Category: Star Wars Canon

I really wanted to like this book because I really liked Rose Tico and was traumatized by Paige’s death the first time I saw The Last Jedi, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by it.  It was pretty good; I just didn’t love it.  Rose felt so young – like a child instead of a young adult.  I picked up the book, read a few pages, and put it back down so many times.  It just didn’t draw me in the way I hoped it would.

Hmmmm… what did I think about this book?  Overall, I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  I generally go into Zahn books expecting to love them, but I found it easy to put this one down too often.  I think part of the problem (or maybe all of the problem) was that all of the main characters were Imperials, so I didn’t have good guys to cheer for.  It was weird.

I did like getting to know “new canon” Thrawn and I really liked Eli Vanto.  I liked getting to know Governor Pryce better and learning her backstory.  Plotwise, I wasn’t blown away.  The plot is a little meandering and (probably because of my disjointed reading), I actually was a little confused by the reveal at the end.  I think I didn’t remember something I was supposed to.

I would love to read more about Eli and what happens to him after this book.

I generally try to write about a book just after I finish it, but I needed to run some errands after I finished this book and so I had some time to think about it before I had a chance to sit and write.  And the verdict is… I don’t know.  I liked it.  It was a pretty easy read and I found that when I sat down to read, I effortlessly finished big chunks.  But I didn’t love it.  I loved parts of it, but the ending was a little rushed in my opinion.

In the end, I think I liked where most everyone ended up, but I wanted MORE.  I wanted to know what happens next.  I am hopeful that there will be a book series about the Corellian Academy and Phantom Squadron.  I want more Sinjir and Conder.  I want more Jas.  Hopefully we get them.  Soon.

This book was a bit of a struggle for me. I really liked getting more background on Krennic, Galen and Lyra Erso, and Tarkin, but the overall book was really slow. It made it easy to put down. 

I do wish I had read this before Rogue One came out. I guess I’ll have to see the movie again to see how it affects my opinion of Krennic. 

I liked getting to know Lyra and was secretly hoping she was a secret Jedi. I liked her environmentalist-ness. It was interesting to see the Empire’s destruction through her eyes. 

Overall, I am glad I read this, but I did kind of have to make myself do it. 

This book was so fun!  It stays true to the movie action and you can see the dialogue in the iambic pentameter, but the language makes it so much better.  I loved the soliloquies that were added.  They add foreshadowing, background information, and a cool look into the character’s head.  I loved that the book gave R2-D2 asides that show what he is thinking instead of just leaving Threepio to translate for him.  He was probably my favorite part.  At times, I saw the action as the movie with the character’s just saying different dialogue, but other times, I saw the staging as a darkened stage with spotlights on the characters.  The stage in my head was definitely community center production, not Broadway too.  I have no idea why that’s what was in my head, but it enhanced the humor for me.  I have the other two books in the original trilogy and look forward to reading them.

I read the first Aftermath book in less than a day during DragonCon in 2015.  Needless to say, I don’t remember that much about it.  I was going to reread it at some point, but never did.  I did give it a 4 but my blurb here was a bit less enthusiastic.  So idk.

Overall, I liked Life Debt.  I think I liked it more than Aftermath.  I still really like the main characters – Norra, Temmin, Jas, and Sinjir.  I don’t remember Jom from Aftermath, but I guess he joined them at some point because he wasn’t really introduced in Life Debt.  He was pretty cool, though.  I liked him and Jas together.  Temmin was weird – sometimes he seems like an older teen and every intelligent and responsible, but then other times he seems like a 9 year old.  It’s hard to pin an age on him.

I LOVED spending time with original trilogy characters.  I really liked all the Leia parts of the book and enjoyed spending time with Han and Chewie.  I definitely yelled “HAAAAN SOOOOLOOO” in my best Maz Kanata voice the first time he showed up.  And Wedge.  Dear sweet Wedge.  I just want that man to be happy.  Is that too much to ask?

I liked all the politics, but at time found the Imperial side of it trying.  I didn’t really like Rax and didn’t feel like he was a great mastermind or whatever that warranted Sloane’s fear.

So yeah, I liked it and look forward to the third book in the trilogy.

I really should write my thoughts down right after I finish a book.  It’s been a few weeks and now I am struggling to remember details.  But overall, I liked this book a lot.  I really like Claudia Gray’s writing style in this book and in Lost Stars.  It’s just easy to get lost in the world around her characters.  And those characters are always awesome.  I have always loved Princess Leia, so I loved that this book focused on her.  My feelings on Casterfo were up and down throughout the book, but I did end up really liking him.  And the rest of the characters were great.  I especially liked Greer and Joph.

So um, yeah, this is a really good book.  My brain just isn’t recalling all the details at the moment. :)