Rebel Rising

I really enjoyed this short novel which is a surprisingly serious look at the nature of extremism and the normal people who become the victims (“ants stepped on by giants”). I'm not usually into spin-off novels, but I'm a big fan of Beth Revis so I thought that I'd give this a go and I'm glad that I did.

I was really of two minds with this. As someone who's a big fan of Rogue One, it was exciting to see more of the characters in the movie, and learning more of their backstory will no doubt make my next viewing of the movie an even more enjoyable experience.

However, as a stand-alone novel this felt unsatisfying. Saw remains a cipher, Jyn's character arc has no real resolution (and the way the plot is developed, it couldn't if it wanted to line up with RO), and the new characters that are introduced seem inconsequential and underdeveloped.

In a way, it's kind of like Rogue One got the most direct EU canon connections out of all of the movies so far, between this and Catalyst, Guardians of the Whills and the Rebels series (and more to come). Though (ROGUE ONE SPOILER) it makes sense, as we won't see anything of these characters post-Rogue One, and they won't contradict any of the events in the sequel trilogy or beyond.

Rebel Rising is one of the two YA novels that came out last May, centering on a few of the Rogue One characters. This one centers on Jyn, but in a way also tells the story and downfall (in a way) of Saw Gerrera (whom we'll see more of in Rebels' fourth season).
I thought it was great, and interesting. Though there were a few scenes I could have done without. (You see why it gets the YA tag, but then in other scenes this does tend to get a bit more adult). It fits in perfectly well as a prequel to Rogue One, and makes the character of Jyn a bit more emotionally rewarding (if that makes sense?) than she was in the movie. A lot of her backstory in the movie is told or implied, but having her actually go through these things and how she feels about these or just her general thought process helps a lot in that regard.

When I finished seeing Rogue One, my main thought was probably more like “I want more of these characters”, and I think this is all we can possibly get out of Jyn Erso as a character. Which is perfect, as you're not left hungry for more (BOOK SPOILER) as the book ends where the movie begins for Jyn. It feels very complete.

This is a book that would not exist if it were not for the mistakes and reshoots of Rogue One. The film suffered from many problems, one of which being the lack of character development. I felt like I did not really know Jyn's character at all by the end of the film. She went from a young girl who lost her mother and father, then to a young woman in a prison camp. We, the audience, never get to see the moments in between that define her character. Couple that with the restrained acting, and I felt like the film did not describe the characters well enough.

This book attempts to remedy some of those issues by following Jyn in two timelines: when she is trapped as a prisoner at the labor camp on Wobani and as she grows up with Saw from a girl to a young woman. These two alternating perspectives create a sense of despair in the book, because, as the reader knows, things have to get worse before they get (slightly) better.

I'll say this for the author, Revis is good at making the most out of Jyn's emotions and her relationship with Saw. I felt like they were good together, and I can understand why she would feel such attachment to him as a person. Revis also manages to create this feeling of despair, and shows how resourceful Jyn is to fight through this throughout the book, and how much the mind matters when you have to survive. The idea of mind over matter is of great importance here, and how what is important is not just the tools and skills you have, but the will to see everything through. This is something that teens could learn from. I even liked the scenes in the middle of the book where Jyn falls in love with a boy her age. Despite what other people had to say about it, I think it represented a moment that showed Jyn that there are just people existing in the middle of the Empire and the Rebels who did not want to get involved either way. It allowed for her reluctance in the film to to work with the rebels to make sense.

The narration in the audiobook version was decent as well. The narrator, Rebecca Soler, was very good at being able to mimic Felicity Jones' accent when she has to. I can vaguely remember her as also doing the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, and I think her voice is put to better use here. She can really communicate the feelings of hopelessness here better than in the Meyer series. Also, she is able to differentiate between gruff male voices well, which is tough for any actor to do. With the exception of a few moments when there was music from the films that seemed out of place, the production is given the good old Star Wars treatment and it is done well.

There are a few issues with this book, one from a story perspective, and another with the concept of the novel. If you watched the film, you know that Saw abandoned Jynn at some point. That is explained here, and I just can't buy it. How it is written, it just doesn't seem like Saw would abandon Jynn in the way that he did. I feel like this is one point where the author had to do it...somehow, never mind that it felt out of character. This is just the flaw of having to get a character from point A to C, with B getting lost in the middle.

Another flaw is the concept of the book. I feel like this book was made to answer the questions left open in Rogue One, but should it be necessary? This book feels like it is answering questions that were cut out of the final film just to sell more products (in this case books). In fact, to date, many of the new canon Star Wars books feel this way when linking them to the New Trilogy/stories of films. A good book or graphic novel should be used to expand the lore of what we already know, not fill in plot points, and missing information cut out of theatrical releases. This is somewhat ironic, since Rogue One itself was a story meant to expand on the Starwars universe. This is something that I hope is fixed in the future, because this strategy is wearing thin for me.

Still, I think the execution was far better done than the concept would have implied. It was a fun read that I may read again, if I find it for free at my library. I give it a four out of five. If you are a Star Wars fan, pick this up, it might just surprise you.