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| Release date! (Photo from my daily Instagram Story) |
By James Luceno
With the upcoming Star Wars film Rogue One opening in theaters tomorrow (!!), I was looking forward
to last month's prequel novel, Catalyst. I
pre-ordered my copy from Amazon to arrive exactly on the release date, November
15.
So, was it worth the wait?
Absolutely… With one caveat: It’s
a slow starter that doesn’t kick into high gear until over 100 pages in. But when it’s hot, it’s hot.
Taking place between the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope, the
novel Star Wars: Catalyst provides
the tense backstory for this Friday’s Rogue
One film about the Rebel Alliance’s brave efforts to steal the plans for
the original Death Star.
My summary of the plot:
At this earlier point in the Star
Wars saga, the original Death Star is still in the planning stages. And it’s missing its key component: A massive super weapon that will be capable
of destroying an entire planet (And to Princess Leia’s dismay, we original film
trilogy fans know how that’s gonna turn out). Scientist Galen Erso is researching the power
of the Kyber crystals which power the Jedi’s lightsabers. Imperial mucky muck Orson Krennic wants to weaponize
the Kybers’ power to produce a superlaser to mount onto the parabolic focusing
dish of the yet-to-be-built Death Star. In
order to one-up Grand Moff “Governor” Tarkin on his own Death Star construction
project and also become Emperor Palpatine’s right hand man, Krennic tricks Erso
into believing that his research will be used for development of clean,
renewable energy.
Honestly, it was initially tough to stick with this
book. Pointless subplots involving side characters
like Has Orbit and Saw Gerrera feel like a waste of time. And it’s front loaded with backstory and sci-fi
technical jargon, withholding even the first minor action scene until page 61. Fortunately, the earlier sections also
feature cool bits of insight into the construction of the Death Star, the
Jedi’s complex relationship with Kyber crystals, and the effect of the Force on
non-Jedi who happen to be “Force sensitive” (A term not used in this book). Cool stuff for Star Wars fans!
The story really gets cooking after this long opening
stretch, as husband and wife Erso and Lyra are seemingly pitted against each
other to discover the truth about Krennic’s intentions. I won’t spoil the tension… Other than to say
that this novel finally stops feeling like overstretched short story as it
transitions into an effective family-in-jeopardy thriller, with fascinating
political implications for the Star Wars universe.
Speculative spoiler for the upcoming Rogue One film: Given the chronology
of the Star Wars timeline, Erso and Lyra’s baby daughter Jyn should be of age
when the movie takes place. I’m avoiding
most of the movie trailers, but I’m guessing Jyn will be a key member of the
“Rogue” squadron who tries to steal the plans for the Death Star (Maybe even
the girl on the movie poster?). If she’s
not, then why the cutesy baby/young girl subplot in this novel? There’s gotta be a payoff.
Verdict: ****
(Out of 5 stars) for Star Wars fans, *** for non-fans
By Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen, and Angel Unzueta
Of the three stories collected in this volume, I found the closing
young Ben Kenobi/ Luke Skywalker tale to be the most fun. Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi is secretly watching
after Luke Skywalker on Tatooine as Biggs and Luke’s other kid friends cheer
him on as he tries to fly through Beggar’s Canyon. Ben saves Luke behind the scenes from various
scraps, and has a run in with a bitter Uncle Owen who blames Ben for his brother
Anakin’s death.
Even the often lame film prequel trilogy gets some thoughtful
love from Ben: “There’s still hope, Master Qui-Gon.
You thought Anakin was the chosen one.
Perhaps in a way, he was. If his
son shows the same abilities, then just maybe…”
The first two stories in this annual collection are also
worthwhile. Story #1 is about the unglamorous
life of Rebel spy Eneb Ray in Coruscant, who needs to be a heartless jerk to his
“subjects” for fear of blowing his cover if the Imperials discover his true identity.
Story #2, the Rebel
Jail title story, is a fun female empowerment yarn set in Sunspot
Prison. Princess Leia, Doctor Aphra, and
Sana open up a can of whoop on the villains… just so that Han Solo and Luke
Skywalker can show up to cockily “save the day” for the women after the dust
settles. Haha, go patriarchy!
There are plenty of other funny gags. C-3PO tries his hand at “fisticuffs.” Han
plays backseat driver while Luke learns how to fly the Millennium Falcon. And they actually get to herd some
nerfs! Hilarious stuff.
Verdict: ****
(Out of 5 stars) for Star Wars fans, *** for non-fans
By John Wagner, Paul Alden, Randy Stradley, Darko Macan, Cam
Kennedy, Raul Trevino, David Fabbri, and Dave Gibbons
“Epic” is an overstatement.
While this graphic novel compilation is better than much of the
Legends (read: older, non canon stories)
material I’ve read, it falls short of the artwork, characterization, and
continuity of the new canon stuff. That
being said, I enjoyed reading these earlier conceptions about the events that
went down immediately after the film
Star
Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. And we
get more Boba Fett. Who can argue with
that?
The standout by far is In
the Shadow of Yavin, an extended comic book series which offers a glimpse behind
the scenes of the construction of the second Death Star, above the planet Endor.
And all the Ewoks said… “Yub nub!”
Verdict: *** (Out
of 5 stars) for Star Wars fans, ** for non-fans
This one gets an enthusiastic “meh” from me. While officially canon, it's six short stories featuring side
characters from the film Star Wars Episode
VII: The Force Awakens. If you like
aliens as main characters (I do not), this is your bag.
The main hurdle that these short stories try to overcome is
that few of the protagonists are memorable characters from The Force Awakens, even for fans. It’s also challenging to acquire much
investment in these characters, due to the short length of these stories. Some chapters are barely a single page.
For what it’s worth, the best stories are “All Creatures
Great and Small” and the really good “The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure
of Count Dooku.” Also, “A Recipe for
Death” is notable for a cool fight scene in zero gravity.
As a non sci-fi fan who has loved Star Wars since my childhood,
critter stories are a tough sell for me.
But fortunately, the Star Wars universe also has enough mythology and
human stories to keep me hooked.
Verdict: ** ½ stars (Out
of 5 stars) for Star Wars fans, ** for non-fans
