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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you want to know the deep backstory and political/military strings that were pulled to get to Rogue One, this is an excellent book.
It didn't do all that I hoped but it made the overall story more smooth.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Such a good prequel to Rogue One (the novelization and/or the movie!) and really gets into the fraught relationship between Galen Erso and Orson Krennic, as well as Jyn’s early childhood and how it shaped her as a person. I saw a tumblr post’s tag once describe this book as “the Death Star might’ve been flawless if Krennic hadn’t kept trying to worm his way back into the relationship after he’d been kicked out of the Erso polycule” which is both hilarious and somehow spot on. It starts during the ending of the Clone Wars and goes into early Empire days, and shows Galen and Lyra as a couple and as parents, all the layers of subterfuges that Krennic undertook to keep working with Galen and trying to lie to him enough to keep him on the Death Star team, and his own political maneuverings as he continually tried to gain power and recognition. It also got a lot into the Krennic vs. Tarkin bad blood which is just so interesting, those two really hated each other lol. The politics of the prequels / TCW era is one of my favorite things about it, so I really enjoyed reading those same elements here, too. If you plan to read the Rogue One novelization I definitely recommend reading this first— it makes it even better and more heartbreaking! (Oh Erso family my beloveds… all you ever wanted was to do good for the galaxy and love each other 🥲)
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In celebration of Star Wars Day, I was inspired to read my first Star Wars novel and selected Catalyst because of my persistent Andor Fever. This novel, set in the early stages of the Death Star’s construction, focuses on the Erso family and how/why Galen Erso was pivotal to the project.
What I liked most about this novel is that it added depth to the villainous characters, Orson Krennic and Wilhuff Tarkin, and gave more meaningful insight into the politics, rivalries, and manipulations that led to the development of the Death Star. Krennic was more than a power-hungry middle manager, while Ghorman and Jedha were neither the first nor only victims of his Death Star project. In essence, Catalyst intensifies the figurative enormity of the Death Star adding depth to the experience of other stories in the franchise.
This prequel novel was actually released the month before Rogue One came out, setting the stage for the opening act of the film. Had I previously known that it existed, my love for Rogue One would’ve inspired me to read Catalyst long ago. But, it was such an excellent complement to the Andor series, I’m glad I discovered it later. A book focused on the internal politics and conflicts within the Empire coupled with the Andor’s dive into the ideological chaos that led to the formation of the Rebel Alliance intensified my experience of Rogue One. During my re-watch, everything felt heavier: character motivation was given more substance, consequences felt more dire, and emotional investment in the fate of the characters made the gut punch pf an ending so much more debilitating.
Compared to Andor, there’s a stronger Disney influence on Catalyst, particularly through the polarity of the good vs evil and virtual absence of moral ambiguity. From that perspective, the novel was more in line with the tone of the Rogue One film,and might even have been targeted at younger audiences (no idea if that’s the case). The audiobook was full of sound effects and voice enhancements, but the narrator did such a good job, I didn’t find it necessary.
What I liked most about this novel is that it added depth to the villainous characters, Orson Krennic and Wilhuff Tarkin, and gave more meaningful insight into the politics, rivalries, and manipulations that led to the development of the Death Star. Krennic was more than a power-hungry middle manager, while Ghorman and Jedha were neither the first nor only victims of his Death Star project. In essence, Catalyst intensifies the figurative enormity of the Death Star adding depth to the experience of other stories in the franchise.
This prequel novel was actually released the month before Rogue One came out, setting the stage for the opening act of the film. Had I previously known that it existed, my love for Rogue One would’ve inspired me to read Catalyst long ago. But, it was such an excellent complement to the Andor series, I’m glad I discovered it later. A book focused on the internal politics and conflicts within the Empire coupled with the Andor’s dive into the ideological chaos that led to the formation of the Rebel Alliance intensified my experience of Rogue One. During my re-watch, everything felt heavier: character motivation was given more substance, consequences felt more dire, and emotional investment in the fate of the characters made the gut punch pf an ending so much more debilitating.
Compared to Andor, there’s a stronger Disney influence on Catalyst, particularly through the polarity of the good vs evil and virtual absence of moral ambiguity. From that perspective, the novel was more in line with the tone of the Rogue One film,and might even have been targeted at younger audiences (no idea if that’s the case). The audiobook was full of sound effects and voice enhancements, but the narrator did such a good job, I didn’t find it necessary.
As much as I wanted to like these characters, I couldn't get attached to them. This also didn't help in my quest to try and be excited about Rogue One. For some reason I'm just not feeling it anywhere near as much as I did for Force Awakens.
When starting this book you might ask why you should even care about these characters. That eventually went away for me somewhere in the middle. The book by itself is just OK. However, when you watch Rouge one afterwards you will be thankfull you read Catalyst. You will imedetly care for Gaylen, Lyra and Jen while others will be lost. This book, I feel, is absolutely necessary to fully enjoy Rouge One.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It has taken me far too long to get to Catalyst, considering Rogue One is easily one of my favourite Star Wars films and definitely the best outside of the original trilogy. I had a really good time getting more of Galen and Lyra Erso, as well as Krennic and Tarkin. The biggest strength of this book was Lucenos character work, from tackling characters that hadn’t been seen yet when this released, as well as introducing completely new characters for this book. Galen, Krennic and Tarkin all felt like the characters we know even though this was released before we ever knew Galen and Krennic, and Lyra got developed so much more than the film and was a pleasant surprise. Has Obitt, who was introduced here, had a fantastic arc and I would love to see more from him, although that is probably very unlikely.
I also loved to see more of how bad the Empire was throughout the galaxy. We get more of what we expect from the Empire, as well as diving deeper into other terrible things they have done, especially in search of creating the Death Star.
Whilst I really enjoyed the book and the writing, Luceno often went into great detail, especially regarding some of the technical sides of Galen Erso’s research. I’m sure some will have this very interesting but unfortunately I did not.
Also an issue that prequels often have is putting characters that we know appear past the story into dangerous situations. And this happened towards the end of the first part of Catalyst. What didn’t help was just how conveniently they were able to survive.
But overall a very enjoyable book, and I would highly recommend for anyone who is a big fan of Rogue One and wanting to learn more about Krennic and the Erso’s.
I also loved to see more of how bad the Empire was throughout the galaxy. We get more of what we expect from the Empire, as well as diving deeper into other terrible things they have done, especially in search of creating the Death Star.
Whilst I really enjoyed the book and the writing, Luceno often went into great detail, especially regarding some of the technical sides of Galen Erso’s research. I’m sure some will have this very interesting but unfortunately I did not.
Also an issue that prequels often have is putting characters that we know appear past the story into dangerous situations. And this happened towards the end of the first part of Catalyst. What didn’t help was just how conveniently they were able to survive.
But overall a very enjoyable book, and I would highly recommend for anyone who is a big fan of Rogue One and wanting to learn more about Krennic and the Erso’s.
"But the signs and symbols and equations sentients employ to express these connections are not discoveries but the teasing out of secrets that have always existed. All our theories belong to nature, not to us."