This is my review of the "Catalyst a Rogue One Novel": a must read to get emotionally involved in the movie.
This is my review of the Novel that was released a month before Rogue One hits the theaters. I really enjoyed this book and here bellow I'll tell you why !
Compared to several Star Wars novel I have read, this is, for my point of view, a novel of a new type: The script is purely centered on the characters personality and feelings and not on the on going actions.
What I mean is that events are just shortly described and action scenes are very few and short. As a result James Luceno is concentrated on showing us the interactions between the characters and how there feelings and thinkings will evolve during the events.
For me it denotes a real maturity of the Star Wars universe because space battles and blaster fights are not necessary anymore to get high interest of the fans!
Like during the Clone Wars animated serie, the main question during the whole novel is : till what point can we go in the name of defending ourself during a wars. Where is the limit between good and bad ?
The story rotates around
- the Erso family : Galen the genius scientist, Lyra is wife (a galaxy explorer) and Jyn (nearly only mentioned because she is very young at the time of the events).
- Director Krennic and Moff Tarkin who are both climbing the ranks in the Empire hierarchy.
- Saw Gerrera: the rebel fighter has a long story crossing the Galen family.
The goal of the Novel is to prepare to the movie in a way that you deeply understand the dilemma of the position of Galen Erso who is the key scientist needed to complete the Death Star weapon system based on Kyber Cristals. You will discover in the novel how Gallen get involved and slowly get inside the project convinced that it is made for the good of the galaxy. But At one point he steps back. Why that? you will have to discover it by yourself. After that you go nearly directly in the opening scene of the movie.
Having red the book, makes much easier to understand some less narrated aspects of the movie: especially Galen message and the deep feelings for his daughter. Indeed, I have noticed on the net few critics of the film about the fact that the huge amount of actions scenes let nearly no room for knowing the characters and get in touch with them. The novel is here for that to. Know the back story of Gallen and Jyn I was much more emotionally involved in the fate of both.
It is very interesting to learn the back story of Krennic. Tarkin is also a key player and James Luceno masters this characters who he dedicated the "Tarkin" Novel.
Concerning time line of the book, it is spread over the several years: it starts during the clone wars before the Imperial era and finishes few years before the Rogue One events.
it is a bit complex to understand if it is before or after the Tarkin book events. In the DEL REY TIMELINE reported at the beginning of the Novel, Tarkin comes first but I am pretty convinced events are actually at the same period.
A very interesting fact that is really new is that the giant mobile battle station (later named Death Star) has been commissioned and started by the republic based on the plans recovered from the capture of the Geonosian leader Poggle the Lesser. the motivations was that most probably Dooku was doing the same thing somewhere else in order to crush the Republic. We know of course the truth...
Overall the Catalyst Novel is very nice and entertaining. I invite you to read it and watch (again) Rogue One. You will most probably watch the film with a new perspective.
