When Jyn Erso was five years old, her mother was murdered and her father taken from her to serve the Empire. But despite the loss of her parents she is not completely alone-Saw Gerrera, a man willing to go to any extremes necessary in order to resist Imperial tyranny, takes her in as his own, and gives her not only a home but all the abilities and resources she needs to become a rebel herself. Jyn dedicates herself to the cause-and the man.
But fighting alongside Saw and his people brings with it danger and the question of just how far Jyn is willing to go as one of Saw’s soldiers. When she faces an unthinkable betrayal that shatters her world, Jyn will have to pull the pieces of herself back together and figure out what she truly believes in… and who she can really trust.
AUTHOR: Beth Revis
RELEASED: May 2nd, 2017
PAGES: 416 ISBN: 978-1-4847-8083-1
AGE RANGE: Young Adult
As a huge fan of Rogue One and the prequel novel Catalyst, I was intrigued by this book as it set out to tell us more of the story of the young Jyn Erso, and fill in the gap between the start of the film where Saw Gerrera picks up the newly orphaned Jyn, and her subsequent liberation from the Imperial facility on Wobani. And that’s exactly what it does – taking the reader on a rollercoaster journey of the young Jyn, initially under the wing of Saw and trained in combat techniques and an ever changing cast of fledgling rebel crews.
This is also where she learns how to forge Imperial documents and access codes (the charges as recounted in the rebel briefing room) and thus create a useful role for herself with Saw allies. Even after Saw betrays her (as she reminds him when they meet on Jedda), when she tries to settle down on a quiet backwater planet, the Empire is not far behind.
We also get stories of Saw’s increasingly paranoid actions and witness him walking the fine line between rebellion and terrorism – referred to in both the Rebels animated series and again in Rogue One as his ‘extreme views and methods’.
In the same way as Catalyst does for the story of Galen and his young family, this feels like an integral part of the evolution of Jyn’s character from a frightened, lonely 8 year-old to the cynical hardened young woman we meet in Rogue One. Although the book covers a period of 12-15 years in Jyn’s life, the time jumps are seamless with only the occasional mention of her age when someone questions how old she is or where it qualifies a point in the story.
The characters in the book are all excellently written – the existing characters such as Jyn and Saw are true to their on screen portrayals, whilst the original characters are given some backstory or qualification to make them fit neatly within the story.
Perhaps partly because of how highly I rate Rogue One and Catalyst, this book had a lot to do for me to embellish the story, but it rates very highly and enhances these other stories and provides some explanation for the motivation of Jyn and Saw by the time we see them again in Rogue One.
A great book and thoroughly recommended especially for fans of Rogue One.