Books Star Wars TLJ: Cobalt Squadron

reminds me of the before the Awakening book, same publisher too.

 

Guessing this book will explore Rose and her sister's relationship before she's inevitably killed off at the start of TLJ (The sister I mean not Rose)

 

Being that those bombers are so weird, I'm glad we're getting a book about their crews right away.

 

Very cool! This is good.

 

Loved the JTTFA middle grade books. Can't wait for this!

 

Super excited about this!

 

Cobalt Squadron sounds awesome.

 

I honestly thought we were gonna have to wait till later 2018 for a book like this! So glad we can pick it up on Dec.15

 

A book about bomber squadron pilots, yes please.

 

This is so freaking cool! Can't wait to learn more about the Resistance military.

--Adm. Nick

 

Funny that the part JOURNEY TO TLJ it's not on this book, so probaly, this book will be more important for the movie than the books with the journey

 

more about Cobalt Squadron in another book

 

Probably not a spoiler at this point, but

Spoiler

I'm getting increasingly curious about how a bomber mechanic becomes a spy.

 

Spoiler

My guess? Accidentally.

 

Spoiler

They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.

 

Spoiler

Or they were in the right place at the right time, and naturally became heroes

 

seems like the release date is the movie's release. Just like Before the Awakening.
Matt Martin‏Verified account @missingwords 19h19 hours ago

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Cobalt Squadron featuring Rose Tico coming day and date with #TheLastJedi.

 

Ah, blast. From the small image up top I was hoping the guy on the right was a Tognath or a Kel Dor.

 

When I get a movie with an OT, PT, and ST species all included, I'll die of delight.

--Adm. Nick

 

This came out 12/15. I haven't seen much (any) talk about it. Looks short. But the audio is narrated by Kelly Tran, which is pretty cool.

Haven't read it (or listened) yet.

Thoughts? Reviews?

Sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

I really enjoyed this. I actually wish I was able to get this before I went and saw TLJ because - like, say, Catalyst - although it isn't necessary reading to understand the film, it does add contextualising information on the characters. The novel especially highlights the relationship between Rose and Paige in a way that the movie obviously couldn't. Since you haven't read it yet, I'll use a spoiler tag for this bit, but it's a pretty details-light, broad strokes analysis of what you can expect.

Spoiler

Their arc starts with an interdependent relationship (Rose won't fly on a vessel without her sister; Paige feels responsible for protecting her) which evolves and grows over the course of the story to a satisfying conclusion (Rose becomes confident enough to follow her own calling; Paige encourages her to do this even though it means letting her go). It really adds a lot more of an emotional punch to what Rose is feeling in TLJ and how it motivates her.

There's also some pretty cool Fleet Junkie stuff, building on the detachable clip of the StarFortresses and their ability to take different payloads. For instance, we see them used as spy ships equipped with racks of miniature probes, mining vessels, and for supply airdrops.

 

It's a nice, easy read, and it's great to get the bomber squadrons fleshed out like this. I'd have happily taken a comic mini-series along these lines over the Captain Phasma mini-series. Bomber Command is the perfect complement to this, too.

 

I'm not entirely sure a spoiler tag is necessary, but to be sure, I put my review under the tag:

Spoiler: Spoilery Review

As much as I loved fleshing out the relationship between Paige and Rose in this story, I felt like Bomber Journal accomplished this well enough on its own. I felt like the book may have been too myopically focused on the two to the detriment of the rest of the supporting cast. I hardly remembered most of the cast's names as they were only fleshed out when Rose or Paige interacted with them. Though, I haven't seen the film again since I've read the book, so it may change my opinion on how well it worked for those characters.

Mostly, though, I thought that the finale was just a bit too tame for me. I understand what happened - the destruction of Hosnian Prime would probably be a massive enough event that most of the First Order would be preoccupied. But the build up, and all of the planning for this final battle, to be cut short by the destruction? That was a bit of a bummer. I felt for all of the strategic thinking that Rose and Paige brought up were never fully realized without the chance to actually be in action doing those things! (If I may be so bold: last time I was let down in a similar fashion by this? Breaking Dawn when the vampire families never really fight.)

As much as I love taking looks into other First Order ravaged systems, I wanted to see a bit more of what was going on in the Resistance during this time. The story line brought up similarities to Poe Dameron's last completed arc, and it struck me to see how powerless the Resistance was (literally just wanting pictures of them being evil!) even up until the destruction of Hosnian Prime.

 

I really enjoyed this book and I agree with @Grand Admiral Paxis that it would have been better if it was released before the movie instead of say, Canto Bight? Not that I didn't enjoy that book either, but I felt like this book connects more with TLJ than Canto Bight.