Fifth Liners Book Club: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
Welcome to the Fifth Liners book club, the first in a hopefully regular series of book reviews.
The book: Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel
Written by: James Luceno
Format: Audiobook (read by Jonathan Davis)
Aside from the (non-canon) comics in the Lego magazine, I've never delved into the written world of Star Wars before. There have been Star Wars books for as at least as long as the films (the first was released in 1976 as far as I can tell), and these books ranged from novelisations of the movies through to completely original stories. These stories, published under the Expanded Universe banner, covered pretty much every time period possible, including subjects covered in Catalyst. In 2014, the Expanded Universe was rebranded as Legends, and now only content produced after 2014 is considered canon. The movies and Clone Wars cartoon/film are also canon, for obvious reasons.
By wiping the historical slate, it opened the door for new stories and movies to be made without having to retcon previous content, Rogue One and Solo for example. That's enough history though.
Like many, I loved Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it brought new characters into a universe and story we already knew. In the lead-up to the movie's release, Catalyst was released in November 2016. Penned by James Luceno, Catalyst primarily tells the story of the Erso family and their interactions with Orson Krennic, but other characters also play a key part in the story. We'll come back to those shortly.
The story is mostly told from the view of the Galen and Lyra Erso, and charts Galen's journey from a pacifist scientist working on energy enrichment to becoming an integral part of the Empire. Without getting spoiler-heavy, Jyn is introduced to the story early on and if you've seen Rogue One, you already know how their story ends.
This isn't just a family affair though, the relationship between Krennic and Erso is explored thoroughly, as well as the politics and machinations involved in Krennic guiding his longtime friend's path into the Death Star. Krennic is very well written, and Luceno explores his thought processes much more than Gareth Edwards was able to in the movie. This insight gives a new perspective to the character, and the games of oneupmanship between Krennic and Grand Moff Tarkin are a lot of fun.
The story of Catalyst covers about five years, and playing away in the background of the main story, the Republic starts to give way to the Empire, and the book explores the difficulties and challenges faced by Krennic during his attempts to build his battle station and the devious lengths that he would go to all the for greater good.
The book also introduces a number of smaller characters, all of whom are well written and have solid backstories (this is Star Wars after all). While the story jumps around the galaxy, there's no jarring or disorientating leaps. There's also a fair amount of action and these are also well written.
All in, I'd definitely recommend Catalyst if you're a fan of Rogue One, while I can't compare it to any other Star Wars books, it's a great story that makes the movie better. The audiobook is well read and once you get used to Jonathan Davis' plethora of different voices, it's comfortable and easy to listen to. It was weird listening to a book with sound effects and the occasional verse of John Williams' themes, but I quickly got used to these.
Have you read Catalyst? Let me know what you thought by commenting below or on twitter.
The book: Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel
Written by: James Luceno
Format: Audiobook (read by Jonathan Davis)
Aside from the (non-canon) comics in the Lego magazine, I've never delved into the written world of Star Wars before. There have been Star Wars books for as at least as long as the films (the first was released in 1976 as far as I can tell), and these books ranged from novelisations of the movies through to completely original stories. These stories, published under the Expanded Universe banner, covered pretty much every time period possible, including subjects covered in Catalyst. In 2014, the Expanded Universe was rebranded as Legends, and now only content produced after 2014 is considered canon. The movies and Clone Wars cartoon/film are also canon, for obvious reasons.
By wiping the historical slate, it opened the door for new stories and movies to be made without having to retcon previous content, Rogue One and Solo for example. That's enough history though.
Like many, I loved Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it brought new characters into a universe and story we already knew. In the lead-up to the movie's release, Catalyst was released in November 2016. Penned by James Luceno, Catalyst primarily tells the story of the Erso family and their interactions with Orson Krennic, but other characters also play a key part in the story. We'll come back to those shortly.
The story is mostly told from the view of the Galen and Lyra Erso, and charts Galen's journey from a pacifist scientist working on energy enrichment to becoming an integral part of the Empire. Without getting spoiler-heavy, Jyn is introduced to the story early on and if you've seen Rogue One, you already know how their story ends.
This isn't just a family affair though, the relationship between Krennic and Erso is explored thoroughly, as well as the politics and machinations involved in Krennic guiding his longtime friend's path into the Death Star. Krennic is very well written, and Luceno explores his thought processes much more than Gareth Edwards was able to in the movie. This insight gives a new perspective to the character, and the games of oneupmanship between Krennic and Grand Moff Tarkin are a lot of fun.
The story of Catalyst covers about five years, and playing away in the background of the main story, the Republic starts to give way to the Empire, and the book explores the difficulties and challenges faced by Krennic during his attempts to build his battle station and the devious lengths that he would go to all the for greater good.
The book also introduces a number of smaller characters, all of whom are well written and have solid backstories (this is Star Wars after all). While the story jumps around the galaxy, there's no jarring or disorientating leaps. There's also a fair amount of action and these are also well written.
All in, I'd definitely recommend Catalyst if you're a fan of Rogue One, while I can't compare it to any other Star Wars books, it's a great story that makes the movie better. The audiobook is well read and once you get used to Jonathan Davis' plethora of different voices, it's comfortable and easy to listen to. It was weird listening to a book with sound effects and the occasional verse of John Williams' themes, but I quickly got used to these.
Have you read Catalyst? Let me know what you thought by commenting below or on twitter.
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