Lost Stars by Claudia Gray Book Review (Journey to The Force Awakens)

It's still Star Wars' week and it is almost new year and I still haven't finished my reading goal and it is only like 6 books left. So in star wars book canon, sadly disney decided to 'throw' all the books that have been more than 30 years i guess and they decided that those EU (expanded universe) are no longer canon. They decided that because to clear everything before the new movie comes out (which has already out yeay). So this is my second star wars canon book after the force awakens novelization. I have seen this book a couple times but I'm not sure I should buy it or not because I am not really into sci-fi book no matter what the tittle is, I prefer sci-fi movies over sci-fi book because I thought it was just too hard to imagine it but I love fantasy book so much so I think why don't give it try and since I know the author, Claudia Gray from Firebird trilogy that makes me want to read it. 

Synopsis

"The reign of the Galactic Empire has reached the Outer Rim of Jelucan, where aristocratic Thane Kyrell and rural villager Ciena Ree bond over their love of flying. Enrolling at the Imperial Academy is nothing less than a dream come true for both of them. But Thane sours on the dream when he sees firsthand the horrific tactics the Empire uses to maintain its ironclad rule.

Bitter and disillusioned, he joins the fledging Rebellion--putting Ciena in an unbearable position between her loyalty to the Empire and her love for the man she's known since childhood.

Now on opposite sides of the war, will these friends turned foes ever find a way to be together, or will duty tear them--and the galaxy--apart?"

Stories

Okay so this book occur before, co-currently and just after the original trilogy from A New Hope - The Empire Strikes Back and then Return of The Jedi and the most important part is this contain a little spoiler about what happened in Episode VII movie. As you may see that in TFA trailer, in Jakku there is one huge super star destroyer and this book tells you how that ship ended up in Jakku. Such an interesting part. This book happened eight years after the fall of the Old Republic, The Galactic  Empire now reigns over the known galaxy. Resistance to the Empire has been all but silenced. Only a few courageous leaders such as Bail Organa of Alderaan still dare to openly oppose Emperor Palpatine. After years of defiance, the many worlds at the edge of the Outer Rim have surrendered. With each planet's conquest, the Empire's might grow even stronger. The latest to fall under the Emperor's control is the isolated mountain planet Jelucan, whose citizens hope for a more prosperous future even as the Imperial Starfleet gathers overhead...

The characters in here is the Jelucan people in Outer Rim, we meet them when they were 8 years old, Thane and Ciena. After the Empire has invade the planet Jelucan, these two friends met by accidentally, both Thane and Ciena know that they want to go to Imperial Academy when they are old enough and their dream is to become a pilot. Partner in piloting too. We got to meet a lot of cameos from originals for example Grand Moff Tarkin , yup that guy behind Death Star, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian and other similar faces that we already knew from originals. As they grew up, become older and older and after the destruction of planet Aldeeran and death star, both of them was really shocked and suprised because that is the first time they having doubt about the Empire but not to Ciena who is an idealist person and appreciate the honor VERY MUCH. For her honor is very important also with the loyalty because she already took an oath to service the Empire no matter what the condition is. But not with Thane who is a cynical person and he started doubting the Empire. This is where the fun begins. Thane decided to desert his post in Kerev Doi because his doubting to Empire gets bigger and bigger after he witnessed a slavery in that area. He thoughts Empire is  keeping faith to the people in galaxy but in reality the Empire didn't care at all. So the book is actually like romeo-juliet but in galaxy far far away and eventhough this is about love story i personally think it's not just about that it also involves around friendship, family, and of course character itself. Sadly the have to be separated for a long time when Thane decided to deserted his post as an imperial officer and he just can't be one of them anymore while Ciena still doing her duty no matter what happened. They met for several time under complicated situation, like when Rebels Alliance (which Thane is one of them) trying to be an intel which leads to Ciena who got task from her commander that at least she has to free one X-Wing rebels ship and she did it, she met Thane and Thane knew that Ciena will always be there for him and save him and so did Thane. It's like they were separated just because of war, one side on Rebel Alliance and one side is on Empire and both of them have different opinion to their side and they did realize  they cannot force each other to join back or to join another so they let each other go. (It's so sad I know)

The ending scene in here tells you a bit what happened in Jakku, those super star destroyer you saw in trailer the force awakens remember? Okay here:

Remember those ship? So on this book that ship is actually Ciena's  Inflictor Stardestroyer. 

She was the captain and her mission is to go to Jakku (well not actually crash on Jakku but landed on Jakku) because there is a battle in Jakku just right one year after the Emperor and Darth Vader died and if I am not mistaken the Empire are going to do the election of the new emperor and this battle of Jakku is to show that Empire is still strong not like as what the New Republic thinks. But the rebels are trying to take the Inflictor and  the ship is actually going on self-destruct and Ciena as a captain choose to be on the ship alone to crash the ship while all the crews have been sent with the escape pod. In here, Ciena knew that Empire is corrupted and she knew that Empire is on the evil side but she still keep her oath to Empire so she decided to die with honour while knowing that she has finished her duty and this is the only way to being good while Empire is not good at all. Fortunately, yes Thane was one of the rebels who got the task to take this ship without knowing Ciena is still alive but when he realized she is still in the ship, he helped her with some fighting going on because Ciena did not want to leave the ship at all and Thane decided to shoot her (not kill shoot) but just to weakened her (thank goodness, I was so mad at her like 'why you still keep thinking an oath while you're going to die and here is your first love trying to save you and you don't want to?'

So that was it, the brief story and trust me this book is a hella adventure, it’s a star wars book and I love it so much! Now I opened my eyes to more sci-fi books.

Characters:

Thane

He is a cynical person who more like critical, doesn’t really trust that much on human nature. It’s weird how I can relate to Thane so much like he is more like me. The destruction of Alderaan had the opposite effect on Thane, who was already more cynical than Ciena, as he saw it for what it was – the murder of countless innocents by the Empire makes he doubts more about the Empire whether he is in the right place to work or is he on the wrong side. He eventually chooses to defect, which hinders his newly romantic relationship with his best friend, Ciena, who chooses to remain loyal and honor her commitment to the Empire. He decided to join the rebellion because he know what his fighting for and he knows it will be worth it to fighting for something not like the Empire, who just want to show off that ‘Hey I got power in here, I have death star so you all better be careful with the Empire’

Ciena

She is an idealist person. She loves by her family (while Thane, his family didn’t really care about him at all and even his father always beat him up back then), she holds loyalty, honor and oaths ABOVE EVERYTHING like everything. To be honest, I don’t really like Ciena maybe because her idealism, how she still keeps her oath and something like that and I realized the reason I don’t like her that much maybe because I am not like her and there is that moment when Ciena is too oblivious about what Empire have done or when she is in denial that Empire is evil I was just like “Hey make up your mind please open your eyes, forget oath okay see right there what Empire have done to the galaxies”. Anyway, the destruction of Alderaan was a key event in the story that began to shake Ciena’s loyalty to the Empire, despite her reservations about the tragedy. She rationalized that it was necessary to put an end to the war, and was further sure of her place in the Empire after the Rebel “terrorists” destroyed the Death Star (and many of her friends on board). She believed on that until it was too late when she realized she serves for Empire for nothing. Her acts on crashing the Inflictor was actually her way to keep her honor and at the same time to get rid of herself from the Empire; 

The thing is about this book you get a different point of view how the originals trilogy movie being told, and makes you wonder “Is everyone in the Empire evil or are they just following orders?”. The ending was kinda open-minded which leads to a big questions what will happened to Ciena after she is being captured by Republic (because Thane did save Ciena but the rebels are the one who found him so yeah she was in prison) and another question is so Empire is not died at all actually? I mean I know First Order were rose from the ashes of the Empire but who the hell is the one controlling them if Sidious and Vader are already dead? Snoke? Which leads to a question, who is Snoke? I guess it will be answer in next movie yes? Two years more waiting. I can wait. I can.

So what else? If you interested in Sci-fi novel and bonus if you love Star Wars this might be your perfect reading and guide book too to all new star wars cannon! Oh and bonus, here is the unofficial book soundtrack inspired by this book because when you read Star Wars book, it is just not enough without the great music by John Williams (and of course that only happened in movie but luckily a fan of the book and star wars made this score and it is so beautiful like I can feel this score tells stories about Thane and Ciena's journey. See you on the next post!

Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens - Characters

Hi okay so after I watched the force awakens couple of times, to be precise is 5 times (yes 5 times forgive me.) it gets better and better and after I have all the questions on first viewing, I read a lot of speculations, theories about Rey, Kylo, Luke and Supreme Leader Snoke.

Characters:

Rey

VERY STRONG CHARACTER. That's all I could say, she lives alone in Jakku (that junkyard, thank you) since she was a child. She's a scavenger and a force sensitive too. She lives day by day in hope that one day her parents or whomever she is waiting for will come back. She is a good pilot and she's good at mechanic too (good at fixing things) in the novelization they described how can Rey be this good and actually she sneaking out to learn about the mechanics, watch things and she's also very good at understand different languages, even Wookie. Daisy Ridley delivers Rey perfectly and I love her so much she's the new rising stars.

Finn 

The stormtrooper who realized that all what first order do is a bad thing. So he decided not to kill the villagers on the first scene. Finn is such an energetic characters and by looking at how John Boyega delivers the character I know that he's so grateful being part in star wars movie. Sadly Finn is not a force-sensitive but I kinda wished that too so I'm relieved.

Poe Dameron

POE DAMERON YOU STOLE MY EYES. Really. He really does look like Han Solo but a mix with Luke Skywalker. A really good pilot like REALLY good pilot, such a gifted pilot and he's just cool man. Like he knows he is cool so yeah no big deal.

Kylo Ren

He is such a complex character. He is one of my favorite villain of all movie in general after Darth Vader. He's more human not like Vader which is half man half robot. He's conflicted, he can still feel the pull to the light (as he speak to his grandfather mask) and he is a massive fanboy of Darth Vader, he idolized his grandfather (not Anakin) and he wants to be powerful as him. His real name is Ben Solo.. Yup as you may know he is Han Solo and Leia's son and he was also Luke's padawan and apparently he was also the one who killed all the padawans in Luke's new jedi training. What I really love from him is that he decided to kill his dad to show his allegiance to the dark side and to show Snoke that he is totally 100% to the dark side. Shh. 

I always heard that Kylo is a weak villain because he lose the lightsaber duel to Rey. They forgot about that he just killed his DAD. He is mentally unstable for sure and he just got chewbacca's bowcaster right in the gut which you can see in the movie many times they tried to tell you how strong is the bowcaster, it can even make the stormtrooper jump to few meters back and killed them while Ren takes it just like a man, and don't forget the fact that Kylo Ren hasn't finished his training with Snoke. My favorite scene with Kylo Ren is where he can stop a blaster MID AIR geeee what was that?!?! Overall, I really love how Adam Driver delivers this character so perfectly and he is such a good actor. I'm really looking forward to see how Kylo Ren becomes in next episode. He'll be more powerful that is all I can say.

See you on next post I will be talking about my favorite scene from the force awakens.

STAR WARS EP VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS REACTION AFTER MOVIE

So I just watched star wars like 30 minutes ago, in theater obviously. It was so amazing, it was really epic i mean the movie and there are so many things left unanswered. Okay so as you know from the spoilers (gee, spoiler is out literally the day before i watched it i hate it actually) the crawl text begin with Luke has vanished. So luke has vanished to somewhere for years, he left because years ago when he trained new generation of Jedi, Ben Solo which is Leia and Han's son killed everyone aka killed all the padawan and he turned to the dark side. He's the leader of Knights of Ren which their master is Supreme Leader Snoke (I believe he's darth plagueis yes? We still don't know about it). So yeah of course Luke's went away, he thinks it's his fault that Ben turned to the dark side. Anyway, so new character Finn, Rey and Poe Dameron.

The first scene is actually start with Poe Dameron and with an old guy (I don't know who he is) but he has a puzzle map that will lead to location of Luke Skywalker but then the First Order army or trooper came with Kylo Ren to get the map also so Poe give it to BB-8 because it will be safe. Poe got captured and he was tortured by Kylo (he's strong with force, of course he is. He is anakin's grandson.) and he spilled it out about the map so it was all about finding BB-8 because it has a key or a map to lead where is Luke. Then Rey who lives in Jakku she lives day by day to trade her stolen things then sell it just to get a food it's so sad but she has to stay there in Jakku because she's waiting day by day just for her parents to came back and we still don't know Rey parents are. Short stories, Rey met BB8 then she help him and finn helps poe to escape from kylo then Rey met Finn then they stole a millenium falcon. OH YEAH MILLENIUM FALCON IS BACK. and they met Han Solo and Chewie and they go to Maz Kanata's place for help and guess what Rey has found Luke's old lightsaber which is belong to Anakin before and when she touched it, she got a vision. Yup so it is confirmed that Rey is a force-sensitive. It's her vision about Kylo on killing all luke's padawan if I am not mistaken and she also saw the battle of him and her and a flashback where her parents left her and when Maz found out, she tells her that "The lightsaber is calling for you, it's luke's lightsaber, take it it belongs to you now". So rey was shocked about that she basically just covered that she has a force she has that power so the story goes and Rey is captured by Kylo because Rey has seen the map that BB8 shows to Han, Chewie, Finn and her. Rey then is tortured by Kylo Ren and geez they both playing their powers, when Kylo tried to force her to tell the map she used his force to resist everything and SHE DID IT. She said like this "You're afraid that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader". OMG. She definitely strong with the force.

Short stories, battle on the Starkiller base (it is like Death Star 2.0 but the size is A PLANET while death star only like a moon), the resistance are trying to shot down the starkiller base and this is where the battle begins. Kylo Ren finally meet his dad, Han Solo. Han was trying to take him back to bring him home. Kylo said something he is in pain and he wants to stop this suffering and he said "Can you help me?" "Of course son" and then BOOM kylo just killed han solo aka his DAD. This was like the "what the fkk?" moment to me. I know it from the spoiler han died but I can't watch it, I almost cried, it's too sad. Kylo Ren has no heart he is a demon totally. Back to the stories, so final battle is where Finn, Rey vs Kylo Ren. Finn with Luke's lightsaber and when Kylo saw that he was "It is mine, give it to me back" so lightsaber battle started ugh love it. But then Finn got scar in his back and everything and when Kylo Ren tried to take lightsaber back he can't do it because the light saber is now belong to Rey and it is now the battle of Rey and Kylo Ren. Woah it was nice like the lightsaber battle was not that heavy like in prequels, it's like in originals i guess? And guess what, while Rey just found out that she has a power or the force she literally use it to take Kylo Ren down. SHE USE THE FORCE AND KYLO REN IS BASICALLY DEFEATED BY HER. It is then proved that Rey is very very stong with the force. So yeah starkiller base is now vanished because it was shot down by the resistance so it is very similar to A New Hope then finally R2-D2 is awake and now completing the map to know where Luke is and then in then Rey is the one who go to finds Luke and yeah she met him FINALLY. Luke Skywalker is here, he is back only for ONE scene in the end without a dialogue AT ALL. It's my another "wtf" moment again but when they finally shows Luke's face, he is I believe still a jedi, with a long hair model like Anakin in Revenge of The Sith and a light color robe. His face is.....looks so devastated, looks so tired and sad at the same time and that is where I get to the point I assume that Luke's feeling so sad because Kylo which is his nephew who was trained by him then suddenly turned to the dark side. Anyway that's the plot and it will be all revealed by tomorrow I believe. 

Overall I love it so much it gives you that old feeling about originals but a new feeling too at the same time. I just can't wait for episode VIII, and I know that it will be a big battle of Rey and Kylo (Kylo is now completing his training with Snoke) and of course we will see more of Luke in next episode but have to wait two years from now. Suffering first.

Opinion and Questions:
There are so many questions left unanswered like MANY. Here are some questions like in my mind right now:
1. Who is Rey's parents? Is it Luke? Is it?
2. WHO IS SUPREME LEADER SNOKE I MEAN HIS MOTIVE AND WHERE HE CAME FROM, IS HE DARTH PLAGEUIS
3. What is Luke doing all this years when he's gone alone?

4. How can Rey has that power so fast and she can even beat Kylo who is already trained by Snoke? I believe Rey was amongst in the youngling and her memories got wiped out when she was a child to hide it from knights of ren. But who knows right?

Okay so here is a review from Chris Stuckmann which I can relate 99% to him, I have the EXACT kind of feeling after I watched the movie just like him, It is a cliffhanger but it gives you to wanting MORE. I promise I will update this more about characters after I watch the movie again second time on saturday okay!