The Last Jedi Comes Home

I'm a little late to be coming in with my post here, but wasn't the novelization for The Last Jedi great? Jason Fry is one of those Star Wars writers that I get excited about; he cuts to the core of characters and stays there.

Even though all novelizations include (or at least, they generally include and should include) some extra bits, this one was marketed as being an "Expanded Edition," as if it had even more than usual. I'm not even sure if it does--likely it doesn't. But it feels like it does, and that's exciting enough. The Last Jedi was very much an in-the-heads-of-the-characters type of movie to begin with, so it lends well to a novelization. Though, of course, we still had that fine line of treading: in certain moments, for instance, you hear what other characters are thinking rather than hearing what Kylo is thinking. Interesting that we even hear Snoke's thoughts sometimes above Kylo's. Kylo has to still have some mystery about him; there are still things that we don't know for sure. 

Speaking of Kylo, if anyone still did not like his character after the film, grab this book. It fleshes out everything that the film pushes the audience to think and further explains not just Kylo himself but other characters' thoughts towards him. Particularly interesting was learning that Snoke wasn't using Kylo in the sense of using him for his powers but rather using him to push Luke away--which makes sense to learn because that's why Snoke didn't see Kylo as a threat to him. He just wasn't viewing things through that angle. 

The more I think about the film (I haven't watched my brand new Blu-Ray yet, so I haven't seen the movie since January), the more I think that I prefer the pod-racing in Episode I to the whole fathier sequence. Yes, the fathier bit had theme, but the pod-racing had characterization and it also had my beloved Tatooine landscape to look at. With that said, the whole Cantonica bit and all of the Rose and Finn scenes played out better on page than on screen. On screen, I got the themes and I liked Finn and I liked Rose, but I was always looking for their scenes to end more quickly. On page, it was all very beautiful and Star Wars-y. Maybe it's actually seeing how Rose's thoughts about Finn change with each moment that helped. 

Certain of the extra scenes from the novelization did appear on the Deleted Scenes, like the whole celebration bit on the island. And the rest? It's definitely enough to want to read through this book; put together, it gives a whole further angle to the movie. As far as guessing about what's in store for the future, this book does remain a must-read even if it the same story we've already seen retold on page. 

Star Wars: The Bomber Squad

Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein seemed like it would be the perfect short novel to give us more details and backstory on a set of characters that we only briefly saw in The Last Jedi. The look of the (physical) book matches the style of Before the Awakening, which was a great pre-story to The Force Awakens. Turns out, though, that Cobalt Squadron was kind of disappointing.

I'm not entirely sure about the target audience for these books. Obviously I think that, despite the target audience age, people of any age can read a book whose target audience is younger than they are, as long as the book is good. But this book read, well, too young. I felt like I was reading a Disney Channel movie. Everything felt false and contrived, including the sisterhood between Rose and Paige--and I liked both of their characters in the film. So to come here excited to hear more about them only to get a flat representation of their story just didn't go over well for me. Also, I found this story less interesting because it takes place mainly in space with space battles and that sort of thing that I just generally find . . . less interesting.

I followed up right away with Jason Fry's Bomber Command, which is in the same style as Rey's Survival Guide. So kind of a combination of scrapbook and journal styles, with lots of picture and "handwritten" text. Cobalt Squadron was already a quick read at about 250 short pages, and this book was even quicker. While I can't say it was as good as Rey's Survival Guide, I did much prefer this one to Cobalt Squadron. Maybe Jason Fry just has more experience writing Star Wars. Maybe the informal book style meant that the tone of the book fell into place better. Maybe I just liked it because we got much of the same information as with the first book, just in a shorter and quicker space.

You could in fact skip Cobalt Squadron and just read Bomber Command, even though you'd think it would be preferable to do the opposite. Overall, though, the backstory that we got for Rose and Paige and their team wasn't what I wanted. Sure, it was nice to hear certain details (like how Rose came to be on a separate ship from Paige in The Last Jedi--and we also got more of a look at Admiral Holdo). But more of it wasn't satisfying; that Disney Channel tone may have even detracted from my view of these characters.

I guess since I walked out of the film saying positive things, I had to come back now and say some negative things about these two companion books. Balance. It's all about the balance.

Rey's Survival Guide

Probably some light Episode VII spoilers in here.

If I hadn't been wondering whether or not this book was worth getting and then ended up really liking it, then then there probably wouldn't be much need for a post. But given these two facts, I think a post is in order.

Like everyone else, I love Rey's character--and I knew she would be great even before the movie came out, just from that cool outfit they gave her. So a book called Rey's Survival Guide, which would presumably be about her life on Jakku? Sounds great. But, you know, you see the cover (which is designed almost like a magazine), you see that it's a short 96 pages, and you see that the age group is 6-9 years, and you sort of wonder if it's a book you should be getting, after all. But it's also $10 (I got it for around $8), and it's a nice and sturdy hardcover.

So I bought it and I finished reading it pretty quickly--and it was pretty good. It would have been much nicer if the outside cover matched the inside; it needs to have the look of a journal on the outside, too. That would be a better indication of what's on the inside. This book is designed just as if Rey put it together, writing commentary and drawing in pictures and putting labels on things. She moves from topic to topic (the landscape, the ships, the people, etc.), describing what she has learned from her time on Jakku and how she manages to survive living there.

It's pretty bleak content, really. We've all seen Jakku. It's a sandy, hot environment with no cities or means to earn a livelihood except for scavenging in the graveyard of ships, attempting to sell salvage to Unkar and hoping he'll give you a fair deal. So whether or not you want a six year old reading Rey's cautioning that you can slice yourself open on jagged metal inside one of the ships is up to you (or about how the ship graveyard is full of the bones of all the people who were on the ships). But it's interesting reading: it has just enough hint of a storyline, even though it's really just descriptions of different facets of Rey's life without many actual events.

Though there are a few hints of events scattered around. If you read Before the Awakening, you'll see Rey's references to the ship she worked on in that book. And she talks about her childhood a bit. It's like you almost have hints about who she is or how she came to be where she is--without actually getting any info. So that's great for feeding the great mystery about Rey's identity (because even if she is Luke's daughter, how exactly did she end up on Jakku, and without any memories of who she is?).

There is a decent amount of description of the ships and their different components in here since that's a huge part of Rey's life, picking through the crashed ships to find anything salvageable. Even though it isn't in too much depth, I'm still thinking that most (not all, of course) 6-9 year olds would find it a little too much to read about, though I suppose they could look at the pictures without reading all the text (but the text is printed out in a way that where it looks meant to be read). So I'm really not convinced that that's the target audience (which is why I wish the cover were a little different). Sure, the text isn't too lengthy or too in depth, but it's something that I think people of different ages who can't get enough of the movie or are curious to learn more about Rey will enjoy flipping through.

And honestly, I really love the handmade feel of the inside of this book. The font is designed to look handwritten but it isn't too sloppy, childish, or hard to read. The sketches are great to look at. (Though I do think it's odd how every so often something is made to look like it's taped in. Tape doesn't feel very Star Wars, and even if Rey did have tape, would she really use it just for a journal?) There are also a few fold-out pages, including a great one of an AT-AT. I'm kind of in love now with Jakku (as a fictional place because no, of course I don't want to go live there). So if you're interested in this book but not sure if you should get it or not, I'd definitely say to get it.

The Trio's Adventures

You know, it's possible that I might have skipped these three books if I hadn't seen them at Costco and figured that they were worth getting at Costco's prices. I thought they were going to be essentially just lengthy short stories, one for Han Solo (Smuggler's Run), one for Luke (Weapon of a Jedi), and one for Leia (Moving Target)--stories under the "young reader" label once again.

But I learned with Lost Stars that the young reader label doesn't necessarily mean a book doesn't have content. And these three "adventures" were just slightly longer than I was expecting. They're move novellas than lengthy short stories--and Leia's is probably long enough to just call a short book.

For being so short, it's a little odd that they're divided into three parts, plus the Prologue and Epilogue. And for the beginning of each section, there is a two-page illustration--I think the divisions in the book are there simply to give a place for pictures. They are good pictures, after all. They're sort of graphic novel style, in black and white and gray with some spots of red, like the covers. There is so much movement in these illustrations that I had to pause a moment to enjoy each one--I only wish that they didn't show scenes coming up instead of the ones that have just passed. I guess these aren't books where you need to be worried about spoilers, but still I wasn't entirely happy about a picture showing me what was going to happen next before I had a chance to read it.

Content-wise, they are just short adventures told fairly quickly without a lot of fluff. But it's kind of nice not to have a lot of fluff for a change. When I was reading A New Dawn, there were passages that I probably would have liked to have fast forwarded through to get straight to the characters. So with the more concise format of these three little books, I didn't have that problem. Each one has a different point that it sets out to illustrate through retelling (in frame format) a certain story.

It seems also that each book gets better as you go along. Han's is first, then Luke's, and then Leia's.

Han's story fills in the slight gap between Episodes IV and V to explain his growing interest in the Rebellion and its ideals. It also shows off his skills. Pretty straightforward. The "hints" at Episode VII are . . . slight and yet interesting. It feels like things that seem very insignificant now will gain much more meaning after the new movie comes out.

Luke's story is almost a continuation of Heir to the Jedi: Luke is continuing his quest to find out more about the Jedi now that his one living link to them is gone. That's all fun to watch--though I do wish he had done a little more or learned a little more at the temple. But then again, part of the message of this book seemed to be a lesson about patience, so I suppose it's fitting that Luke had to spend a lot of time slowly learning. The frame story in his book is the smallest out of the three--it's also the only one (I think) that takes place within the time frame of the OT and is definitely the only one where the character in question isn't actually present. These details must be significant.

Leia's story is on the grandest scale of the three and also involves the most stages. Being that her team's actions help lead to the final battle in Episode VI, it's a story I already felt invested in, even if it brought me to new worlds and new characters. The theme here was very worth noting. Star Wars is strange because it's in many ways about embracing and promoting peace--and yet it always has war. So this book helped explain that balance and the reasoning behind holding to the one philosophy (peace) while taking part in the cruel and chaotic action of war. The topic is duty--but the lesson is about the importance of the ties that bind different people together. And the hints in this book--well, Leia's acting very Force-sensitive, which of course she does a lot of in Episode VI, too (not quite as much in IV and V). And then there is that mention of names at the end of the book, giving us an idea of timelines (in relation to Episode VII). Once again, it feels like all the information is right there in front of us--just not quite decipherable until we've seen the movie. I feel like I'm missing a very important puzzle piece that will seem obvious once I get it but that I can't grasp on my own.

Just over a month from now.