Book Review: 'Star Wars: A New Dawn'

Cover art by Doug Wheatley. © 2014 Del Rey Books, an imprint of Random House, and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

A NEW DAWN

For a thousand generations, the Jedi
Knights brought peace and order to
the Galactic Republic, aided by their
connection to the mystical energy
field known as the Force. But they
were betrayed--and the whole galaxy
has paid the price. It is the Age of the
Empire.

Now Emperor Palpatine, once
chancellor of the Republic and
secretly a Sith follower of the dark
side of the Force, has brought his own
peace and order to the galaxy. Peace,
through brutal repression--and order,
through increasing control of his
subjects' lives.

But even as the Emperor tightens
his iron grip, others have begun to
question his means and motives. And
still others, whose lives were
destroyed by Palpatine's
machinations, lay scattered about the
galaxy like unexploded bombs,
waiting to go off.... - "Title Crawl" from John Jackson Miller's Star Wars; A New Dawn

On September 2, 2014, Random House's science fiction/fantasy imprint Del Rey published the hardcover edition of John Jackson Miller's Star Wars: A New Dawn. Conceived as the first canonical work of fiction after the Lucasfilm Story Group hit the reset button on the convoluted Star Wars Expanded Universe and recategorized it as Legends, A New Dawn is the prequel to the 2014-2018 animated series Star Wars Rebels. In a story set six years before the show, A New Dawn introduces Rebels characters Kanan Jarrus, a human Jedi who survived the Jedi Purges that followed the end of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Galactic Empire, and Hera Syndulla, a Twi'lek pilot and a sympathizer with the nascent rebellion against the Empire.

Miller opens the novel with a "title crawl" written in the style of the ones seen in all the Star Wars Saga movies to set the mood. Then he introduces us to a Jedi Padawan learner named Caleb Dume, who is listening to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi as he explains how the Jedi Temple's "emergency recall" system - presently in its testing phase - will work,  In this prologue, Miller shows us a spirited, eager-to-learn, and intelligent apprentice Jedi Master Depa Bilaba, formerly a high-ranking member of the Jedi Council.  Of all the Jedi trainees, Caleb is the only one to ask if the "Return to the Jedi Temple" signal can be altered to warn the Jedi away from Coruscant - a question that makes everyone present more than a little nervous.  At the end of the prologue, Caleb - the future Kanan Jarrus - asks Depa what he should do if he ever hears the Jedi emergency signal but no further orders are forthcoming.

"What if orders never come? I won't know what to do."

"Maybe you will."

"Maybe I won't."

She watched him, thoughtful. "All right, maybe you won't. But anything is possible," she said., putting her arm on his shoulder as the door opened. "Perhaps the answer will come to you in another form."

The main body of Miller's novel takes place 11 years before the Battle of Yavin, during the Rise of the Empire era. A New Dawn is divided into three parts: Ignition, Reaction, and Detonation and centers on the war of wits between the unlikely duo of Rebel sympathizer Hera and the fugitive Jedi now known as Kanan and their antagonist Count Denetrius Vidian, a ruthless Imperial efficiency expert who will do anything - including murder and ecological destruction - in his quest to gain power and the Emperor Palpatine.

"The war is over. The Separatists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning." —Emperor Palpatine

Ever since the Jedi were marked for death and forced to flee Coruscant, Kanan Jarrus has devoted himself to staying alive rather than serving the Force. Wandering the galaxy alone, from one anonymous job to another, he avoids trouble—especially with the Empire—at all costs. So when he discovers a deadly conflict brewing between ruthless Imperial forces and desperate revolutionaries, he's not about to get caught in the crossfire. Then the brutal death of a friend at the Empire's hands forces the ex-Jedi to make a choice: bow down to fear, or stand up and fight. 

But Jarrus won't be fighting alone. Unlikely allies, including a bomb-throwing radical, a former Imperial surveillance agent, a vengeful security officer, and the mysterious Hera Syndulla—an agent provocateur with motives of her own—team up with Jarrus to challenge the Empire. As a crisis of apocalyptic proportions unfolds on the planet Gorse, they must stand together against one of the Empire's most fearsome enforcers—for the sake of a world and its people. - Back cover blurb, Star Wars: A New Dawn

Miller's Star Wars: A New Dawn also introduces a second point of view character to complement Caleb/Kanan,  Imperial Navy Captain Rae Sloane, the commander of the Star Destroyer Ultimatum. Even though the command is temporary (the Ultimatum's permanent skipper is away on Navy business, at a construction committee), Sloane is young (30), intelligent, and ambitious, thus earning a posting reserved for the best officers in the fleet. Her mission is to escort Count Vidian during his inspection of the mines on Gorse, as well as to ensure the security of the Empire's thorilide shipments from those mines. Gradually, these two requirements draw her and the Ultimatum into the conflict on Gorse - and into a collision course with Hera and Kanan.

My Take

I was busy taking care of my ill mother in Miami in 2014. the year that Star Wars: A New Dawn was originally published, so I read the paperback edition after I had watched at least three seasons of Star Wars Rebels. By then, of course, I had already become acquainted with Grand Admiral Rae Sloane in Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy, a story set over 20 years after the events in A New Dawn. 

I knew, of course, that A New Dawn is a prequel to Star Wars Rebels and that Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, and Chopper (Hera's cantankerous astromech) aren't in the story. This is a story set half-a-decade before Hera assembles the Specter crew for her ship, the Ghost, which, besides the Twi'lek pilot herself and Kanan,  is the only major element from Star Wars Rebels in Miller's story.

Although Star Wars: A New Dawn is John Jackson Miller's second novel set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," (his first one, Kenobi, was one of the last Star Wars novels published before the Expanded Universe became Legends by Lucasfilm fiat), the author is no stranger to the franchise. Miller has written a plethora of Star Wars comic book stories for various Dark Horse Comics series, including Knights of the Old Republic, Knight Errant, and Lost Tribes of the Sith. (Outside of Star Wars, the author has adapted Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for Dark Horse Comics, as well as a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Takedown, for Pocket Books.)

Miller is a gifted writer and a wonderful storyteller. His prose is crisp, clean, and elegantly simple, and his characterizations are the stuff that readers dream of. His dialog is nicely crafted and "sounds" true and natural in the reader's mind. Maybe it's because I've been watching Star Wars Rebels on Blu-ray recently, but when I read the text in which either Kanan or Hera speak, I hear the voices of Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Vanessa Marshall in my head as my eyes scan the page.

Surely, the Force is with Star Wars: A New Dawn. I strongly recommend it to both newcomers to Star Wars Rebels and fans who watched the show since its premiere on the Disney Channel/Disney XD nearly five years ago.