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justthatstarwarsbookgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
At first I didn’t really like this Junior Novelization. I thought it was not very well-written overall and that the author did not spend enough time on Jyn’s childhood and the opening scene of the movie where Galen is taken and Lyra is killed, and why all of this takes place. I disliked the author’s version/portrayal of the character of Jyn Erso, to me they made her a lot more ragged and rougher around the edges and overall meaner, crueler and more uncaring and completely unsympathetic than she was compared to in the official adult novelization and movie itself. They definitely put more emphasis on her criminality and the bad things she had done in her lifetime in the story. I thought Saw’s scenes were okay (with Bodhi, Bor Gullet, the torture and interrogation, Two Tubes, as well as the holographic message from Galen) and his character was decently accurate. I think they described his health in this novelization as much worse than it was portrayed in the movie however. I like how it is alluded to the characters (the pilot mother and son Jyn had a romance with) who adopted/took her in in the young adult canon book by Beth Revis “Rebel Rising” after Saw “abandoned” her. I can’t recall exactly if it’s accurate that she loses her faith in the Rebellion at that point or if that’s why (as this book states) but I don’t recall her adversity to at least Saw’s Rebel Faction being so strong, possibly the official Alliance though. I don’t like that they try to portray Galen’s message as not being able to finish due to the power going out from the blast of Jedha City. I also thought Jyn’s mourning of Saw was uneventful, as uneventful as his death itself, with the movie lines vastly unspoken. The emphasis put on him raising her like a daughter for so long is a little late in life and a poor afterthought to the story, and should’ve been expressed more or a little earlier in the storyline. As the story went on I went from disliking it to being “meh” about it, and the events taking place (such as the Jedha and Eadu missions), they all seemed a basic and decent description of the events of the movies accurately enough, with no extra added details but no details detracted or inaccurate thankfully. Nearing the end of the story I started to mildly enjoy it, but that was about it. It was still fairly bland tasting in my imagination and mind’s eye. K-2SO’s character is beyond annoying in this novelization, and in the movie he isn’t nearly like this at all, especially with the annoyance factor. Me and my Mom actually love K2 in the movie, so it was shocking for me to dislike his portrayal here with how much he speaks up, even as a byproduct of the reprogramming it seems excessive and uncaring of the things he says or who they hurt. I do like the word spelling of his name being “Kay Tu” however, I think that’s really cute and unique for a droid. I love the portrayal of Baze and Chirrut as brothers and best friends, the expressions of their differences and the qualities of their personalities, I think this book is the best portrayal of their relationship I’ve read so far (but I haven’t read the Guardians of the Whills book or Manga yet, it’s on my TBR list), compared to the official novelization or even the movie. I did think they did Baze dirty in his death scene however. In the official novelization, for Baze, after Chirrut passes away in his arms he becomes a true Guardian of the Whills again, readopts his beliefs in the Force and his mantra and completes the chant as he continues to fight. Here they turn him into a violent animal-like creature, who swears revenge if it’s the last thing he’ll do in his final moments. I didn’t really like Cassian’s character, especially how the author seemed to adopt the idea for a fact that they BOTH lost everything from a young age but he was the only one who chose to “do something about it” by joining the official Rebellion. That seems like something the author truly made up in their own mind to explain away Jyn and Cassian’s personal arguments, issues and disagreements. The author also makes it appear like the group has issues working as a team, communicating, and coexisting, which isn’t apparent in the movie, they all seem to bond and link together nicely and work well together. I noticed a few main events and scenes weren’t included in the book, including when the Rebel Strike Team is ordered to attack Eadu. I suppose the author deemed that scene unimportant enough to skip over, but I never like to skip over movie scenes in novelizations. I do like Mon Mothma and Bail Organa’s character portrayals, I especially like how Mothma explains why she doesn’t like to be called Senator anymore and the short included explanation of what happened in the Senate with her calling Palpatine out (which we learn about from other Star Wars works as well). I don’t like how they portrayed Bodhi as a huge coward. He wasn’t that afraid in the movies of anything. Maybe he was a little bit, but not nearly on the level this novelization is stating. Almost every chapter near the end begins with “Bodhi is afraid”, I swear, it seems like. The book does add extra emphasis onto the individual and violent deaths of each of the Rebel soldiers, including that one unfortunate X-Wing pilot from Blue Squadron, and it is very saddening and makes you feel that emotion of sadness legitimately. I think this book is one of the first in a very long time to inspire this much emotion in me (inspiring 2 emotions in me, sadness and hatred as explained below). The book even puts a lot of emphasis on how short the time was to speak to both Galen and Chirrut as they passed away, to the point where quite a few sentences spoken in the movie were removed here. Bodhi, in the movie, also, seems to accept his death by the grenade for Galen and the Rebellion’s honor and sake. In the novelization they state “he didn’t even have time to scream” like he didn’t wish to die or didn’t believe it was a possibility when he came here, when it should’ve been considered a fact that he might. This book also sparks a ton of emotion and inspires a BUNCH of hate for Director Krennic. I’m not sure why, Jyn’s lines about him aren’t the worst I’ve ever read, but every single time he’s mentioned from her POV you curl up inside with hatred and despise him. The chapters from his POV, filled with his extreme loathing for Tarkin, his constant attempted career advancements, his “accomplishments” and insufferable pride, even his naïveté in assuming it couldn’t have been Galen Erso who rebelled and how he completely and utterly fell for Galen’s methods and tricks of “dedicating himself to his work”, all make you unable to stand his character. It was SUPER clever to create multiple chapters from Krennic’s point of view as the villain. It was also super interesting seeing Vader from Krennic’s POV. The fact that we never find out directly what happens to Krennic for a positive fact is a downside to the book though. In my opinion the book left a lot of things and plot points unfulfilled. I did like how they gave the crew member who gets the data card with the plans a name after all to make him more of an individual. I also thought that every single chapter was WAY too short, literally every chapter was about a page or two pages in length, you’d flip to the next page and it would be a whole new chapter already, so that there were over 50 chapters in this tiny book alone. I also wish the photo inserts of the book were at the back of the book because some of the photos are of events that take place AFTER where the inserts are currently placed that you haven’t read yet in the book, however I did like the photo inserts layout and sizing as well as the emphasis on the important characters and scenes in the photos. I DID NOT get an overall hopeful vibe from the ending of the book, it was too brief after all of that violence and conflict, which was not good cuz the whole point of the ending of Rogue One is supposed to be hopeful. Overall I would recommend this book to casual Star Wars fans or other various readers, including children, but I feel like die-hard Rogue One or fans of the Star Wars Universe overall would not enjoy the little changed or un included details in this junior novelization, so it may not be for you. The book was a decently medium paced read but not highly addicting enough to make it a fast read also.
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