Book Reviews Archives - Page 29 of 30

Star Wars: Lost Stars Book Review

SPOILER FREE

Lost Stars is the first Young Adult novel released in the new Star Wars canon. It was written by New York Times Best-Selling Author, Claudia Gray.

After reading Lost Stars… I’m really looking forward to Claudia Gray’s next book!

Summary: Lost Stars starts off with our two main characters, Therin and Ciena as eight year old children. They watch as the Empire makes its first appearance on Jelucan to declare the planet as part of the Galactic Empire. Tarkin’s inspiring speech gives hope to the poor and security for the wealthy. The children are in awe and hope that one day they may serve the great Empire, as pilots.

Over the years our main characters become best friends, they study and practice flying together, preparing for the day they’ll have a shot at applying for the Imperial Academy. The day comes when Therin and Ciena are welcomed into the Empire, and through those years, their friendship goes through trials but the love they have for each other, flourishes.

The events unfolding in A New Hope have now crossed into Lost Stars. We celebrated with the rebellion when the Death Star blew up, now we get to see the affects the destruction has caused through different eyes. One character eventually sees the “true” colors of the Empire, and must get as far away from it as possible. While the other character, must stay true to their honor. They can no longer be with each other, but it doesn’t mean they can’t love each other.

Characters: Claudia Gray does an excellent job introducing us to two new characters and a planet we’ve never heard of. Both Therin and Ciena are from this new planet, Jelucan. Jelucan is a beautiful world with grey skies, valleys, and a mountainous terrain – reminiscent of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Our lead male character, Therin, comes from a wealthy family that lives in the mountains. Our female lead, Ciena, is from a poor family that lives in the Valley. We have plenty of side characters, written just as well as our leads, everyone in this book feels like a real individual.

Overall Review: Lost Stars is now my favorite Star Wars book. Although the original trilogy ties into the tale, it works perfect. The dialogue is great; it doesn’t fall flat at any time. The love story works, it feels organic and it’s not a total cheesefest. Plenty of other Star Wars books in the new canon and in Legends have love stories, Lost Stars gets it right. The book begins before the events of A New Hope and by the end of it; we’re on our journey to The Force Awakens.

Rating: I give this book a 5 out of 5

Star Wars: Aftermath Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Star Wars Aftermath, the sixth book released in the new Star Wars Canon. Aftermath is written by Author Chuck Wendig. The story takes place after the battle of Endor and the destruction of the second Death Star. Spoiler alert, this book does not follow our core characters. What happens to Luke, Han, Leia, and Lando? Only one of these names gets dropped in this tale and the usage is very lame.

Summary: Aftermath, Although the emperor and his right hand man Vader are dead, the Empire is still with us, though they have been scattered to the outer rim. We discover this as our favorite rebel pilot Wedge Antilles stumbles across a few Star Destroyers outside the planet, Akiva. The New Republic is quickly established. Chuck Wendig doesn’t go into detail at all about the formation of the Republic other than the fact that Mon Mothma is acting as Chancellor. She wants to cut the military by 90% because she doesn’t like war. Yet, the war isn’t over, right there in the prelude it reads …the war is just beginning.

The remaining top dogs of the empire have set up a meeting on the planet to discuss the future of the Empire. Right off the bat things get shaky, Wedge is captured by the imperials, therefore the search begins and the introduction of a few new characters.

Characters: Nora Wexley is a rebel pilot suffering PTSD. She was actually flying inside the second Death Star as it was exploding. She comes home to Akiva, to her son, Temmin Wexley. Temmin is a bit of a stubborn brat, who’s pissed at his mother for abandoning him to his lesbian aunts, who unfortunately, couldn’t raise him. Yes, Nora left her son to join the rebel alliance. Temmin has a pet/friend droid that just so happens to be a B-1 Battle Droid… yes… those annoying droids from the Clone Wars. (Roger Roger). Well, the boy is in trouble by some local gangster, Surat.

We meet Jas, a bounty hunter. She attempts to collect her bounty, an imperial officer, and discovers that in fact several officers have come together in one location. Well, she runs into some bad luck. Eventually, she gets caught up with Surat.

We meet Sinjir, a former imperial loyalty officer. He’s hopping bars drawing himself in liquor. He wants to get off Akiva, so he seeks out a pilot. Well, long story short, he also gets caught up with Surat.

Eventually they escape the grasp of Surat and meet with Nora. They decide to work together as a team and help Jas take out the imperial targets. It gets a little messy and strange, the plan devised by Nora and the bounty hunter is disrupted and the imperials flee with our hero’s held captive. But! the New Republic comes to the rescue.

Overall Review: The present tense writing style isn’t good for a tale that takes place “A long time ago” in a galaxy far far away. There are interludes every few chapters, a short story about something else going on in the galaxy. It’s a distraction from the boring story he’s trying to tell. The diversity in the book comes off forced, it doesn’t read natural at all. Chuck Wendig just wants to let us know that there are plenty of gays in the Star Wars universe. One weird thing, Wendig substitutes the “F word” with “frag.” In this book, there was absolutely nothing at stake.

I give this book a 1 out of 5

Star Wars: Dark Disciple Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

SPOILER FREE

Star Wars Dark Disciple, the fifth book released in the new Star Wars canon. Dark Disciple is written by New York Times Bestselling Author Christie Golden. This tale takes place after Attack of the Clones and during the Clone Wars. Dark Disciple starts off nice; the first chapter is well written and is indeed a page tuner… then the rest of the book follows. Minor Spoilers (not the ending) are below. The Clone Wars is an era in Star Wars that I could care less about. I was hoping this book would make me enjoy a small part of the era.

Summary: In this book, Count Dooku is doing what he does, which is cause problems. Many beings die because of him as he trudges through the galaxy with his battle droids. Well, the Jedi council, instead of getting a good number of Jedi to seek him out and put him down… select one Jedi in secret (Quinlan Vos), to somehow team up with Asajj Ventress and assassinate Dooku.

The Review of Characters and Story: We have multiple encounters with the Jedi Council so I’d like to start off with the most outspoken members. The voice of Yoda is hard to capture, from the little amount of Filoni’s television series I have seen, Yoda’s voice was done incorrectly. It is way too choppy and irritating, so it was disappointing that Golden does a fine job of imitating Filoni’s Yoda… it just doesn’t work, it isn’t Yoda. The other council member worth mentioning is Mace Windu. Windu, basically comes off pissed the entire book. He’s the short tempered, irrational thinker of the council, although he’s the only one in this book that seems to “get it.” Kenobi… I’ll get to Kenobi a bit later. Quinlan Vos, a fun loving Jedi that visits 1313 in Coruscant, which is the shady underworld of the planet. He meets up with the infamous young bounty hunter Boba Fett… and that took me out of the book for a moment. Of course it would be Boba Fett, he’s like 1 of 12 bounty hunters in the galaxy. He needed help seeking Ventress and eventually finds out where she is. (By chapter 12 I realized that Vos is an alcoholic, this guy is throwing back drinks all the time!) When Vos meets up with Ventress, there are a few subtle and unnecessary sexual references that didn’t need to be there. Ventress comes off as this hard edged scoundrel that works alone, she takes nothing from nobody… but she evolves into a whole other character really fast. This is one of those minor spoilers: Ventress must train Vos in the ways of the dark side because it’s apparently the only way Dooku can be defeated. There are some fantastic moments in this book for sure, but the story just makes no since to me. Why does it take someone steeped in the dark side of the force to take down Dooku? Why is Dooku so powerful? Why won’t the Jedi just hunt him down and get rid of him instead of sending in two force users to assassinate him? When there is confrontation between Vos and Dooku, why do we have to hear the same old material that should be left alone to the films!? Dooku says “Join me!” and Vos echoes Luke Skywalker with, “I’ll never join you!” In this little duel, Ventress is distracted with a little dual of her own and when she makes her way back to where she needs to be, discovers that Vos has been captured. Boba Fett and his gang of familiar Bounty Hunters make another appearance, this time assisting Ventress on a rescue mission to get Vos back from the Count. This whole chapter was a waste of my time. Once again, I don’t understand why Dooku is made out to be this unstoppable force. The more I read in the book the more I disliked it, and beyond that, it makes me dislike Filoni and the irritating Clone Wars series! ANAKIN DOESN’T HAVE AN APPRENTICE!

Bigger Spoiler Alert HERE: Vos slips… no, he falls to the Dark Side. Ventress discovered this when she went to the rescue. She becomes depressed and talks with Kenobi about what’s happened. In turn, Kenobi reports the devastating news alongside Ventress to the Jedi Council. The Council appreciating Ventress’s humbleness to come forward, and in exchange for helping retrieve Vos, her slate will be wiped clean of all offenses in her past. It’s interesting that a force user can drift between light and dark and have a clean slate if they come back to the light. What about all those lives they had ended in the past? No punishment.

Kenobi: Kenobi has his own little section here because this is the most odd and disappointing character in the book. This portrayal of Kenobi is by far the worst written I’ve ever read. I can’t tell you how he acts in the Clone Wars television series, but in this book he is oblivious and childish. Kenobi is the biggest liberal on paper. In his eyes, a dark force user is not guilty of the heinous murders and various other crimes they’ve committed; they are in fact… victims themselves. Shut… Up… Kenobi argued each time execution was ordered by the council for Vos and Dooku, when did he argue with Yoda when he was sent to execute Anakin Skywalker?!?!?! He didn’t, because he isn’t a coward or a baby. According to this book, if Kenobi was ordered to execute Hitler, he would refuse. Back to the Story Review: It’s amazing how many times a lightsaber blade was held just inches away from an enemy’s neck. Dooku could have been killed a number of times in this book. Toward the end of Dark Disciple, I wanted to give up; I can’t stress enough about how annoyed I am with the writing of these characters, especially Kenobi. There is so much with Ventress and Vos that was good and there was so much that was outright nonsense. The last chapter in my opinion was cheesy, laughable, and ridiculous.

That’s my review for Star Wars Dark Disciple by Christie Golden. I give this book 2 out of 5

Star Wars: Lords of the Sith Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

At the front of this book one we get the first look at The Story of Star Wars, a visual timeline of the movies and where the books fit in to canon. This book takes place after Revenge of the Sith, before James Luceno’s, Tarkin novel. Lords of the Sith is written by New York Times bestselling author, Paul S. Kemp.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Boy oh boy this book starts of with a bang, from page one I was sucked in with left hanging on to the edge of my seat. Kemp does an outstanding job voicing our lords of the sith, Vader and the Emperor. Kemp provides great character development and gets us in the mindset of the Free Ryloth movement led by the Twi’lek, Cham Syndulla.

One of my favorite scenes from Revenge of the Sith is that conversation between Anakin and Palpatine at the opera. It was dark, mysterious, and tense. Kemp delivers that same intensity in the dialogue between Vader and the Emperor in this book.

This book displays the true birth of the rebellion and their first blow against the Empire. Each character is written and handled with respect. All these characters were believable, well developed and original.

I have to say, this book contains the best 5 pages I’ve read in any form of Star Wars literature, be it Legends and new canon. Buy this book. If you’re not interested, go to the book store grab this book and turn to page 193 in the hardback edition.

The last chapter is intense! We see Vader in a way we’ve never seen him.

RATING:

I give this book 5 out of 5

Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

Heir to the Jedi, the third Star Wars Book in the new Canon. Written by Kevin Hearne, a New York Times Best Seller. This book is written if first person. Not really the ideal way to write a Star Wars book. You’re either going to love the style or hate it. (The Legends book I, Jedi was the first Star Wars book written in first person.) In this book, Luke goes on one mission to another and another with all new characters, with the brief passing of a few familiar names like Leia and Akbar. I believe this book failed on so many levels. The biggest failure in this book is the portrayal of Luke Skywalker, (who just so happens to be my favorite character) a complete disservice! Heir to the Jedi takes place soon after the Battle of Yavin, long before the events of The Empire Strikes Back. Luke doesn’t know much about the force as of yet but starts small by moving objects (noodles). This book portrays Luke Skywalker and the other new characters as complete morons. Do yourself a favor and watch my more in depth review before you spend the money on this book. Kevin Hearne, he tried, I think… It might be best if he keeps his pen from writing any Star Wars Books for a long time. Heir to the Jedi was a major flop. I really can’t believe this book was approved to be a part of the Canon. The cover on this book is pretty awesome – Life lesson – don’t judge a book by its cover. I give this book a 0 out of 5

Star Wars: Tarkin Book Review

by Matthew Wilson

The second book in the new Star Wars Canon. This book is loaded with a cast of classic sinister characters! James Luceno does a fantastic job capturing the voice of Grand Moff Tarkin. Taking place in the Star Wars timeline between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Yet, it also takes place before the first release of the new canon, Star Wars A New Dawn.

Many Star Wars Characters have been expanded upon in recent years under the Legends expanded universe. Now, it’s Tarkin’s turn. We get a glimpse of his past and the trials he faced as a young man. In this tale, a band of outlaws steal Tarkin’s ship in the opening pages. We follow Tarkin and Darth Vader as they hunt down the misfits.

Luceno brings us a great story with great dialogue which paints clear imagery with the way he writes. There are a few minor things in the book I wish weren’t in there. One example of those things would be Palpatine’s first name. Yep, that’s inside.

You won’t be disappointed in this book, I recommend you purchase this one. Grand Moff Tarkin is indeed a great Star Wars Character and deserved a good book.

I give this book a 3 out of 5