{"id":4694,"date":"2016-11-30T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=4694"},"modified":"2016-11-29T16:22:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:22:58","slug":"review-star-wars-catalyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/review-star-wars-catalyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u201cStar Wars: Catalyst\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton\r\nEntertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
\u201cStar Wars: Catalyst\u201d is a prequel novel to the upcoming spin off movie \u201cRogue One\u201d. The novel centers around Galen Erso, who is father to \u201cRogue One\u201d protagonist Jyn Erso, and Orson Krennic, the film\u2019s antagonist. The novel is written by James Luceno, who also wrote \u201cTarkin\u201d and \u201cDarth Plagueis\u201d. Luceno is known for bringing readers into the heads of \u201cStar Wars\u201d villains, and \u201cCatalyst\u201d is no different.<\/p>\n
\"star-wars-catalyst-colorrandomhousebooks-com\"The novel is not the most accessible for the average reader. The appeal of the book is that it\u2019s a \u201cRogue One\u201d prequel and \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans will find the locations and familiar characters fun to read about. However, the characters would just seem random without prior knowledge of the film.<\/p>\n
At its core, \u201cCatalyst\u201d is a detailed history of how the Death Star came to be. The iconic space station\u2019s history is muddled with confusing mentions in both \u201cEpisode II\u201d and \u201cEpisode III\u201d. The novel puts all of that confusion to rest: \u201cCatalyst\u201d is the origin story of the Death Star.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatalyst\u201d is an interesting book that is weighed down heavily by its lack of direction. Characters float from situation to situation without really any strong reasoning behind it.<\/p>\n
The \u201cStar Wars\u201d timeline can be confusing at times. Jumping between forms of government three times: The Republic, The Empire and, most recently, The New Republic\/First Order. \u201cCatalyst\u201d deals with the Republic and Empire eras, but without prior knowledge of the political systems, the shift would seem weird.<\/p>\n
The book shines in the character relationships. Erso and Krennic\u2019s rich history is intriguing. The best part of \u201cCatalyst\u201d is getting immersed in the struggles that the characters face. They have all have relatable struggles and flaws.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatalyst\u201d is not the best \u201cStar Wars\u201d novel that has come out, but it is not the worst either. The interesting history of the Death Star and the rich characters are brought down by the book\u2019s lack of a strong overarching plot. The book is perfect for diehard Star Wars fans looking for something to keep them busy until \u201cRogue One\u201d releases on Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
Please contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu<\/p>\n
7\/10
\n+ Death Star History
\n+ Interesting characters
\n– Thin overarching plot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Ashton Newton Entertainment Editor \u201cStar Wars: Catalyst\u201d is a prequel novel to the upcoming spin off movie \u201cRogue One\u201d. The novel centers around Galen Erso, who is father to \u201cRogue One\u201d protagonist Jyn Erso, and Orson Krennic, the film\u2019s antagonist. The novel is written by James Luceno, who also wrote \u201cTarkin\u201d and \u201cDarth Plagueis\u201d. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}