Servants of the Empire - Jason Fry's junior novel trilogy

I wish to start by stating that I am in my 20s and my regular reading material is more akin to Tolkien's lesser known works or classic dystopian fiction. So why did I purchase and read a novel targetted at the young reader demographic? I think I stand with a good portion of the frequent visitors to this site when I say that the Disney acquisition had me scared. The new content announcements had me scared. The release of a young reader novel so early in the line had me terrified.

A New Dawn kicked off the new Star Wars literature and, whilst it wasn't a bad book, it did strike me as aiming for a younger audience than a lot of the great, classic Star Wars fiction had. Alongside the early promotional material for Rebels, it just felt like the new canon was trying to gain the next generation of Star Wars fans, rather than pleasing the last few. Obviously we've had absolute wonders such as Tarkin since and the TFA teaser was phenomenal, so these fears have been dispelled, but nonetheless they led me to purchase the first of Jason Fry's novels (Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy) as curiosity got the better of me and I became obsessive with knowing every development in the new canon in an attempt to judge the direction Disney wanted to take the franchise.

I have to say, I wasn't too displeased.

The book (obviously) reads very simply, but it has several moments that shine through as very interesting. Through the eyes of Zare, we get to see what it is like growing up under the empire's thumb and through this we see how education, agriculture and even sports exist on an imperial planet and we often gain insight into the evolution of these things since the Republic crumbled. I think the book provides an important insight into how the layman perceived the empire and what it does and, through Zare's story, we see an example of the evolution of rebellion on a personal scale.

I posted on a thread recently which discussed the Star Wars Rebels episode titled "Path of the Jedi" and how the planet Lothal has been over used and made too important in the story and I responded by stating that I enjoyed the elaboration of a single planet's culture and way of life, which this book furthers. That said, if you're sick of Lothal, maybe shy away from this one...

Overall, this book (and I guess the two to follow) is obviously written for younger readers, so it's not the literary masterpiece that is Tarkin and it certainly lacks that same grittiness (maybe with the exception of one or two under described moments), but it's worth a read if you just want something easy to take in and you, like myself, never tire of learning that little extra about the culture and characters of a galaxy far, far away...

Obviously this is just my view! It would be great to hear what you think whether you've read the book, the blurb, or just my ramblings above!