Star Wars: Resistance Reborn Review
Wondering how the Resistance even begins to rebuild after the crushing events of The Last Jedi? Then you’re probably going to want to check out Rebecca Roanhoarse’s first Star Wars novel – Resistance Reborn.
It’s a positively engrossing story with a delightful cast of characters that come from previous Star Wars novels, comics, and video games as well as the movies. There’s enough of an explanation to get the gist of who is who but if you’ve been following the sequel trilogy canon beyond the movies you’re in for a bigger treat.
Mainly this book is Leia and Poe’s stories. Poe grapples with the outcome of his choices from the previous film. Meanwhile Leia continues to bear her own emotional weights. And they’re both figuring out the way forward. Roanhorse beautifully portrays the general as a weary fighter whose tenacity reserves are incredibly deep. And the author has Poe’s voice and attitude down so well it’s easy to imagine Oscar Isaac acting it all out.
In fact Roanhorse does a great job with an assortment of character voices. There’s so many I was excited to see included and while there’s a good chance not all of them are going to get the amount of dialogue time you’d like, she does an admirable job balancing so many characters. For instance, Rey has a relatively small amount of page time, but it’s understandable and I’m definitely happy with what we see of her here.
Resistance Reborn is also a lot of story for your money and time. It’s a tale of limited resources, a chase, and a multi-heist situation all wrapped up into one. At one point three missions are even going on concurrently. The message of being a light vibrates through the pages. Themes of hope, loss, resilience, and choosing again ring across too. Planets old and new are featured. (This even includes a kind of planet Carrie said she wanted back in 2016.) And somehow it’s all easy to read with decent pacing.
Of course it’s not going to answer all your inter-movie questions and it might be a lot to take in if you’re not familiar with a bunch of these characters. But sometimes in life it is so hard to get started – especially after a major setback. A story like this could have easily been dour and difficult to get through but Roanhoarse uplifts it into something that’s exciting to read while still feeling possible.
More Star Wars books from Rebecca Roanhoarse, please.
Resistance Reborn (Star Wars) is part of Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and is out today from Del Rey in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
The publisher provided FANgirl with a copy of the book for review. As usual opinions are my own.
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Kay is FANgirl's resident geek fashion expert and co-host of the Hyperspace Theories podcast. She reviews books and movies for the site with a heart for storytelling and a mind that likes to analyze. Kay's been a guest on various podcasts sharing her love and knowledge of storytelling, film-making, fashion, and of course, Star Wars.
Most days are filled with her work as a creative services professional - designing websites & branding, photographing, voice acting, editing, and more. Kay spends the little bit of free time she has reading, costuming, and, of course, making pew pew noises. She would pick up more jobs and hobbies if she was a Time Lord.
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