Books Star Wars: Catalyst (A Rogue One Story): (spoilers)

It is kind of interesting that if you read Tarkin and Catalyst, our good pal Wilhuff is almost made out to be the good guy. (The babyface, for you wrestling fans.) While still evil there is a nobility to his actions, and other competing players like Krennic and Mas Amedda are much more difficult to empathize with. I found myself rooting for Tarkin, which I think was the intent. Particularly since there is kind of a Krennic/Amedda vs Tarkin/Vader dynamic, and Vader is difficult to root against as it is.

 

That's the impression I got. When I first read Tarkin, I thought neither the Moff nor the Grand Vizier liked each other particularly well. That was definitely reinforced in Catalyst.

Of course, I'm sure that's what Palpatine intended: keep his subordinates on their toes.

 

Indeed, you could say it was a system of, to borrow Kershaw's phrase for Hitler's "system": Working towards the Emperor.

 

Points for the Kershaw reference - and the proof that you actually READ Kershaw...

 

It took me 6 months to read Nemesis, not because it wasn't excellent - it was - rather, it was grim.

What I really liked about Kershaw's Hitler biographic epic is it was less about Hitler and more about how he was enabled to do what he did, which remains the big Q on Nazi Germany.

 

Kershaw's isn't a prose style that lends itself to easy reading, is it?

William L. Shirer, he's not...

 

I'm still disappointed he's not a Grand Admiral. "Director" sounds like such a lame title.

 

Is Lyra are first Star Wars hippe?


Also is this the official review thread for this book or do the moderators make one? Can i make one if no one does?

Maybe he's not a fleet guy he's a engineer...So i don't know it seems to work. The White Uniform i think is just a vanity thing.

 

The Corps of Engineers seems to utilize naval ranks, and he's wearing an admiral's bars in pictures, so maybe director is his title but admiral is his rank?

 

Honestly, he seems like a much-much less menacing Grand Admiral Zaarin who seems to have held his position in the Legends Empire.

 

Thrawn in Rogue One confirmed

JUST KIDDING PEOPLE THAT WAS A JOKE!

 

No, no, he's in Rogue Two.

I totally predict the changes to the ending they made is most of them living.

 

I think they live either way.....In fact i had a entire ti-raid earlier on how nothing says that they CAN'T not live.

In fact if you think about it. Fandom been 0/2 so far in terms of deaths

Ashoka -Ambigious

Aphra -Lived

See they lived....I'm telling you I don't trust it...I think they are going to live.

 

Well, I don't think anyone could or should make reading of WW2 fun - but Nemesis was the book where I concluded that what is taught in schools is the barest surface of a very deep and dark ocean.

 

Ahsoka is the Schrodinger's Cat (or would it be owl?) of the GFFA.

 

My favorite Ahsoka theory is she was bonked in the head and will be amnesiac until after Return of the Jedi.

Bonus points if she fell to the Dark Side with some Malachor V cultists only for Luke to redeem her in a comic, restoring her memory.

 

It's not so much that it needs to be fun to read, just that it needs to be easier to read; Kershaw's prose style is such that it can occasionally be near-incomprehensible. That's something that made both Hubris and Nemesis (and his other works like The End) a bit of a challenge for me sometimes, and it's simply not present in the prose style of other writers on this, yes, grim subject. The older guys, Shirer, Bullock, Toland, and even the more outlandish psychohistories like that of Robert G. L. Waite, don't have prose styles that themselves present impediments to being easily read and absorbed. And ALL of them took on the depths of that ocean, and did so very well indeed - without occasionally sounding more like a technical manual than a popular history.

 

I prefer easy reads myself considering I don't like to read

Except comics but even then I skim the pictures

And start to easily lose focus since I have a short attention span

 

I'd like for some of the crew to live so we can have sequels but not ALL of the crew. I'm thinking a Michael Stackpole/Allston-esque mix of casualties because I think the idea of doing, essentially, the X-wing books as movies is a really good idea.

Better than the Han Solo and Boba Fett spin offs.

 

Allston in particular handled casualties excellently; he made you feel every one of them (see Ton Phanan in particular).

 

David Weber said something to the effect of: Military fiction in which only bad people -- the ones the readers want to die -- die and the heroes don't suffer agonizing personal losses isn't military fiction: it's military pornography.

Actually, the entire quote is good.

I know from the moment that I introduce them that some characters are going to die. Paul Tankersley was a case in point in the Honorverse, as was the original Sean MacIntyre in Mutineers' Moon, or Raoul Courvosier. Others end up dying (or living, against original plans) because of something the story demands. And some of them end up dying because I write military fiction and in military fiction, good people die as well as bad people. Military fiction in which only bad people -- the ones the readers want to die -- die and the heroes don't suffer agonizing personal losses isn't military fiction: it's military pornography. Someone who write military fiction has a responsibility to show the human cost, particular because so few of his readers may have any personal experience with that cost. In answer to your specific questions, I knew that one of the middies was going to be killed in the confrontation with the Jessyk Combine ship. The fact that Ragnhild wound up as Terekhov's personal shuttle pilot made it her. And in AAC, it was actually Honor who was supposed to die and McKeon who was supposed to arrive too late to save her. Due to some things which happened when Eric and I started collaborating, elements I had planned for a post-Honor Honorverse (if that makes sense) got pulled forward considerably in time. As a result, there wasn't time for me to have Honor's child mature to a point of dealing with the new generation of problems. I won't pretend that I was heartbroken to not killer her after all, since it had never been something I'd looked forward to, but that was the original game plan.

 

I honestly found Orson more empathetic. Something about the fact that he cares (or did care) about Galen at one point, and could have turned the Ersos over to law enforcement many times for Lyra's discontent with the Empire. I was surprised that Tarkin and Krennic did not get on more. I guess that just goes to show how fairly similar people can often have contempt for one another.

I really am glad I read this novel, as it lead right into Rogue One. There is going to be added layers now as I watch the film.

 

How much did Krennic really care for the Ersos? From the moment the catch up, Krennic is trying to manipulate them. Also, I got the impression that he was trying to find a way to get Lyra out of the picture really early on without getting trouble from Galen. (While he did get that just arresting Lyra would not be good for Galen, I also got the distinct impression that he really didn't understand them as a couple; his first estimation was that the relationship would only last a couple of months and he was very surprised that they got married. At the end, he also seems blindsided that Galen would choose his family over his work with the crystals.)

 

I get the impression Krennic is a sociopath in the clinical sense and actually a fairly realistic depiction. He has people he likes but doesn't really form, I swear I didn't do this deliberately but thought of this word first, attachments.

Ironic.

As soon as people don't act to his interests, he turns on them.

 

The key Q to me is: If Krennic didn't need Galen from the off would he ever have helped him get out of jail? I think not.