Victory's Price Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 460 pages

Author: Alexander Freed

Timeline: Follows Shadow Fall, precedes Force Awakens

Main characters: Yrica Quell, Wyl Lark, Chass na Chadic, Soran Keize, Kairos, Nath Tensent, and Hera Syndulla.

Brief synopsis: Nearing the end of the war, Alphabet Squadron also nears a climactic finish fighting Shadow Squadron while Yrica Quell battles internal conflict in an attempt to do what is right.

Gut Feeling

This book was definitely one that I had to grind through. I’m not saying that because I didn’t like it, because it was a good book, it just certainly is part of my gut reaction. Alexander Freed’s writing style is pretty dense and the story is character lead so this means that it was easy to get lost in the details. It would be easiest to read large portions of this book at a time, because then it would be easier to keep track of everything going on. Unfortunately, due to preparing for a wedding, finishing school, and work, I was forced to read this book a little at a time. Because of that, I expect my biased score of the book would be lower than the attempted unbiased score I am going to give. Parts of this book were really really good. I really did enjoy this trilogy, but I wish the book featured more of these peaks. In a trilogy that I expected to only get better with each book, I think the second may have been my favorite (in classic Original Trilogy fashion).

Characters (10/10 pts)

Alright, my biased gut reaction is out of the way and I am free to give a perfect score to the first section. It is no surprise that the characters were the strongest part of the book. They have been the focal point of the entire book trilogy. Each member of Alphabet Squadron has the character development of a main character. They probably have even more depth than most main characters. I won’t discuss each character, because that could be an article in itself, but I will discuss some of the highlights.

Yrica Quell has to have the most depth of any character. The cliff hanger from Shadow Fall was Quell leaving Alphabet Squadron to join her former squad. Her motivations for doing this were up in the air, and incredibly intriguing. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but her arch was a complex and interesting one. A theme within this book is that when one gets to know both sides of a war, the lines between good and evil get ever so blurry. This is the conflict that Quell must deal with. By spending so much time with both Alphabet and Shadow Squadrons, she has a perspective unlike any other. This makes it difficult for her to know what the right thing to do is. Whenever a character has an internal conflict like this, you can consider me intrigued. This is one of the strongest singular parts of the novel.

However, Quell was not alone in having a great arch. We learned much more about Soran Keize, the leader of Shadow Squadron. He seems close to the anti-hero character archetype by combining end goals we can believe in with means that we can’t morally condone. In this way, he feels like characters such as Thanos and Walter White. It would have been rather interesting if the story was told from his perspective. Then there is Kairos, who likely changed the most from the beginning of the trilogy to the end. Clearly from a different culture, Kairos is the most unlike any of the other characters. The transformation that her character goes through in this book is beautiful and compelling. Most notably the end of her arch presented the peak of Freed’s writing.

That brings me to my final point. A key part of the third part of a trilogy is closure. Freed gave every important character their own moment of closure that really tied the strings in this story. I’ve been going on for awhile now so it is pretty clear that Freed earned all of the ten points for characters.

Writing Style (7.75/10 pts)

It certainly is possible that some of my bias towards this book is showing in this score, but I did feel slightly underwhelmed by the writing style. It may be a combination of other factors like the story itself, but I found it difficult to read much of this book at a time. In all of Freed’s books, the writing is fairly detailed. Victory’s Price is no different. When the action was high, the writing was okay and even great at times. There were individual chapters/sections that felt like some of the best written content in Star Wars. But the entire book just didn’t feel that way to me. It just felt a little too easy to get lost in the details. I’m not saying all of this to say that the book is poorly written, that is just never the case for Star Wars novels. It is just the explanation to why I am giving a slightly below average score of 7.75 points. It is still a well written book, just most Star Wars novels have a little higher quality.

Plot (7.25/10 pts)

The plot is probably what I was most disappointed in. In the final book of a trilogy, I just expected it to be more climactic. Like Shadow Fall, it started out exciting and then moved into a rather long lull. However, I saw this as ok because it was building up to the climax of the story. But the climax just felt a little unfulfilling to me. I just kept building and building, and then the excitement was just over. I expected the peaks to come when the stakes were the highest, but that simply wasn’t the case. I am not saying there weren’t peaks though. They just came in unexpected parts of the story that weren’t always necessarily significant concerning the plot. They were more so individual character moments, which does coincide with the story being character driven. But, concerning the plot, it does fall a little short in my opinion. I just expected the last book of the trilogy to hit a little harder. I am giving 7.25 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

There are a couple of things working against the intrigue of Victory’s Price. The first is the writing style. Freed is a dense writer and when that is the case, it can cause the reading process to slow down. It is a difficult thing to do to make a book both readable and dense. Claudia Gray and Timothy Zahn are two authors that do this well. Freed can as well, but I don’t think this one was his best work. This naturally takes away from the intrigue because it is more difficult to read large portions of the book at a time. Then there is the plot. I won’t repeat myself too much because I just discussed it, but the plot did take some away from the intrigue. When the peaks are expected, it urges the reader to read more to find out what is going to happen. Because the peaks were unexpected and isolated, the high intrigue also became limited and isolated. I am only giving 7 points for intrigue.

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

This is the section that I expected to be the lowest for all of the Alphabet Squadron books. When it comes to adding content to the Star Wars universe, usually the content is Force or Sith/Jedi related. I was pleasantly surprised with what Shado Fall added to Star Wars with Yrica Quell entering the Sith Temple. What interested me the most in Victory’s Price was the Emperor’s Messenger. While the Messenger was in the previous books, we learned the most about it in this one. Specifically, the data that it carries and the way that it is programmed. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but it is rather interesting. I am giving 8 points for this section.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Victory’s Price that adds to or takes away from the logic within the Star Wars universe So I am neither adding or taking away extra points for the logic. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Victory’s Price is an 8/10, or a low B minus. This makes the book slightly below the average score that I have given thus far and between Alphabet Squadron (7.8) and Shadow Fall (8.25). Concerning the ranking of the books in the trilogy, it feels right to me. I also want to say that I do try to keep my ratings unbiased, but it does seem that others did enjoy this book more than I did. So don’t be surprised if you do! If you are someone that enjoys character driven novels, I would certainly recommend this trilogy to you.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Into the Dark Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count:

Author: Claudia Gray

Timeline: High Republic era which precedes the Skywalker Saga

Main characters: Reath Silas, Dez Rydan, Orla Jareni, Cohmac Vitus, Leox Gyasi, Affie Hollow, Geode, and others.

Brief synopsis: Following a hyperspace lane disaster, the protagonists of the story find shelter at an ancient abandoned space station that is full of mystery and danger.

Gut Feeling

I haven’t been more hyped to read a book in a long while. Claudia Gray is my favorite Star Wars author (I know I’m not alone in saying this) and the High Republic novels already have a lot of existing hype. So, this created a pretty rare combination of hypeness. While Light of the Jedi was world building and A Test of Courage was an exciting self-contained story, I expected Into the Dark to be a character driven masterpiece. While that is mostly true, the surprising strength of the book was what it added to Star Wars lore (although, maybe not so surprising considering the book’s title). This really does increase the strength of this novel. However, parts of the book surprisingly felt incomplete. Almost like Gray had to finish the book against a deadline, but I’ll talk about that more a little later. It didn’t take away from the fact that this was a fantastic novel and will likely rank with the best of them. Let’s get into the details.

Characters (9.25/10 pts)

Because Into the Dark was largely character led, it is no surprise that it scores well in this category (that and the fact that it is written by character master Clauda Gray). The talk of the book is certainly Geode, who is one of the most unique characters ever introduced to the Star Wars universe. Geode is basically just a rock surrounded by mystery. Just like the Jedi in the book, the reader never really gets to understand Geode. How does he move around? How does he communicate? How does he do anything? Who knows! And with that character limitation Geode will likely steal your heart (if he hasn’t already). Pretty creative and impressive writing from Claudia Gray.

Alright I had to talk about Geode, but it is now time to discuss the characters that have some real depth to them. Somewhat similar to Light of the Jedi, Into the Dark has many quality characters (as you can see from my “main characters'' list above). However, it is on a smaller scale than Soule’s High Republic novel. This is advantageous because it allows the characters to have more depth and they are easier to keep track of. Just examining the Jedi alone, there are some unique and strong characters. Reath Silas is coming into his own and offers us a “coming of age” archetype, Orla Jareni is the Qui-Gon Jinn pseudo Gray Jedi type, Cohmac Vitus is a scholar, and Dez Rydan seems like the closest thing we’ll get to a “celebrity Jedi''.

The only real criticism I have for the characters is I never really got the moment in the book where I felt completely gripped by the characters. This is common in books by Claudia Gray, notably near the end of Lost Stars. Claudia Gray is excellent at having these moments surround romantic relationships. I felt that there was potential for this book to have a moment like that, but it just needed more development. This is one of the areas this book didn’t feel like it met its full potential. I will likely discuss this more in the Twin Suns Book Club podcast. However, the book is still getting a strong score of 9.25 points.

Writing Style (9.5/10 pts)

Claudia Gray isn’t just one of the best Star Wars authors at creating stories, she’s also one of the best at telling them. At her best, she has a distinctive style that is compelling almost regardless of the content of the story. For the most part, Claudia Gray was at her best in Into the Dark. Even though certains aspects of the book may have had more potential, Gray doesn’t ever miss when it comes to her writing quality. With little surprise, I am giving a strong score of 9.5 points.

Plot (8/10 pts)

In a book that I must search hard to find a weakness (weakness when compared to the other strong parts of the book, the plot is still good), the plot is the only place I can turn to. For the most part it was excellent though. It felt balanced throughout with peaks and valleys that built up to a climactic finish. It was also high stakes throughout with some twists and turns that I wasn’t able to predict. This describes a pretty awesome plot for a book that is character driven. However, this section gets hurt the most by the fact that it didn’t reach its full potential. There were two key things that were mentioned in the book never really amounted to anything. They were introduced as seemingly key parts of the plot and then somewhat forgotten, or oddly written out of the plot. Great and purposeful authors like Gray never put something in a story unless it has a meaning later in the story. This is the reason why it feels like Gray may have been working against a deadline. However, that shouldn’t deter you at all from reading it. It just means that it could have been even better! I am giving a still good score of 8 points for the plot.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Intrigue was pretty high throughout the book and I think it never had a chance not to be.  A High Republic novel would have to be pretty bad for it to have low intrigue. This book was written well, had an exciting plot, and compelling characters. And Gray also took advantage of the fact that this was a new time period in Star Wars. She was really allowed to get creative with what she could add to Star Wars. So, along with the great story causing me to read on, I was also compelled by the new Star Wars things that I was being introduced to. I am giving a near perfect score of 9.5 points.

What does it add? (10/10 pts)

In a book with many strong points, what it adds to the Star Wars universe stands out the most. Gray was certainly given the freedom to explore some interesting parts of this unexplored era. There are multiple things for me to touch one, the first being the Drenger. They are the villain of this story (alongside the Nihil) that frighten both the Jedi and the Sith. They seem to have an interesting relationship with the dark side of the Force causing them to be truly treacherous. I expect that we will learn even more about them in future High Republic novels (and will hopefully, hopefully see them in Acolyte). We also get some new glimpse into the Force and Sith lore which I wasn’t really expecting. I was consistently intrigued by what tidbits Gray was dropping into the story. Finally, like the other High Republic novels, we learn more about the Jedi in this period. I would go into more detail on these subjects, but that is a bit too sensitive to spoilers. You’ll have to read it for yourself to find out exactly why I am giving a perfect score of 10 points.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Into the Dark that adds to or takes away from the logic within the Star Wars universe So I am neither adding or taking away extra points for the logic. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Into the Dark is a 9.25 out of 10, or an A minus. This makes it my fourth highest ranked novel so far, out of 32 novels. So I think it is easy for me to say that it lived up to the hype. I know it is a theme in this review that it felt a little incomplete, but that is only because I think it could have been even better. This had potentially to be the best Star Wars novel in Canon. While Light of the Jedi is most important to the High Republic era regarding world building, I believe this is the best story. I have no doubt that you would enjoy reading it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change). 

Light of the Jedi Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle version, 368 pages

Author: Charles Soule

Timeline: High Republic era, which precedes the Skywalker Saga

Main characters: Avar Kriss, Loden Greatstorm, Bell Zettifar, Chancellor Lina Soh, Sskeer, the Nihil, and others (there’s a lot of characters)

Brief synopsis: In an attempt to bring the Republic to the Outer Rim territories, Chancellor Lina Soh plans the launch of the Starlight Beacon. However, this presents a new dangerous enemy to the safety of the Republic: the Nihil.

Gut Feeling

This is easily the most hyped up book in recent memory (perhaps of all time for Star Wars, but I’m not too familiar with Legends), so I had some pretty high expectations. This is our first glimpse into the High Republic era. I was immediately drawn into this book. I thought that the new Jedi and glimpse into the Force would be the most exciting part of it, but it is the Nihil that made the story gripping. They are a unique villain to the Jedi that I wasn’t really expecting. That’s not to say that Soule didn’t do a great job with expanding what we know about the Jedi, because he did. The Nihil were just my favorite part. This book certainly lived up to the hype, so let’s get into the details.

Characters (8/10 pts)

There were a LOT of new characters in Light of the Jedi. Mostly new Jedi, but it seemed like every different kind of character had many different types. Those that didn’t like this book mostly point to this as one of the issues. It really is difficult to say who the main character was (it may be easier to detect the main villain) because there are just so many. I do understand this critique because it really does take some intentional focus to keep track of all the characters. However, that being said, the point of this book is to introduce us to a whole new world of Star Wars characters. Because of that, I think it is OK to judge the characters more by their quantity instead of their quality. If the book just focused on developing a few characters, it wouldn’t have done as good a job as introducing us to these characters. That being said, there are still characters that I loved and want to see more of. These include two of my favorite new Jedi, Avar Kriss and Loden Greatsorm, and one of the best new villains in Star Wars, Marchion Ro. Having this many characters can be hard to keep up with, but Soule did a great job with them so I am giving 8 points.

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

Seeing as the High Republic is a prominent Star Wars book project, the best authors were chosen for it. I’ve only read Charles Soule’s comics, so I didn’t really know what to expect in this book. I was pleasantly surprised with how good Soule’s writing style was. He does a great job of establishing depth without using too many words. The book felt deep and intellectual while being able to flow well. This is sort of the gold standard for adult novels. Even for the high quality writing of all Star Wars books, Light of the Jedi is receiving an above average score of 9 points.

Plot (9.25/10 pts)

There really isn’t anything bad to say about the plot of Light of the Jedi, and there is a lot of good. From the very beginning of the book, Soule establishes the direction that the novel will take. There is a tragedy which represents a new problem that the Jedi of the High Republic must work to solve. It also introduces and establishes new characters in Star Wars amidst excitement, which completely bypasses the sometimes boring introductory parts of the book. The book did slow down a little bit about a quarter in, but it really did need some time to develop the world and story. The rest of the book was a series of peaks and valleys that all led up to an exciting and climatic finish. Even though this book wasn’t not the full story (as we know, there are other novels in this series), it felt like it could stand alone. The exception is the Epilogue which opened the door to continue the story. The plot was complicated, hard to predict, made sense, and very exciting. I am giving a nearly perfect score of 9.25 points.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Like many others, my intrigue for this book was basically peaked even before I started reading it. Especially because the release was pushed back, my excitement to read Light of the Jedi was high. This book probably could have been below average and my intrigue for it still would have been high. And this book was actually a really good book, even if it wasn’t establishing the High Republic era. This is fairly evident given the scores for the other sections. Soule just wrote a really good book. I was intrigued to learn more about the Jedi, fascinated by the complexity of the Nihil (whenever they start bumping music during a battle, I just get hyped), and compelled by the plot. 9.5 points for intrigue.

What does it add? (10/10 pts)

I expected this section to be the strongest for Light of the Jedi, and that is certainly correct. Now, I do want to mention that this book will obviously score well in this section. It quite literally establishes  a new time period for Star Wars with many new Jedi. Because of that, I raise the bar a bit for this book. I think it is fair to expect Light of the Jedi to add even more to Star Wars to get the same score as other books. Well, it certainly did that. How the Jedi operate in this book is vastly different than what we see in the Prequel trilogy. We really see what it looks like when the Jedi are operating at their peak. With this, we get glimpses of new Force powers. There are many different Jedi who all have different perspectives of the Force. What this adds to Star War lore is awesome. Also, the Nihil build on some lore that was established in the new Thrawn book with how they create their Paths. If you have read both books, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about and probably agree that it is very cool. Light of the Jedi went above and beyond adding to the Star Wars universe, easily earning 10 points.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Light of the Jedi that adds to or takes away from the logic within the Star Wars universe So I am neither adding or taking away extra points for the logic. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Light of the Jedi is a 9.15 out of 10, or an A minus. This ranks it as tied for the fourth highest ranked book that I’ve scored so far (out of 30). I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this book was. I said it earlier, but it was a high quality book and would be even if it wasn’t about Star Wars or the High Republic. I don’t even think I have to say it, but you should really read this book (if you haven’t already). It really does have a lot in it for ANY Star Wars fan.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle edition, 368 pages

Author: Delilah S Dawson

Timeline: Follows The Last Jedi, precedes The Rise of Skywalker

Main characters: Vi Moradi and Archex (formerly Captain Cardinal)

Brief synopsis: Following a major blow to the Resistance, Vi Moradi takes former enemy Archex to Black Spire to set up a new Resistance outpost.

Gut Feeling

I’m not sure if it was just the fact that my life has gotten busier, but this book took me almost three months to read, which is a long time. But the book certainly started slow. For the first quarter of the book it was rather uneventful. However, it really picked up near the end. This causes me to really have mixed feelings over it. It did some things really well, and others not as much. I was excited to read it after reading Phasma, also by Delilah S Dawson, but this one wasn’t nearly as exciting. That doesn’t mean that it was worse, it was just different. Let’s get into the details.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Oddly enough, I’d actually classify this book as being character led. This surpises me because the “Prequel” to this book, Phasma, was not character led. Not to say the book had bad characters, it was just led by one exciting adventure after another. The same is not said for Black Spire. While it did have good adventure, it was lead by the development of characters. I’ll get to Archex and Vi in a moment, but the characters that joined the Resistance all had their own unique qualities and depth. It is hard to introduce new characters into Star Wars and Dawson did a great job. Now for the best part, the relationship between Archex and Vi. Seeing as Vi was formerly tortured by Archex, the two certainly have an interesting relationship. Watching it develop from one with wavering trust to something more is certainly one of the most compelling parts of the book. I am giving a strong score of 9 points for this section. 

Writing Style (8.25/10 pts)

All Star Wars authors are already well-established authors. Not just anyone is allowed to write a Star Wars novel (unfortunately). Del Rey really does a good job of picking them out. Dawson’s writing style is well-balanced that doesn’t really bring much to my attention. There aren’t many striking strengths, but the strength is that there are no weaknesses that come to mind. The writing wasn’t spectacular, but it was still very good. I am giving 8.25 points.

Plot (8/10 pts)

Like I stated in my Gut Reaction, this book started really slow. That is my biggest problem with the plot. Once Vi made it to Black Spire, she went through seemingly everyday events that I thought weren’t needed in the story. While they all did have some signifiance later in the story, I think it could have been done in a more efficient manner. That being said, the book did eventually get really good. There was a lot on the line regarding the characteres and lives at Black Spire in the climatic parts of the book. They definitely did not dissapoint. The book also reached closure and opened it up for a Sequel, which not all books can accomplish well. So, I didn’t really care for some of the book’s plot and loved other parts. This averages the score out to 8 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

The intrigue I had for this book moved with the quality of the plot. When the plot wasn’t as good, I wasn’t as intererested in the book. When the plot was better, I was more intrigued. This certainly makes sense, but that isn’t all that goes into the book’s intrigue. Because the book was character led it makes it a little less exciting. Character led novels can still be very intriguing, but Black Spire didn’t quite do that for me. While the book was good I wanted to read on, but overall my interest in the book was lower than I expected. This is certainly a factor as to why it took me so long to read. I am giving 7 points.

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

This section certainly surprised me. Because Black Spire has mostly new characters and is set on a new planet, I didn’t really expect the book to add much to the Star Wars universe. While what Black Spire added wasn’t super substantial, it was sigificantly more than what other books siilar to this one have added to Star Wars. Even though there weren’t any Force users in this book, it doen’t mean that the characters couldn’t have experience with the Force. What this book essentially added is that certain people can detect the goodness (or lack thereof) in others through sensing the Force that surrounds them. This may be a kind of Force sensitivity, which expands what we already know about the Force. This a cool addition so I am giving 8 points.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in the novel that added to nor took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe. So I am neither adding nor taking away additional points. 

Final Thoughts

My final score for Black Spire is an 8.05, or a B minus. This is about an average score for books that I have reviewed. Some of you will certaily like this book more than I did and some of you will have little interest in it. I doesn’t really feel that Star Warsy and if you’re ok with that, it shouldn’t be a huge problem. If you are especially interested in the Sequel era, this book does a great job with expanding the limited universe. That may be its biggest strength. Pick it up, give it a shot, and you may really like it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Phasma Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle edition, 400 pages

Author: Delilah S. Dawson

Intended Audience: Adult

Timeline: Follows Return of the Jedi, precedes The Force Awakens

Main characters: Captain Phasma, Captain Cardinal, Vi Moradi, Siv, General Hux, and others.

Brief synopsis: Obsessed with learning more about Captain Phasma, Captain Cardinal forces Vi Moradi to tell the story of Phasma’s primitive life before joining the First Order.

Gut Feeling

I really didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I hadn’t heard many good things about it (although I did hear some good things) and it doesn’t have a high score on Goodreads (3.76). Also, Phasma is pretty underhwelming in the Sequel Trilogy. She is essentially Boba Fett 2.0: looks really cool and doesn’t do anything. However, this book quickly grabbed my attention. Even though I am currently rather busy with school, work, and my book coming out later this year, I devoted a LOT of time to reading this book and finished it quite a bit faster than I expected. It turned Phasma into a ruthless and cunning villain: willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. This was a great book, but it didn’t always feel like a Star Wars story. This can be refreshing for some readers, but it isn’t what every Star Wars reader is looking for. But I’ll get into that later.

Before getting into the details, I will say this though. The book contains a considerable amount of torture and violence and I understand that not everyone will be comfortable with that. So keep that in mind while reading this review. 

Characters (9/10 pts)

This was in no means a character led novel. It was the exciting plot and high stakes that made this book excel. Dawson did not devote much of the time to character development. However, that doesn’t mean that it won’t score well for this section. She did a lot with a little work. The characters were surprisingly well developed and relatable. And my emotional attachments to characters came from characters that I didn’t expect. Phasma came from a broken part of the planet Parnassos. There, she lived with a small tribe called the Scyre and trained a group of highly skilled warriors. Among the group were Siv and Torben. This is where Dawson was able to pull at my heart strings. Because this book is about Phasma, who is a villain, the book didn’t inherently have likeable characters. Phasma is fascinating, but I didn’t really root for her character. This isn’t a bad thing though. She is a villain and a great one at that. But Siv and Torben added a new element to the book because I was worried about what was going to happen to them. This greatly improves the score for this section.

But this doesn’t mean that Dawson did a poor job with Phasma’s character. It is quite the opposite. She is at her best in this book and it isn’t even close. In the movies, there aren’t really any characters that I despise. In Game of Thrones, we easily despise Joffrey and Ramsay Bolton, but Star Wars is lacking in this category. Yes, we hate Palpatine, Thrawn (especially in Rebels), and others, but there aren’t villains that do things that are truly shocking. Phasma, while not as extreme as Joffrey or Ramsay, falls into this category. She is truly one of the best villains in Star Wars and I wish the movies actually came close to portraying that.

This section is getting rather long, but I must dicuss the other main characters: Captain Cardinal and Vi Moradi. Moradi is a Resistance spy who tells the story of Phasma to Cardinal. Their arc is not as pronounced as Phasma’s, but it is still important. Cardinal was especially intersting. He was clearly the villain, but there was something about him that made him relatable. I won’t go into details to avoid spoilers, but it was interesting to have a villain who I wanted to root for.

Obviously, there is a lot going on regarding characters in the book and Dawson did a great job with them. All characters were unique from each others, had their own strengths, great development, and I was never confusing characters for each other. For these reasons, I am giving 9 points.

Writing Style (8.25/10) pts)

This is the first book that I’ve read by Dawson and I’m already a fan of her work. She has a balanced writing style between being easy to read and detailed. It never felt too simple or bogged down in details. It was consistent all the way through. Overall, the best strength of the writing style is that there’s no clear weaknesses. However, there really isn’t a clear strength that I can point to either. But it still felt slighly above the average Star Wars novel. I am giving 8.25 points.

Plot (9/10 pts)

This book is certainly led by the plot and the plot for Phasma is rather unique. It follows two different stories. The first follows Vi Moradi and Captain Cardinal, where Moradi tells Cardinal the story of Phasma, which is the second story. At the end, the story lines connect. In this way, it felt similar to the plot of Dooku: Jedi Lost. This plot design has one major advantage. It really keeps the story fresh as it bounces back and forth. As soon as one story might start to get dull (which it didn’t really), it would switch up and stay exciting.

It is fairly normal when a book has two separate story lines for one to be superior over the other. In this case, Phasma’s story was more exciting and made up most of the book. This should be the case, as the book is literally named for her. Her story was full of exciting moment after exciting moment. It was also high stakes for most of the moments, which made the peaks in the story that much more exciting. Even though I essentially knew what would happen for Phasma, I didn’t know the future for the other new characters in the story. This was really important for keeping the plot interesting. Dawson also didn’t pull ANY punches with the story. Shocking events happen and I was HERE FOR IT. My only critique of Phasma’s story is that there were too many peaks and not enough valleys. It jumped from one big event to another and didn’t always allow time for the plot to breathe inbetween.

Even though Phasma’s story was the best of the two, it doesn’t mean that the story of Moradi and Cardinal was not quality. It was often high stakes and compelling and served as a climatic finish to the book. The chapters also allowed Phasma’s story to breathe a little, which did help. Overall the plot was awesome and receives a score of 9 points.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Intrigue will be the highest scoring section for Phasma and it is mostly because of the plot. I talked about it in the previous section a lot, so I won’t be too repetive here. But most of the events in the plot were high stakes, and this happened basically from the first chapter of the book. These moments really grip the reader because they want to know what is going to happen next. I also really cared about what was going to happen to new characters and didn’t know what their fate would be. Because Dawson holds literally no punches in her storytelling, I never knew what was going to happen next. Also, because the story jumped around so much it always felt fresh. There were hardly any dull moments.The writing syle was also easy to read, which always adds to the intrigue. This all caused me to read this book very quickly (for my standards). I am giving 9.5 points.

What does it add? (6/10 pts)

We’ve had a lot of really great scores so far and this section will certainly not look like the others. It is the book’s greatest weakness: it doesn’t really add anything to the Star Wars universe. Yes, it does get fantastic development for an underused villain in the movies, but that doesn’t really have signifiance for anyone other than Phasma. And it certainly doesn’t matter for any time periods outside of the Sequel Trilogy. This book was written for one purpose: to provide a backstory for Phasma. It did that great, but not much else (although it does create new characters that are explored in Black Spre, also by Dawson, which I am reading now). For much of the story, it didn’t even seem like I was reading a Star Wars novel. It seemed to be from a whole new world. This can be refreshing for Star Wars fans wanting something new (similar to the feel of Thrawn Ascendancy), or it can turn away others. The only thing I can think of, beyond Phasma’s character, is this book provides an interesting new planet with a diverse set of cultures. This is interesting, but not really impactful to Star Wars as a whole. I am only giving 6 points for this section, but that shouldn’t deter you from reading this book. It is a great story, it just doesn’t really add anything to Star Wars lore.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in Phamsa that added to or took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe. So, I am neither adding or taking away extra points.

Final Thoughts

My final score for Phamsa is an 8.35/10, or a B. This scores slightly above average for all books I’ve reviewed. It is actually tied with Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, so that should tell you that this is a quality book. It was a great story that even non Star War fans can enjoy. I don’t think it is talked about enough and may be one of the more underrated Star Wars novels. However, as the scores show, it didn’t really add anything to Star Wars lore. So if you want a great story, or enjoy Phasma’s character, read this book. If you want new Star Wars lore, or don’t enjoy graphic or torture scens, there are others you can read.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

The Rise of Skywalker (Expanded Edition) Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle, 288

Author: Rae Carson

Intended audience: Young adult

Timeline: Follows The Last Jedi

Main characters: Rey, Kylo Ren, Leia, Poe Dameron, Finn, and others.

Brief synopsis: The Resistance has been reborn, but a new enemy awakens that threatens to combine forces with the treacherous First Order.

Gut Feeling

I, like many Star Wars fans, had a desire to read the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker due to the nature of the movie. There seemed to be so much going on in the story. Scenes weren’t given chances to breathe and there seemed to be many, many questions regarding the plot. This caused The Rise of Skywalker to be the first novelization that I have read so far (and it certainly wasn’t my last, as I’ve also read the Prequel novels since). Rae Carson was the author of one of my favorite Star Wars books (Most Wanted), so I was looking forward to her adaptation. My gut reaction is that I really enjoyed the story in novel form, perhaps even more than the movie. Carson did a great job of telling the stories of the scenes from the movies. While the extra scenes that she did add were good, I think there could have been many more added scenes. Overall, the book seemed rather short at only 247 pages (it was hardcover and the pages were large, but it still felt short). The Prequel novels were all much longer, more detailed, and added more to the story than this one did. So there were pros and cons to the book, but I certainly enjoyed the read as a whole.

Characters (8/10 pts)

One of the major things that I look for in a novelization is extra character development, especially through the thoughts of the characters. Carson did a good job of adding more depth and meaning to characters and their moments of development throughout the story. However, like a lot of cases within this book, I think the thoughts of the characters could have been more detailed. In my opinion, the characters that received the most work were Rey, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, Leia, and Poe. No single character really stood out the most. What Carson wrote for these characters was good, I just wanted more of it. However, her work still added to the relatability and depth to the characters so I am giving a good score of 8 points, but there was room for some improvement. 

Writing Style (7.5/10 pts)

I say it every time but it is worth repeating, no Star Wars book that I have come across is written poorly. Del Rey has done an excellent job of selecting authors who are both devout Star Wars fans and strong writers. Carson is certainly no exception. Her writing style I’ve noticed, from this reading and that of Most Wanted, is slightly less detailed, but it is easy to read. It felt effortless to go from line to line and page to page. That is the strength of Carson’s writing and I felt it was on full display here. But, as mentioned in other cases, I think that a more detailed writing style would have been welcomed, especially for this novelization. All of the Prequel novels were rather detailed in the writing style and this fit what the book was trying to accomplish better. So Carson’s style for a regular novel would score a little higher, but because the book is a novelization of a movie, I am only giving 7.5 points.

Plot (6.75/10 pts)

The plot is what I was most disappointed in. Obviously, I have to take a slightly different approach here than with my other book reviews because the story is already written, so Carson did not have much leeway considering where she took the story. But what I really wanted was for her to fill in the spaces between major scenes, allow them to breathe, supply extra scenes that supplement the overall story, and fill in some plot holes (and there certainly were plot holes in the movie). What Carson did best was adding transitions between scenes. This allowed the overall plot to move a bit easier. 

She also answered some of the major questions about the movie, like how Palpatine survived, why he wanted Rey to kill him, and provided more information about her parents. These major questions were answered, but I think she could have answered even more questions (like how Rey discovered Force healing). These other questions could have been answered in completely new scenes. This was what was lacking the most in this novel. There were small sections of new scenes, but I wanted whole chapters of new content. In the Prequel novels, there were entire chapters that all included just new scenes. These made up a considerable portion of the entire book. The lack of new content is the weakest part of the book (however, the parts she did add were excellent, including some really cool stuff regarding Kylo searching for the Wayfinder) and the reason why I am only giving 6.75 points for the plot.

Intrigue (8/10 pts)

I must admit that I am a little bit biased regarding the intrigue. I really enjoyed the movie, so it is natural that I would also enjoy reading the book. For others that do not enjoy the movie as much as I did, they will probably not have as much intrigue as I did. But there were still things in the book that objectively added to the intrigue of the novel. A lot happens throughout the story, which makes it a very exciting read. There were peaks and valleys in the plot, but because there were so many peaks, it made me compelled to keep reading. Also, as mentioned regarding the writing style, reading the book felt effortless. Combined together, these two things made me not want to put the book down. But I must acknowledge some of my personal bias, so I am giving a strong score of 8 points, even though I felt that it could have been even higher. 

What does it add? (7.75/10 pts)

For examining what this book adds to Star Wars, I must look at what content the book added independently of the movie. There were not many scenes in the book that were independent from the film, but what Carson did add was significant. Most notably was the content regarding how Palpatine survived his fall in Return of the Jedi. The content was truly larger than itself, answering a question that has been on the minds of Star Wars fans since the Prequels: what the secret of immortality was that Plageius allegedly possessed. This pulls the score up higher than what it could have been. However, this novel should have added more to the universe so it will only get 7.75 points, even though what it added was good. 

Logic (+.25 pts)

While the actual movie may have taken away some logic from the Star Wars universe (like the Force healing, would have been helpful for Qui-Gon), the actual novel did nothing additional to take away from the Star Wars universe. In contrast, it helped explain some of the plot holes found in the movie. I’ll let you read the book to get these details, but I am awarding an extra quarter point for this section.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker is 7.65 points (coincidentally, this is the exact same score I gave Most Wanted, also by Rae Carson), or a C. A lot of people enjoyed reading this book and I was no exception, so don’t think that this slightly lower score means that I didn’t enjoy the read. I just think that there could have been additional content to the book giving it more depth and length. I think this is the entire point of novelizations of movies, giving us extra scenes. If you haven’t read the book and enjoyed the movie, you will certainly enjoy reading the book. But if you didn’t enjoy the movie, I don’t think that reading this book will change your opinion on it. It is mostly the same story told through a different medium.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Spark of the Resistance Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle, 224 pages

Author: Justina Ireland

Intended Audience: Middle grade

Timeline: Follows Resistance Reborn, precedes The Rise of Skywalker

Main characters: Rey, Rose Tico, and Poe Dameron

Brief synopsis: After receiving a distress call from a planet in the outer rim, Rey, Rose, and Poe find themselves on an adventure that may help to bring new life to the Resistance.

Gut Feeling

So because this book is intended for a younger audience, I think many older Star Wars fans are passing up this read. But because it is a part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker series, I decided to read it. I just wanted all the background information that I could going into watching TROS. My favorite part about the book is it featured both Rey and Rose. Because they both had background roles in Resistance Reborn, I was excited to have more of them. Another plus was the writing style didn’t seem too simple, even though it was intended for a younger audience. That was a pleasant surprise. That being said, I had to really motivate myself to finish this book. It was pretty unexciting throughout its entirety. Even though it was a shorter book (224 pages), it felt long. So overall, I was pretty disappointed with Spark of the Resistance, but perhaps it is just a better fit for the intended audience. 

Characters (6.25/10 pts)

Because the three main characters in Spark of the Resistance are also well-known in the Star Wars universe, I look for what other information we can learn about them. This is especially true for Rey and Rose because they did not have featured roles in Resistance Reborn. However, I was pretty disappointed with the three main characters’ development in this book. They didn’t seem to have any character development at all. Even though I love these characters in the movies, I did not feel similar levels of love for the interpretations of them in this book. This sucked a lot of the excitement out of the book for me. The most redeeming parts of the book regarding characters were the new characters that joined the Resistance. They didn’t have as prominent roles as Rey, Rose, or Poe, but I still enjoyed what their characters added to the story. I just wish these new characters had an actual role in TROS. But overall, characters were a weakness. So I am only giving 6.25 points.  

Writing Style (8/10 pts)

Another Star Wars novel, yet another New York Times Best-Selling Author. The writing style was one of the few pleasant surprises of the book. Since it was intended for a younger audience, I was expecting the writing style to be the most significant weakness of the book. However, I quickly realized those expectations were wrong. The writing style was better than I expected, even through the perspective of an adult reader. There was more depth in the writing than expected. It is probably less than average in quality when compared to other Star Wars books, due to its simplicity, but I am still taking into consideration the intended audience of the book. From that, I am giving a score of 8 points, which is a score on par with the average Star Wars novel. 

Plot (6.5/10 pts)

The plot did seem pretty well organized. It had a series of peaks and valleys that successfully led up to a somewhat climactic conclusion. Also, Ireland did a good job of bringing closure to the book. Those were the strengths of the plot, but they were not enough to overcome the weaknesses. For starters, the plot was limited to a single adventure. This greatly limited the overall scope of the book. We could have learned much more about how the Resistance was sparked if the book included more than just this one adventure. Another problem with the plot was it being fairly unexciting. I wasn’t invested in the story at all. It may have hurt that I knew the three main characters would be ok, and there wasn’t much else going on that made me excited to learn how it would end. The ending was pretty expected due to this. So the plot being unexciting and expected brings me to give it a score of 6.5 points. The strong organization of the plot is what keeps it from an even lower score.

Intrigue (5.75/10 pts)

A combination of the unexciting plot and insufficient emotional attachment to the characters significantly hurts the intrigue of Spark of the Resistance. Instead of having motivation to find out what happens in the book, it was my motivation to get this book review out before TROS premiers that helped me finish the book (the initial review was published previously). I really had to grind to finish it, even though it is the shortest Star Wars book I have read. This is even with the simpler writing style that should have resulted in a quick read. Even with books that typically have low intrigue, there are usually sections of the book where intrigue peaks. This didn’t happen during Spark of the Resistance. Due to that, I am only giving 5.5 points for intrigue.

What does it add? (6.5/10 pts)

I was expecting Spark of the Resistance to add some interesting information regarding the Force because Rey was a featured character in the story. While there were some instances where we got a glimpse inside of her mind while using the Force, they were pretty limited in their detail. They were also insignificant parts of the book and didn’t add much to the overall understanding of the Force. I was simply expecting more from it. What Spark of the Resistance did add that was positive was a cool new species (the Zixon) and an interesting new weapon (the Echo Horn). The Zixon are the most interesting, because they may use the Force to communicate, but it wasn’t explored as much as it could have been. Still, I think there was much more potential to add significant content to Star Wars than what was explored. I am only giving 6.5 points for this section.

Logic (0 pts)

The only thing I can think of for this section is that the Rey and Poe in Spark of the Resistance did not seem like the same characters as the Rey and Poe in Resistance Reborn. Also, Rey REALLY shows a strong hate for Kylo Ren in this book making him seem unredeemable. That doesn’t match up with TROS. However, I don’t think I can take points away from just one book for that issue. It is more of a problem with the continuity and consistency of Star Wars holistically. So I will neither award nor take away points for logic.

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for Spark of the Resistance is a 6.6/10, or a D. This makes Spark of the Resistance my lowest rated book so far. Admittedly though, this book should be received much better when read by the intended audience. But because I am an adult reader and these book reviews are also written for adults, I must review the book from that perspective. I would only read this book if you are wanting all the clues possible about TROS. But I would rather recommend Force Collector or Resistance Reborn.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

The Phantom Menace Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Kindle, 386

Author: Terry Brooks

Intended audience: Adult

Timeline: Precedes Attack of the Clones

Main characters: Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé, Jar Jar, and more.

Brief synopsis: As the beginning of the Skywalker Saga, this novel sets up the first steps of Anakin’s journey during a troublesome time for the Republic.

Gut Feeling

I first want to point out that I’m fairly certain that the Prequel novels are still considered Canon, even though they were written before Disney took over. From what I learned, as long as nothing is said in the novel that contradicts the current Canon, all the content is still considered Canon. As the reader, you just have to pick some bones out of the reading that are no longer Canon. Obviously, most of the content of the book follows the same events of the movie, but there are many added scenes and some interesting lore. Some of this info has been contradicted in future Canon work, so it will not be considered Canon within the book, but the rest of the book is still Canon. Hopefully, that makes sense.

My gut reaction is that I really enjoyed reading this book, but I must admit that I am a fan of the Prequels, so it makes sense that I would enjoy reading the book as well. Brooks did everything that I want for an author of a movie novelization to do. He added lots of new content. The first two full chapters were exclusively new content. He also added much to the existing scenes, letting us know what was happening within the characters’ minds and setting more context. This was all the good stuff, but I also, unfortunately, realized that my affection for this story is largely based on the visuals of the movie and nostalgia. To no fault of Brooks’, this book opened my eyes up to some of the weaknesses of The Phantom Menace. But I will get into that later. Let’s get into the details.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Characters were one of the strongest points of the novel. Since the characters are already existing, I look to what additional content we can get about the characters to add to their development. Since most of the story is already known, this requires exploring existing scenes with more depth or adding completely new scenes for development. Brooks did both of these things excellently. As mentioned earlier, the first two chapters of the book were brand new content. I won’t give details, but they were about Anakin and gave us a glimpse into his life before the Jedi found him. It gave his character at the time more depth with the added context.

Anakin was not the only one who received attention in the book. Almost every character did in fact. We learned more about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan’s relationship (which parallels well to what happened in Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray), Padmé and her handmaidens (which parallels well to Queen’s Shadow by E. K. Johnston), Shmi Skywalker, Darth Maul, the Neomodians, and we even got significant details on Jar Jar! You may not be pleased about that last one, but I was! Jar Jar is an interesting character and we got a peek inside his brain in this book. Overall, Brooks did a great job of adding depth to these existing characters. I am giving 9 points.

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

Going back some years, Terry Brooks is one of the first authors that I have reviewed that I haven’t known much about. But the standard seems to be similar, there are no poorly written Star Wars novels! Brooks’s style in this book is certainly detailed, which normally means that it is difficult to read, but I do not feel that it was the case. This can be attributed to the writing style, but also the fact that I’m reading a story that I’m familiar with. So both things together made it an easier read. What is really important about this style is that it is what I expect from a novelization of the movie. I don’t want a simple style that simply re-tells the story in book form, I want many details that help the story come to life. So because Brooks’s style fit what was needed and he pulled it off so well, I am giving 9 points for the writing style.

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

Because the main points of the story are already set in stone, I look at what Brook adds to the existing scenes and what extra scenes he adds to the story. The existing scenes did have more depth and context behind them. This gave me more understanding of what was going on and sometimes gave the scene more meaning. A downside I have is that sometimes the scenes did not go exactly as they did in the movie. I am very familiar with the movie so these instances stood out. Either the dialogue or some other detail would be different at points, which left me scratching my head because it is supposed to be the exact same story, just with extra, not different, adaptations. But these slight deviations did not really take away from the overall plot so I am not too worried about them, but it is worth noting. 

The most significant strength for the plot is the additional content that Brooks wrote. There was a decent amount of it and I think it all served strong purposes. The downside is that it caused the story to move slowly at points, but this is also due to some plot weaknesses in the original story and not to the fault of Brooks. The plot just moves slowly sometimes, which I am now understanding is a weakness of the movie. But the novelization should not be penalized for that. Everything Brooks did was good for the plot, so I am awarding 8.5 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

Whereas I do not think the novel should be penalized for the movie’s story, it does have some effect on the intrigue. It, combined with the detailed nature of the story and additional scenes, did hurt the intrigue. If you’re like me and really love any added content, this won’t be much of a problem. But even I had to admit that the story had too many valleys and not enough peaks. And most readers will naturally have less interest in the story than I did (I really really love The Phantom Menace). But even though it did move slowly, because it follows the events of the movie, it was somewhat easy to read. I think all novelizations will benefit from that factor for this section. That saves this score from being even lower, leaving the score at 7 points for the intrigue.

What does it add? (6.5/10 pts)

This is the weakest section of the novel. Since it follows the events of the movie, I look at what content the book adds that is independent of the film. Brooks did add some interesting content considering Sith and Jedi lore, but not all of it added up with what is currently considered Canon. This is because a lot has changed in Canon since the time the book was written and now. There was nothing that was drastically different, just small deviations. Some of the lore content was interesting and Canon, but not enough to receive a high score. Other novels during this time period do a better job of adding content to the Star Wars universe. I am giving 6.5 points for this section.

Logic (0 pts)

Since I believe the reader should be picking out pieces of the novel that are no longer Canon, I don’t believe I can take away any points for the logic. Since it didn’t add to the logic of Star Wars, I will neither add nor take away extra points for this section.

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for the novelization of The Phantom Menace is an 8/10, or right at a low B-minus. If you enjoyed the movie, as I did, you will most certainly enjoy this novelization. It added many new significant scenes and gave more depth to the existing ones. But the book also suffered from some of the weaknesses of the movie, like the slow-moving plot and odd characters. So if you did not like the movie, this book probably won’t change your mind- especially considering that one of the strengths of the movie is the visuals, which are lost in book form. But overall Brooks did an excellent job of writing this story in book form and I was glad to have read it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Thrawn Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Paperback, 470

Author: Timothy Zahn

Intended audience: Adult

Timeline: Between 13 and 11 BBY

Main characters: Thrawn, Ahrinda Pryce, and Eli Vanto

Brief synopsis: After mysteriously being picked up by the Empire, Thrawn starts to apply his military genius to the Empire and rapidly rises in rank.

Gut Feeling

I think I understand the hype behind Thrawn’s character and this trilogy. I have already started the second book of this series, am currently reading the new Thrawn novel, and have started rewatching Rebels just to get some more of Thrawn. I am very glad they decided to make his character Canon again as I’m sure that Legends Thrawn was pretty awesome too. That being said, I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Especially because all of the main characters of the book were fairly new (aside from Rebels), this makes it more difficult for me to buy into it. Because of that, it took a little while for the book to get going, but once it did, I was definitely hooked! I don’t have too many specifics to say that won’t be covered in the rest of the review, so I’ll just say that I loved this book and am excited to continue the series!

Characters (10/10 pts)

As I mentioned, the main characters in Thrawn were almost all new. Even though they had some appearances in Rebels, Ahrinda Pryce and Eli Vanto are not mainstream characters. Also, Thrawn is fairly new to Canon as well. Because of that, Zahn had his work cut out for him to develop these characters and cause the readers to like them. For the most part, the book follows two different storylines. One was of Thrawn and Eli Vanto and the other followed Ahrinda Pryce. From my experience in Star Wars novels, when there are two storylines like this, usually one is more interesting and well developed than the other. And usually, the storyline that the reader becomes less invested in is the one without the main character. So, I expected the story of Ahrinda Pryce to be rather boring. Boy was I wrong. All three of these characters were great. Their stories were compelling and relatable. When I was reading about Thrawn and Eli, I found myself wondering what Ahrinda was up to- and vice versa. Thrawn didn’t even overshadow Eli’s character. Eli shone almost as proudly as Thrawn. I say almost because Thrawn was the most developed character in this story, as he should be. I learned a lot about how he thinks, his motivations, and his behavior while also wanting to learn more. Good thing there are more books! Thrawn gets a perfect score for the characters.

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

Another Star Wars novel and we have yet another New York Times Bestselling Author. This book was pretty long and was dense with many details. Usually, when that happens, the book is difficult to read, but this was not the case with Zahn’s writing. The details included were both interesting and vital to the story. It also never really felt like too much. So despite it being dense, I still found it rather easy to read. The book was also dialogue-driven at points. While this was effective at expressing the character’s thoughts, the dialogue did feel a little awkward at points. While I understand that Thrawn’s character does speak differently, this wasn’t exclusive to his character. This is the only reason I am not giving full points for the writing style. It is left with a still great score of 9 points.

Plot (9.5/10 pts)

The plot was very strong. Perhaps more importantly, it really felt like the first book in a series. While alone it was a very exciting story, it set the stage for what I hope are excellent second and third books. The only downside I have for the plot is that it did start pretty slow. Zahn did a lot of work developing these characters from the ground up. However, it paid off well. There were balanced amounts of peaks and valleys and the peaks felt a little bit higher each time they came around. This appropriately raised the excitement until it reached an exciting and climactic finish. The book also successfully reached a satisfying closure for each character, which is no easy task. However, along with giving closure, it also opened up the story for new beginnings for each character- again making the reader excited for the next books. Overall, the plot was near perfect. I am giving 9.5 points.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Once I got past the character development stage of the novel, it became very intriguing. Even though it was dense, I found myself lost in the details. They were thought-provoking and I loved it. As the characters were thinking through different problems, it caused me to do the same. This really put the reader inside of the novel and made it so compelling. It was a book that I didn’t want to come to an end. That isn’t always the case for books that I read, especially books this long. But Zahn accomplished it anyway. 9.5 points for Intrigue. 

What does it add? (6.5/10 pts)

Here we arrive at perhaps the weakest point of the novel. When considering what Thrawn added to the Star Wars universe, I’m pretty limited to thinking Thrawn and his species, the Chiss. While Thrawn alone is an awesome addition to the Star Wars universe, he was already a character in Rebels. So instead of introducing an awesome new character, Thrawn simply provided considerable character development for that character. So I can’t award the book strong points just for Thrawn. The Chiss, however, can be considered as an addition to Star Wars lore. While there were some details about the species, I expect to hear more in book two and especially in Thrawn Chaos Rising. The score won’t be great for this section, but that shouldn’t take away from the excellence of the novel. So, just for this book, I am only giving 6.5 points for what it adds.

Logic (0 pts)

Thrawn neither took away nor added logic to the Star Wars universe. So I am neither taking away nor adding extra points.

Final Thoughts

So, my final score for Thrawn is an 8.9/10, or a B plus. This is a pretty strong score for books that I have scored and especially high for the first book in a series. I have only given four books As, and this book almost joins that elite copany.Don’t be surprised if you like the book even more than the score suggests. It is a novel of top tier quality, as expressed by the score for the first four sections. Thrawn is a really awesome character in Star Wars and a compelling antihero. If you have any interest in the time period of the Empire, you should pick up this book and take it for a ride. You won’t regret it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Resistance Reborn Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 295

Author: Rebecca Roanhorse

Intended audience: Adult

Timeline: Follows The Last Jedi, precedes The Rise of Skywalker

Main characters: Poe Dameron, Leia Organa, Finn, Rey, Wedge Antilles, Rose Tico, Winshur Bratt, and other Resistance fighters

Brief synopsis: Following the events of The Last Jedi, the Resistance has limited resources and leadership. In order to fight the First Order, they must re-group and re-build.

Gut Feeling

This book definitely did its job in the series of “Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” There is a large gap between Episodes 8 and 9, and Resistance Reborn helps to bridge that gap. It should also make the viewing of Episode 9 more meaningful as there is significant background information that should be applied during the movie. So for this purpose, the book accomplished what it was supposed to. Outside of that, I wish we got more content on characters like Rey and Rose. They are crucial members of the Resistance, but they didn’t get much time in this book. I understand why we didn’t get much of Rey (because she is SUCH a crucial character that is explored largely in TROS), but Rose should have gotten more time. We still don’t know much about her, and this book had potential to be a great learning opportunity (especially since we got almost nothing about her in TROS). This is one of the reasons that made it somewhat disappointing. 

However, the story that followed the Resistance fighters was not the entire focus of the book. A separate story line followed Imperial Winshur Bratt. Going into the book, I wasn’t expecting a story told from an Imperial’s perspective, and if I had known it was coming, I probably wouldn’t have been looking forward to it. However, Winshur’s storyline was my favorite part of the entire book. It ended up being an important part of the entire story, and it was a clever add from Roanhorse. In an overall somewhat average book, Winshur’s story shone bright.

Characters (8.25/10 pts)

Most of this book is going to be fairly hard to rate. This is because the story that followed the Resistance and the one that followed Winshur Bratt differed in quality. I could rate both of them separately and have completely different scores. However, because this book follows main characters in the Star Wars universe, I feel I must give the Resistasnce’s storyline the most consideration in my ratings.

Because many of the characters were already established, I look to what additional information I can learn from them. I want it to be both somewhat surprising, but for it to also make sense inside of the Star Wars universe. While there is some new character development for Leia, Poe, Rey, and Finn, I didn’t like the direction that Resistance Reborn took these characters. It didn’t really make sense. There also wasn’t much character development outside of what I didn’t like or any character defining moments for them. It failed to build upon my existing emotional attachment to these characters. The quality of the main characters in the Resistance was the biggest weakness for the “characters” section.

The redeemable qualities come from the new characters. Others are brought into the Resistance and have significant depth to them. I enjoyed their backgrounds quite a bit. But the real strength did lie with Winshur’s story. His character, accompanied by Yama Dex and Monti Clay, is very strong. Their storylines were pretty complex, especially for a Star Wars story, but it was done excellently. Their arcs were both surprising and made a lot of sense. It was the strongest part of the book and pulls the score from being below average to being slightly above average at 8.25 points. By themselves, Winshur, Yama, and Monti would have received a perfect score.

Writing Style (9/10 pts)

This may be the first Star Wars book that I’ve read that did not have New York Times Bestselling Author next to the author’s name (but Resistance Reborn itself became a bestseller). Regardless, this was still a well-written novel. The storyline that followed the Resistance seemed up to par in quality with other Star Wars books. It included much detail that made it a slower read, but the detail was welcoming as it made the story have more depth. Interestingly enough, Roanhorse actually switched her writing style for Winshur’s story. This was a stylistic choice that paid off very well. I don’t say this lightly when I say that this storyline was the best written Star Wars arc that I’ve encountered. They way she developed the characters and told the story was intoxicatingly good. Even though the events of the storyline on the surface weren’t especially exciting, through her masterful writing she made them matter to the reader. It was a pretty sophisticated style and it fit it's plot so very well. Winshur’s story on its own would again receive a perfect score, but overall I am giving a 9/10 for the writing style. 

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

For the plot, I will consider the Resistance and Winshur’s story together. Overall, it was essentially what I would expect from a novel titled Resistance Reborn. It made sense to what should have been happening in this time period. The plot was also well developed as it slowly ramped up to a satisfying and exciting conclusion. Overall, she did a good job with the plot as there weren’t blatant weaknesses to it. What I do point out is that the beginning of the book was somewhat unexciting, but it was made up for with a strong conclusion. Roanhorse did a great job at bringing different storylines together into a climactic finish that reminded me of the style done by Paul Kemp in Lords of the Sith. It worked very well as the ending of the book was the part where I did not want to put it down. Because of the strong ending, I am giving the plot 8.5 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

While the writing style’s density may have been a strength for applying depth to the story, it did take a little away from the intrigue. I didn’t feel that I could read large amounts of the book in one setting without needing a break. This combined with the fact that, outside of the ending, parts of the book were not that exciting. Even though this book was just under 300 pages, it was definitely not a quick read. At the end I was intrigued to finish the book, but it does not take away from my feelings regarding the intrigue for the whole book. This is something I was not expecting since the book is about some of the most favored characters in the sequel trilogy. Because of this, I am giving 7 points for intrigue. 

What does it add? (6/10 pts)

Outside of supplying clues to TROS, I don’t think Resistance Reborn adds much significant content to the Star Wars universe. Because the purpose of the book was to add content to TROS, what it added was completely expected. With that in mind, I then look to see what else the book adds to the entire Star Wars universe. Resistance Reborn, much like books similar to Most Wanted, does not supply any information outside of the book’s intended purpose. It does not become bigger than itself. If Rey was a more central part of the story, this could have been different. This is the biggest weakness of the book. That being said, I am only giving 6 points.

Logic (0 pts)

The only thing that comes to mind for this section is that some of the characters went directions that I didn’t like. It didn’t seem to make sense with what happened to them previously and then what happens in TROS. But I think this is largely open to interpretation so I will not be taking away any points for that reason. It just seems too biased for me to do so. Overall, Resistance Reborn neither adds to or takes away from logic within the Star Wars universe.

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for Resistance Reborn is a 7.75/10, or a C plus. The storyline of Winshur Brett was the highlight of the entire book, even though his story was far from the emphasis of the book. On its own, Winshur’s story would have scored very high. While the storyline of the Resistance was good, it just didn’t have the same high quality. This story felt fairly self-contained among the Star Wars universe, outside of supplying clues for TROS. Independent from TROS, it wasn’t my favorite read. But if you want more information on the movie, I would suggest Resistance Reborn as a must read. 

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Revenge of the Sith Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover: 432

Author: Matthew Stover

Intended Audience: Adult

Timeline: Follows Attack of the Clones, precedes Rogue One

Main characters: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, Palpatine, Mace Windu, and others.

Brief synopsis: While battling his inner demons, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and other heroes of the Republic face a tragic end to the Clone Wars.

Gut Feeling

Wow. This book was a masterpiece. There was a lot of hype around it, which was certainly surprising for a novelization of a movie. It isn’t a new Star Wars story, it is simply retelling one in book format, so why should there be hype around it? While novelizations can bring some new perspectives to the movies, I didn’t think any novelization would have this much hype. But the hype for this book is up there with the hype of other great Star Wars novels, like Lost Stars. Heck, there is even a Twitter page called Revenge of the Sith Novel Quotes dedicated to posting quotes from the novel. And there are a lot of them. My point is that there was a lot of hype behind the book and this raised my expectations for it.

And my expectations were exceeded. Revenge of the Sith is my favorite Star Wars movie. It is just so complex and has more depth to it than most Star Wars stories. Stover made this story even better by adding more depth and complexity to the best parts of the story. He put so much care into every part of the book, making it feel even more like a Shakepserian tragedy. He also truly made it his own, which is unlike any other Star Wars book that I’ve read. I could go on and on about how much I loved it, but I’ll just start getting into the details and scores.

Characters (10/10 pts)

If I were to ever give “extra credit” for sections, it would probably be for characters for this book. Stover earned every bit of the 10 points for this section, if not more. For every aspect of the characters in the book, Stover’s work was excellent. For starters, so many characters got specific sections dedicated to giving background on them. It was usually a few pages just detailing who the character was and what it was like to be them. I’d have to go back through to actually point out all the characters that Stover did this for, but notably Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, Count Dooku, and General Grievous got development this way. As the reader, I knew these sections were explicitly being used as character development, but it still worked very well. For this reason alone, I may have given 10 points for characters.

But this was not the only strong point for characters. Notably, the interaction between characters in forming their relationships was strong. As the focal point of the book, Anakin’s relationships with Obi-Wan and Palpatine were crucial. Stover further develops the depth between Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship as brothers who love each other. In a way, similar to Anakin and Padmé, their story is one of forbidden love, because the Jedi Order does not approve of this kind of attachment between friends. Biblically, it reminded me of the bond between David and Jonathan. Then, with Anakin and Palpatine, their relationship has much more understanding. It makes sense why Anakin eventually chose Palpatine over the Jedi Order. Their interactions were given so much more depth than the movie, but I’ll discuss that more later on.

Finally, the change from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader is a pretty significant change for a single character. In order to do this successfully, it must make sense and not be forced. In the movie, it does feel a little forced. In the book, Stover really makes this make sense. This, again, is one of the strongest parts of the book.

So the characters in this novel were a strength. Probably the strongest point of the book, and that is saying a lot. It easily receives the full points.

Writing Style (10/10 pts)

As I mentioned, this novel is a masterpiece. It is not only one of the best written Star Wars novels that I’ve encountered, it is one of the best written novels that I’ve read. There was so much attention given by Stover to each chapter. So many literary devices were used to bring the novel to life. Symbolism, metaphors, and foreshadowing were littered throughout the book, and I loved it. Stover even used second person (using you) at one point! Hardly any books use this literary device. But Stover did this to put the reader in the shoes of one of the characters to make them feel what the character was feeling. A bold strategy, and I must say it paid off well. I could continue to give more examples of why the writing is so great, but I don’t want to give away too much. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. Stover easily earns another 10 points.

Plot (9.5/10 pts)

For novelizations, the skeleton of the plot is already in place. So, for the overall story, Stover doesn’t have much leeway. Because of that, I look to what else is added to the story. Stover did not let me down. While there were extra scenes that he added, these are not what stood out to me. It was the background information and depth that he gave to the existing scenes that made the plot even better. The events taking place in Revenge of the Sith (Order 66, the fall of the Jedi, Anakin’s transformation to Darth Vader, etc.) are complex, and in just movie form they cannot be given the detailed structure required to get the most out of them. Specifically, Palpatine’s manipulation of Anakin was brilliantly told. In the book, I actually, along with Anakin, start to believe the words coming out of Palpatine’s mouth. This is even with my understanding that Palpatine is evil. Stover did that good of a job. Also, the story was told through many different perspectives, giving an overall better understanding of the story. So, Stover made an existing story of high quality even better. The only reason why I am not giving a perfect score for this section is that I wish the ending of the book was given some more depth. Comparing it to the rest of the book, it felt a little rushed which was a little disappointing. It is also important to note that some small details of the book do differ from the movie, but nothing that drastically changes the story. All in all, I am giving a strong score of 9.5 points for the plot.

Intrigue (9.5/10 pts)

Novelizations of movies naturally score higher in this section. This is because we are already familiar with the story, so the reading is easier to digest. Also, because Stover inherited one of the more exciting stories in Star Wars, the intrigue came easily to this novel. However, he also made the intrigue even better with the superb writing. Every single section was well written. It made the exciting sections more exciting and the complex sections more complex. What was good about the story became even better in book form. Also, his writing style was easy to read so I could read page after page without much effort. And trust me, I didn’t want to put the book down. The book climaxed fairly early and stayed exciting for the last 200 pages or so. But I must admit some of my bias because this is my favorite part of the Skywalker Saga, so not everyone will have the same feelings. Because of that, I am lowering my score for this section from being perfect to a still impressive score of 9.5 points.

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

Most novelizations of movies struggle with this section. Because most of the story is already in movie form, it is difficult for the book to add anything to the Star Wars universe that is actually significant. While this is in fact the weakest part of the novel, it is still about on par with other Star Wars novels. So, in that perspective, it is a strength. Most notably, Stover gave more details to different lightsaber fighting styles considering their strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, Windu’s fighting style of Vaapad was fascinating to learn about. It gives more evidence that he may be the closest thing to a Gray Jedi in Canon. Also, we learned about what it feels like to be under Force persuasion, which was both humorous and informative. Stover earned his 8 points for this section.

Logic (0 pts)

There were certain aspects in this novel which did not line up with the current Star Wars Canon. For example, in the book, Yoda mentions not having learned the path to Force immortality. But we know now that this happens in The Clone Wars prior to the events of Revenge of the Sith. But my approach to reading these old novelizations is that I must pick out pieces that no longer line up with Canon. I basically just disregard them. This is different from the new Canon novels, in which every detail should be considered Canon. Because of that, I am not taking away any points from this novel for contradicting logic within the Star Wars universe.

Final Thoughts

Wow. My final score for the novelization of Revenge of the Sith is a 9.4/10, or a strong A. This makes it my second highest rated novel so far, just behind Master and Apprentice. It is notably just ahead of Lost Stars and Dark Disciple, two of my favorite Star Wars novels. I struggled with this fact, because I didn’t think a novelization of a film could be that good. I went back through and rethought my scores for each section and came to the realization that it really is that good. The score could actually be a little higher if I didn’t control for my own biases. If you have even any interest in the novelizations of the movies, Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover is a must read. Do not be surprised if it becomes your favorite Star Wars novel.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Rebel Rising Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 410

Author: Beth Revis

Intended Audience: Young Adult

Timeline: Precedes Rogue One

Main characters: Jyn Erso 

Brief synopsis: After being separated from her parents, Jyn Erso must learn to survive and find her way in a galaxy that is constantly reminding her that she is alone.

Gut Feeling

I specifically read this book because I had a lot of interest in Jyn’s life between when she left her parents and the Rebels picked her up. This book did just that starting immediately as she left her parents and ending immediately as the Rebels picked her up. The story did not disappoint. She definitely lived a very exciting life, which is what I would expect from an awesome character like Jyn Erso. While the book did have peaks and valleys in its excitement, it never really got boring. If I wasn’t so busy while I was reading it, I probably would have finished reading it much faster than I did. While reading it, I didn’t want to put it down. Revis didn’t pull any punches when writing this one, and that is something that made Rebel Rising a great read.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Obviously, the most important character to the story was Jyn Erso. But what I wasn’t expecting was significant development of Saw Gerrera as well. Saw is a classic anti-hero character in Star Wars. While he does fight alongside the Rebellion, his actions often parellel closely to that of terrorism. While his character has been explored well in Rogue One and the TV shows, I think his character was at his best in Rebel Rising. His actions are pretty shocking, but Revis did a good job of explaining his motives for them, making the actions almost understandable. I did not expect this from Rebel Rising, and it is a big reason why it scores well in this category.

And now for Jyn Erso. Considering she goes through a traumatic experience at the start of the book, her character goes through a lot of changes and development during this time of her life. She obviously is a completely different person as a kid in Rogue One than she is in her early 20s. Rebel Rising helps to bridge that gap. Her character also didn’t develop in ways that I expected, but Revis did it in a way that still made sense. I have even more appreciation for Jyn’s character now that I have read Rebel Rising.

The one downside that I do have for the book’s characters is that I really didn’t have much interest in the characters outside of Jyn and Saw. They were not developed in a way that made them super strong, even though some of them were pretty crucial to the story. Regardless, characters are still a strength for Rebel Rising and that is why I am giving 9 points for them.

Writing Style (8/10 pts)

Well we’re back at it, another Star Wars novel and another New York Times Best-Selling Author. So it was of course well written, but let's examine what was unique about Revis’ writing style. The biggest plus was that it was easy to read. I never felt that it took much energy to sit and read for lengthy periods of time. And I didn’t think that the details were too lacking due to the book being an easy read. One of the few downsides that I did see about the writing style was it seemed a bit repetitive at times. Especially at the beginning of chapters, I felt that some plot points were briefly repeated. This may be a good strategy if readers put the book down between chapters, but for those of us who don’t, it felt like temporary lulls in the reading. But these were fairly short and didn’t take away from the overall high quality of the writing. It is just me being nitpicky. I am giving 8 points for the writing style of Rebel Rising.

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

The plot overall seemed pretty good. It had no glaring weaknesses to it. Most books have certain weaknesses in the plot, but Rebel Rising was an exception. It was exciting from beginning to end, with the necessary peaks and valleys. It also finished well, transitioning into Rogue One seamlessly. Certain plot points of the book were pretty shocking, which I greatly appreciate in any story. Like I mentioned before, Revis didn’t really hold back punches with this book. Events for Jyn Erso should have been shocking during this time of her life, and they certainly were. Also, it jumped back and forth in Jyn’s life, in a way that wasn’t confusing. This gave certain plot points time to breathe and kept my interest high throughout the book. I’m also glad that it completely bridged the missing gap in Rogue One, not leaving much out. The only downside I see is some of the plot points were less exciting than others, but it isn’t a huge weakness. While it may not have been perfect, the plot was very strong earning 8.5 points.

Intrigue (9/10 pts)

Whenever a book is both easy to read with an exciting plot, it will score high in the intrigue section. I simply didn’t want to put the book down while reading it. The only thing that it did lack was a truly climatic experience where my intrigue would have been at its highest. I would have expected this to occur near the end of the book, but it did not. Instead, my intrigue stayed essentially the same throughout the whole read. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was what keeps Rebel Rising from getting a perfect score for intrigue. Instead, it will settle for the slightly imperfect score of 9 points.

What does it add? (6.25/10 pts)

A lot of books that are written to supplement movies don’t score well in this section because the book is meant to just add content to the movie, and not to Star Wars as a whole. Unfortunately, Rebel Rising is no exception here. The book felt fairly self-contained in showing what Jyn was up to during this time in her life. While the book was certainly successful in adding character development for Jyn, it didn’t provide much more information to Star Wars. The most it did, and it did do this well, was expand the universe slightly by giving us some new interesting species. Revis got creative with it and it paid off. But it wasn’t enough to give Rebel Rising a great score for this section, so I am only giving 6.25 points.

Logic (0 pts)

Rebel Rising neither added to nor took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe, so I am neither adding nor taking away extra points.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Rebel Rising is an 8.15/10, or a B minus. This causes it to fall right in the middle of the books that I have reviewed so far. Because I like Jyn Erso so much, I liked it even more than this rating suggests. But that opinion is biased, because not everyone will like Jyn Erso as much as me (Rogue One falls second in my movie ranking).The quality of the story was very good, but I do think that you should have an interest in Jyn Erso if you are wanting to read this book. If so, I am convinced that you will love it. And if you don’t have much interest in her, this book has the potential to change your mind about her (and Saw!).

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Queen's Shadow Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 345

Author: E. K. Johnston

Timeline: Follows The Phantom Menace, precedes Attack of the Clones

Main Characters: Padmé and her handmaidens

Brief Synopsis: Time as Queen of Naboo for Padmé has ended and she is looking to make a galaxy wide impact as the new Senator of Naboo. 

Gut Feeling

I had pretty high expectations for this book, and this may admittedly make this section a bit more biased than usual (but again, that’s why this section gets no points). I was expecting a book surrounding Padmé’s time as queen before The Phantom Menace, but the timeline is after her time as Queen and that was initially somewhat disappointing. But a big reason that I enjoy the Prequels so much is the politics. It's a fascinating perspective to see how the Empire was created. Seeing as it is fairly similar to Hitler’s rise to power, politics in the Prequel era are a big plus to me. So I overcame my disappointment and was again excited. My expectations were not for an action filled book, but for an intellectual one revolving around Padmé’s influence in the Galactic Senate. While this is mostly what I got, it ended up unfulfilling, anti-climatic, and lacked closure. This seems harsh likely because it was my emotional response to the book, but I still think that it is fair. I still enjoyed reading it, but it is definitely going to score on the lower side of books that I have reviewed.

Characters (8/10 pts)

Padmé herself was the strongest character, which makes sense, and it was interesting to see how she changed through the transition from Queen to Senator. It is something I didn’t think about much between Episodes I and II, but it was a character defining moment for her. This book highlighted that. I felt somewhat attached to Padmé, but I was expecting to be rooting for her even more than I was. I’ll get to the plot in a moment, but I believe since the book was so anticlimactic that I didn’t feel myself rooting for and being attached to Padmé as much as I should have.

As for other characters in the book, it also highlighted Padmé’s handmaidens. This is a special addition to the Star Wars universe because the handmaidens were primarily background characters in The Phantom Menace. This book gave the handmaidens considerable depth and uniqueness. However, I must admit that it was difficult to keep track of them. They all have similar names so it was easy to get confused about who’s backstory belonged to who. I do think that Queen’s Peril did a better job of developing the handmaidens. But overall, the characters were still good in Queen’s Shadow. I just think there was potential for them to be even better, but I’m still giving 8 points.

Writing Style (8.25/10 pts)

I’m starting to think that I won’t ever award low points for this section because every Star Wars book that I have read so far has been well written. They are almost always written by a New York Times Best-Selling Author, so the writing is very quality. E. K. Johnston is no exception. She is a detail oriented author and it at first felt like too much, but I settled in and began to enjoy her writing style. While it is dense, it wasn’t difficult to read. Since it was so detailed, it made scenes come to life if I made a conscious effort to keep my attention on the details. It felt well with the intellectual storytelling. The writing style was the greatest strength of Queen’s Shadow, and I am awarding 8.25 points.

Plot (5.75/10 pts)

I’ve learned to be patient with books during development of characters because it is often worthwhile for the final quarter or third of the book. Most of this book felt as if it was building up to a satisfying conclusion, but then the book ended and I felt unfulfilled. While there was a climax at the ending of the book, it felt undeveloped and I was expecting it to have required more pages and attention. I had the right understanding that the climax would not be action-based and would be more intellectual, so my expectations were not what made it feel anti-climatic. There were also exciting characters and concepts that were brought up quickly and just as quickly forgotten. I won’t go into detail on what these are, but I’m guessing you’ll pick them out if you read the book (one example is in the “Logic” section). So the plot felt lacking and was the biggest weakness of the book, that is why I’m only giving 5.75 points.

Intrigue (7.25/10 pts)

Even though the plot was lacking, the strong writing style kept me intrigued throughout most of the book. Also, the book is about Padmé, so I was intrigued before I even started reading. However, while reading, most of the intrigue was due to me expecting a climactic ending that didn’t ever happen. But this still caused the book to be easily readable and this kept me turning page after page. It just took me out of the book a little at the end. The small exciting moments that I’ve briefly discussed also added to the intrigue since it made me expect that there would be some highly developed and interesting content, but that again didn’t happen. So even though throughout most of the book I had fairly high levels of intrigue, I am only giving 7.25 points because the intrigue would quickly go back down.

What does it add? (6.5/10 pts)

Queen’s Shadow probably could have scored a lot higher in this section as there was a lot of potential to expand on certain ideas that would have really added to the universe. What it did best was provide more information on Padmé’s operation with her handmaids. They are truly a well oiled machine and all of Padmé’s handmaids are clearly highly skilled and very intelligent. There is so much thought that goes into everything that they do, especially Padmé’s outfits (aesthetically and practicality). So that was a plus, I have a much greater appreciation for them now. That and more information on how the Galactic Senate works was good information added to the Star Wars universe, but there still could have been more. 

Going along with the politics, I LOVE how Palpatine was playing both sides during the war and I am hungry for more information on Palpatine during the Prequel period. Palpatine had a few appearances in Queen’s Shadow and it really made me excited for the role he was going to play. However, the role remained limited and nothing really came from it (sorry if this is kinda an anti-spoiler).

So Queen’s Shadow did provide some new information to the Star Wars universe, but it was fairly limited and doesn’t significantly add to or change my outlook on anything substantial. That is why I’m only giving 6.5 points for this section.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

Man there was a GREAT opportunity to explain one of the major plot holes in the Prequels. The appointment of Jar Jar Binks to be the acting Senator of Naboo for Padmé. Since this move itself is pretty alarming and since Jar Jar essentially persuaded the Galactic Senate to give Palpatine emergency unchecked power, I wanted a good explanation for why it was done. This was ever so slightly mentioned in Queen’s Shadow and only barely explains it. It had the chance to further explain it, and it wasn’t done. 

There was also some minimal information that explained why Padmé fell so hard for Anakin in Episodes II and III. While this isn’t a major plot hole in the prequels, it still doesn’t make a ton of sense that someone as intelligent and poised as Padmé would basically throw her life away for Anakin. Queen’s Shadow could have explained this more by going into more depth, but there is some explanation for it. I could have given much more than an extra half a point for logic, but because these ideas were only glossed over Queen’s Shadow only gets one half additional point.

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for Queen’s Shadow is a 7.25/10, or a C minus. As I’ve stated multiple times, I felt unsatisfied when I finished the book, but I still enjoyed reading it. This is one of the lower scores that I have given a Star Wars book, but that shouldn’t completely deter you from reading it. But I still wouldn’t say Queen’s Shadow is a must read for Star Wars fans unless you are a Padmé fan. I enjoy her character a lot and my appreciation for her did slightly grow through the reading of this book. So if you like Padmé, you will likely also enjoy Queen’s Shadow. If you’re not a big fan of Padmé, there are better books to read.

I hope you enjoyed this review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Queen's Peril Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 352 pages

Author: E.K. Johnston

Intended Audience: Young Adult

Timeline: Follows Master & Apprentice and precedes The Phantom Menace

Main characters: Padmé Amidala, Sabé, and the other handmaidens

Brief synopsis: As the newly elected queen, Padmé Amidala faces political problems due to newly proposed taxing bills that come with a threat of impending war.

Gut Feeling

Personally, I was not a huge fan of Queen’s Shadow, the first book in this “series.” That being said, I was still very excited to read Queen’s Peril. Padmé is one of my favorite characters. I love content from before the movies, and the Prequels are my favorite trilogy, so I figured I would enjoy this book. However, this book was pretty different in the first and second halves. I really enjoyed the first and didn’t care as much for the second. I loved it when everything was original and new and didn’t like it as much when it paralleled with The Phantom Menace. The scenes that went along with Episode 1 jumped around quite a bit without much explanation. It relies on the reader knowing the events of the movie, which most of us do, but it makes it so that the book itself does not standalone, which I think is a negative. But, there were certainly things I liked about the book, I just felt that it had potential to be a lot better. Let’s get into the details.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Characters were by far the strongest point of this novel, it was certainly character driven. E.K. Jonhston really does great things for the female characters in Star Wars. Specifically, Padmé and her handmaidens. Queen’s Peril felt a lot like an origin story for both. In The Phantom Menace and Queen’s Shadow, we see Padmé already as an established queen and then transitioning into a senator. But in this book, we have to see her establish herself as Queen Amidala. By doing so, we see a new side of Padmé and it provides more depth to her character. We also get to see where Padmé attaints the strengths to her character: that was a nice touch. However, I was most impressed with the work Johnston did with the handmaidens. Each one was unique from one another, had their own back stories, and were all relatable in their own ways. While Johnston also did this in Queen’s Shadow, I felt that the development of the characters was done better in this book. A truly strong point for the novel. But the character development did not stop there. Several other characters also received development that are important to The Phantom Menace. Most notably, Captain Quarsh Panaka and Mariek Panaka also had significant development. These characters are important in the first movie, so it was good to learn more about them. Darth Maul was another who got some development, but it felt the most out of place in the story. By doing a sidebar to get a glimpse into Darth Maul, I think it had more potential to learn about him. But what Johnston included was still good. So characters were a strength and I am awarding 9 points.

Writing Style (8.5/10 pts)

As with all Star Wars books, Queen’s Peril was well written. E.K. Johnston is a New York Times Bestselling Author, so I didn’t expect anything less. The style of the book was written for a slightly younger audience, but it still came out as readable for the young adult and adult crowd. It was a little lacking in details (especially when compared with Queen’s Shadow), but not so much that the depth of the story was lacking. This made the book easy to read. Johnston’s flow was very good and the reading was effortless. Another strength to the novel, I’m giving 8.5 points for the writing.

Plot (6/10 pts)

Now that we have gotten past the strengths of the novel, it is time to get to the biggest weakness: the plot. As I mentioned before, this book was essentially split into two halves. The first half served as an origin story for Queen Amidala and the handmaidens and the second half coincided with The Phantom Menace. I enjoyed the first half, but didn’t care as much for the second. The development stage of the book was very good and I was excited for where the book was going. However, I was pretty disappointed to find that the book was building up to events that we already know the outcome for. Even though the perspective that we got was new, mostly from Padmé and the handmaidens, I would have preferred a completely new story. Also, the events within The Phantom Menace moved very quickly. I understand that there should not be as much detail as a novelization, but it skipped rapidly through the events where it was somewhat confusing. Also, it skipped past scenes that I would have liked to have seen from the perspective of either Padmé or the handmaidens. For these reasons, I am only giving 6 points for the plot.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

This is a section where I have to control some of my personal bias. As I mentioned before, I absolutely love the Prequels and The Phantom Menace holds a special place in my heart. So, my intrigue for this novel was naturally higher than normal. But not everyone has those same feelings. This makes the events in the second half of the book to be not as exciting. It is difficult to create intrigue when the story has already been told before. It was from a different perspective, but we still know essentially what is going to happen. This considerably decreased the intrigue for the second half of the story. But the writing style did add to the intrigue, as I was able to read the book without any real effort. And Padmé is a fan favorite, so that alone should increase some of the intrigue. But it isn’t enough to fully save the score, I am giving 7 points for the intrigue.

What does it add? (6.25/10 pts)

There wasn’t anything especially significant that Queen’s Peril added to the Star Wars universe. While the purpose of the book wasn’t to supplement The Phantom Menace, it sure felt like it. For books like these, they usually don’t have the freedom to add cool new Star Wars lore. But there were still some things that it added. Queen’s Peril added to the character development of the handmaidens, which I deem important because it’s helping to change background characters in The Phantom Menace into meaningful and strong female characters. But this book alone isn’t responsible for that (as Queen’s Shadow also did this) and these characters don’t have a broad impact on the universe. Johnston also introduced Neurotransmitter Affection, a popular music group on Naboo. While this doesn’t have much impact on the universe, it was a cool addition. But just being cool isn’t enough for a strong score, I am giving 6.25 points.

Logic (+ .25 pts)

Like most of our favorite Star Wars movies, The Phantom Menace has its fair share of confusing and illogical moments. Queen’s Peril both gives more context to the movie and helps explain some of the movie’s weak points. But, there was a great opportunity to explain one of the more confusing points of the Prequels, Maul surviving the fall and being cut in half. It was explained briefly in The Clone Wars, but was not detailed. It would have felt a little out of place in this story, but the story did follow Maul a little bit which also felt a little out of place. So this would not have been completely out of place. But because Queen’s Peril did give more context to other scenes, I am awarding an extra quarter point.

Final Thoughts

So, my final score for Queen’s Peril is a 7.4/10, or a C. This makes it on the lower end of books that I have reviewed. It was disappointing to me for many of the same reasons of Queen’s Shadow. The plot showed a lot of promise and was disappointing in the end. But there were still strong points to the book. Padmé was awesome and the handmaidens were probably even better. This, and if you want more context behind The Phantom Menace, are the main reasons you should decide to read this book. If so, you should enjoy reading Queen’s Peril.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Most Wanted Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 348

Author: Rae Carson

Intended Audience: Young Adult

Timeline: 13 BBY (before the battle of Yavin)

Main characters: Qi’ra and Han Solo

Brief synopsis: Each hoping to become a new Head of the White Worms, Qi’ra and Han go on a daring mission that nearly gets both of them killed.

Gut Feeling

As soon as I finished this book, I just had to watch Solo. I love it when a book gives me that kind of energy and new perspective on a Star Wars film. Also, going into the book I really liked Qi’ra and this book only increased my love for her character. At the end, I was rooting for her with everything inside of me and that was pretty cool. But emotional reactions aside, the book was a really quick read. Perhaps too quick. The font size of the book seemed larger than normal and the writing style was a bit simple, so I tore through it. So it may have lacked some details that I wanted, but the quick read also made it enjoyable. I have recommended this book to others before and I will keep doing so, but it is mostly a fun read instead of having really strong Star Wars details. That being said, I’m glad I read it and I really hope we get more Qi’ra content soon (we already have a lot of Han content).

Characters (9/10 pts)

Characters were one of the stronger points for this book. We already know a lot about Han, but we did learn more about his upbringing in Corelia. It is good to see how one of the more iconic Star Wars characters grew up and how that defined him as a character. But like I said, we already knew a lot about Han so my focus will instead be directed towards Qi’ra. Since all we know about her is what we see from Solo, we don’t really understand her motivations for wanting to team up with Maul. But through the exciting story in Most Wanted, there are many character-defining moments for Qi’ra (and Han) that dive into her character’s motivations and desires. And as I mentioned earlier, I found myself rooting for Qi’ra heavily at the end because of my emotional attachment to her. This emotional attachment is because of her character’s depth and relatability (which Han’s character also possessed, but again this is more impressively done with Qi’ra). Characters were definitely the strongest point for Most Wanted, largely because of Qi’ra, but also because of Han.

Writing Style (7.5/10 pts)

I don’t want it to seem as if I’m suggesting this book was poorly written, it really wasn’t. It just seemed less than average when compared to other Star Wars books, which are all very well written. Rae Carson is still a bestselling author, she’s very good. Most Wanted was just written a bit too simple for the young-adult crowd in my opinion. However, since I could read it fast, it added a bit to the intrigue because I never felt the need to put it down. That’s the upside for the simple writing style, but I prefer something more detailed and complex. The writing is still good and doesn’t take away from the quality of the book, just compared to others it is slightly below average.

Plot (6.5/10 pts)

I don’t want to give away much, but the plot was pretty simple and didn’t explore as much of Qi’ra and Han’s lives as I wanted. The whole book essentially explores one mission they go on that, yes was exciting, but also greatly limited the scope of the book. I think to more complicated plots like that of Lords of the Sith, and it really shows me how simple this one was. Now, again, simple isn’t always bad because it made the mission much more fun and exciting than it would have been if fewer pages were devoted to it. Carson also made the most of the plot by including character development into it, which helped to create some depth for the story. But overall, it was a bit too simple for what I want in a Star Wars story.

Intrigue (9/10 pts)

As I touched on in the weaknesses of the writing style and plot, they come out as strengths when it comes to the intrigue. I tore through this book turning page after page because it was so easy to read and because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Before I knew it, I was 30,50,100 pages in and still going fast! From almost the very start of the book, I was hooked and it continued throughout the rest of it. Most Wanted is certainly a fun book to read, and it scores highly in this section.

What does it add? (6.25/10 pts)

This was kind of a hard section to score for me. What Most Wanted adds to Solo is pretty cool, giving background to not just Han and Qi’ra, but also the White Worms and Lady Proxima. It gave me a new perspective and appreciation when watching Solo. But beyond this one standalone film, it doesn’t really add anything to the rest of the Star Wars universe. The scope was fairly limited in that regard. Books written to just supplement a single movie or a couple of characters usually fall into this trap. That is why I’m only giving 6 points for this section. What it adds is good, but it does not add that much.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing from Most Wanted that either adds to or takes away from the logic in the Star Wars universe.

Final Thoughts

So my final grade for Most Wanted is a 7.65/10, or a C. I seemed fairly critical of the book in this review, but it shouldn’t take away from the fact that I really enjoyed reading it! This is probably because I am both a fan of Solo and Qi’ra. If you are too, you’ll enjoy this book! I have already recommended it to a few people on Twitter who have also shown interest in Qi’ra’s character. However, if you didn’t enjoy Solo, there really isn’t anything in Most Wanted that will cause you to want to read it. Unless you have an open mind, then Most Wanted may actually give you more of an appreciation for Solo. Either way, if you decide to pick up Most Wanted, you will have a fun read on your hands!

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 352

Author: Various Authors

Intended Audience: Ages 8-12

Timeline: Follows Attack of the Clones, precedes Revenge of the Sith Main characters: All main characters from The Clone Wars

Brief synopsis: The time of the Clone Wars is a period of great conflict, and this book shares some of the time’s greatest stories.

Gut Feeling

I did not do my research on this book before reading it, so I didn’t know it was sort of a novelization of The Clone Wars. It obviously doesn’t cover the entire series, but some of the best stories from the series are told. I will say that the most popular arcs are not included, like Mortis, the Yoda arc, and Mandalore, but that is ok. I recognized some of the stories as my personal favorites, and I gained more appreciation for others. It was definitely an emotional roller coaster. I have been trying to rewatch the series, but as most of you know, it is a grind to do so. There are a ton of episodes, and some of them can be filler. This book is a great alternative to rewatching the series because it gave me a different perspective on some of the best episodes and arcs. Even though this book’s intended audience is young, I really enjoyed the read. The only downside is that the writing was simple (as it should be because of the intended audience) and there weren’t any new plot points within the stories. However, I didn’t expect there to be, I’m just being nit picky. I enjoyed the book so let’s get into the details.

Characters (8/10 pts)

This book covers a wide array of characters. We get stories from the perspective of protagonists, antagonists, Force users, and non-Force users. Because of that, there are many chances for characters to develop. However, because there are no new scenes added, there aren’t moments where characters can develop, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t develop within the scenes we are already familiar with. The book gives us a glimpse into what characters are thinking throughout the story, which lets us learn more about them. This is the obvious advantage of novels over movies and TV shows, and this book definitely took advantage of it. Another tool used in this book was developing characters through the perspective of others. We can learn a lot about a character about how another thinks of them. For example, Darth Vader got great character development in Rebels by how Kanan and Ezra reacted to being around him. This is how a character’s reputation is established. This book certainly did that for several characters (Ahsoka is the main one I think of). So, overall, despite not being able to add new scenes to the stories, the authors of this book did a great job developing characters. I am giving 8 points for this section.

Writing Style (8.25/10 pts)

There are a multitude of authors that wrote this book, this means that there are a multitude of writing styles. A lot of times when there is a book written by multiple authors, it is preferable that it seems like it is written by one author. However, considering this book, I’m glad that it was obvious it was written by different authors. Each chapter had its own style and it made the writing feel fresh and new. The stories were told in the traditional third person, first person from the protagonist’s viewpoint, and also first person from a secondary character’s viewpoint. Because we are already familiar with the stories, switching up how the stories were told kept it interesting. It is also important to note that the book is written for children, so the style overall is much simpler than what most of us are accustomed to. But I would be remiss to take away points for that. Overall, the writing style was slightly better than what I expected so I am giving 8.25 points.

Plot (7/10 pts)

I’ve mentioned it before, but the book doesn’t really add anything new to the plot that we are already familiar with and was already set in stone from the TV show. In novelizations, I usually look at what the book added to the plot with extra scenes. This can pull the entire stories together and fill in missing gaps. This book does not do that, but it didn’t really need to as the stories within the TV shows are more fleshed out than the movies. But this still means that the book won’t score great in this section because it is just retelling stories. However, there are still a couple reasons why this book will gain some points back. First, it pulled from the best stories within the series. If it pulled some from some of less popular arcs, the plot would not have been as strong. Second, the stories were told from different angles. This gives a different perspective on the story that we are already familiar with. This gives us a more complete understanding of what is happening. These are what the book did well, but it doesn’t fully overcome not being able to add new scenes. I am giving 7 points.

Intrigue (9/10 pts)

There were a multitude of things that added to the book’s intrigue making it the strongest section. First, because the stories told were some of the best within the series, there weren’t many low points in the book. Each chapter, which each included a different story, had an exciting story! They all had a slight build up with an exciting and climatic ending. Second, because most of us will be familiar with the story, it makes the reading go by easier. For the most part, we know what to expect while reading so it is easier to comprehend. Third, because the writing style is simple, it is not difficult to read much of the book in one sitting. If you are an active reader, this is certainly one that you can read in a single day or just a few days. However, because nothing new is added, I understand why that could take away from the intrigue. That is the one downside and is keeping the book from scoring even higher. Despite that, I am still giving a strong score of 9 points.

What does it add? (6.25/10 pts)

This is where the book is going to get its first real weak score. While I really enjoyed the read, it doesn’t really add anything new to the Star Wars universe. It is retelling stories that already exist within the universe and doesn’t add any new scenes. However, that doesn’t mean that the book adds absolutely nothing. Through some of the characters’ thoughts, specifically Yoda, we do learn a little more about using the Force. However, it really isn’t that substantial. This leaves the score for this section to be only 6.25 points, but it shouldn’t deter you from reading it.

Logic (0 pts)

There is nothing in The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark that added to nor took away from the logic within the Star Wars universe. So, I am neither adding nor taking away extra points.

Final Thoughts

So, my final score for The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark is a 7.7/10, or a C plus. This rating is slightly below average what I give Star Wars novels, but please don’t let that deter you from reading the book. If you love The Clone Wars, this is a great trip down memory lane! It is a much easier alternative than rewatching the entire series. Also, if you have not gotten a chance to watch the series, this also serves as a great introduction to the series. It highlights what makes the series so good. It is a quick and easy read and as long as you have even any interest in reading it, I think you’ll enjoy it! The only reason I can think of for you not wanting to read it is if you want something new to Star Wars. If so, there are other options available to youo. But I enjoyed this book, and it is likely that you will too.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Force Collector Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover 379

Author: Kevin Shinick

Timeline: 30 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), or a few years before The Force Awakens

Main characters: Karr Nuq Sin, Maize Raynshi, and RZ-7

Brief synopsis: Karr, who gets Force visions of the past when touching certain objects, goes on an adventure, with his new friend Maize and his droid RZ-7, to learn more about the Force and the Jedi.

Gut Feeling

My expectation for this book was highest regarding what this book would add to the Star Wars universe. Considering it was titled Force Collector, I was expecting to learn significant information about the Force. While I did, there was more exceptional information that we learned outside of the Force too. This was the book’s greatest strength, but I’ll get to that later. I wasn’t too concerned with what the story would be, but it turned out to be pretty well told. But the first half of the novel was a bit unexciting and the additions to Star Wars were not as good as the latter half. The second half is when the book started to get good and the conclusion was the best. Overall, it was a fun read. I got out of it what I expected, learning more about Star Wars.

Characters (8.5/10 pts)

Shinick did a great job with developing three brand-new characters into Star Wars. As I’ve mentioned before, with Star Wars books some authors can have an advantage when their novel involves characters that are already beloved by fans. By developing new characters, Shinick had to create that emotional attachment. And I think he did a good job doing so. The chemistry between Karr and Maize kept reminding me of the chemistry between Carl and Ellie at the beginning of the movie Up (I hope you’ve seen Up, it is an incredible movie!), even though Carl and Ellie were younger. It was a story of two friends coming together over their sense of adventure! This was well done and made the characters relatable and made me feel young again (I’m only 23, but still. . .). Force Collector also introduced a new droid in RZ-7. I get a little worried when new droids are introduced, I just feel that it is forced sometimes. But I really liked RZ-7’s character, it had much depth considering it was only a droid. My only complaint for characters is that I think they could have had some more depth, but overall characters were a strength for Force Collector. So I am giving 8.5 points.

Writing Style (7.25/10 pts)

Instead of saying New York Times Best-Selling Author next to Shinick’s name, it says Emmy Award-Winning Author. I don’t necessarily know what conclusion should be made about that distinction, but I thought it was interesting! I’ve mentioned in previous reviews that no Star Wars books are poorly written. Elite authors are always chosen to write the novels, so it is pretty difficult for a Star Wars novel to score low in this section. Shinick’s writing style was fairly simple, and this made it an easy and quick read. However, it did feel a little elementary for a young adult novel. In many ways the writing style felt like that of Rae Carson in Most Wanted. Because Force Collector lacked some depth in the writing style, I am giving a slightly below average score of 7.25 points. But I wouldn’t consider the writing style a weakness for the book, so it shouldn’t deter you from reading it.

Plot (7/10 pts)

The book felt like it followed the traditional hero’s journey, much like how the Star Wars films are told. This felt familiar and welcoming as the book started. That being said, most of the first half of the book felt pretty expected, and that made it pretty unexciting. It wasn’t until the second half of the book where the plot started to get more exciting. I think the last half of the book was much better than the first half. The ending was mostly good, except for one detail that didn’t add up. I won’t say much about it because it is a rather significant spoiler, but it did leave me scratching my head. But it didn’t interfere with the plot as a whole. Even though the book ended well, the plot was not a strength for the book. It felt like the plot was just used to give new ways to look into other stories and characters in Star Wars. This is OK for the purposes of the book, but isn’t great for the story. I am giving 7 points.

Intrigue (7.5/10 pts)

The best component for building intrigue for Force Collector was the writing style. It was mentioned as a weakness due to its insufficient depth, but what the style does is make it a quick read. I could read many pages at once without feeling like I needed a break. While that added to the intrigue, the somewhat unexciting plot did hurt the intrigue slightly. I usually wasn’t on the edge of my seat anticipating what was going to happen next. Most of the exciting parts of the book included strong content in the present moment, but did not have implications on the rest of the story. So the plot didn’t really build in excitement due to that (but for the purposes of the story, I think this was appropriate). This will make more sense if you do read Force Collector. But even though the plot pulled away from the intrigue slightly, the writing style still made the intrigue OK. I am giving 7.5 points.

What does it add? (10/10 pts)

What it added to the Star Wars universe was by far the greatest strength for Force Collector, and it honestly could have been even better! Throughout most of the book, we end up visiting familiar places within Star Wars. With that, we learned a little bit more about little moments within Star Wars. In some cases, I wish that what we learned was a bit more significant. There were definitely opportunities to learn some cool information that were passed up on. That being said, we still did learn some interesting things. We also learned more about the Force through the unique Force power Karr has. There are even some implications for what “balance” in the Force means through a different perspective that was provided. It is great additional information that can help to make sense of the mystery of bringing balance to the Force. Finally, there is something that came out at the end of the book that answered a somewhat speculated question among Star Wars fans. I won’t spoil it, but this new content does make Force Collector a must read for die-hard Star Wars fans. This is why I am easily giving a full 10 points.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

Something confusing in the Star Wars universe is that many sentients seem to not know anything at all about the Jedi or the Force. This is even though they had a pretty significant role in the history of the Star Wars universe. It doesn’t make sense that they could all be forgotten after so little time has passed. While it is still a little perplexing, Shinick does his best to provide an explanation. It does a pretty job, and while I am not completely satisfied with it, it is probably the best explanation we have seen so far for it. So that is why I am giving an extra half point for logic.

Final Thoughts

So the final grade for Force Collector is an 8.15/10, or a B minus. While the first half of the book may have been rather unexciting, it is truly made up for in the second half. It is a quick and fun read that we can learn a lot from. As I stated, the greatest strength of the book is what it adds to the Star Wars universe. This is what makes it a must read for die-hard fans who want more about Star Wars lore. There are a lot of cool things in this book that add to Star Wars. There are some missed opportunities, but it is made up for. If you want a compelling story though, this won’t be the book for you. There are better options.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Dooku: Jedi Lost Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover, 460

Author: Cavan Scott

Timeline: Precedes The Phantom Menace

Main characters: Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress

Brief synopsis: In order to accomplish a mission involving Dooku’s sister, Ventress dives deep into research to find out more about Dooku’s childhood.

Gut Feeling

Since Dooku was just thrown into Attack of the Clones without much explanation, I’ve really been wanting more content on his infamous character. I knew that Dooku was a former Jedi and that Yoda was his master, but we didn’t have many details about it. This book definitely gives the content on Dooku that I was wanting. It starts at his childhood and paints a picture showing how Dooku went from a promising young Padawan to the villain that we best know him as. Because of that, the book was successful in my opinion. There was also some information about how Ventress fell to the dark side, but I wish it was given more detail. These background stories were the strength of the novel. It was background information that was much needed and I’m glad this book was created.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Characters were the strongest component for Dooku: Jedi Lost. Since Scott was dealing with existing characters in the Star Wars universe, I look for what additional content we can learn about them. I loved the Dooku that we saw in this book. Going from a padawan to Count, Scott significantly developed Dooku in a way that made a lot of sense. We obviously see a different side to Dooku than seen in the movies, and because of that, characters must get a strong score. But Dooku isn’t the only character that Scott gave more background information to. Both Ventress and Sifo Dias got fairly significant development in this book. While I do wish that we got more of Ventress, the content we got was very good. There were also strong new characters, one being Jedi Lene. She seemed different than any Jedi we had seen, and I thought she was very interesting. The only weakness I see for characters is that an emotional attachment to them was lacking. The character’s strength was more conceptual than emotional. So I am giving 9 points.

Writing Style (7.5/10 pts)

The writing style is quite different because it is written like a script. I was a little worried about this as I started reading, but I quickly adapted to the style. I didn’t feel that too many details were left out due to most of the content being dialogue. I still had a strong sense of what was going on at all times. So I am not deducting any points based on the book being told like a script. What I am going to take away points for is that some ideas seemed a bit undeveloped. I would sometimes have to re-read a section and I was surprised that so much happened in just a couple lines. It seemed uncharacteristic of the rest of the book. Because of that, I am giving 7.5 points for the writing.

Plot (8.5/10 pts)

While in the present, I enjoyed the content that I was reading, I had a hard time of predicting where the story was going. It seemed just like a cool story where we learned more about Dooku, but for most of the book, it didn’t feel like it was building towards something. Ventress’s storyline also seemed a bit awkward. It was a pretty insignificant part of the story, but it felt like it should have been more important. This will probably make more sense to you if you read the book. So despite having great content, the plot wasn’t developing very well for about the first three - quarters of the book. However, there were two main strengths that give points back to the plot. First, the book had a large scope. We got to see glimpses into Dooku’s entire Jedi career, from Padawan to him leaving the order. This was a great plus. Second, the book ended VERY well. While the plot was confusing for most of the book, it started to make sense in the end. Because of that, I am giving a good score of 8.5 points.

Intrigue (7/10 pts)

I think the intrigue could vary from reader to reader based on their interest in Dooku’s character. I have a lot of interest in Dooku as a child, so my intrigue was fairly high, even when the story wasn’t moving very quickly. However, even with this interest, at points, I felt bored because the story wasn’t really going anywhere. I feel that I should have been reading this book quicker, especially because of the writing style (the script style made it an easier read). I simply put the book down too many times while reading it. And because not everyone will have the same interest in Dooku as I do, I am going to give a slightly less than average score of 7 points.

What does it add? (9.5/10 pts)

Along with the characters, this section is the book’s greatest strength. As mentioned before, Dooku and Ventress needed an “origin” story, and this book supplied that. But that was what I expected from Dooku: Jedi Lost, so it won’t receive a great score based on that alone. However, Scott gave us more information that also added to Star Wars. There is more information on the Force, Sith lore, and what the Jedi were like before any of the Star Wars movies. I was very pleasantly surprised about this, so I am giving 9.5 points for what the book added.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

Dooku: Jedi Lost was able to explain something illogical in Revenge of the Sith. This is the moment when Palpatine slices through three Jedi, before fighting Windu, with way too much ease. At first glance, the scene doesn’t make sense. But in the book, we learn that the Jedi’s lightsaber skills were mostly ceremonial. They didn’t have a need to actually fight with them, so they weren’t trained to fight another lightsaber user. This explains why the Jedi looked rather helpless fighting Palpatine. This was a great explanation, so I am giving an extra half point back for logic.

Final Thoughts

So my final score for Dooku: Jedi Lost is a 8.4/10, or a solid B. The strength of the book definitely came from the book’s characters and what it added to Star Wars. The story itself is not as well developed, but it does not ruin the experience of reading the book. For Star Wars fans who want more content on Dooku, Ventress, and the time period before The Phantom Menace, this is a must-read.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Dark Disciple Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover 302, Paperback 359

Author: Christie Golden

Timeline: Follows The Clone Wars and precedes Revenge of the Sith

Main Characters: Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress

Brief Synopsis: An unusual mission, causing Jedi Master Quinlan Vos to team up with former Sith Asajj Ventress, forces Vos to decide which is more powerful, the seductive nature of the dark side or his new feeling of love.

Gut Feeling

When I first noticed this book and read a little bit about the plot, I checked many times to make sure it was canon. The whole idea of the book is just fascinating, and I was worried that the new Disney material wasn’t daring enough for a book like this. But it is! The overarching point of the book is Quinlan Vos essentially learns Dark Side powers to try and kill Count Dooku. Doing so, he teams up with Asajj Ventress. I love her character, so I was REALLY excited for this book. And it did not disappoint, like at all. The story was incredible from beginning to end. It exceeded my expectations when it came to it’s dark nature and the romance content was a welcomed surprise. My only complaint with this book is it seemed to wrap up quicker than I wanted. Beyond that, this is one of my favorite Star Wars books that I’ve read so far and it has also some of the best pure Star Wars content that I’ve experienced, in any form. I’m so glad this book was written as it was based on unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, it’s a story that had to be told.

Characters (10/10 pts)

The biggest strength to characters in Dark Disciple comes with character development and something I call character-defining moments. I may have mentioned these before, but they are specific moments that define a character’s identity. This book had many of them, and they steered both Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress in directions that I wasn’t expecting. Even though their directions were unexpected, they still seemed to make sense with how Christie Golden made it happen. This character development also gave our two main characters significant depth and relatability. This is impressive to do because both characters were fairly different, but I still related to the actions of them both. This relatability caused me to form an emotional attachment. This is fairly crucial because once I get an emotional attachment to the book, I’m hooked! So from this, I am giving full points for characters.

Writing Style (8/10 pts)

I mentioned this in my previous review, but I guess it is worth mentioning again. I’m not expecting many variations in my points to this section for Star Wars books because almost all the authors are New York Times Bestselling Authors. Dark Disciple was well written. There was a decent amount of depth and it seemed on par in writing style with other Star Wars books. It was seemingly easy to read with good flow. Overall, the writing was still good, but not spectacular, so I am giving 8 points.

Plot (8.25/10 pts)

Oh man, I was expecting to give Dark Disciple a full 10 points for this section throughout almost the entire book. It was just so unique covering dark aspects of the Star Wars universe, an unexpected romance, and lots of action that I didn’t expect anything else other than a perfect score. However, the conclusion of a book is important to the plot. As I was reading through the final climactic scenes, I was a little surprised by how few pages that were remaining. While what actually happened during the conclusion was quality content, it just didn’t seem to be given enough attention by Golden. If the conclusion was given about double the pages, I think I would feel much more satisfied with the overall story. Instead, I am left with a weird feeling where I am wanting just a little bit more. For the superb quality of the entire book, it just felt so out of place for the conclusion to not be of the same quality. So even though almost the entire plot was incredible, with the conclusion, it will get the slightly imperfect score of 8.25 points.

Intrigue (10/10 pts)

This book definitely benefited from a unique storyline with some equally fascinating characters. Assaj Ventress and Quinlan Vos are unlike anything we’re used to from the movies. And having them interact with each other creates gold automatically. So even before the book began, my interest level was fairly high. But beyond the content, Golden’s writing style and development of the characters kept my interest at a high level throughout the entire book. I burned through it and didn’t want to put the book down at almost any point. It was a very exciting ride through and through, and that is why Dark Disciple is getting a perfect score for intrigue.

What does it add? (9/10 pts)

This was a pretty difficult section for me to rate. There was a lot going on and there are a couple of major points of interest for this section.

First, it just adds a new perspective to Star Wars as this isn’t really a story of a hero, it is a story of an anti-hero. While Thrawn, I believe, is also an anti-hero, this time the anti-hero is Force-sensitive which makes this addition to the universe interesting. This perspective showed what it truly means to fall to the dark side of the Force and what it does to a person. I think we know a lot more about the light side of the Force with what canon is available, so this book’s anti-hero approach gave much new information on the dark side. That information was something I was looking for when I started this book, and it did not disappoint.

Second, it kinda gives more of an idea of what balance in the force looks like. If you read one of my previous articles, I mention that we really don’t know what balance in the Force means. However, it should include elements of both the light and dark sides of the Force. This is something that Vos tried to achieve and we learn more about that pursuit of balance. It is difficult to attain, almost like chasing the end of a rainbow. It is still unclear what balance means, but Dark Disciple gives more information to this problem.

Finally, Asajj Ventress is a REALLY cool character. If you aren’t familiar with her, I would suggest that you check the episodes of The Clone Wars that she is featured in. After Count Dooku betrays Ventress, and she becomes a bounty hunter, her character arc lacked closure. This book provided some closure for one of the more interesting characters in the Star Wars universe.

So Dark Disciple did add some fairly interesting and needed content, that is why I am giving 9 points for this section.

Logic (+0.5 pts)

I’m not sure about you, but I know that I’ve always been a little curious as to why Anakin’s eyes turn yellow in The Revenge of the Sith. Maybe what was more perplexing is that sometimes they were yellow, and sometimes they were not. It’s not a huge plot point or anything, but it is content that I wanted to be explained. Dark Disciple does provide some context for why some dark side user’s eyes turn yellow and the significance of it. You may not think it is that interesting, but I do and that is why I’m awarding a half point for logic.

Final Thoughts

The final grade for Dark Disciple is a 9.15, which is similar to the score I gave Lost Stars. These two books are some of my highest rated ones yet, while Dark Disciple in my mind has better actual Star Wars content and Lost Stars may be the higher-quality book in general that almost anyone can enjoy. If you only have an interest in the Star Wars films, Dark Disciple may not be right for you, but if you do have an interest in the expanded universe, this book is a MUST read. It is essentially the Relyo (Rey and Kylo’s ‘ship name) story that fans were desperately wanting from Episode IV. If you are interested enough to want to read this book, I have no doubt that you will enjoy it.

I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).

Lords of the Sith Book Review

By: Christian Corah

Descriptives

Page count: Hardcover 320, Paperback 340

Author: Paul S. Kemp

Timeline: Follows Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, precedes Tarkin 

Main Characters: Darth Vader, The Emperor, Cham Syndulla (shown below), Isval, Belkor Dray, and Moff Delian Mors

Brief synopsis: Freedom fighters Cham Syndulla and Isval attempt to cripple the Empire through one deadly mission that Darth Vader and The Emperor hope to survive.

Gut Feeling

I really enjoyed this book. When I started reading it, I wasn’t that excited for it. I basically chose it to read because I had just finished another book and it was the only one I owned that I hadn’t read yet. Once I got more books in the mail, I was a little frustrated that I had started Lords of the Sith. Admittedly, the book did start slow with the introduction of new characters. The book is not just about Darth Vader and The Emperor, which is what I was expecting. Since they were on the cover and the book was named after them, I felt annoyed that so much of the book was devoted to developing new characters. However, I came to change that opinion. While not the entire book is told from Vader’s and The Emperor’s perspectives, there is a lot to learn about them through the perspective of others. The reputation of Darth Vader grew throughout the book as the freedom fighters could not even comprehend Vader’s power. And the time that was devoted to just The Emperor and Darth Vader was done very well. There was much to learn about the relationship of a Sith Master to their Apprentice. There was manipulation, fear, and trust and mistrust at the same time. So my original bias against the book was reversed and I ended up grateful that I chose to read it.

Characters (9/10 pts)

Having characters like Vader and The Emperor can be an easy win for a Star Wars novel. The characters have already been fairly developed so they have existing strong reputations among fans. What I look for in these characters is what the author adds. We do learn some interesting content about them. I don’t want to give away too much, but Vader has some character defining moments in this book concerning his path to the dark side and we learn more about The Emperor as a Master. He is incredibly manipulative, and seeing it play out was fairly interesting. So for these two characters, the book was definitely a win. My only con is that I wish more of the book was told about them.

Since Vader and The Emperor were not the only main characters, the book was tasked with bringing characters like Cham, Isval, Belkor, and Mors to life. Although Cham does have some significant time in the animated series, readers won’t be too knowledgeable of the character. Kemp did a fantastic job with developing both Cham and Isval. I especially liked Isval who went through various moments in the book that made her standout as a unique character in the Star Wars Universe. Belkor and Mors were also developed well due to their limited time, but I didn’t feel committed to their characters. This isn’t necessarily a con, but just some nit-picking because Kemp did so good with the characters in this book. It is definitely a strength that stood out. 9 points for characters.

Writing Style (8/10 pts)

Kemp has a great talent for making action scenes come to life inside the reader’s mind. This made the climactic scenes that much more enjoyable. I was able to create a vivid image in my mind of what was going on. Also, through dialogue and reactions of others, he made the characters come to life as well. The characters were a strength in this novel, and it is largely because of Kemp’s writing style. For example, we learned a lot about Vader through the eyes of the other characters. Even when the emphasis was not directly on the Lords of the Sith, Kemp was able to keep in indirectly on them. This allowed for the development of multiple characters at once and kept the theme of the book true to its title.

Continuing on the strength of the characters, the book was told from all of the main character’s perspectives at differing points. Each of them gave unique outlooks on the events at hand and it made a more complete picture of what was going on. While I mostly consider this a strength, sometimes it was frustrating because I wanted to see what was going on with a certain character and it would sometimes be focused on an event or character that I wasn’t interested in. When done well, I thoroughly enjoyed it though. This writing style was unique and again highlighted a strength of the book, the characters. 8 points for the writing.

Plot (10/10 pts)

So this plot was awesome. It is partially because of how it was told (from so many perspectives), but the gradual build up of the book was incredibly satisfying as it climaxed near the end. Around halfway through the book, it is as if the climax began and it just kept building and building until at the end it all came together in beautiful fashion. It was a really awesome experience. It also accomplished in giving closure to each character/storyline. I wasn’t left wanting more, I was satisfied with what I got. Lords of the Sith is one of my favorite stories that I’ve read, and that is why I am giving it full points for the plot.

Intrigue (8.25/10 pts)

For the beginning part of the book, I did not feel the internal pull to keep turning pages. While characters were a strength to the book, the beginning felt slow since Kemp had to develop all of these characters and that took time. However, once the development set in and the story began to gradually climax, I couldn’t put the book down. Like I stated regarding the plot, the climax of the story seemed to start halfway through the book and it kept rising until at the end of the book everything came together. While it started slow, the intrigue peaked at the end and I couldn’t put the book down. I definifelt binged the last quarter of the book because I just had to find out what happens next. So intrigue started as a weakness and ended as a strength: 8.25 points.

What does it add? (8/10 pts)

In regards to what this book adds to the Star Wars Universe, I am most interested in The Emperor and Darth Vader. This is because of their prominent roles in the universe. I was wanting to learn more about their relationship as Master/Apprentice, and the book did not disappoint. It did examine how The Emperor trains/manipulates Vader and how Vader responds to it. Following the dark side is full of suffering, pain, and hatred and this book explains that more explicitly. It also peeks inside of Vader’s mind and provides some information on the conflict going on in his mind. We know he is conflicted from the movies, but we never fully knew what that meant. Now we have a better idea and it creates more understanding regarding Vader’s character. 

The events in the book also supposedly resulted in some of the spark that started the Rebellion. This is obviously significant, but how it acted as a spark is only inferred to in this book and not spelled out. It is interesting, but it doesn’t affect how I view anything in Star Wars.

I am giving this category 8 points because I enjoyed what it adds to the universe, but I don’t think it will make me view the movies/shows in a different light. We already knew Vader had conflict and that The Emperor is manipulative, we just know more about it now. It was done beautifully, but it more of explained what was unknown instead of adding something completely new.

Logic (-0.5 pts)

There were a couple of events in the book that didn’t quite make sense. Vader was able to use the force to throw buzz droids off of his ship, which wasn’t done by him in Revenge of the Sith. While it makes sense that he could do it, it just raises the question why neither he nor Obi-Wan did it in the movies. Vader also basically force ran everywhere in this book. If he was moving, he was force running. This makes me question why he didn’t run anywhere in the movies when in his armor, even though he clearly can and should. Instead he seemed fairly slow during the original trilogy.

These things made me scratch my head a little bit, but the book gains some points back by explaining something in the movies. When Darth Sidious quickly kills the three Jedi surrounding Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith, it doesn’t look that believable. It appeared that the Jedi should have defended themselves better. I don’t want to give it away, but there is a short scene near the end of the book that explains how Sidious did this. So I am only deducting two points for logic because the book helped to explain something in the movies that was perplexing.

Final Thoughts

The final grade for Lords of the Sith is a 8.55/10, so a solid B. The book used the characters as a strength in multiple aspects, and it made the story-telling unique. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the master and apprentice relationship of Sith. The rest of the book involves a great story regarding a spark behind the Rebellion, but the interest is founded in Vader and The Emperor. 

I hope you enjoyed my first review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).