Star Wars: Lost Stars

I have to admit, this was an impulse buy. I was looking around for a good book after finishing up another book that wound up leaving a rather sour taste in my mouth. This was the first book I stumbled across. I figured, I'm a fan of Star Wars. I can tolerate a good romance. Why not give it a shot? So I bought it. I have no regrets. This book isn't the next big masterpiece or anything. But it doesn't need to be. The writing is serviceable. It's a pretty easy read, but not in an insulting way. Definitely something that a teen can handle, but there's plenty here for an adult to enjoy as well. The author doesn't spend a ton of time in any one part; the book spans a number of years in the lives of Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell. You won't get the agonizing detail of every moment of their lives, or excruciating detail about everything ever. You'll get the important stuff that shapes and molds these characters. You'll hit the major battles of the original trilogy, plus a rather fantastic bit of backstory for a scene in the trailer for The Force Awakens. You'll also get a surprisingly honest and refreshing view of some pretty meaty topics, wrapped up in a comparatively small number of words. And yes, you'll get some romance. The characters of Ciena and Thane are likeable. Personally, I found it much easier to relate to Thane's path than Ciena's, but I very much sympathized with her as she struggled with her place in the galaxy. On that note, I really appreciated the character progression for both Ciena and Thane, how they contrast with each other, and how they relate to where they began... that's really vague, because I'm trying to keep this completely spoiler free, but the point is that you should take a moment to think about where they began, and where they end up... it's rather poetic. Next, the romance. It's definitely a significant part of the book. As someone who struggles with any romance that's even slightly subpar, I was a bit nervous heading into this book, wondering if I'd just wasted my money. This romance is very much the star-crossed lovers trope, but it's done well enough, and it doesn't diminish all other aspects of the book. It's a central piece of a much larger story, and it's all the better for it. My biggest problem? The ending. The story of Ciena and Thane isn't yet finished, and I want to know how it ends. I can already imagine what a hypothetical sequel would do, though I'm not overly fond of that idea... I just feel like I needed more time with these two at the end of the book to get a more satisfying conclusion. So, do I recommend it? You can probably guess that by now. Yes, I do. It's a very enjoyable, fast paced book that had me rushing to the bathroom at work constantly, just so I could read the next few pages. Now go read the book so that I have people to talk with about it.

Love the book. I do feel it was a tad under and overhyped. I think that mostly game from fans who were disappointed with Aftermath. But I do agree, this book definitely crafts a better story than that one. Also the YA is a disservice. The slug lines made it sound like Twilight meets Star Wars. Also, Lost Stars had a much stronger theme, or at least, the pursuit a theme. It’s a story about honor and loyalty. Loyalty to country or a cause, to man or woman, and loyalty to yourself. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book with such strong themes, especially in Star Wars. It’s something you see in all the acquired reading in college, those classic books that have themes that can be discussed for days. This book asks a lot of compelling questions and it tells it through some strong characters. Essentially this book is Romeo and Juliet, in the sense that there are star-crossed lovers, pun intended. You have these two characters, Thane and Ciena, that grow up with each other but eventually splinter off. One joining the rebellion, the other staying with the Empire. Some very beautiful and touching scenes. There is one point where the two characters are talking through hologram and they are trying to touch each other through the hologram. Imagining that in my mind, it would be beautiful imagery. Two ghostly figures trying to reach each other. Pretty deep. Speaking of deep you get a deeper look into the Empire in the Rebel. We see how both factions recruit. We already had a good idea about Imperial academies but not much about Rebel recruitment. We get a more in-depth look at how Imperial Academies work, which we got a hint of in Rebels but now we get a full fledged version here. All the way up to graduation. Rebel recruiting was really interesting though. There was on sequence where our rebel protagonist talks about potentially being left behind because the fleet was moving so often. It’s discussed how difficult it would be to link back up with the Rebels if you are left behind. I felt the novel was a bit too convenient. The two protagonist are gonna meet up often, that’s just the nature of a romantic novel like this, but I felt the ways in which they met weren’t very natural aside from two particular scenes relating to their homeworld. Also, the juxtaposition of their lives felt a bit too perfect. But that’s more personal preference. I can see the beauty of that as well. Like George Lucas says, “It’s like poetry, it rhymes.” There is a case for that here in this novel. Ciena and Thane’s lives rhyming with each other, even in their contrasting environments. But man the ending of this novel is fantastic. It’s a complete culmination of the themes presented through the novel. It was great finally seeing a story that presented clear themes in the beginning and then manifesting them in a cathartic way in the ending. Very good. I also like the consequences both characters are faced with. It’s pretty heartbreaking without saying too much. SPOILERS: So now I’m going to discuss a few spoilers. In terms of timeline this story takes place before A New Hope and even a year after Return of the Jedi. I actually think the post-ROTJ material was handled very well, especially the mess that the Empire is in. I feel like they are definitely still a presence just waiting to strike again. There is even mention of Naboo being attacked three times sense the second Death Star destruction. We even saw one of these battles in Shattered Empire. Also, it seems after a year the Empire has finally accepted Palaptine’s death. And that brings us to the largest spoiler! You know that Star Destroyer that is crashed on Jakku? Well Ciena was the commander of that ship and she crash landed it herself. In fact the book cover shows this and we don’t even realize it until we’ve read it. But it’s awesome the detail we got of that battle. It’s described as the largest battle since Endor. It’s sort of the Empire’s last big push, which of course, ultimately fails. It’s great we get to see this from our protagonists’ perspective. We’ll also get the perspective from Battlefront as well which should be interesting. I also really liked how deep into the Empire we got. We really got to humanize them. I’ve always been under the impression that there were good people in the Empire. I mean, Luke was almost an Imperial himself had he gone to the academy. But this book highlights that. But Nashwinrider’s character didn’t make a lot of sense to me. He goes from being Thane’s best friend to his worse enemy in a second. What’s crazy about that is Nash is from Alderaan and he saw it being destroyed right before his eyes. I never fully understood that character, nor his motivations. I mean there was an attempt, its written that he too like Ciena and it could have been a plot of jealousy but I was never fully on board with that. But the destruction of the Death Star did take a whole new meaning. While it was a super weapon it did hold millions of innocent people on board and we even get to know some of the people stationed there. The cruelty of war and the ambiguity of war is really highlighted here. There was also an interesting point about war criminals. It’s very interesting how that works. IT really depends on who the winning side is. Mon Mothma could easily be prosecuted for war crimes just as much as any other Imperial leader. It all depends on the winning side though.

this book came from Ubuntu books and it was badly stored, it was dirty all over, including on the pages and the pages were miss cut making the sleeve shorter than the pages

As someone who read a lot of the old canon (now "Legacy") books, this is the first of the new canon that I've read. This is one of the best Star Wars books I've had the pleasure of reading. I couldn't put it down.

Lost Stars should be the YA that people point to when they need to argue that the genre can handle heavy topics well, have engaging characters, and have compelling writing.

This is the best Star Wars stand-alone book I have read. The story grips you from the very beginning and remains with you long after you've finished. I read this book in under 7 hours. Un-putdownable.

ottimo