Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: AHSOKA (spoilers)

I almost never give a book a ten. its can always be better.

but I will give it an 8.5/10 which is one of my highest ratings of any new canon book. I believe I gave Bloodlines a 9, cant remember. So for me that is a high score. The book was very good start to finish. I actually enjoyed that it was a slower, story based novel. Does not have to be loaded with action. It was an enjoyable read, but not an elite book. To me its not Bloodlines level. I have it tied for second with Lost Stars

 

6/10 for me
nice read but nothing special. Bit boring first half, much better the second one. Not very interesting new characters, but amazing Bail - I feel we don't have him enough in New Canon. I liked the Kyber Crystals scenes and explanation about the red colour.
I wish it was more about the beginning of the rebellion (and Ahsoka's place in it) and less about Ahsoka on the run - we already had a padawan on the run in Kanan's comics (which I personally think handled this problem much better - she was never hungry, totally desperate on in a real danger).
I really liked the TCW flashbacks and nods to the readers (finally something about Barriss!) but basically all the interludes were very interesting and adding more to the story.

 

7/10

I was just happy to hear more about her again but I could've done without the crush that was so blatant. One thing I love is seeing Ahsoka in combat and we got some of that but we really missed out on all the smuggling missions she did near the end of the book. I mean going up against the Black Sun and all we get is a small dust up with a bounty hunter? I do wonder if Vader found her old lightsabers on her fake grave? I could see them sitting in the top drawer of his desk.

 

8/10. I really enjoyed it

 

6/10 for me. Good solid read, but felt a bit flat and underwhelming to what it perhaps could have been. I have timeline issues reading the progression of The Inquisitors as a whole, Ahsoka's rebellion role only 1 year post ROTS.

 

It's a good book, but where it excels is in the little details of life under Empire:

• The general view would be that Raada must have done something to deserve the Imperial interest but it didn't.
• The stormtroopers coming by houses to check occupants are at work.
• Asking Ahsoka where she is going on the Empire Day, if you're not at the celebrations you stand out.
• The plants that wreck the ecosystem of wherever they are planted. Why not? There's always another planet.

The book had a wide array of villains but the king scumbag has to be that bureaucrat mathematician - who legs it and escapes. What an incredibly awful piece o' crap.

 

8/10

I wrote a full review HERE but I'll give a short version: I liked it! It was basically what I expected in terms of quality from a YA novel. I loved how it really made the Star Wars films and TV series feel very connected, because they usually feel like two unrelated things to me. It was great seeing more of Ahsoka, even if the premise was very similar to A New Dawn. It left me wanting more, that's for sure. Bring on my Ahsoka stories!

Not sure where I'd place it in my ranking of favorite canon novels yet... Probably somewhere in the middle. Not the best, but very enjoyable anyway. Far from the worst.

 

3/10


I am really disappointed with this book. The NEU books have consistently let me down (excepting Lost Stars and Bloodline, both Claudia Gray books) so I didn't come into this book expecting much anyway.

The writing was fine, so this definitely isn't a one star book. But the absolute lack of creativity was nearly overwhelming and was by far the worst aspect of the book. I couldn't believe a Star Wars book could be this inactive and uninteresting.

One of her biggest flaws is that on her new planet of Raada, she had like seven or eight main characters. Each of these characters had a two syllable name.

Kaeden
Neera
Kolvin
Selda
Vartan
The list goes on, I just can't remember any of the other characters because they refused to stand out in any way. By choosing these simple names, she really undermined all the character work she did with each of them. I couldn't tell them apart even through the end of the book.

Having varying character names would have really helped the characters I think. This is something most all authors do, I wonder why she didn't get the memo.

Having said all this, her characterization of Ahsoka was spot on I thought, it is a shame she couldn't build up a good story around her. The plot was seemingly thought up within two minutes. Give me three minutes and I could come up with something better.

This book had no stakes, and I will probably forget everything that happened. Here is another author I hope never gets to write Star Wars again.

PS: Lucasfilm, please choose bold authors! Not self-indulgent fan-fic writers!

 

I liked the focus on a single character, Ahsoka. That in itself is pretty novel to Star Wars books. Only other example I can think of is I,Jedi.

It was a good story, and I really enjoyed it. The departure from a galaxy shattering event, in lieu of a more on personal and local events focus was refreshing (but clear webs tying to the larger context).

I thought the writer nailed Ahsoka's characterization. In the NEU, she may very well be the most dynamic and developed SW character. Possibly the most consistently developed character in all of Star Wars.

A fun story I liked. And, she's pretty badass.

8.5/10

 

2/10

I gave it two ratings, because I thought the author portrayed Ahsoka and Bail well. But I didn’t really like much about the story. The farmer parts were kind of boring to me, and I thought there was stuff that didn’t really fit into the Rebels canon, like Ahsoka fighting an inquisitor, the inquisitors knowing about Ahsoka (and yet it takes them fifteen years for the Empire to find her again?), and I didn’t like how it made it canon that Ahsoka was still in contact with Anakin after she left the Jedi Order. That doesn’t really make sense to me.

 

I thought this one was just OK. I did enjoy seeing Ahsoka's reaction to the events post-episode III and to the early Empire. I also liked setting the Siege of Mandalore which I assume was going to occur near the finale of the Clone Wars TV show. The rest of the story didn't really grab me in any substantive way. I just wish there was more to it. Not many of the new characters were all that interesting and I do understand the need for a smaller story but I guess I was looking for more. 5/10

 

4/10 Didn't have much going for it. Ahsoka got her spotlight stolen by other characters I didn't care for and can't even remember their names. I wanted to know more about Ahsoka's thoughts of all that has happened and barely got a scrap of that.

 

I enjoyed the audio book, the middle of the book had a lot of development but it was it rather boring . The bagpipes were a little weird though, but if the audio book is anything to go on,the Force theme from Williams is like a real theme in the SW universe, they can hear it apparently. I'll give it a solid 7 1/2. It could've used more action and covered a lil more time both before and after ROTS.

 

I just finished the book today and thought it was good. Four stars.

It was a little slow to start but once it got going it was very enjoyable. I did like to see how she became Fulcrum and I really thought it fit in well w/the last season of TCW. I liked Kaeden and also liked seeing that she got to live past Alderaan's destruction as seen in a Certain Point of View.

 

I pesonally loved it but there are some flaws 8 out of 10