Resistance Reborn (Star Wars): Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

This is a main-storyline canon novel set between The Last Jedi, and the remaining resistance members escape from Crait, and The Rise of Skywalker. The resistance is basically beaten down, looking to regroup and refill their ranks. The story is set on the planets Ryloth and Corellia, where the members of the resistance are trying to regroup and recruit, using old contacts of Leia to aid in hiding from the First Order. I will not give too much of the story away, but it blends action, political maneuvering, and a "cat and mouse" kind of storyline. The main resistance characters, Rey, Poe, Finn, Leia, etc., all appear in the book to varying degrees. But, like many of the "fill in" novels, the "main" characters do not really dominate the story, and more ancillary characters take a larger role. The author does a good job conveying that Rey is feeling lost having incomplete Jedi training, and losing the one person who could have trained her. She also does a good job conveying split emotions among the rank and file resistance members who are left, with some wanting to fight on, and others seeing the fight against The First Order as a losing battle. Overall, it is a good novel that bridges part of the time gap between TLJ and TROS, while also leaving a lot of room for further stories from that time period to be fleshed out. It is a moderately easy read, and the chapters are easily digestible lengths so you can read as much or as little at one time as you want. If you are one of those people who only get some, but not all, of the novels, this one is definitely worth picking up.

Well I certainly didn't expect my first read of 2020 to be a Star Wars book. To be perfectly honest, after the underwhelming disappointment of The Rise of Skywalker and the emotional exertion of The Mandalorian finale, I was beginning to feel a little burned out on Star Wars. That feeling was still present when I started reading the first few chapters of this novel, and I began to get the notion that maybe this story, like the final Skywalker film, just wasn't for me.⠀ ⠀ But I kept up with the book, and was quickly proven wrong, as once the story well and truly kicks in it hits you like a jump to hyperspace.⠀ ⠀ Resistance Reborn takes places just after The Last Jedi, and before The Rise of Skywalker, and tells the story of how the Resistance begins to rebuild their greatly diminished, overwhelmed fleet.⠀ ⠀ In the climax of The Last Jedi, the Resistance's call for help goes unanswered, despite them knowing they have allies out there. The main narrative follows their investigations into what happened to these, and their efforts to seek out and recruit further sympathizers.⠀ ⠀ Much has been said about this book being an Avengers-scale crossover, bringing in characters from different stories, across different media from the expanded universe — from the films, to comics, to even the video games — all coming together for a final stand.⠀ ⠀ In the hands of any other writer this would have been an unwieldy task, but Roanhorse proves skillful enough to handle it with poise and panache. With Resistance Reborn, she has written a heist story, a thriller, and a political drama that never fails to be fun, and never, ever loses sight of the most important aspect of the whole Star Wars galaxy: its characters.⠀ ⠀ Resistance Reborn boasts a huge cast of characters, but it is also mostly Poe's tale, and I love Roanhorse's characterization of him here. Outside of The Force Awakens and his comic book series, Poe is a character that Star Wars doesn't really know what do with. In The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, he's reduced to an arrogant pilot who is constantly screwing things up in a spectacular fashion, redeems himself, but then fails to learn his lesson as he repeats the same mistakes further down the line. In TFA we were introduced to a character that was hotheaded yes, but also ceaselessly charming, loyal, and optimistic. This portrayal carried on in the books and the comics, but got cast aside as the final two films decided to have him be little more than a Han Solo stand-in. Which is boring and disappointing. ⠀ ⠀ Roanhorse also further develops his relationship with Finn, including a handful of scenes that are not only touching and thematically relevant, but also add fuel to the FinnPoe fire. (Literally the only ship I've wanted to see set sail. Alas.) ⠀ ⠀ Unfortunately, Roanhorse doesn't get to do a lot with Rey here, however. Her portrayal is fine and serviceable, but it's also very minor. I assume this was because her story was being reserved for TRoS.⠀ ⠀ The other characters are great and a lot of fun, with a decent amount of familiar faces returning (including a character that literally made me go "oh daaang," out loud). I want to make special mention of Shriv Suurgav, though, a character pulled in from the Battlefront II video game. He was new to me, as I've never played the game, but he quickly became a favorite. He serves mostly as comic relief here, but brought some pathos as well. I really loved his inclusion here. ⠀ Rebecca Roanhorse has, with a single book, become one of my favorite Star Wars author. For my credits I think she and Claudia Gray could easily carry this entire expanded universe by themselves, and what rich stories we would get.

DON’T READ THIS BOOK, at least not as I did, hoping that it would be a prelude (I know, a charged word for Star Wars fans) for “The Rise of Skywalker”. The book taken by its own merits is fantastic (hence the five stars). It starts where “The Last Jedi” ended, a broken Resistance looking to regroup, rebuild, and return. It draws upon previous novels, comic books, and even the “Fallen Order” and “Battlefield 2” video games to present a vivid cast of characters who work and fight against the forces of the First Order and manage to bring in interesting new characters both old and new. But none of those characters or relationships are in “The Rise of Skywalker”. I strained during scenes of the Resistence to see now familiar faces, maybe I wouldn’t know exactly what Nasz would look like in the crowd, in the book she is described powerfully and as a powerful woman but humans all look alike, but Shriv is a Duro and not in any scenes in the movie. And although Snap is in the movie, nothing about his parents and their reaction to... Yeah, that’s kind of it. Don’t read this book like I did as a prelude to “The Rise of Skywalker”, there is nothing in this book that has to do with the movie. It like a good Legends book, it’s still Star Wars and maybe feels more Star Wars than some of the movies but doesn’t have anything to do with the movie that it’s supposed to tie into. I gave the book five stars, it is well written, well paced, enjoyable. The book shouldn’t be punished for the publisher advertising it as “the journey to the rise of Skywalker”. But that’s not what the book is, and the movie is a little poorer for it.

Resistance Reborn didn't feel me with Old Republic nostalgia and it didn't connect me to the foundation of pre-Disney Star Wars. What it did do was give me a good book to read that I enjoyed. The author did a much better job than any other author that has written for these specific episodes. It didn't feel George Lucas era, it felt Disney Era, and I think a lot of people are longing for that Star Wars re-connection that Disney just isn't giving to us. I like the characters, I like the flow of the story and how it is written. Worth reading? You bet!

Very good prelude leading up to TROS.

Este libro es otra interesante adición al nuevo canon. La trama es interesante y revela las primeras acciones de la Resistencia unos días después de la batalla de Crait. Además, incorpora personajes de otros cómics y libros.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it's definitely one of my favourites from the new canon of books. I finished it in a few days, which is unlike me as I'm normally quite a slow reader, but I just couldn't put it down. Rebecca did an excellent job with the new sequel characters and brought some fan favourites back too. She really captured the essence of the characters and instilled plenty of witty dialogue and a sense of humour, which is not easy to do in Star Wars, especially during this dark time, immediately after The Last Jedi. The plot flows seamlessly and fits in perfectly with the current state of the galaxy where the Resistance has been almost wiped out. It's fascinating to read how they start to rebuild everything ready for the events in The Rise of Skywalker. If you're going to see the movie in December, I highly recommend reading this novel first.

I was initially going to give this 4 stars, as I think this book could have been longer (it felt short for a full Star Wars adult novel). But I am going to give it 5 stars to balance out against that petty 1 star review. Note: There is a difference between offering an opinion or constructive criticism, and being a biased douche. Resistance Reborn is, in my opinion, not of the level of other Star Wars books released in 2019. Master and Apprentice, Dooku: Jedi Lost, Alphabet Squadron, Thrawn: Treason - all of these outdo Resistance Reborn in terms of writing quality and that "fun factor" that makes me not want to put down a book. However, Resistance Reborn is still a good Star Wars novel (that I very much enjoyed) and it does a good job of bringing together characters from the movies, other books, comics, and even the video games. YouTuber Star Wars Explained described it as a love letter to the new Star Wars Canon's fans. That is a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. If you are a fan of the new Star Wars Canon EU, and want to see how the Resistance is coming along after the events of The Last Jedi, I suggest you pick up this book. It is overall a good story to experience before The Rise of Skywalker. Resistance Reborn has a fun story that sees the return of several fan-favourite characters. It also has quite a few new characters that are interesting additions to the new Canon. Roanhorse does a decent job of getting into the heads of the characters and making us really relate to a lot of them. She even makes you sympathize with this one Corellian character who is loyal to the First Order and a ruthless taskmaster to his subordinates, a complete and total sell-out who cares not what happens to his home-world and her people.

Roanhorse immediately displays she has a fine hand for both the Star Wars universe and the relatively unknown characters of the Sequel Trilogy. Balancing the weight of what's being asked of the characters along with the fun of Star Wars seamlessly is something this book excels at. Absolutely recommend as way to bide your time before the new movie comes out