Book #237 of 2019:
Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse
Although I’ll need to see the upcoming movie The Rise of Skywalker to be certain, it sure doesn’t feel like anything in this official prequel novel is particularly essential as setup. Its biggest contribution to smoothing the leap from The Last Jedi is probably in working through protagonist Poe Dameron’s regret and redemption after his failed mutiny attempt in that previous film. There’s also a new timidity to Rey’s characterization that may prefigure a shift in her own cinematic role. But plotwise, not very much of galactic importance happens in this book — which unfortunately makes sense, as Disney can’t expect that most audience members will read it.
Yet perhaps more than any other media tie-in I’ve encountered, the story doesn’t feel aimed at traditional fans anyway. Instead, it’s a celebration of the off-camera side of this fictional universe itself, drawing in characters from various comic books, video games, and other novels in Disney’s new canon to help the Resistance in its darkest hour. For the right sort of consumer, the effect will resemble that of a tentpole Marvel feature, an exciting crossover event bringing together certain popular figures who have only ever shared a continuity by implication before.
The downside, of course, is that if you don’t already have a familiarity with all those properties, your reaction to their inclusion will likely be more subdued. This is definitely not a good entrypoint into the franchise literature, and I myself greeted many of the returning names with a shrug. And because no narrative has room for everything, there are certainly many other heroes who could have made an appearance and disappointingly never do. (Sorry, Baby Yoda lovers. No sign of Mandalorians here.)
It’s understandably hard to evaluate a text like this that can work in different ways for different readers. But it’s a solid adventure with some fun callbacks, even if it’s ultimately inconsequential for the blockbuster it’s intended to support.
★★★☆☆
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