The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry
The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry
This was such a fabulous novelization!! It connected so many pieces that I didn't even realize were missing anything. Every single gap you could possibly imagine is filled in. I just couldn't get enough!
We get a glimpse into Rose and Paige's story in Cobalt Squadron as they are sitting together in the Cobalt Hammer's ball turret talking about Rose's reassignment to the Ninka. It is so heart-breaking when Rose says, "See you after the evacuation?" and Paige replies, "See you then, Rose." I absolutely love that Jason Fry brought the junior reader into this adult novelization. What a fantastic way to connect all canon!
The four Resistance capital ships are the Anodyne, the Ninka, the Raddus, and the Vigil. Without connecting the descriptions with names, they are described as the following by Hux on the Finalizer: "a bulbous Mon Calamari cruiser [Raddus], an angular [Nebulon-C] frigate, a cargo ship with a rounded front and a jagged rear, and a smaller ship with an oversized bow like a broken crescent." Love these details.
The descriptions of BB-8 communicating with Black One are absolutely hysterical!! Apparently Black One is super vain and prissy, flagging every problem as mission-critical. As BB-8 so eloquently puts it, "Black One was a pain in the ass." Haha! I love this idea of giving personality to a ship! And later we get some great tidbits from BB-8 that really get us into his electronic brain and shows us how he thinks. Simply fascinating.
There's a part where Leia is thinking on Luke's teachings to her of the Force. Her memories and thoughts on this are so powerful and deep. I really want to know more! She thinks about how Luke rejected the idea of attachments necessarily leading to the Dark Side and how attachments were exactly how he was able to save Anakin from himself. So poignant and heart-wrenchingly true. She then reaches out to feel the Force around her and comes into contact with several minds, "Leia reached out and found Ackbar--weary yet stolid, his mind sifting through worries in his usual orderly fashion. She sensed Connix was exhausted and uncertain, doubting. And Fossil's grief for her lost bomber pilots was so raw and open that Leia instinctively retreated from it. She was surprised to sense the presence of Finn, the First Order deserter who'd been placed in a coma to heal. He was awake, and a tangle of anxiety and confusion. Twinned with him in Leia's awareness was Poe Dameron, his emotions oscillating between pride and doubt." This is such a creative way to give us further insight into the minds of each of these characters!
Something that becomes super clear throughout this entire novelization is that Finn is in this to save Rey and that is the only reason he sticks around. He wants nothing to do with another army and wants to get as far away from the First Order as possible. He simply wants Rey to be safe and away from the constantly oncoming danger the Resistance faces. It isn't until he encounters DJ's betrayal that he realizes he does want to fight for more than just Rey...he wants to fight for everybody who has lost something due to the First Order. I love watching his character develop like this!
We get more on how Rey was able to open up to so much power so quickly which definitely makes me feel better about her seeming to be so OP. She recounts when Kylo probed into her mind and thinks, "Somehow, almost instinctually, she knew how he accessed some of the powers at his command--even though she didn't understand them. It was as if his training had become hers, unlocking and flinging open door after door in her mind." I love this! Definitely helps me connect with her character more.
There's some fabulous interplay between Hux and some of his commanding officers (Peavey and Yago are two) who were higher ups in the Empire. They absolutely hate him, thinking of him as "an incompetent officer and an intemperate leader" and are just bearing with him until he gets knocked down a few pegs, a time they feel is coming swiftly.
After Rey's time in the cave, she only wants to talk to Kylo about her time there. Interesting. Simultaneously, Luke has finally decided that he made a mistake in not taking her up on her offer to help the Resistance. He's actually eager to get to her to tell her he will help! But then he sees Kylo and Rey communicating and all goes to hell.
Snoke gives us a brief canon connection to the Aftermath Trilogy with a mention of Rae Sloane and Gallius Rax. Then he goes into why he chose Ben Solo, "Like his father, Skywalker had been a favored instrument of the will of the Cosmic Force. that made it essential to watch him. And once Skywalker endangered Snoke's design, it had become essential to act. And so Snoke had drawn upon his vast store of knowledge, parceling it out to confuse Skywalker's path, ensnare his family, and harness Ben Solo's powers to ensure both Skywalker's destruction and Snoke's triumph." This leaves me feeling like Kylo had no true place of import in Snoke's eyes. He was just a means to an end for the Supreme Leader--unlike Vader with Palpatine.
There's a connection with the Phasma novel in this little tidbit, "Phasma was brutal and pitiless--barracks rumors had it that she had been worshipped as the divine queen of a pre-industrial barbarian world before the First Order found her." While not quite divine, she was definitely queen of a small part of such a world although it was more post-apocalyptic than pre-industrial. Still, great connection.
We also get a connection to Leia: Princess of Alderaan and the Storms of Crait one-shot comic when Leia is discussing how she knew about the planet!
And lastly, there is fascinating detail on the ski speeders and their place in the galaxy. Apparently there used to be a fad of asteroid slalom-racing they were used for.
Trivia:
-Two of the ancient Jedi texts were the Aionomica and the Rammahgon.
-The Suerton trio from the Canto Bight novella The Ride are mentioned in passing!!
So many canon connections and so much wonderful extra material, I feel like I just scratched the surface even with how long this post is! I 100% recommend this book even if you didn't like the movie all that much...maybe especially then. The narrative helps you come to appreciate characters you may not have connected with so well while watching the movie and brings you to a new understanding of all that was happening during the film. Simply a fantastic read!!
We get a glimpse into Rose and Paige's story in Cobalt Squadron as they are sitting together in the Cobalt Hammer's ball turret talking about Rose's reassignment to the Ninka. It is so heart-breaking when Rose says, "See you after the evacuation?" and Paige replies, "See you then, Rose." I absolutely love that Jason Fry brought the junior reader into this adult novelization. What a fantastic way to connect all canon!
The four Resistance capital ships are the Anodyne, the Ninka, the Raddus, and the Vigil. Without connecting the descriptions with names, they are described as the following by Hux on the Finalizer: "a bulbous Mon Calamari cruiser [Raddus], an angular [Nebulon-C] frigate, a cargo ship with a rounded front and a jagged rear, and a smaller ship with an oversized bow like a broken crescent." Love these details.
The descriptions of BB-8 communicating with Black One are absolutely hysterical!! Apparently Black One is super vain and prissy, flagging every problem as mission-critical. As BB-8 so eloquently puts it, "Black One was a pain in the ass." Haha! I love this idea of giving personality to a ship! And later we get some great tidbits from BB-8 that really get us into his electronic brain and shows us how he thinks. Simply fascinating.
There's a part where Leia is thinking on Luke's teachings to her of the Force. Her memories and thoughts on this are so powerful and deep. I really want to know more! She thinks about how Luke rejected the idea of attachments necessarily leading to the Dark Side and how attachments were exactly how he was able to save Anakin from himself. So poignant and heart-wrenchingly true. She then reaches out to feel the Force around her and comes into contact with several minds, "Leia reached out and found Ackbar--weary yet stolid, his mind sifting through worries in his usual orderly fashion. She sensed Connix was exhausted and uncertain, doubting. And Fossil's grief for her lost bomber pilots was so raw and open that Leia instinctively retreated from it. She was surprised to sense the presence of Finn, the First Order deserter who'd been placed in a coma to heal. He was awake, and a tangle of anxiety and confusion. Twinned with him in Leia's awareness was Poe Dameron, his emotions oscillating between pride and doubt." This is such a creative way to give us further insight into the minds of each of these characters!
Something that becomes super clear throughout this entire novelization is that Finn is in this to save Rey and that is the only reason he sticks around. He wants nothing to do with another army and wants to get as far away from the First Order as possible. He simply wants Rey to be safe and away from the constantly oncoming danger the Resistance faces. It isn't until he encounters DJ's betrayal that he realizes he does want to fight for more than just Rey...he wants to fight for everybody who has lost something due to the First Order. I love watching his character develop like this!
We get more on how Rey was able to open up to so much power so quickly which definitely makes me feel better about her seeming to be so OP. She recounts when Kylo probed into her mind and thinks, "Somehow, almost instinctually, she knew how he accessed some of the powers at his command--even though she didn't understand them. It was as if his training had become hers, unlocking and flinging open door after door in her mind." I love this! Definitely helps me connect with her character more.
There's some fabulous interplay between Hux and some of his commanding officers (Peavey and Yago are two) who were higher ups in the Empire. They absolutely hate him, thinking of him as "an incompetent officer and an intemperate leader" and are just bearing with him until he gets knocked down a few pegs, a time they feel is coming swiftly.
After Rey's time in the cave, she only wants to talk to Kylo about her time there. Interesting. Simultaneously, Luke has finally decided that he made a mistake in not taking her up on her offer to help the Resistance. He's actually eager to get to her to tell her he will help! But then he sees Kylo and Rey communicating and all goes to hell.
Snoke gives us a brief canon connection to the Aftermath Trilogy with a mention of Rae Sloane and Gallius Rax. Then he goes into why he chose Ben Solo, "Like his father, Skywalker had been a favored instrument of the will of the Cosmic Force. that made it essential to watch him. And once Skywalker endangered Snoke's design, it had become essential to act. And so Snoke had drawn upon his vast store of knowledge, parceling it out to confuse Skywalker's path, ensnare his family, and harness Ben Solo's powers to ensure both Skywalker's destruction and Snoke's triumph." This leaves me feeling like Kylo had no true place of import in Snoke's eyes. He was just a means to an end for the Supreme Leader--unlike Vader with Palpatine.
There's a connection with the Phasma novel in this little tidbit, "Phasma was brutal and pitiless--barracks rumors had it that she had been worshipped as the divine queen of a pre-industrial barbarian world before the First Order found her." While not quite divine, she was definitely queen of a small part of such a world although it was more post-apocalyptic than pre-industrial. Still, great connection.
We also get a connection to Leia: Princess of Alderaan and the Storms of Crait one-shot comic when Leia is discussing how she knew about the planet!
And lastly, there is fascinating detail on the ski speeders and their place in the galaxy. Apparently there used to be a fad of asteroid slalom-racing they were used for.
Trivia:
-Two of the ancient Jedi texts were the Aionomica and the Rammahgon.
-The Suerton trio from the Canto Bight novella The Ride are mentioned in passing!!
So many canon connections and so much wonderful extra material, I feel like I just scratched the surface even with how long this post is! I 100% recommend this book even if you didn't like the movie all that much...maybe especially then. The narrative helps you come to appreciate characters you may not have connected with so well while watching the movie and brings you to a new understanding of all that was happening during the film. Simply a fantastic read!!
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