Darth Vader is rarely written baddly, and this one is no exeption. The biggest downer, even if not really big, is that the likness of Vader is not really good. He is recognizeable as Vader, but the helmet proportions are mostly off. It looks like someone ment him to look like Vader, but he does not really look like Vader. The worst offender though is Palpatine... he looks as if an avocado had a child with the topographical map of Utah...read full review

It started out interesting with spectacular art, but it degraded even below the level of the Harbinger disaster. Now we have achieved a new low for any sort of Star Wars material. Not only is this absolute blasphemy, it is an insult to the reader. Marvel's writing at this point is equally bad as EA’s approach to gaming.
To highlight just how bad it is, there is one scene, were Luke is faced with an overwhelming situation. He can come out on top of things, if he applies correct force techniques. And the dialogue explaining it to Luke goes like this: “Concentrate here, here and… >You guessed it< HERE”...read full review

I did not dislike it, but merely few hours after reading it I actually forgot the ending twist, or whatever it was.
The art though.. the art is actually a big step up from Harbinger and the writing is decent at best, but levels above Harbinger. The story is so stand alone, that it does not influence anyone or anything. There is no character growth or story points relevant to anything besides the next major disappointing story arc in this way to long catastrophic ongoing title.
It actually barely is Star Wars… it is more a fantasy story with barbaric tribes and wizards…read full review

While not exactly a masterpiece, I thought the over the top comic-bookiness of Aphra suited her much more, than the core series with the much to overdone Harbinger storyline.
I really do not think that the core characters can veer too much into dramedy, but when you take over the top characters like Aphra, her insane droids and the psychopathic Wookie, it is another thing completely. I enjoyed the Indiana Jones and father jones dialogue, even if it was very on the nose and could be done more subtly.

While Catalyst is the beginning of the story, Rebel Rising is a direct sequel, refocusing from Galen Erso to his daughter and her substitute parent Saw. But we do not get a typical starwarsy training montage, but a really good look at how bad her situation became after Saw pulled her out that cave. After all we are talking about Saw Gerrera, someone, who was so hardcore, the Rebel alliance did not want to work with him. The same Alliance, that had no problems with Cassians way of handling things.
We get to see Saw through Jyn’s eyes, and together with her we first see him as a savior, then an awkward father figure, mentor, then growingly paranoid protector until finally we arrive at the unstable extremist we have seen in ROGUE ONE. Saw lost his sister a long time ago, then he lost his homeworld, his heart belonged to Jyn which fed his paranoia, but finally he sacrificed more and more of himself, of his soul and of his body for THE cause. Once he had only his own life left to sacrifice, he started sacrificing others. This is a pretty bleak version of Star Wars, perfectly in line with ROGUE ONE...read full review

Freed does not disappoint. The parts we know from the movies are more than competently described, but Freed does not just show us the movie written in words, but brings us the emotions and motivations of all characters closer. There is lots of insight and surprisingly lot of connective tissue with CATALYST and REBEL RISING (in memories and flashbacks which are not in the film)...read full review

Finally we arrive at the finale of the journey. What most surprised me about it, was how the book series suitable for the youngest had a ROGUE ONE tie in element (the most adult of the movies). The story's ending is satisfying, even when the final confrontation (which makes the book 25% longer then it’s predecessors) is not that engaging.
Overall I liked this series very much. It is littered with tie in elements, but does not rely on those.

Scoring it as it is... a children’s book, it really deserves four stars. A book that is fast paced and tense but suitable for children: a fine line to walk.
The adventure at hand continues the quest to find and rescue the parents. As the stories before it, it is short but fun. Considering the length and title of the next one, we seem to be reaching the series climax. It was a fun ride, more fun than some of the more hyped about adult books and I am looking forward to seeing the finale.

While this is definitely not one of Zahn's masterpieces, it still is a proper, if extremely uneven read. This is one of the long running series of books named after its titular character on which it is focused. While there were great books, like Kenobi or Dark Lord, there were also the pretty average ones like Tarkin.
What seems to be the problem, is that the NEW CANON seems to restrict epic writers like Zahn and Luceno, to a degree, that lets the reader feel, how less fun they have writing in the new ruleset. Both Luceno's Tarkin (and Catalyst for that matter) and Zahn's Thrawn have great, amazing even, elements, that are too few among really boring and uninspired "coming of age/rising in the ranks" elements...read full review

I really liked the old comic book Darth Maul by Marz and Dursema. The story was simply but sharp. The art was… well, it was art. Sharp, precise & perfect. Like Maul.
Maybe I did not like that book, I might have loved it, even. But this Maul, much more conflicted, yet equally precise, with a story slightly more complex and art less precise, but equally impressive, really had everything I loved about great Star Wars comics. Maul was a killer machine in the first prequel, but thanks to Filoni he became a character, and comparing Marz's great work with Bunn's, the same can be said. A great story with amazing art, which sadly is not a standard in recent Marvel Star Wars books.
One of the few recent must-buys!

The book started out quite intriguing. The author managed to lay some thick atmosphere on the Sith academy, which was the main backdrop for this tale. But not even after 100 pages, I could see that there was no real plan behind it. We were just thrown from one senseless and gory massacre till the next one. The few characters that got kinda interesting got killed rather fast and those that made it rough mostly did not bother me. Lots of side stories cut off by death without any conclusion, which would be positively tragic, if the book had any interesting arcs to get it to the end.
The gory element also seemed extremely repetitive and it was a challenge and a chore to get through its barely 260 pages. One of the worst books I have ever read and the dark exception to the rule, that The Old Republic books rule!

Greg Rucka is capable of perfectly catching the vibe and the characters of Star Wars. All his books I have read to this day felt very true to the franchise. He finds a fitting scenario for our new heroes and makes it interesting, instead of creating a gimmick plot devoid of character.
All three tales are very true to their characters and all are very fun to read, giving small glimpses into their lives, before they all changed. This is one easy recommendation.

Lost Stars was a nice read, that grew to be amazing in the wake of the events of Alderaan's destruction, but then turned into an unfocused and uninspired retelling of the movies. The battle of Jakku was also just a backdrop to romantic melodrama. Bloodline is for the first 250 pages a rather uninteresting investigation mixed with a very simplistic political plot, that paints Leia within its first 10 pages as a complete hypocrite (other than that, Leia's portrayel is a strong point of Gray's writing)...read full review

While we may have become accustomed to the idea that there is around a four-month gap between a film's theatrical release and our ability to enjoy it in our own homes on our super-sized high definition widescreen televisions along with a THX certified digital surround soundtrack (should you choose to do so or can afford to do so), forty years ago Star Wars fans had to wait an amazing five years after its theatrical release in 1977 before being able to buy or, as was more popular and affordable in 1982, rent a copy of A New Hope on either VHS, Betamax or LaserDisc. However, no matter which format you selected in those days, you didn't get the "whole" film...read full review