A New Dawn

@Ben_Kenobi I totally agree with you. If I could, I would buy the original version and read but my english is not that good. I hope they'll release the other books.

 

Finally finished A New Dawn this weekend.

Here's my driveby review:

If you had the chance to pen the launchpad novel to a new world of StarWars books featuring two of the best characters (imo) from the new StarWars television show, what would you create?

Allow yourself the freedom to paint the possibilities in your mind of learning the background of Hera, searching the depths of what makes Kanan who he is, or what thrilling adventure they depart on together that makes them so inseparable in the show.

Have a reasonable expectation in mind? Good.

Now throw all that out and replace it with a clumsy exposition and unnecessary framing devices, a disposable Darth Vader-lite Vidian as villain stand-in, and blunt force social commentary on the growing surveillance state and dangers of fracking.

In order to carry the reader through the painful stumbling process of learning how fracking threatens environmental stability we have the allegory of mining on a moon and an annoying terrorist character named Skelly. Likewise we have a girl Sullustan character who operates a surveillance center for the empire (can't remember her name).
Then there is an imperial military person acting as a mediator for Vidian, Sloane.

Why the book devoted so much time to these characters is a real head scratcher for me. The only purpose they served was being in a certain place at a certain time. Did we really need to take away time from the two characters on the cover to the book to learn all about them?

The end result is the same. There are two exciting sequences in the entire book. One is a thrilling well described chase scene on the planets surface about halfway through, and the other comes at the end, mainly an espionage type deal.
That's it.

Nothing of consequence happens throughout the rest of the book.
I'm sitting here trying to think of what happened and I can't even remember.

The worst crime this book commits isn't limiting page time for the two main characters and replacing them with dull stand ins... The real crime is I didn't care what happened to anyone. Hera and Kanan have some good exchanges but they ultimately feel hollow.
The character I found most interesting was the former surveillance officer girl Sullustan.

I also bought Obi-Wan by this same author when I purchased this. I'm dreading the experience now.

I can't recommend this book to anyone. As an aspiring writer myself I'll be drowning my tears in scotch over how a book like this can get published and I cannot.

 

@Vagabondarts Now you know what I was talking about. LoL, I can't even finish it!... 0_o Just started on the second book from Fate Of Jedi series, it's competently written but in all honesty the so dreaded "reboot" came just at the most fortunate time. The ideas seemed to run into the corner. Hopefully the new talents will bring new creativity to brand new EU.

 

I bought ObiWan. Hopefully it's better.
(10 pgs in its already more interesting)

"You were right...."

 

@Vagabondarts Yeah, that one is at least readable. I'm interested in your opinion after you're done.

 

So far I like it a lot. Ten pages in and I seem to have been introduced to several major players and potential for a good western styled story.

 

Just finished this too; I pretty much agree with what's been said in this thread. I didn't dislike the book, but it's definitely got serious flaws.

The Good Stuff:

• Liked the introduction of Kanan, and the idea of a Jedi who's not just hiding from the empire but the very concept of being a Jedi itself. Given how stodgy the Jedi were in the PT, I liked how Miller underlined the fact that Kanan had chosen a lifestyle that was deliberately opposite to what the Jedi have adhered to (Hard drinking, one night stands etc);
• The glimpse into the industrial side of the galaxy was fun, along with the insights into the desperate rush for resources to keep the Empire running;
• Sloane as an insight into how the Empire works politically;
• Much darker and more brutal than a lot of people were expecting from the New Disney Order. There's one death in particular which easily matches Toasty Anakin in ROTS in terms of grisliness, and may well outdo it. Miller does well here to not go too gory in the description, but tell us just enough to let our imaginations do the nasty stuff.

The Bad Stuff:

• Overlong and sluggishly paced, especially for a story with such small scope;
• We don't learn much about Hera, apart from her ambitions for a more organized rebellion and the fact that she's hot (Expect that to be referenced a LOT);
• Count Vidian is great in concept (The capitalist guru turned supervillain) but putting him in a super powerful cyborg body feels like a cop-out;
• Skelly is an utter pain in the arse, and for a guy we're constantly reminded is mortally wounded appears to be nigh-on indestructible;
• The plot leans too much on convenience at times (e.g. the planetside blood cult who are introduced then dropped almost immediately, just to provide our heroes with a handy disguise).

Overall it nearly works, but feels like it needed some more extensive editing.

 

Good read overall for those excited for Star Wars: Rebels and what it holds for us. Also, it had decent detail and story compared to other books, such as the Jedi Academy series. How I just now realize that a small ship with a kid behind the well, holding the power to end solar systems not only devalued the Death Star's, but was downright silly. So a decent start to the new canon, but Tarkin does a whole lot better.

 

I thought I would revisit this thread after A New Dawn caught my eye from the shelf earlier today and I found myself thinking about it once again. Although the pacing and the writing style were lacking in parts, I think this book is a slow burner. I've found it to be a fonder memory as Rebels has progressed and we've seen more of the characters this book tried so desperately to make us love and some of the set up feels like it actually holds value.

As mentioned in a good deal of the above comments, Tarkin may be a better entry into the new canon, but that's not to say that A New Dawn isn't a great entry into Rebels despite its flaws!

 

Are you talking about Kenobi?

 

I meant Kenobi.... Yes. Haha whoops!
Still haven't finished it yet, but I've had a heavy workload lately.

 

Just for a frame of reference, I read about 20 novels a year and I enjoy the Rebels show.
With that said, I got about half way through this novel and just gave up. It just bored me. I would've just grinded through it to the end but was afraid that doing so may turn me off of Tarkin.

*sigh* suppose I'll finish it, then. dammit.

 

I have this habit- I so often read about books, and not the actual books themselves. ...Especially ones like this one– I'd rather get the general scheme from some interwebby review/synopsis, than squander my own time thumbing through a badly-written money generator for a writer with (possibly) more business connections than storytelling talent.

No- it's not a good read. Not at all. Though I appreciated the hints of grittiness and moral bleakness of life under the imperial fist, the characters were, by and large, uninteresting, with the possible exception of Hera– (and maybe only then because we don't see as much of her as expected...being featured on the cover as she is.)

Gah! ...I should have just read an online synopsis. (I didn't- I gave this one a sincere try.) Next time, I will certainly just read the online blurb.

 

Is the hardcover of "A New Dawn" oop?

 

Most likely judging by the insane prices on amazom.com. Also, A New Dawn was recently combined with the novel Tarkin and 3 new short stories into a trade paperback titled Rise of the Empire which is a pretty good deal especially if you haven't read both novels. The short stories were nothing spectacular.

 

I'm obviously over a year behind on this thread, considering I just joined, but I started re-reading A New Dawn this evening, and I think it's so goofy that Kanan is the character that gave Obi-Wan the idea to reverse the "return home" signal in ROTS. I know it's done for fun or to give Kanan an actual important contribution to the universe in the novel, but what are the chances? Out of all of the younglings in the temple, no other background character was inquisitive enough to ponder such a thought, or raise the question? Don't get me wrong, it's no big deal, but just a funny choice for someone who's apparently doing everything else in the galaxy as an adult.

 

Wanted to post a few pics that make my re-read of A New Dawn at least visually more exciting, whereas the novel is meh.

 

Its funny how Kristin Harloff host of Collider Jedi Council(Youtube), who received an early edition of a New Dawn, praised the new canon book, so much so, I downloaded it to my iPad asap. Then a couple of week later he retracted his statements on how good the book was because of the bad reviews. I watch the show because I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I only trust Napzok, and Campea when he was on the show.

Harloff also praised Bloodline, even more so, when he found out the author named 2 planet after him(Harloff Minor and Harloff Major). Bloodline was good but not that good.

 

Yup, I keep up with 'em through the audio podcast version. Collider Jedi Council is Good stuff, Love all those folks... esp. Kylo Ken.

 

I recently finished 'A New Dawn' after picking it up in a deal at the bookshop with 'Tarkin'. Having gotten 2 books into the Aftermath trilogy I felt like something different (plus, the book shop I use only has a couple of SW books in at a time, and they don't have Empires End yet!). Overall I didn't think it was too bad, though I have to confess, I'm not a big fan of 'Rebels' so I went into this with lower expectations.

I can't really add much to what's been said already, but having read through the older posts in this thread, I think it would be better to read this after having watched at least some of Rebels, and perhaps the Aftermath trilogy. For me, I think it makes for more interesting back-story, than it would for introductions to the characters. I thought Vidian was a pretty good bad-guy... lots of Cliches, but simple and effective.

As for the way the book was written, I personally found it pretty easy going - though I did find that some of the faster paced sequences struggled for balance between tempo and description, but that could just be me.

The plot was so-so, I don't think I cared enough for anyone who was in jeopardy to really get behind the story. Probably the strongest connection was wanting to see Vidian get his comeuppance for 'that push'. It tied it all together well enough at the end though.

One last thing... I really hate the cover art!

Agreed! My favourite thing that is not canon, is Joseph Scrimshaw's Databank Brawl featuring Ken Napzok