A review by esseastri
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein
4.0
I knew this book was going to wreck me, but I didn't realize quite how badly it was going to wreck me.
A lot of the emotional punch of this book, however, does come from knowing what's going to happen. The fault of a lot of Star Wars books, I find, is that they rely on you knowing things that are going to happen. The entire prequel trilogy and any book or tv show that's set in the Clone Wars or in the Rise of the Empire period between RotS and aNH are all good and emotional and effective on their own--but they all both gain and lose things from the fact that you know who lives and who dies and who's going to be evil and who's going to save the day. I say that's a "fault" of the books, but to be honest, it works both ways; it can kind of take the tension out of things to know that Rose has to survive the book to make it to the movie, but it can also add a hell of an emotional punch to know that Paige goes through all of this only to die in the first few minutes of the movie.
Sorry, the DVD is out by now, did you want me to tag the spoiler?
Here's the thing: the actual plot of the book wasn't really anything special. The Resistance sends its bomber crews to help a besieged planet get the supplies it needs to run its own rebellion against the first order. On the surface, it reads a little bit like it's just there to fill a plothole--where the heck were the bombers in the Force Awakens, you ask as they appear, oddly shaped and lugubrious in fight in the sky over D'Qar at the beginning of the Last Jedi? Well, they were out in the Outer Rim, on one of Princess Leia's famed mercy missions. And it seems a little perfunctory. But there's a lot of character depth hidden behind Rose's power bafflers, and if you only look out of the viewport instead of at your long-range scanner screens, you'll see it.
And that's where the emotional arc of this book really soars. No one really cares about the mercy mission--it's a good excuse for the Hammer and her crew to not have been in the last movie, and it's a good connection to Rose and Paige's backstory, but that's just it. Their backstory is essential to this book and to the movie that follows hot on its heels. Their backstory is essential to Rose and her character and everything that she does over the course of the Last Jedi. Because she's already made her decision; we see her make it in this book, dodging TIE fighters over the acid-soaked world she's trying to help save. She's fighting the First Order, come hell or high water because they killed off her world and so many worlds like it, and they killed off her sister and her friends, and all that she had left in this world. But her sister wouldn't want her to lose her sense of wonder, her sister would want her to ride the fathier anyway, so that's what she does. She keeps hope. Because despite everything she's been through, she's already decided. And she has to be there, ready to help Finn decide. Ready to help the Resistance decide.
And that's what makes this book important. That's what gives this book a fourth star over it's three-star plot. The relationship between Rose and her sister is vital to the understanding of how Rose works, and how Rose works is vital to understanding the underlying message of the Last Jedi: that you're not doing this to fight what you hate. You're doing this to save what you love. To save what you have left. To find new things to love so you have more to save and more to love. To have hope. To stand up and decide.
And knowing that makes this book so much more emotional. And so much better than it's plot-hole-filling plot.
A lot of the emotional punch of this book, however, does come from knowing what's going to happen. The fault of a lot of Star Wars books, I find, is that they rely on you knowing things that are going to happen. The entire prequel trilogy and any book or tv show that's set in the Clone Wars or in the Rise of the Empire period between RotS and aNH are all good and emotional and effective on their own--but they all both gain and lose things from the fact that you know who lives and who dies and who's going to be evil and who's going to save the day. I say that's a "fault" of the books, but to be honest, it works both ways; it can kind of take the tension out of things to know that Rose has to survive the book to make it to the movie, but it can also add a hell of an emotional punch to know that Paige goes through all of this only to die in the first few minutes of the movie.
Sorry, the DVD is out by now, did you want me to tag the spoiler?
Here's the thing: the actual plot of the book wasn't really anything special. The Resistance sends its bomber crews to help a besieged planet get the supplies it needs to run its own rebellion against the first order. On the surface, it reads a little bit like it's just there to fill a plothole--where the heck were the bombers in the Force Awakens, you ask as they appear, oddly shaped and lugubrious in fight in the sky over D'Qar at the beginning of the Last Jedi? Well, they were out in the Outer Rim, on one of Princess Leia's famed mercy missions. And it seems a little perfunctory. But there's a lot of character depth hidden behind Rose's power bafflers, and if you only look out of the viewport instead of at your long-range scanner screens, you'll see it.
And that's where the emotional arc of this book really soars. No one really cares about the mercy mission--it's a good excuse for the Hammer and her crew to not have been in the last movie, and it's a good connection to Rose and Paige's backstory, but that's just it. Their backstory is essential to this book and to the movie that follows hot on its heels. Their backstory is essential to Rose and her character and everything that she does over the course of the Last Jedi. Because she's already made her decision; we see her make it in this book, dodging TIE fighters over the acid-soaked world she's trying to help save. She's fighting the First Order, come hell or high water because they killed off her world and so many worlds like it, and they killed off her sister and her friends, and all that she had left in this world. But her sister wouldn't want her to lose her sense of wonder, her sister would want her to ride the fathier anyway, so that's what she does. She keeps hope. Because despite everything she's been through, she's already decided. And she has to be there, ready to help Finn decide. Ready to help the Resistance decide.
And that's what makes this book important. That's what gives this book a fourth star over it's three-star plot. The relationship between Rose and her sister is vital to the understanding of how Rose works, and how Rose works is vital to understanding the underlying message of the Last Jedi: that you're not doing this to fight what you hate. You're doing this to save what you love. To save what you have left. To find new things to love so you have more to save and more to love. To have hope. To stand up and decide.
And knowing that makes this book so much more emotional. And so much better than it's plot-hole-filling plot.