As far as rare comforts are concerned
few provide me with as much of a tickle as an article completed far
in advance. See, I'm trying to keep these Star Wars book reviews at a
rate of about one a month. That was until late February provided what
I like to call “reading weather.” The kind of disgusting cold
slop that serves as a permission slip to relax and take in all the
entertainment you can get. I'd say I used the time wisely and plowed
through one of the better received entries in the new cannon, Claudia
Gray's young adult romance, “Lost Stars.”
You can imagine I was a little
apprehensive to approach a book that can be easily summed up as Romeo
and Juliet: The Star Wars Version. Yes we're dealing with one of
those classic lovers from different worlds tales. First as childhood
friends of different social classes, and later as lovers on opposite
sides of a war. It's a common narrative, one that can quickly go
nosedive if handled poorly. Thankfully, the author surprised by
providing a gripping yarn about the two most co-dependent mopes from
a galaxy far far away.
Our story begins eight years after the
prequel trilogy. The empire is firmly in control of the galaxy and is
in the process of spreading their doctrine and oversight to every
planet within reach. A rocky world called Jalucan is inducted into
the Empire one day in a ceremony attended by two young children. One
is Thane Kyrell, youngest son of an abusive, emotionally cold family
from the ruling class. The other is Ciena Ree, a nature loving, honor
bound, low class country girl. The two kids are brought together by a
chance meeting with Grand Moff Tarkin and their shared love of
flying.
Over the years, the children forge an
unbreakable friendship as they push each other into joining the
Imperial Academy. Once they join up is when things start to sour for
these kids. I wont spoil too much in this regard but their childhood
years are really fascinating as we see what the Imperial era is like
for regular kids who are taught an inaccurate version of history
where the Jedi have been redacted to the level of being fairy tales.
In these kids eyes, the Empire serves as the structure that will whip
the galaxy into shape.
As the years pass each of them
continues their careers and befriend others with some tragedy along
the way. Let's just say we finally know someone nice who died on that
Deathstar. Eventually one of them grows too disillusioned to carry on
and abandons their responsibility, eventually finding their way to
joining the Rebel Alliance.
Knowing about the eventual part where
one character joins the alliance initially worried me since a weaker
writer would go the easy route and have country girl join the rebels
in poor cliched fashion. Well color me surprised when the opposite
proved to be true. The abused rich kid joins the good guys while his
lady love totally drinks the Kool-aid! Taking that twist with an
otherwise cliched set-up is what makes this story unique. Despite
being an enormous sad-sack, Thane eventually finds a life among the
rebels while Ciena digs a deeper grave everyday so that when she
finally realizes her folly, it feels too late to turn back.
Reading the trials and tribulations of
these two lovers proves to be some mostly fine reading so long as you
can accept their bizarre mixture of co-dependency and constant
disagreement. Thane has a fairly successful character arc as a
lovesick puppy who eventually finds some measure of peace. Ciena on
the other hand continues to baffle with her depths of self-denial and
stubborn foolishness. There's plenty of details to help us understand
her choices and of course we have the advantage of greater knowledge
but there are still moments when this girl just comes off as an
absolute asshole.
Part of the strength of this book is
that you don't really need to know much about Star Wars to dive in
and enjoy. However; for those of us with a longtime fascination for
the franchise there are plenty of references and cameos to tickle our
fancy. Consider that our two leads are essentially the same age as
Luke & Leia, and there story stretches from when they're children
to a year after Return of the Jedi. That timeline allows for
alternate takes on major events plus small appearances by favorites
like Darth Vader, Princes Leia, Mon Mothma, and the aforementioned
Tarkin. You even get to learn a few neat details like who picked up
Darth Vader after the first Deathstar was destroyed, and how that
Star Destroyer ended up on Jakku.
Sadly there are a few elements that
come across as forced or simply out of touch with the franchise. For
instance, being a young adult novel means there are instances of
dialogue that come sacross as far too dramatic or or simply out of
place. I never thought I'd read an SW novel with multiple utterances
of “badass” yet here they are, and each one takes you out of the
proceedings for a moment.
A couple other issues present
themselves within the story itself. First off is that a few sections
seemed rushed. Seeing as these are usually the sections that coincide
with major moments from the movies I think the idea was to avoid
messing with established events. None of that is as big an issue as
the ending which comes across as indecisive and a little unfocused.
The last section about the battle of Jakku is certainly climactic but
the final chapter feels like it's holding back. Weirdest of all is
that the final scene is completely removed from the main couple,
focusing instead on a villains vow of revenge. Since we have no
guarantee of ever seeing these characters again, it would feel better
to get something more concrete and dramatic.
Even with some misgivings as to the
overall execution I still had a damn good time with this book. It's
so unlike any other Star Wars story I've encountered that it feels
incredibly fresh while having enough recognizable elements to
potentially lure in new fans. I'm gonna start keeping a leaderboard
for this feature from now on and this title has jumped right to the top.
Leaderboard:
1. Lost Stars bu Claudia Gray
2. New Dawn By John Jackson Miller
3. Tarkin by James Luceno
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