At
the end of my last Star Wars book
review I'd mentioned there was another book on the way. The plan was
to continue working through the young adult Journey To the
Force Awakens series with the
Princess Lea installment, Moving Target.
While waiting for it to be delivered something happened; Carrie
Fisher sadly passed over the Christmas holiday soon followed by her
mother Debbie Reynolds. It was yet another another loss of pop
culture icons at a time when there are far too few caring or
interesting people to fill their shoes. Suddenly what I was expecting
to be a fairly light bit of reading turned into a mini memorial for
someone who was on our television almost weekly during my childhood.
Let's face it, most of the appeal of Star Wars
doesn't come from being well-developed so much as being fun
personalities performed by likable individuals. What's Han Solo
without the arrogant swagger of a good performer? or Lando without
the balls out charm of Billy Dee? Carrie Fisher always seemed like a
pretty honest and relatable person, which helped sell the idea that
so many placed their trust in this grumpy princess. Carrie always
reminded me of different relatives which is largely why I was never a
fan of the metal bikini outfit, but that's another story.
Given
Carrie Fisher's death, both today's Moving Target is
unfairly burdened with the challenge of paying extra respect to this
character as it is one of only two Lea focused novels within the new
continuity thus far. I'm happy to report it's mostly successful in
giving the princess a fine adventure away from the rest of her usual
cohorts, though naturally it's not without a few missteps.
The
setting is in-between Empire Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi. Recent
events have left the rebel alliance in a rut when reports begin to
pour in about the creation of yet another Death Star. Plans are in
place to gather the remnants of the rebel fleet in order to take on
this new threat only there are concerns of putting their eggs in one
basket where the Empire could easily take them out in one fatal blow.
Lea makes a plan to use herself as a decoy, taking a small team to
the opposite end of the galaxy to set up communication buoys with
insecure codes in the hopes of drawing the empire's attention away
from the gathering rebel fleet.
Accompanying
Lea on her mission are Nein Nunb, that little odd guy who co-piloted
the Falcon with Lando. Apparently he was friends with Lea for quite
some time which makes this book a nice glimpse into the character as
something more than set dressing. Also along for the ride are
bleeding heat imperial defector Kidi, nervous engineer Antrot, and
battled hardened soldier Lokmarcha. As yo might expect given the
brief page count, none of these new additions are very well developed
but in true Star Wars fashion,
each is broadly drawn enough to be fun additions.
What's
more important, given her being the main character, is whether the
authors effectively captured Lea's voice. I'd say they succeeded
about 75% of the time. There were scenes where she seemed a little
too weak to be the proud leader we've watched for years. That being
said, there are still plenty of moments where you understand how this
girl can gather so many people to her cause, and in those moments,
the book really shines.
More
so than most books we've covered so far, this one actually does a
good job of staying on point. It doesn't take terribly long for Lea
to set her mission in motion and traveling around to get the empire's
attention allows for changes in setting without ruining the pacing.
Beyond
that I was also surprised by how dark this one got despite being part
of a young-adult series. The other two entries we've covered from
this line mostly kept things pretty clean whereas this includes a bit
more death and destruction. The emerging theme throughout the story
is Lea regretting her plan as she learns to balance her
responsibility towards the alliance with her duty towards friends and
comrades. Part of that lesson involves losing a few friends along the
way which I didn't see coming in novel geared towards such a young
audience.
Of
course it's not all good stuff here. Similar to the other books in
this line, the villains are a bit flat. A bigger problem however is
there are multiple sequences where the writing just isn't gripping
enough to keep you engaged. Generally this happens during the action
beats which lead to me blanking out on a few scenes and having to
reread portions. It's less of a problem later on when the stakes get
a little higher, but action honestly the strong suite for this
writing duo.
One
issue is the brief appearance of Luke. Early in the book he still
hasn't separated from the rebels in order to continue his Jedi
training or create his new green lightsaber. Lea's mission doesn't
take very long and by the end of the story she's ready to head to
Jabba's palace. I guess that means Luke took maybe one week to become
a light and dark side using bad ass with a fresh lightsaber.
Truthfully, this isn't these authors fault so much as something the
story group should have planed for in advance.
Moving
on to the rankings, I think this one will just edge out Smuggler's
Run. There's an added level of depth on display here that helps it
outrank the straightforward fun of that Han Solo adventure.
1.
Lost Stars by Claudia
Gray
2. New
Dawn by John Jackson Miller
3.
Ashoka by E. K.
Johnston
4.
Tarkin by James Luceno
5.
Moving Targer by Cecil
Castelluci and Jason Fry
6.
Smuggler's Run by Greg
Rucka
7.
Heir to the Jedi by
Kevin Hearne
8.
Aftermath by Chruck
Wendig
- The Weapon of a Jedi by Jason Fry
While
Carrie Fisher may be gone, it's good to see there are writers out
there with the ability to translate her presence from the screen to
the page, insuring a sort of immortality. Currently I'm halfway
through what will be the tenth book in this article series, after
that I may turn to Bloodline,
the other Lea focused tale penned by Claudia Gray, a woman who's sat
comfortably atop the rankings for quite some time now. Will she knock
another one outta the park? Stay tuned to find out.
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