[GuardianAngel87]

Managed to finally finish Star Wars: The Rise Of The Empire a day or so ago which includes the novels Tarkin and A New Dawn.

I considered Tarkin, unfortunately, the weakest SW book James Luceno has ever written thus far especially in comparison from what came before and even after it. It really should've been a full-fledged origin story for the character and his coming to power akin to Plagueis and especially Palpatine in, well, Darth Plagueis. Hell, it could've easily have been Disney canon's answer to that particular novel. It's not to say it's bad since there are things to the Tarkin novel that I liked like some of the elements from the Darth Plagueis novel that get brought back for this novel, Palpatine/Sidious's viewpoints that appeared in the novel that was spread out in several chapters and a few others. Though, in regards to the elements from Darth Plagueis and how Tarkin and various characters are written for the most part and even the few references from The Clone Wars series here and there, I honestly can't help but wonder if Tarkin, like Heir To The Jedi, was originally set to be a story written for the old Expanded Universe before Disney decided to invalidate it and what we ended up getting is more of a severe bad case of Executive Meddling. All in all, it's, ultimately, not as good as it could've been given not just the main spotlight character but the very talented SW writer behind the story as well.

As for A New Dawn, it was okay. John Jackson Miller is definitely not a bad writer since I did ended up liking the short story called Bottleneck which takes place after the events of Tarkin and before the events of A New Dawn and I am looking forward to reading his SW novel from the old EU called Kenobi since not only this book is very well praised, Obi-Wan Kenobi is also one of my favorite characters of the Star Wars franchise. Anyway, Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla seem to be fairly decent, and even a bit interesting, characters and that's only just judging from the book by itself since I don't watch Star Wars: Rebels nor do I plan to do so. Heard about what goes on in the series, though. It's not a bad book but it is a bit slow at times and the story itself is not something to write home about. Probably recommended only to those who are fans of the Rebels series especially for the people who are fans of the two characters and for those who are curious about how they first met before the events of the series. As a book that starts off the Disney canon version of the Star Wars universe, it's average overall.

Now, it's Jyn Erso's turn to have the spotlight novel that takes place before the events of Rogue One, for obvious reasons, with Rebel Rising and from what I read so far, it's already a pretty solid read.