A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller
Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla, and my love of Star Wars Rebels
My rating: 5/5
Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2014
Legends/Canon: Canon
Timeline: 11 BBY
Welcome back to the Star Wars Book Club! It’s been a little quiet around here lately. Turns out reading a book a week is hard to keep up with. But I’m back today with a new review, and tomorrow you’ll get the September reading list, along with a schedule of when the reviews are dropping. For now enjoy this spoiler free review of A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller.
First and foremost, I need to mention the fact that this book was the first book published in the new Star Wars canon. As such, lots of creative minds went into the making of it, including Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman.1 I think their input, along with Miller’s superb writing, worked wonderfully. This story felt so in line with the animated show Star Wars Rebels, that I couldn’t help but love it.
Our main characters, Kanan and Hera, were absolutely spot on. I loved them in Rebels, so when I learned that A New Dawn focused on them and how they met, I was sold, and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.
Kanan Jarrus, a Padawan who survived Order 66, hasn’t stopped running from his past. He moves from place to place, doing whatever work he must to get by, and right now that’s hauling cargo/explosives from Gorse to her moon, Cynda. It’s a dangerous job, but that’s not the biggest problem Kanan’s facing. He’s become attached to Gorse and his life there, which is about to make things super complicated because the Empire has just arrived.
And with the Empire, comes Hera. She’s been doing some sleuthing lately, and her most recent assignment takes her to the mining planet Gorse, where she’s slated to meet with an informant. But not only that, she’s tracking the terribly efficient, and oftentimes violent, Count Vidian, who’s come to Gorse on the Emperor’s orders. Count Vidian is all about efficiency, and when it comes to mining one of the most important substances in the galaxy, thorilide, nothing less than 100% efficiency will be tolerated.
That need for perfection, and the demand for thorilide, puts both Gorse and its moon, Cynda, in danger, which is where we got our plot. And it was an airtight plot to me. It’s a fun story, with a good dose of mystery thrown in, and the action kept the pages turning quickly.
As good as the plot was, the characters were better. I love a little thrown together crew with trust issues, fighting for a common goal, and that’s exactly what we got. Kanan wants to leave Gorse and not tangle with the Empire at all. Hera is just here for information, not action. Skelly, a war veteran turned explosives expert, just wants to be heard. And Zaluna, a professional surveiller, just wants to keep her job. But all good intentions are thrown to the wind when the lives of everyone on Gorse are put in danger, and our 4 players form some semblance of a team and less than half a plan to put Vidian in his place and save the planet.
Speaking of Vidian, he was one awesome villain. After reading half a dozen or so Star Wars books, I can certifiably say that I enjoy the ones with a strong villain most, and that makes sense. A good, or should I say very bad, villain raises the stakes of the story. Vidian is evil, yes, but he has the backstory and proper motivations for his actions, which makes him a compelling character. And, lastly, this is one of his lines:
“Firing a manager inspired only the ambitious who wanted to take his or her place. But murder motivated everyone. It belonged in every supervisor’s toolkit.”
Enough said.
Now, I feel it’s high time to mention good old Interim Caption Sloane. She’s our Imperial villain of the book, and yet somehow she felt not entirely villainous. Is it spoilers to say that she kind of helped our heroes? I don’t know, but I think she was well written and one of the most interesting Imperial Officers I’ve seen in a book thus far.
And now, to finish out today’s review, here are the rest of my thoughts in fragments that didn’t fit in the above paragraphs:
Skelly and his love of blowing things up was hilarious. Kanan’s outrageous flirting with everyone and everything was equally hilarious. Hera being a sneaky spy, instead of outright throwing punches was perfect. But when she did get into some scrapes, her fighting was described so perfectly it was like I was watching her in Rebels. And, of course, I loved the scenes when Kanan and Hera were fighting side by side. What can I say, I love a little romance.
Overall, this was probably my favorite Star Wars read so far. It’s more of a side adventure, and doesn’t have really any Skywalker stuff in it, which makes it somewhat hard to rate against the other books I’ve read. But that also makes it stand out in its own way. Plus, I’m totally biased with my love of Star Wars Rebels. So, if you like a good side story, or enjoyed Rebels, you’ll love this book.
It's great that this book seems to stand on its own. I enjoyed the review!