mean time there was an oddly placed one robotic-eyed female Imperial Commander going after that guy. Han went to planet to find the guy, that happened to be Hutt controlled. So he also get bounty hunters on him. Shortcut to meeting the guy and tryna escape but then get road-blocked by psycho. They managed to get into Falcon and after a bit of very reckless firefight, escaped. Narration was a bit too lengthy, like I see some people complaining that Wyndham's writing was lengthy they don't read this one. At least Wyndham's narrative IS enjoyable. You wanna read a boring narration, you'd want to read THIS novel.
I see reviews saying this novel was the strongest of all the novels in the series. But no. In contrast, Weapon of a Jedi was much better... followed by Moving Target. Despite how Moving Target was too full of 'strategy plot'. I thought struggling through Moving Target was hard. This one was harder. It felt like a chore.
There were a few instance where Han had some thoughts about Luke and Ben. That should be fine, though it bothered me that even in a narrative... the writer had Han referred to Ben and Luke as 'the old man' and 'the kid'. Like seriously... as much as Han did refer to them vocally as such, he should still know their names and referred them by name inside his head occasionally. Because 'old man' and 'kid' can apply to a lot of people in the Alliance actually. Like Dodonna. That really bothered me. Like... for Han to end up naming his SON as the pseudonym of the person he barely interacted with, he should at least be able to refer to that person by name. Even 'Old Ben' should suffice. Because half the time those thoughts appear out of random, you're left to wonder about who he was referring to. And that was really jarring, and took you out from enjoying the novel. Emmat was boring too, to the extent that I probably find Madine or Dodonna to be much more interesting to read about.
The main villain here, Lieutenant Alecia Beck... was nothing interesting. While there was effort to give background details on her... it felt off. It felt less convincing than say... Zsinj or Thrawn. From the few writings I've read so far of those latter characters (and I wasn't even reading the novels that introduced them for the first time!), those said characters still exudes the feeling of dread and depth of characters that made them good villains (even when they weren't written by the original writers that created them). But with Beck... even written by the original writer the character felt robotic. Even Piett, Ozzel, Motti from the film's canon had more character than Beck; and that's saying something. They were even more human, regardless how shallow or narrow-minded they have been. And I'm still not including the issue about how strange it was to have female officers serving the Empire in this particular period; even more as ranked officers. Especially higher ranked officer Since I always had the image that the Empire was much more male-dominated and racist in its structure. Like yes, even if that was supposed to change in line with TFA... that change should start after the Empire's fall.
The pacing was odd too. Like at least give the setting several days after the Battle of Yavin ended. Because the news of Death Star's destruction enroute to Yavin should still take time to circulate back to the Imperial HQ. Even more, for subsequent reactions to be relayed to all the available Imperial bases all around the sector to start hunting for the rebels more aggressively. Like I'm not saying I'm the most expert of the Star Wars lore, but at least give the characters more reaction time like... few days after Battle of Yavin. Or indicate that it still took some time for Emmat to have escaped to Cyrkon, or that have the whole novel to happen in a span of at least a week or so. Because it felt like ppl in this novel barely slept or rest or take a break and you can't expect me to buy that all this event on Cyrkon was just a day's worth of action. This is not Star Trek!
Regardless, the narration was often times too lengthy and monotone (a quality I can't help noticing is constant so far in the series despite difference of writers), dialogue are much more awkward than how Lucas's lines tend to end up sounding; some often too cliched or stereotypical. Like seriously...
“You will never stop us. We will not be broken. However long it takes, we will never stop fighting.”
Even Admiral Ackbar had better lines than that. I mean the some of the lines in this novels were quite cringe-worthy and not convincing. Like you're supposed to feel like some of these characters (Rebels or not) have some kind of convictions to what they were doing it. But no, I am NOT feeling it. I usually do while reading many of the more interesting Pre-Yuzhan Vong, EU stories especially if they were quite good. Because truthfully, it's harder to make me hate something on a genre that I loved.
Anyway, here's the accompanying motion comic clip.
-----------------------
That said, I really don't get why the series even called the 'Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens' series. Because apart from the beginning and end of the novels which depict the characters (besides Luke) at the present time period prior to TFA, all the main stories were all revolving around the original trilogy timeline... while trying to shove in settings that don't quite fit or connect to the events in the original trilogy. You might as well just skip this series and just jump to Before the Awakening, Perfect Weapon if you're looking for more stories set around TFA. Or having any pre-TFA vibe. Like I wouldn't even mind a pre-TFA novel where it don't involve a flashback of an event 30+ years ago instead of the present. I mean I'd even read a story on how Han and Chewie went on Rakhtar smuggling business. Or have a story about Luke while not featuring Luke by focusing on how did the Resistance managed to retrieve Artoo and how the rest of the rebels AND Leia were worrying about him! Or have a story on how Leia had been trying to lead the Resistance without Luke and Han by her side. Anything's better than this!
*breathes*
Not gonna read Lost Star any time soon. Unless I needed to gather enough emotion to become a Sith. This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.