Princess Leia returns for an all-new adventure in this thrilling upper middle grade novel. Set between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, the story follows the warrior princess as she leads a ragtag group of rebels on a dangerous mission against the evil Galactic Empire.
As every good Star Wars book should start with, the classic opening crawl for the synopsis of the book was beautiful. It was short and sweet, as most synopsises should be, but it was written with such classic over exaggeration and mellow drama as all Sci-Fi’s such as Flash Gordon and Star Wars had. This brought a generally warm feeling to my heart and already I had a good feeling about the read ahead.
Beware, mild spoilers ahead.
Précis
After the great defeat of the Empire’s super weapon known only as the Death Star, the war seemed to be in favour of the Rebel Alliance. But the Alliance took catastrophic losses in the battle and seeked refuge on the Ice planet of Hoth, a baron Iceland offering little apart from Wampa’s and frostbite. However the secret Rebel base was soon discovered by Imperial probe droids and the rebels were on the run once again, taking more casualties by the hand of the Empire.
After regrouping on some distant edge of the galaxy the Alliance are followed by more bad news. To the disbelief of many, the construction of a second death star has been revealed; this time more powerful and impenetrable from the outside. After taking such a heavy blow from the Empire, the Rebels need time to create an attack plan before the second super is finished and fully operational. Something they don’t have much of. They need a distraction, a diversion, something that will lure the Imperials away from sniffing out the badly wounded Alliance. And they’ve got just the woman; Princess Leia.
Her cover mission is to place a beacon on each of three worlds, which in unison send co-ordinates for a rendezvous point for which any freighter looking to join in on the fight against the Empire can recruit at. Her real mission however, is to place the transmitters with messages that can be cracked by Imperial intelligence. This way they will attract the Imperials away from the armada of Rebel ships. A straight forward and simple plan that can turn sour in all different ways.
One daring mission, one ragtag team, one moving target…
Review
The prologue was also rather short and didn’t have any real meaning or point behind it. A bit of a disappointment as I always feel the Prologue is what sets the book off, however it does tie in with the Epilogue smoothly.
There happens to be a mention of the ‘First Order’ but it however wasn’t explored in the slightest. Now I know no one really wants any spoilers but come on! It would have been fulfilling even to have maybe a name or place thrown in there, after all this is a Journey to the Force Awakens book. However Poe’s name was mentioned in the Epilogue but again nothing about his missions or role.
A lot of the obvious were stated too clearly, with no depth being given to conversions or actions. I understand this is a young adult’s book, but that means you should be developing the skills of exploring meaning and reason. However this book is for relaxation, not English classes. However saying that a very strong message was portrayed by Luke. He states “Weapons & War don’t make you a Jedi”. This for Luke is a great turning point in his journey from being a farm boy to becoming a Jedi. It shows he is maturing from a kid into an understanding adult and soon to be Jedi. So although the reader hardly hears from Luke again in the book they learn a key scene in the maturity of his character. Something that the author very cleverly just slipped into general chatter between the characters for which I do applaud.
Something else which is explored in good depth is the relationship between Mon Mothma and Leia. Mothma is a key player in the Rebel Alliance and yet gets little screen time in the films and isn’t seen to be in many novels. Seeing the behind the scenes relationship between two very independent women is interesting and surprising as it has never been seen before. Alongside this the reader can explore the diplomatic tactics used by Leia to aid her in her missions.
Each chapter, which is pleasantly short, is finished on a hard hitting comment or action which leaves the reader in suspense and wanting more. Something which is good to see in such a short novel as with sharp chapters come usually bland exits. There’s also a scattering of illustrations throughout the book which break the intense reading with pleasant visual rests for the mind. Overall this book really packs a good little punch of intensity and action alongside tight strings of emotion, morals and relationships all tied together with a tidy and original storyline.
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