Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse
Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse
I originally wrote this review before The Rise of Skywalker was released. I've thoroughly edited my thoughts and breakdown with the movie in mind. So here's a post-TROS look at Resistance Reborn!
I had thought in this book I was going to get an explanation of where the giant Resistance armada we saw in the trailers for The Rise of Skywalker came from, but alas no luck. (Turns out the armada was a surprise even to the main characters of the movie so I get now why we didn't get a book explaining its appearance.) Resistance Reborn takes place hours after The Last Jedi and goes at most a week or so beyond that. But what I did get, and what made it a spectacular book nearly unparalleled, were canon connections!! I'm talking connections to video games, comic books, novels, TV shows, e-ve-ry-thing! Either Roanhorse has actually read, watched, and played all the canon material that's out there (which is doable since I'm about 95% of the way covered on all of the above not including reference books which I'm pretty behind on--but it's dang hard to keep up!) or the story group really got together on this one and just blew it out of the water. Why would this book in particular need so many canon connections? The connections didn't exactly make their way through to the movie. And why haven't they done something like this before if it wasn't Roanhorse, and the story group was behind the connectivity? I mean, other novels and comics have connected canon but not to the degree this one does. It was, simply put, mind blowing. Although Force Collector may be a close second--but its connections are mostly to the PT and OT movies, not so much connections to ancillary material. By the way, I absolutely cannot wait to put out my review for that book...it was also quite splendid!!
While I certainly wouldn't say this book is integral to understanding/feeling the impact of the movie like Catalyst was for Rogue One (oh, how I wish we had gotten a similar type book this time around despite loving what we did get), it is still most definitely a worthy read. In fact, don't expect to get any explanation for what is on screen in TROS, but do expect a plethora of connective tissue that will make your mouth water. Definitely take the time to read it if you get the chance...especially if you're a canon junkie and keep up with a lot of the material that's out there because this book truly does reward you for that effort!!
We start off with a prologue that seems completely disconnected from the rest of the book. I went back and looked over it after finishing reading and still couldn't figure out what it had to do with anything else in the novel. It does introduce the fact that Coronet City on Corellia has now become a ship building machine for the First Order. That was fast!! Especially since this novel takes place about a day after the Hosnian Cataclysm. Regardless, the First Order has a firm strangle hold on the city and its planet. The one thing that might connect to the rest of the book is the fact that the main protagonist of the prologue wears a "small snake pendant" around her neck and the crux of one of the book's five plotlines is a group called The Collective whose symbol is "a white-horned serpent. A water species known to symbolize a capricious or mercurial nature." The Collective is "an underground organization of engineers, technicians, and scientists bent on stopping the spread of authoritarianism in all its forms via the use of technology." Their slogan is "All Knowledge Must Be Free." Despite my hoping for a TROS connection, as we know, The Collective is nowhere to be seen in the movie. Personally, I find that unfortunate.
Then we get going with the book proper and hone in on Leia waking up from a nightmare where she didn't survive getting shot out into space from the Raddus. It says, "In real life she had woken, and the Force had flared hot and alive in her. And it had brought her back, guided her to safety." More explanation for what she was experiencing during this moment and I really like the way it's laid out.
The novel is loosely separated into two parts that divide the book equally. The first is a mishmash of storylines as everyone works toward coming together on Ryloth. Once the gang is all there, and after some disagreements and working out the kinks with the resulting motley group, the second part begins with five storylines occurring simultaneously: 1) Leia and Rey on Ryloth, 2) Poe, Finn, and Suralinda on Corellia at a fancy dinner party/illegal auction, 3) Wedge, Snap, Norra, and Kare on Corellia infiltrating a shipyard, 4) Shriv and Zay on Bracca, an impound planet for New Republic ships, trying to snag a few of said ships, 5) a First Order officer named Winshur and his assistants Monti and Yama on Corellia.
A little more detail on each storyline can be found below:
1) Rey is experiencing doubts and personal trials as she tries to figure out what her place is in "all this." She confides in Finn and finally in Leia. Leia makes the choice that it's not her place to guide the young Jedi, but that that is someone else's job. She knows destiny and fate will work things out the way they were meant to be. Which doesn't make much sense to me as she ends up being Rey's Jedi Master in TROS and we learn that Luke did in fact train her after The Battle of Endor until she experienced her vision of Ben going to the Dark Side...
2) The First Order has a highly classified list of all Resistance sympathizers and it gets into the hands of an old acquaintance of Maz. So, the thousand year old pirate manages to acquire two invitations to the associated illegal and very secret auction for the list. "One for a handsome but unscrupulous profiteer from Canto Bight [Poe] and his junior business partner [Finn], and one for the ambassador of Ryloth [Charth] and guest [Suralinda]." The list contains two sections: Subversives and Currently Detained. The fact that Resistance sympathizers were being spirited away and held captive is also referenced in the TROS Visual Dictionary so there is a connection there to the movie. Maz's acquaintance who's running the auction and simultaneously holding her birthday party wears a living albino eel around her neck like a necklace. How in the world is this eel able to breathe out of water?? It just sat there, coiling around her neck the entire time, even in the midst of a gunfight. I found this really strange, and honestly, it put me out of the story a bit.
3) Ransolm Casterfo (from Bloodline--see below) is being held prisoner by the First Order and part of Wedge, Snap, Norra, and Kare's mission is to free him from the First Order's clutches. Eventually, this plot line runs smack dab into plot line 5. While attempting to procure ships--the other part of their mission--they run across a CR90 Corvette (think Tantive IV, and in fact it might have been the Tantive IV since that is the CR90 Corvette we see in TROS, but this is a shipyard where new ships are built so perhaps there was some authorial miscommunication here...) and a Baleen-class ship (think Han's ship from The Force Awakens, the Eravana).
4) "'Bracca is a junker planet,' Agoyo said. [...] 'I have a sister who moved there for the work and joined the Scrapper Guild.' 'Bracca has become the place that the First Order sends any and all claimed New Republic ships to be decommissioned and junked,' Finn told the room. 'It's bound to be a treasure trove of the kind of ships we want. Parts, too.'" Bracca itself is "a murky ball streaked in shades of blues and grays." "'Bracca is run by the Scrapper Guild,' [Agoyo] explained. '[...] The guild is divided into Riggers, Hazmats, and Cutters. Different jobs for different kinds of people.'" Riggers enact "'demolition and salvage in hard-to-reach locations. Climbers, mostly. Daredevil work.'" I am in awe of the world-building that went into this particular storyline. Absolutely phenomenal. A giant toothy creature called the Ibdis Maw eats the ships. The team that goes on this mission is dubbed "Dross Squadron" by Shriv.
5) Winshur is a horrible human being who lets his position get to his head, thinking he can physically and emotionally attack anyone that is under him, especially Yama, the backwoods fifteen-year old girl who acts as one of his two assistants. He praises Monti and it turns out that praise may be misplaced. He has the two entirely backward in regards to where their loyalties lie, but then the tables turn and hearts are changed and he may have been right about some things after all. This storyline is sometimes hard to read with the violence that Winshur enacts toward his underlings. But it was certainly fun watching the man crack after everything he goes through!
Instead of going through the story bit by bit, I'm going to breakdown a few choice quotes, characters, and sequences that really stood out to me below.
We get a good deal of character development and dealing with his own demons from Poe. Example, "Poe was a man of action and he had been grounded, made helpless, and he had almost burned it all to the ground because he couldn't take it." A direct quote from Poe after several of the new recruits buck at his command follows, "We've all made choices. Choices that caused harm, led to destruction, even at times death. We are all responsible for our deeds. The great and the terrible. But if we define ourselves only by what we've done, only by our failures, then this Resistance, this spark? It dies here and now. [...] We're all here because we have a chance to change things. A chance to change the galaxy. A chance to change ourselves. But we have to make that commitment. That choice." So powerful and reminiscent of his speech at the end of the "Poe Dameron" comic series about saving the small part of the galaxy that you are connected to and bit by bit that adding up. He really is a fantastically deep and well-developed character! It actually feels like this book was necessary to allow Poe to deal with these demons so that he could be the in-charge, funny, charismatic guy again that we see in TFA and TROS.
There's an interesting thought Wedge has in regards to First Order sympathizers on Akiva, "a lot of folks were looking for the First Order to come in and clean up the mess that the fall of the New Republic had caused. The irony being that the First Order had caused the mess to begin with, but people didn't think of it like that. All they saw was that the New Republic had made promises and failed to keep them. And now there was a new boss in town who would make things better."
Similarly, Monti, the First Order assistant thinks, "he had never thought of [Winshur] as evil, of what the First Order did as evil. Oh, he knew about Starkiller Base and the destruction of the Hosnian system like everyone else, and yes, that was evil. But that was high command's doing. It had nothing to do with what he saw of the First Order on Corellia. Here the First Order brought order and jobs and pride in one's accomplishments. What happened to the Hosnian system felt distant, unreal. After all, Monti hadn't known anyone personally who had died there, and there had been no newsfeeds showing actual people suffering. The evil, if that's what it was, was decidedly divorced from his everyday reality." Sounds very similar to how the Empire was able to embed its claws throughout the galaxy, especially since the Death Star was thought of as a myth. I wonder how much people really believed or knew about the Hosnian Cataclysm...what did the First Order tell them had happened?
Whereas Spark of the Resistance had a childish, forced, and nearly pandering description of Rose coming from Rey, Resistance Reborn has a beautiful and much more realistic take on the girl, "She's invested, Leia observed silently, and looking for connection. They were good qualities, and she made a note to herself to encourage Rose's interest. Rose was still impulsive, as her unauthorized mission to Canto Bight evidenced, but she was competent and genuine and, most important, she cared. She's someone who wears her heart on her sleeve, Leia thought. Young, emotionally vulnerable, but infinitely likable. And she reminds me a bit of Luke." I can roll with this. I for one really like the character, but sometimes I feel like with all the backlash, authors have done things to try to force us to like Rose. This doesn't do that at all. It is natural and sensical and hopefully turns some of the naysayers minds in favor of the spunky, big-hearted mechanic! Unfortunately, Rose does not feature much in this book just as she does not feature much in TROS. I feel like she would have fit in well with the Bracca storyline with Zay and Shriv acquiring ships since besides the two "Battlefront II" characters, all the other characters in this plotline were brand new.
My favorite new character is Teza Nasz. She's an ex-Imperial Officer turned warlord on Rattatak. She reminds me of a combination of Lexa and Octavia from "The 100." I would LOVE a FUNKO Pop of this character!! "She wore a one-shouldered jumpsuit that looked like it had been stitched together from a mixture of animal hides and discarded armor. Her exposed arm displayed an elaborate stretch of short slashing lines that had been cut into her dark skin from shoulder to elbow, and below the elbow she wore a leather bracer. Her thick hair was dyed blood red and she held it back in dreadlocks that trailed down her back. [...] Her face was painted in streaks of ocher and coal lines vertically crossing her cheeks." Her character design is fantastic! And her attitude goes right along with her clothing--she is a bada** through and through. And she's on the good side of things. She references her old Imperial way of thinking and shrugs it all off saying, "Yeah, it was wrong. I know that. Oh well, I think differently now." Very sadly, there's neither hide nor hair of her in TROS.
As we've seen in recent publications, Lucasfilm literature does not shy away from the inclusion of queer characters and this book was no different! We get a non-binary character, a gay man, a lesbian couple, and major StormPilot vibes!!
First, the brief glimpse of a new non-binary character, super exciting. "The human asking was of medium height and build, their head shaved to skin on the side facing Monti, revealing a tattoo of a white circle on their scalp that looked vaguely serpentine. Their brown hair was long and full on the opposite side, and trailed down to their shoulder. Their features were somewhat sharp, almost vulpine, set in freckled light-brown skin, and they wore thick white liner around their green eyes. Monti recognized the makeup as a way to avoid the cams the First Order employed. He noticed a white scarf coiled around their neck, big enough to pull up over mouth and nose, another facial recognition blocker. Gray pants tucked into boots, a gray jacket, and white gloves completed the ensemble." This person turns out to be Monti's source from The Collective.
Second, it is revealed that Monti himself is gay!! "He blushed when he saw his ex's name. Monti hadn't thought about him for ages and preferred not to be reminded."
Third, the new lesbian couple who work for the Resistance--"a wife-and-wife longhaul cargo team from Mygeeto. One of the women Wesson Dove, was small and compact, pale skin and deep blue eyes, indigo hair cut short. She was a former member of Phantom Squadron [...] her business partner and wife, Raidah Doon, [was] a former athlete and champion stormsailer. Raidah was long and lean, skin light brown and a thick dark braid of hair trailing down her back, a physical contrast to her partner." I'm curious if Wesson was in the Aftermath trilogy and I just don't remember (since it says she was a member of Phantom Squadron). These two were in the storyline I feel like Rose could have been a member of, so while they were new characters, they were queer...and I will never complain about more queer characters.
And lastly, this novel seriously makes me think that Poe is gay and that he has a thing for Finn. Despite not seeing a kiss between the two men in TROS, their banter was beautiful and I could see the love they have for each other. Of course, Poe kept making moves on Zorii so who knows. Perhaps he's bi or pan??
"[Poe] felt at a disadvantage around Rey. He still didn't know her well and she clearly meant a lot to Finn, and Finn meant a lot to him, so Rey mattered. But she was private, cagey almost, and so far she had not been willing to open up to him."
"Poe hesitated before he asked, 'So the two of you aren't...' Finn looked puzzled at first, but then his expression shifted to amusement. 'No, nothing like that. Just friends.' 'And Rose?' 'Oh.' Finn shook his head no. 'We talked about it, and Crait was...a moment. But that's it. Friends there, too.'"
"Finn stood in the doorway with one hand braced against the side jamb. He had the silver suit on, which ended up being a bit closer to white than it had looked in the plastic garment bag. It fit him well, smooth across his shoulders, and the pants tapering tight to the ankles. 'You look great,' Poe said."
"Poe clapped a hand against the younger man's arm. 'Did I ever tell you how much I appreciate you?' Finn grinned. 'Not as much as you should.'"
Ahhh!!! Freaking girly squeals. I want them together so so badly!! Perhaps in future content they'll finally become a couple...a girl can dream!
Connections:
-Bloodline (adult novel): The Napkin Bombing on Hosnian Prime is referenced and Ransolm Casterfo plays a role in several different ways. Leia thinks back on him as "the young, charismatic senator from the Inner Rim planet Riosa. Ransolm had been her rival and then her co-conspirator and friend and her enemy again when he had revealed that Darth Vader was her birth father to the open Senate, and thus the entire galaxy. [...] In the end, he had been a friend. [...] He was a good man who had not deserved his fate, a man who would have been an asset to the Resistance. Someone who could have made a difference. Exactly like the type of people they needed now." Leia's reminiscence leads her to realize what's left of the Resistance could go to Ryloth for help from her friend Yendor, a Twi'lek, whom she had saved from the crime lord Rinnrivin Di while working with Casterfo. The Populists and the Centrists are mentioned as the New Republic's two political parties that "ripped the Senate apart." Now as to why Ransolm isn't in TROS, doesn't make any sense.
-"Battlefront II" (video game): Zay--daughter of Iden Versio and Del Meeko--and Shriv--a Duros pilot--are called Inferno Squad in honor of their origins.
-Leia Princess of Alderaan (YA novel): Gatalentan tea--Admiral Amilyn Holdo was from Gatalenta.
-"Poe Dameron" (long-run comic series): Ikkrukk is where the series ends and is where this novel picks up on the story thread, mention of Grail City being secured and the First Order running from the planet, Black Squadron celebrates with the local populace and tries to get them to join the Resistance but this turns out to be a no-go with how afraid the people are of the First Order, reference to Jess of Black Squadron being "The Great Destroyer" when it comes to droids, mention of Pastoria where Black Squadron's mission led them before Ikkrukk and how they were "duped into doing the dirty work for some unscrupulous jerk", acknowledgement of Poe's using Grakkus the Hutt's loaner ship--SO many connections with this one. It was a seamless transition from the comic to this novel, absolutely brilliant. With the heavy inclusion of Kare (Snap's wife) in this novel, I do not understand why she didn't make an appearance in TROS...
-Aftermath (adult trilogy of novels): Wedge Antilles and Nora Wexley have settled down on Akiva close to the capital city of Myrra and are raising poultry while living a quiet life in retirement. Snap's lesbian aunts are mentioned! Phantom Squadron returns as several pilots from the squadron of retirees and rejects that flew in the Battle of Jakku come to join the new fight.
-"The Clone Wars," "Rebels" (animated TV shows): "The most notorious guerrilla leader had been Cham Syndulla, who had liberated Ryloth from the Separatists during the Clone Wars." C-3PO runs down Ryloth history and says to Leia, "Did you know that early in the Clone Wars, your ancestor Anakin Skywalker helped fight for Ryloth against the droid armies? The Ryloth forces were led by Cham Syndulla. [...] his daughter Hera Syndulla served as a general in the Rebellion and New Republic. Her contribution to the record is quite remarkable." "When Sabine Wren had showed up to help [Wedge] defect to the Rebellion, he had been more than ready to go."
-"Resistance" (animated TV show): "The [subversives] list broke off after several encrypted names with the last location listed as Castilon."
-Servants of the Empire (middle grade series of novels): grav-ball
New planets:
-Ephemera: Where Poe goes to convince Maz to join up with the Resistance, and she's Maz-y as ever-"you don't have time for a psychedelic experience do you, Dameron?" "[O]nce a mining planet, like Bespin [...] But here they mined the tibanna gas to extinction. After it was all gone, the Empire abandoned its colonies and most of the settlers ran with them. [...] It left the planet back in the hands of its original inhabitants and a few holdouts who weren't there just to cash in but had grown to love the place. And then, surprise, they discovered tuusah [...,] the residue from the mine runoff. Turns out tuusah has medicinal properties, so a new industry was born." The capital is Wish, one of the largest spas in the galaxy. Apparently Ephemera is covered in cats, despite there being no solid ground, and their poop has healing properties as it is actually naturally produced tuusah! Oddly enough, flora and fauna of the planet is mentioned...but how can there be flora if it's a gas planet??? So confused! Also, even though Maz makes a big show of not physically joining the fight, she does hint at it so her appearing in TROS makes enough sense when regarding this book.
-Tovash Tchii--Nien Nunb wants the Falcon to go there to fuel up.
-Cardo Minor--a planet near Akiva.
-Gheia Six--Raidah is a known criminal there.
-Spira--Poe had vacationed there before.
New flora and fauna:
-koshar melon vine
-keedee: poultry with multicolored tail plumage that lay pale-green eggs
-pulsar skate: found on Corellia, can bite a person in two
-twenchok: an edible Corellian sea creature
-yobcrab: an edible sea creature
-red crotty: a sea creature
-bluebarb wasps: a stinging insect
Random trivia:
-alcoholic beverages: Carruthian brandy, gadje
-Cardekkia cheese wheel
-Ryloth's leaders are Chancellor Drelomon and General Ishel
-Longest Night is "a Twi'lek holiday where all three of Ryloth's moons were at their lowest phase and darkness was most complete in the most populated hemisphere." "restless ghosts of the dead [...] were known to roam on" this night.
Funny bits:
-While Winshur is doing work, waiting for his computer to do something, he thinks, "it was boring work and entirely uneventful, unless staring at a screen with a rotating planet to signify the passage of time was considered an event." Haha! The spinning beach ball of death Star Wars style.
-"Rey flushed scarlet and took a gulp of her tea. She choked briefly and quickly set the cup down. She pressed a hand to her mouth, coughing hard. 'Are you all right?' Charth asked, leaning forward. 'Fine,' she said, coughing again. 'Shall I hit you in the back?' C-3PO offered. She shook her head no in alarm. 'I'm fine!'"
-Just as in Spark of the Resistance, there's commentary on how nice Poe's hair is. I really don't get where this comes from. Personally, I think Anakin's hair was pretty darn nice! And everybody talks about Kylo Ren's luscious locks.
-Not necessarily funny, but definitely witty, "'My father was Darth Vader,' Leia said, pitching her voice so that it rang out clearly through the room. 'Is there anyone who wants to question my loyalty to the Resistance?'"
Phew!! So much to cover and say about this splendid book!! I whole-heartedly recommend it, but if you've already seen TROS and haven't read it, don't despair, you'll be just fine. And for all canon junkies, this is an absolute MUST read! Your time and effort spent reading, watching, and playing everything will certainly be rewarded if you do!
I had thought in this book I was going to get an explanation of where the giant Resistance armada we saw in the trailers for The Rise of Skywalker came from, but alas no luck. (Turns out the armada was a surprise even to the main characters of the movie so I get now why we didn't get a book explaining its appearance.) Resistance Reborn takes place hours after The Last Jedi and goes at most a week or so beyond that. But what I did get, and what made it a spectacular book nearly unparalleled, were canon connections!! I'm talking connections to video games, comic books, novels, TV shows, e-ve-ry-thing! Either Roanhorse has actually read, watched, and played all the canon material that's out there (which is doable since I'm about 95% of the way covered on all of the above not including reference books which I'm pretty behind on--but it's dang hard to keep up!) or the story group really got together on this one and just blew it out of the water. Why would this book in particular need so many canon connections? The connections didn't exactly make their way through to the movie. And why haven't they done something like this before if it wasn't Roanhorse, and the story group was behind the connectivity? I mean, other novels and comics have connected canon but not to the degree this one does. It was, simply put, mind blowing. Although Force Collector may be a close second--but its connections are mostly to the PT and OT movies, not so much connections to ancillary material. By the way, I absolutely cannot wait to put out my review for that book...it was also quite splendid!!
While I certainly wouldn't say this book is integral to understanding/feeling the impact of the movie like Catalyst was for Rogue One (oh, how I wish we had gotten a similar type book this time around despite loving what we did get), it is still most definitely a worthy read. In fact, don't expect to get any explanation for what is on screen in TROS, but do expect a plethora of connective tissue that will make your mouth water. Definitely take the time to read it if you get the chance...especially if you're a canon junkie and keep up with a lot of the material that's out there because this book truly does reward you for that effort!!
We start off with a prologue that seems completely disconnected from the rest of the book. I went back and looked over it after finishing reading and still couldn't figure out what it had to do with anything else in the novel. It does introduce the fact that Coronet City on Corellia has now become a ship building machine for the First Order. That was fast!! Especially since this novel takes place about a day after the Hosnian Cataclysm. Regardless, the First Order has a firm strangle hold on the city and its planet. The one thing that might connect to the rest of the book is the fact that the main protagonist of the prologue wears a "small snake pendant" around her neck and the crux of one of the book's five plotlines is a group called The Collective whose symbol is "a white-horned serpent. A water species known to symbolize a capricious or mercurial nature." The Collective is "an underground organization of engineers, technicians, and scientists bent on stopping the spread of authoritarianism in all its forms via the use of technology." Their slogan is "All Knowledge Must Be Free." Despite my hoping for a TROS connection, as we know, The Collective is nowhere to be seen in the movie. Personally, I find that unfortunate.
Then we get going with the book proper and hone in on Leia waking up from a nightmare where she didn't survive getting shot out into space from the Raddus. It says, "In real life she had woken, and the Force had flared hot and alive in her. And it had brought her back, guided her to safety." More explanation for what she was experiencing during this moment and I really like the way it's laid out.
The novel is loosely separated into two parts that divide the book equally. The first is a mishmash of storylines as everyone works toward coming together on Ryloth. Once the gang is all there, and after some disagreements and working out the kinks with the resulting motley group, the second part begins with five storylines occurring simultaneously: 1) Leia and Rey on Ryloth, 2) Poe, Finn, and Suralinda on Corellia at a fancy dinner party/illegal auction, 3) Wedge, Snap, Norra, and Kare on Corellia infiltrating a shipyard, 4) Shriv and Zay on Bracca, an impound planet for New Republic ships, trying to snag a few of said ships, 5) a First Order officer named Winshur and his assistants Monti and Yama on Corellia.
A little more detail on each storyline can be found below:
1) Rey is experiencing doubts and personal trials as she tries to figure out what her place is in "all this." She confides in Finn and finally in Leia. Leia makes the choice that it's not her place to guide the young Jedi, but that that is someone else's job. She knows destiny and fate will work things out the way they were meant to be. Which doesn't make much sense to me as she ends up being Rey's Jedi Master in TROS and we learn that Luke did in fact train her after The Battle of Endor until she experienced her vision of Ben going to the Dark Side...
2) The First Order has a highly classified list of all Resistance sympathizers and it gets into the hands of an old acquaintance of Maz. So, the thousand year old pirate manages to acquire two invitations to the associated illegal and very secret auction for the list. "One for a handsome but unscrupulous profiteer from Canto Bight [Poe] and his junior business partner [Finn], and one for the ambassador of Ryloth [Charth] and guest [Suralinda]." The list contains two sections: Subversives and Currently Detained. The fact that Resistance sympathizers were being spirited away and held captive is also referenced in the TROS Visual Dictionary so there is a connection there to the movie. Maz's acquaintance who's running the auction and simultaneously holding her birthday party wears a living albino eel around her neck like a necklace. How in the world is this eel able to breathe out of water?? It just sat there, coiling around her neck the entire time, even in the midst of a gunfight. I found this really strange, and honestly, it put me out of the story a bit.
3) Ransolm Casterfo (from Bloodline--see below) is being held prisoner by the First Order and part of Wedge, Snap, Norra, and Kare's mission is to free him from the First Order's clutches. Eventually, this plot line runs smack dab into plot line 5. While attempting to procure ships--the other part of their mission--they run across a CR90 Corvette (think Tantive IV, and in fact it might have been the Tantive IV since that is the CR90 Corvette we see in TROS, but this is a shipyard where new ships are built so perhaps there was some authorial miscommunication here...) and a Baleen-class ship (think Han's ship from The Force Awakens, the Eravana).
4) "'Bracca is a junker planet,' Agoyo said. [...] 'I have a sister who moved there for the work and joined the Scrapper Guild.' 'Bracca has become the place that the First Order sends any and all claimed New Republic ships to be decommissioned and junked,' Finn told the room. 'It's bound to be a treasure trove of the kind of ships we want. Parts, too.'" Bracca itself is "a murky ball streaked in shades of blues and grays." "'Bracca is run by the Scrapper Guild,' [Agoyo] explained. '[...] The guild is divided into Riggers, Hazmats, and Cutters. Different jobs for different kinds of people.'" Riggers enact "'demolition and salvage in hard-to-reach locations. Climbers, mostly. Daredevil work.'" I am in awe of the world-building that went into this particular storyline. Absolutely phenomenal. A giant toothy creature called the Ibdis Maw eats the ships. The team that goes on this mission is dubbed "Dross Squadron" by Shriv.
5) Winshur is a horrible human being who lets his position get to his head, thinking he can physically and emotionally attack anyone that is under him, especially Yama, the backwoods fifteen-year old girl who acts as one of his two assistants. He praises Monti and it turns out that praise may be misplaced. He has the two entirely backward in regards to where their loyalties lie, but then the tables turn and hearts are changed and he may have been right about some things after all. This storyline is sometimes hard to read with the violence that Winshur enacts toward his underlings. But it was certainly fun watching the man crack after everything he goes through!
Instead of going through the story bit by bit, I'm going to breakdown a few choice quotes, characters, and sequences that really stood out to me below.
We get a good deal of character development and dealing with his own demons from Poe. Example, "Poe was a man of action and he had been grounded, made helpless, and he had almost burned it all to the ground because he couldn't take it." A direct quote from Poe after several of the new recruits buck at his command follows, "We've all made choices. Choices that caused harm, led to destruction, even at times death. We are all responsible for our deeds. The great and the terrible. But if we define ourselves only by what we've done, only by our failures, then this Resistance, this spark? It dies here and now. [...] We're all here because we have a chance to change things. A chance to change the galaxy. A chance to change ourselves. But we have to make that commitment. That choice." So powerful and reminiscent of his speech at the end of the "Poe Dameron" comic series about saving the small part of the galaxy that you are connected to and bit by bit that adding up. He really is a fantastically deep and well-developed character! It actually feels like this book was necessary to allow Poe to deal with these demons so that he could be the in-charge, funny, charismatic guy again that we see in TFA and TROS.
There's an interesting thought Wedge has in regards to First Order sympathizers on Akiva, "a lot of folks were looking for the First Order to come in and clean up the mess that the fall of the New Republic had caused. The irony being that the First Order had caused the mess to begin with, but people didn't think of it like that. All they saw was that the New Republic had made promises and failed to keep them. And now there was a new boss in town who would make things better."
Similarly, Monti, the First Order assistant thinks, "he had never thought of [Winshur] as evil, of what the First Order did as evil. Oh, he knew about Starkiller Base and the destruction of the Hosnian system like everyone else, and yes, that was evil. But that was high command's doing. It had nothing to do with what he saw of the First Order on Corellia. Here the First Order brought order and jobs and pride in one's accomplishments. What happened to the Hosnian system felt distant, unreal. After all, Monti hadn't known anyone personally who had died there, and there had been no newsfeeds showing actual people suffering. The evil, if that's what it was, was decidedly divorced from his everyday reality." Sounds very similar to how the Empire was able to embed its claws throughout the galaxy, especially since the Death Star was thought of as a myth. I wonder how much people really believed or knew about the Hosnian Cataclysm...what did the First Order tell them had happened?
Whereas Spark of the Resistance had a childish, forced, and nearly pandering description of Rose coming from Rey, Resistance Reborn has a beautiful and much more realistic take on the girl, "She's invested, Leia observed silently, and looking for connection. They were good qualities, and she made a note to herself to encourage Rose's interest. Rose was still impulsive, as her unauthorized mission to Canto Bight evidenced, but she was competent and genuine and, most important, she cared. She's someone who wears her heart on her sleeve, Leia thought. Young, emotionally vulnerable, but infinitely likable. And she reminds me a bit of Luke." I can roll with this. I for one really like the character, but sometimes I feel like with all the backlash, authors have done things to try to force us to like Rose. This doesn't do that at all. It is natural and sensical and hopefully turns some of the naysayers minds in favor of the spunky, big-hearted mechanic! Unfortunately, Rose does not feature much in this book just as she does not feature much in TROS. I feel like she would have fit in well with the Bracca storyline with Zay and Shriv acquiring ships since besides the two "Battlefront II" characters, all the other characters in this plotline were brand new.
My favorite new character is Teza Nasz. She's an ex-Imperial Officer turned warlord on Rattatak. She reminds me of a combination of Lexa and Octavia from "The 100." I would LOVE a FUNKO Pop of this character!! "She wore a one-shouldered jumpsuit that looked like it had been stitched together from a mixture of animal hides and discarded armor. Her exposed arm displayed an elaborate stretch of short slashing lines that had been cut into her dark skin from shoulder to elbow, and below the elbow she wore a leather bracer. Her thick hair was dyed blood red and she held it back in dreadlocks that trailed down her back. [...] Her face was painted in streaks of ocher and coal lines vertically crossing her cheeks." Her character design is fantastic! And her attitude goes right along with her clothing--she is a bada** through and through. And she's on the good side of things. She references her old Imperial way of thinking and shrugs it all off saying, "Yeah, it was wrong. I know that. Oh well, I think differently now." Very sadly, there's neither hide nor hair of her in TROS.
As we've seen in recent publications, Lucasfilm literature does not shy away from the inclusion of queer characters and this book was no different! We get a non-binary character, a gay man, a lesbian couple, and major StormPilot vibes!!
First, the brief glimpse of a new non-binary character, super exciting. "The human asking was of medium height and build, their head shaved to skin on the side facing Monti, revealing a tattoo of a white circle on their scalp that looked vaguely serpentine. Their brown hair was long and full on the opposite side, and trailed down to their shoulder. Their features were somewhat sharp, almost vulpine, set in freckled light-brown skin, and they wore thick white liner around their green eyes. Monti recognized the makeup as a way to avoid the cams the First Order employed. He noticed a white scarf coiled around their neck, big enough to pull up over mouth and nose, another facial recognition blocker. Gray pants tucked into boots, a gray jacket, and white gloves completed the ensemble." This person turns out to be Monti's source from The Collective.
Second, it is revealed that Monti himself is gay!! "He blushed when he saw his ex's name. Monti hadn't thought about him for ages and preferred not to be reminded."
Third, the new lesbian couple who work for the Resistance--"a wife-and-wife longhaul cargo team from Mygeeto. One of the women Wesson Dove, was small and compact, pale skin and deep blue eyes, indigo hair cut short. She was a former member of Phantom Squadron [...] her business partner and wife, Raidah Doon, [was] a former athlete and champion stormsailer. Raidah was long and lean, skin light brown and a thick dark braid of hair trailing down her back, a physical contrast to her partner." I'm curious if Wesson was in the Aftermath trilogy and I just don't remember (since it says she was a member of Phantom Squadron). These two were in the storyline I feel like Rose could have been a member of, so while they were new characters, they were queer...and I will never complain about more queer characters.
And lastly, this novel seriously makes me think that Poe is gay and that he has a thing for Finn. Despite not seeing a kiss between the two men in TROS, their banter was beautiful and I could see the love they have for each other. Of course, Poe kept making moves on Zorii so who knows. Perhaps he's bi or pan??
"[Poe] felt at a disadvantage around Rey. He still didn't know her well and she clearly meant a lot to Finn, and Finn meant a lot to him, so Rey mattered. But she was private, cagey almost, and so far she had not been willing to open up to him."
"Poe hesitated before he asked, 'So the two of you aren't...' Finn looked puzzled at first, but then his expression shifted to amusement. 'No, nothing like that. Just friends.' 'And Rose?' 'Oh.' Finn shook his head no. 'We talked about it, and Crait was...a moment. But that's it. Friends there, too.'"
"Finn stood in the doorway with one hand braced against the side jamb. He had the silver suit on, which ended up being a bit closer to white than it had looked in the plastic garment bag. It fit him well, smooth across his shoulders, and the pants tapering tight to the ankles. 'You look great,' Poe said."
"Poe clapped a hand against the younger man's arm. 'Did I ever tell you how much I appreciate you?' Finn grinned. 'Not as much as you should.'"
Ahhh!!! Freaking girly squeals. I want them together so so badly!! Perhaps in future content they'll finally become a couple...a girl can dream!
Connections:
-Bloodline (adult novel): The Napkin Bombing on Hosnian Prime is referenced and Ransolm Casterfo plays a role in several different ways. Leia thinks back on him as "the young, charismatic senator from the Inner Rim planet Riosa. Ransolm had been her rival and then her co-conspirator and friend and her enemy again when he had revealed that Darth Vader was her birth father to the open Senate, and thus the entire galaxy. [...] In the end, he had been a friend. [...] He was a good man who had not deserved his fate, a man who would have been an asset to the Resistance. Someone who could have made a difference. Exactly like the type of people they needed now." Leia's reminiscence leads her to realize what's left of the Resistance could go to Ryloth for help from her friend Yendor, a Twi'lek, whom she had saved from the crime lord Rinnrivin Di while working with Casterfo. The Populists and the Centrists are mentioned as the New Republic's two political parties that "ripped the Senate apart." Now as to why Ransolm isn't in TROS, doesn't make any sense.
-"Battlefront II" (video game): Zay--daughter of Iden Versio and Del Meeko--and Shriv--a Duros pilot--are called Inferno Squad in honor of their origins.
-Leia Princess of Alderaan (YA novel): Gatalentan tea--Admiral Amilyn Holdo was from Gatalenta.
-"Poe Dameron" (long-run comic series): Ikkrukk is where the series ends and is where this novel picks up on the story thread, mention of Grail City being secured and the First Order running from the planet, Black Squadron celebrates with the local populace and tries to get them to join the Resistance but this turns out to be a no-go with how afraid the people are of the First Order, reference to Jess of Black Squadron being "The Great Destroyer" when it comes to droids, mention of Pastoria where Black Squadron's mission led them before Ikkrukk and how they were "duped into doing the dirty work for some unscrupulous jerk", acknowledgement of Poe's using Grakkus the Hutt's loaner ship--SO many connections with this one. It was a seamless transition from the comic to this novel, absolutely brilliant. With the heavy inclusion of Kare (Snap's wife) in this novel, I do not understand why she didn't make an appearance in TROS...
-Aftermath (adult trilogy of novels): Wedge Antilles and Nora Wexley have settled down on Akiva close to the capital city of Myrra and are raising poultry while living a quiet life in retirement. Snap's lesbian aunts are mentioned! Phantom Squadron returns as several pilots from the squadron of retirees and rejects that flew in the Battle of Jakku come to join the new fight.
-"The Clone Wars," "Rebels" (animated TV shows): "The most notorious guerrilla leader had been Cham Syndulla, who had liberated Ryloth from the Separatists during the Clone Wars." C-3PO runs down Ryloth history and says to Leia, "Did you know that early in the Clone Wars, your ancestor Anakin Skywalker helped fight for Ryloth against the droid armies? The Ryloth forces were led by Cham Syndulla. [...] his daughter Hera Syndulla served as a general in the Rebellion and New Republic. Her contribution to the record is quite remarkable." "When Sabine Wren had showed up to help [Wedge] defect to the Rebellion, he had been more than ready to go."
-"Resistance" (animated TV show): "The [subversives] list broke off after several encrypted names with the last location listed as Castilon."
-Servants of the Empire (middle grade series of novels): grav-ball
New planets:
-Ephemera: Where Poe goes to convince Maz to join up with the Resistance, and she's Maz-y as ever-"you don't have time for a psychedelic experience do you, Dameron?" "[O]nce a mining planet, like Bespin [...] But here they mined the tibanna gas to extinction. After it was all gone, the Empire abandoned its colonies and most of the settlers ran with them. [...] It left the planet back in the hands of its original inhabitants and a few holdouts who weren't there just to cash in but had grown to love the place. And then, surprise, they discovered tuusah [...,] the residue from the mine runoff. Turns out tuusah has medicinal properties, so a new industry was born." The capital is Wish, one of the largest spas in the galaxy. Apparently Ephemera is covered in cats, despite there being no solid ground, and their poop has healing properties as it is actually naturally produced tuusah! Oddly enough, flora and fauna of the planet is mentioned...but how can there be flora if it's a gas planet??? So confused! Also, even though Maz makes a big show of not physically joining the fight, she does hint at it so her appearing in TROS makes enough sense when regarding this book.
-Tovash Tchii--Nien Nunb wants the Falcon to go there to fuel up.
-Cardo Minor--a planet near Akiva.
-Gheia Six--Raidah is a known criminal there.
-Spira--Poe had vacationed there before.
New flora and fauna:
-koshar melon vine
-keedee: poultry with multicolored tail plumage that lay pale-green eggs
-pulsar skate: found on Corellia, can bite a person in two
-twenchok: an edible Corellian sea creature
-yobcrab: an edible sea creature
-red crotty: a sea creature
-bluebarb wasps: a stinging insect
Random trivia:
-alcoholic beverages: Carruthian brandy, gadje
-Cardekkia cheese wheel
-Ryloth's leaders are Chancellor Drelomon and General Ishel
-Longest Night is "a Twi'lek holiday where all three of Ryloth's moons were at their lowest phase and darkness was most complete in the most populated hemisphere." "restless ghosts of the dead [...] were known to roam on" this night.
Funny bits:
-While Winshur is doing work, waiting for his computer to do something, he thinks, "it was boring work and entirely uneventful, unless staring at a screen with a rotating planet to signify the passage of time was considered an event." Haha! The spinning beach ball of death Star Wars style.
-"Rey flushed scarlet and took a gulp of her tea. She choked briefly and quickly set the cup down. She pressed a hand to her mouth, coughing hard. 'Are you all right?' Charth asked, leaning forward. 'Fine,' she said, coughing again. 'Shall I hit you in the back?' C-3PO offered. She shook her head no in alarm. 'I'm fine!'"
-Just as in Spark of the Resistance, there's commentary on how nice Poe's hair is. I really don't get where this comes from. Personally, I think Anakin's hair was pretty darn nice! And everybody talks about Kylo Ren's luscious locks.
-Not necessarily funny, but definitely witty, "'My father was Darth Vader,' Leia said, pitching her voice so that it rang out clearly through the room. 'Is there anyone who wants to question my loyalty to the Resistance?'"
Phew!! So much to cover and say about this splendid book!! I whole-heartedly recommend it, but if you've already seen TROS and haven't read it, don't despair, you'll be just fine. And for all canon junkies, this is an absolute MUST read! Your time and effort spent reading, watching, and playing everything will certainly be rewarded if you do!
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