SPOILER Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Lost Stars (Review)

Woot Woot! Also, what if Gugu Mbatha-Raw's charcter in Ep VIII was Thane and Ciena's daughter?

 

She nailed it... Maybe the book is not great but the ending at Jakku gave to this book what Aftermath or the other ones dont have... truly connections with TFA

 

This is just a great book! To be fair, I never really got into any of the EU stuff previously. I think I was intimidated by the amount there was to pour through. However, with Disney reconfiguring the canon, I decided this was a good time to jump on the novels.

I read Aftermath first, and didn't love it. It wasn't all bad, but it just didn't hit the Star Wars "notes" I was looking for. I heard Lost Stars was good, but I was so amazed how emotionally attached to the characters I became. I didn't feel like any ties to the OT were "forced" at all (unlike Aftermath, which I felt had portions that were incredibly shoehorned to make it feel "Star Wars-y").

Seeing the timeline of pre-OT to post-OT through new characters eyes was a lot of fun, and probably the biggest triumph of the story was the point of view of those that served the Empire. The black/white point of view of the Rebellion vs. the Empire should totally be out the window because of this novel. I think this gives us a peek at how the First Order and those who follow the First Order might feel justified in any actions taken to regain control of the galaxy.

Also, the fact that this is a Journey to The Force Awakens novel and there is an actual, visible connection to TFA is just plain awesome. I was audibly excited when I came to the portion showing this connection. Just seeing this connection makes TFA so much richer for me already; I can only hope that any other Journey to the Force Awakens novels follow suit.

 

Could not put this book down. Very easy to read and felt like Star Wars. This inspired me to dig deeper into the new cannon and I just had to order another. Just started Lords of the Sith. I was drawn to the book by Kristian Harloff's absolute love for the book and his interview with Gray on Jedi Counsel.

 

i thought "lost stars" was a great read, although i did think that there was a tad bit of overuse of events happening throughout the OT. the pacing of the novel was also a little concerning. it started strong, became a little dull, and then the ending was excellent. i couldn't put the book down when i reached the final battle. definitely recommend it to anyone who's skeptical. anyway, thoughts on rey being the offspring of ciena and thane?? also, how likely is a sequel to "lost stars" and/or the continuation of its storyline throughout the new trilogy?

 

Glad you enjoyed the novel! I highly doubt that Rey is the offspring of Ciena and Thane, reason being, Thane is a red head and Ciena is black, Rey doesn't seem to have any physical traits from either character, and if they were planning to make Rey the daughter of those characters, their looks would have changed appropriately in the book. As for a sequel, I think it would be silly if there wasn't one at some point, based on how popular Lost Stars has been among the fans, its a no-brainer. I also wouldn't be surprised if we get to see Thane and Ciena show up in other Star Wars books as well.

Additionally, welcome to the cantina !

 

I decided to pick up "Lost Stars" largely on the positive feedback I'd seen about it in the Star Wars: Aftermath discussion thread on here. Based on the fact that it was a novel specifically aimed at young adults, I expected a quick-paced, action-packed, but ultimately very PG story.

I was right on 2 of those 3 things. I was actually quite taken aback at the level of innuendo, profanity, and outright sex discussion in not only a YA novel, but a Star Wars book to boot. My thoughts while reading this were "wow! YA novels are way better than they were when I was a young adult!"

To the story itself; Lost Stars begins slowly, but importantly. While I found the first few chapters to be a bit of a tough slog to read through, they ultimately ended up carrying a great deal of importance throughout the rest of the novel. Claudia Gray really did a magnificent job of not just introducing us to a new world and its inhabitants, but its culture, beliefs and traditions. Those three things became key to the actions of both Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree as the book wore on.

But the story really picked up the pace once it relocated to Coruscant. In both Star Wars: Rebels (Season 1, Breaking Ranks) and now here, we are getting our first "new canon" looks at Imperial Training Academies. It's very hard to ignore the obvious comparisons to Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" in these sequences, right down to the way the instructors emotionally manipulate and isolate the Cadets. It's from here that the novel really springs forward, hurling us into the events of the Original Trilogy through new perspectives.

What both Star Wars: Aftermath and now Lost Stars have successfully achieved is to give us a galaxy-wide scope of the conflict leading up to and following the Emperor's fall. Aftermath achieved this through the use of its "B" Story - the mini-vignettes that showed us the goings on across the entire galaxy, while Lost Stars achieves this through its "A" Story, as Thane and Ciena hop across the galaxy, from the Core Worlds to the Inner and Outer Rims, and see first-hand the impacts that the battle between the Empire and the Rebellion have had.

Lost Stars also features some cameos from the major players in the Star Wars Universe. Much like Aftermath, these appearances are quite minor, but enough to give the reader a little thrill. Most importantly, they come up organically - at no point does it feel like the characters have been shoe-horned in for a cheap pop or reaction.

As the book progresses to its semi-tragic love story, Thane and Ciena obviously take divergent paths. One of my few quibbles with the novel was how someone with Ciena's strict moral code and sense of honor was able to rationalize a wonton act of genocide such as the destruction of Alderaan. (sincerely hoping this isn't a spoiler alert, at this stage in the game). While the event seemed to mentally break another character, Nash Windrider, who went in a surprising - albeit believably played - direction, I found Ciena's justifications for the act difficult to swallow and naïve to an extreme. This is a character who is painted as both extremely intelligent and honorable to a fault, and she even freely admits she can be loyal to more than one thing over the course of the story. So her condoning of Alderaan's destruction, while obviously critical to the story unfolding how it does, is one that I found to be at complete conflict to her character to the point of being a plot device.

All of her other experiences, however, are perfectly easy to justify and explain. It is obviously the "opposing sides of the conflict" that gives this story its teeth, and the author does a truly exceptional job of having these two heroes be on opposite sides of the same battle on a number of occasions, both trying to do their duty while also doing their utmost not to kill each other in the process.

Another other quibble with this story is the ending, in that it seemed to happen abruptly. For a novel that began a free-flowing torrent of an adventure story once the action shifted to Coruscant, its ending feels almost like the book was cut in half. Obviously, the writers for the new canon have been told there is limited ground for them to plunder, but I was left wanting more of a resolution to the situation the protagonists found themselves in at the novel's climax. The new figures in the Imperial Leadership at the end of the story were surprising and interesting as well, and there is obviously a great deal of potential for further exploration of a lot of these characters - on both the Rebel and Imperial sides.

My last little complaint, and this echoes one I had of Aftermath, was the use of decidedly "Earthling" terminology. While in Aftermath, this language was restricted to use of animals such as falcons and the like, here it was in jargon - I'm racking my brain, but I can't recall the term "dumbass", or even moreso, "banging your ex", ever appearing in SW Novels. Both instances jarred a laugh from me, largely because they were so out of place that they were completely unexpected.

All in all; Lost Stars was a break-neck paced adventure that I found very compelling. Easily the most enjoyable of the "New Canon" novels I have read so far (A New Dawn, Aftermath, and now this). Only a few details - the most glaring of which is Ciena's response to Alderaan - hold this one back from a higher score for me.

8/10

 

After reading Aftermath and not being able to finish Dark Disciple I've concluded this is the best canon book I've read so far. It was easy to read and it gave me the needed humanizing of the Empire. The one thing I hated about the OT as I got older was how black and white "good" and "evil" was. I figured not everyone was evil in the Empire and to portray them that way was absurd. This book helped me out with that.

I loved Gray's writing. I had been looking for someone to inspire me to write for some time and she's done it. I've been working on my own (non-Star Wars) story ever since. I can't wait to read her next book!

 

Hey Cantina members! Here is my review and reception of Lost Stars by Claudia Gray.

This is the 3rd of the new canon novels that I have read and is definitely my favorite. I have previously read Tarkin and Dark Disciple. Being 23 years old myself the characters in this story were at a great age for me to relate to. (They are 25 when the book ends)

This book blew me away. I found myself unable to put this book down and was reading it whenever I could. The second I finished this book I instantly wanted more content on Ciena and Thane. I can very easily seeing this turned into a 10 episode netflix series (please do it!). I understand some peoples mindset that this book "cheats" a little by taking place during events that we have already seen however I found myself greatly enjoying the things that Gray created herself. For instance, time spent on Jelucan, the time spent at the Empirical Academy, the time Thane spends when he isn't in the Empire or the Rebellion, and the last 50 pages of the Battle of Jakku. These things were all so fun to learn about and exciting to see what they would unfold into. It was cool to see a Star Wars novel combine a truly great love story with all of the action that we are used to seeing. Reading about the battles in depth and the mindsets of the soldiers on both sides makes me more excited to see Rogue One. The only thing I felt was weird in this book was the last 5 pages being about Nash. The only reason I can see for the book to end on him is that he will be in future stories or possibly a high ranking officer in The First Order in TFA.

Also, The Mighty Oak Apocalypse, what an awesome name for a ship captained by a Wookie.

My rating 9.5/10

My list of the books so far:
1 Lost Stars
2 Tarkin
3 Dark Disciple

I would recommend all of these to fellow Star Wars fans but Lost Stars is the only one I would recommend to all book lovers.

The next book that I will be reading is Aftermath. Hope to see you guys around the Cantina and I cannot wait to talk about TFA in december.

May the force be with us!

 

Hey guys, just joined. I just finished reading Lost Stars and completely loved it. While it's apples to oranges in terms of comparing the actual works of literature, I haven't been that engaged in characters since I read Lord of the Rings in college. The only thing I wondered about was how many people actually read Ciena as being black? It doesn't bother me now that I know, but it's just weird because that's not how I pictured her when I was reading. I knew she was darker skinned but for whatever reason I pictured that as tan lol. Was that just me or did anyone else picture her differently? I can't wait for a sequel (assuming one is eventually written) and I thought it was cool how they tied the characters into the OT. Yes, it was a bit convenient, but at least Claudia or the story group came up with plausible explanations i.e. Ciena being assigned to the main Star Destroyers in the fleet so she would have to be at all those battles.

 

I agree. While originally I was a bit confused by the overall lack of description on the human characters, I think it served them well. You can imagine whatever you want into it. No prejudices, just humans. Now those blasted Twi'leks...if we can just eradicate them from the universe lol jk.

 

i'm reading Lost Stars right now and while i love the conceit of it, i'm only 1/3 through and starting to struggle with disliking the characters and feeling fatalistic about the plot. someone tell me this gets better?

i picked it up because i saw a lot of praise for it here. maybe i'm missing something? maybe it's not my cuppa tea?

 

thank you!

i will endure then. i just sorta feel like it's kind of predictable at this point ~ but if there are surprises ahead, i'm willing to stick with it. YA is admittedly a hard sell for me sometimes. the narrative aesthetic of writing specifically to a teen audience (instead of just generally writing well) has always been off-putting to me, so i know most of this struggle is entirely on me and probably not the fault of the book or its author.

and yes, i have managed to avoid the spoilers, though i know generally how it ends (and that's okay, that's not impinging my ability to enjoy what's good about it so far).

 

cool! i look forward to that then. for the moment the only OT tie-in so far as been Leia (and only so briefly). i'm hoping it kicks in once they graduate.

and yes, definitely not Twilight. Gray is a good writer, just to my mind i can tell this is written for a young audience and i ain't so young no more ~ hahaha

 

I've yet to read it, and Vader on what you all have been saying, maybe I finally will...although this sounds like it could be stretched into a trilogy of books if done right .