Star Wars: A New Dawn - John Jackson Miller

A New Dawn was published in 2014 and is the first book by the Lucasfilm Story Group of the new Star Wars canon. When Disney took over the franchise, they retconned all the expanded universe material from the last several decades and angered a lot of fans in the process. Since most of those novels were trash and I had no attachment to any of the characters, I was amused by the ruthless manoeuvre worthy of the Galactic Empire itself. Fresh beginnings, new ideas - I was curious to see how things would pan out, but waited four years before dipping in. Being the first book in the new universe, A New Dawn should have made an explosive entry. Despite being an enjoyable page turner, it lacked sufficient plot coherency to launch the new wave of novels to greater heights.

The novel is a prequel to the children's animated TV series Rebels, which I haven't seen, introducing the characters Kanan Jarrus, an exiled near-Jedi who survived Order 66, and Hera Syndulla, a saboteur twi'lek with mysterious origins. Both characters are junk. Kanan is the typical trash talking, boorish, sex pest who feels hard done by, as characterised by the average Star Wars fan. He lets off a constant stream of bad witticisms and oafish remarks whilst thinking with his fists, a trait heavily popularised by 80s action heroes. Hera comes from a race of sex slaves, so under the new Disney rules of empowerment, she is given all the gifts and plot armour in liberal doses. (I suspect her species' seedy culture on Ryloth has also been purified by the Disney purge.) Truly, the Empire never stands a chance against such charmed characters.

On the opposite side of the battlefield is Rae Sloane, a black female star destroyer captain in the evil Empire's service, but under Disney's push for diversity quota, she is also immune to disenfranchisement and harm. The Emperor was sexist and racist, and would never have allowed women in his all white, human male navy of the old canon, but things have changed. The proper designated villain of the novel is Denetrius Vidian, a sinister cyborg working for the Emperor to enforce efficiency across refineries and production facilities. He starts off promising enough but degenerates into unhinged cartoon villainy as the plot progresses. The supposed mastermind's double dealings and strategic plans have more gaping holes than the mining moon of Cynda he plans to blow up. Which leads to another thing I disliked about the plot...

The Death Star's destruction of Alderaan was supposed to be the first instance of annihilating a planetary body, and it loses its impact when it almost happens a decade earlier. My other major gripe concerns a tediously long chase with a hoverbus that occurs halfway through the novel. Star Wars films are known for their visuals, but the books are there to fulfil another duty, namely the fleshing out of characters and backstories. They should not attempt to be stand-ins for the real product, action scenes rarely work well on the page. However, it's not all bad news. The new planet featured is a welcome addition to a galaxy that got very repetitive when the hacks came onboard. Gorse, permanently day on one side and night on the other, was probably inspired by real planets such as Ross 128 b.

In all, an enjoyable if flawed opening to the new books. I'm hoping for better things down the line, at least until they run up material for the stinker that is The Last Jedi.

Rating: 3/5