TLJ Novel Review Diary

3.6.2018

Just came home and found the TLJ novel and junior novel waiting on my doorstep! Stay tuned!

Spoilers for the book, naturally.

If you don’t want to read all of this, skip to the conclusion at the end.

One Minute Later:  The very first line already blew my mind. As I’m very sure it was meant to.

Luke Skywalker stood in the cooling sands of Tatooine, his wife by his side.

his wife by his side.

his wife

What the what?

I know in Legends there was Mara Jade, but this isn’t her. This woman’s name is Camie. I’m not read up on my Luke Skywalker lore!

I MUST READ MOOOORRREEE!!

Five Minutes Later: *holds up hands* S’all good, s’all good. Just a Force-infused what-if dream. Stupid prologues.

ONWARD!!

One Hour Later: Pretty darn disappointed in the “child in a mask” scene. Didn’t get any further inside Ren than his anger, and we know how superficial that is.

Two Hours Later: Everyone under the age of forty in this book is being described as a child. Young, foolish, inexperienced, exasperating. Why am I getting a baby boomers versus millennial vibe?

Three Hours Later: The fire-or-not-to-fire scene is a little better, but only because we get a bit of Leia’s perspective–and she did indeed think Ren fired the shot that took out the bridge.

Granted, I’m only on page 82 out of 312, but it’s like these peeps don’t give two shits about Ben Solo and how effing important his inner turmoil is. I really, really hope I’ll eat those words in the coming pages.

10:16 PM: That bit from Ackbar’s point-of-view seemed a bit gratuitous. It could have been–arguably should have been–told from Leia’s POV. That was the only time we get his POV before the bridge gets blown up.

You know, so far there are specific lines or paragraphs that seem to directly answer questions and nitpicks from the fans. I wonder how much editing was done to the manuscript after the film was released–or was it already set to print at that point and it’s coincidental? *pulls don’t-bullshit-me face*

Oh, and this was a few chapters ago, but I noticed it specifically said Finn was healing from a wound on his back, which means they’re going off what happened in the TFA movie (which makes sense) and ignoring the fact that in the TFA novel Ren struck Finn across the chest. So far, this TLJ novel has stuck very close to its script, with only minor dialogue and timing differences. Whereas the TFA novel almost told a completely different story. Interesting.

10:30 PM: Yes, I skipped the pages where Finn and Rose meet, just like I’ll skip that chapter on the blu-ray. I just don’t care about them. They were completely shoehorned into the narrative. They’re so bland compared to Ren and Rey and Luke and Leia and even Poe.

11:18 PM: Rey: “What did you tell [the caretakers] about me?”

Luke, with a thin smile: “My niece.”

I SHIT. YOU. NOT.

*blares wedding march*

11:24 PM: My first Force connection was better. In the book, it’s strictly from Rey’s POV.

I get the feeling these people don’t know what to do with Ren. They like the idea of him, but don’t know how to execute their vision. The TFA movie version of Ren was neutered compared to TFA novel Ren, and now the TLJ movie version of Ren is VASTLY more compelling and…and real. So far in this novel he’s pretty much a stick figure with an angry face.

(11:57 PM) I want to rephrase that–It’s like they don’t know what to do with Ren without Adam Driver’s performance. Because these books are written based on the film script–the author likely didn’t have the luxury of studying the completed scenes like I did; he didn’t have the visual. That only makes Driver’s performance more impressive, in my opinion–if the Kylo Ren character is as cut and dried in the film script as he is so far in this book, then Driver gives Ren life, plain and simple. I just can’t get over it, how different Ren is in this book versus how Driver portrays him in the movie.

Gotta say, though–my interpretations, so far, have been pretty spot-fucking-on. *does a little happy dance*

12:10 AM: Now I just feel bad for Fry (Jason Fry, the author). One – it’s clear he isn’t a Reylo. Or an author who can write romance. I feel NO chemistry whatsoever between Rey and Ren. Zip, zilch. Two – I laughed at the second Force connection, the monster one. It was that bad. It was almost nothing but dialogue, leaving the quotes flat and uninflected (Is that a word? Is now.), and what was there wasn’t at all as it was in the movie. Granted, as I said above, he was probably working off the script and didn’t have the benefit of using the actors’ performances as a resource. But still, his handling of the Ren/Ben character is just terrible. I don’t think he knows how to write an antihero.

12:34 AM: Okay, Fry’s version of the second lesson and mine differ quite a bit. I saw it through #SaveBenSolo vision. And I prefer that. Except there’s a Luke quote that wasn’t in the movie, one that just kind of stunned me. After I read it, I blinked, then stared at it for a moment.

“I don’t know who’s more dangerous: the pupil who wants to destroy me, or the one who wants to become me.”

That shook me. That, right there, that sentence is the dilemma between Ren and Rey.

12:49 AM: I’m halfway; I think I’ll get some sleep and finish it in the morning.

3.7.2018

8:52 AM: I’ve read a couple Amazon reviews that said their books arrived in terrible condition. Mine’s okay structurally, except so far there’s a couple pages (149, 157) that have weird ink stains on them. But it doesn’t obstruct the words, and most books I’ve read have some sort of problem with ink at some point, so I’m not all that upset. And the only typos I’ve noticed so far are a couple of misplaced quotation marks. I read that the ebook was missing pages; thankfully I don’t have that problem. So far.

I still can’t figure out the point and purpose of the Luke dream prologue. I think it was supposed to fit in right before Rey arrives and offers him the sabre, but I haven’t realized the significance yet.

Just skipped Finn and Rose’s breakout at Canto Bight. Shirtless scene should be pretty soon. ONWARD!

9:19 AM: Okay, yeah, shirtless scene. *sigh* Ren is so cold in this book. He doesn’t mock Rey because he’s trying to get a rise out of her, he mocks her and insults her because he’s an asshole. I don’t like this Ren. This Ren doesn’t match Driver’s portrayal at all.

My interpretation of the scene was mostly accurate, though there’s some extra material that must not have made the movie. I thought Rey was going back to the village in that scene, since she seemed to be going up, but the book says she was heading down to the Falcon, prepared to leave, then Ren happens and she goes to the cave.

Here, when Rey asks why he hated Han, he tries to convince her it’s because Han was “a weak-minded fool,” but she doesn’t buy it. Rey isn’t well fleshed-out as a character, either, though we get more from her than Ren. Overall, though, I’m disappointed.

9:39 AM: Welp. I’d bet good money–like, all my money–that Reylos will be very disappointed by the hand-holding scene. There was nothing to it; it’s nothing like mine at all. Absolutely no sexual tension. I’m starting to think this book has no intention of showing any romance between them at all. They’re barely friends, for god’s sake. No, not even that–they’re acquaintances who feel a very uncomfortable draw to one another, and neither of them like it. I don’t understand. In the movie, the Reylo romance was so strong, even people who had never contemplated a romance between them became Reylos. And here, any kind of connection, intimacy, between the two–aside from the Force-bridge between their minds–is simply nonexistent. I don’t understand how there can be such a major, and I feel integral, discrepancy between the mediums. I mean, it would be one thing if the movie was based off the book; but this book is based off the movie. Is Fry even trying?

But there’s still 127 pages left! It could turn around!

My interpretation of the mirror scene–or at least, how I have Rey describe it–is more or less accurate. I think I gave it more meaning than Fry did, but it’s not inaccurate. And while there’s a basis for why she would suddenly want to tell Ren about the experience, it’s gossamer thin. Based on their interactions so far in this book, I found it strange that she wanted to tell him. That’s not to say she couldn’t know that he would understand, but that’s far different from her actually seeking him out to tell him. It didn’t fit, to me.

The most interesting change was that when Luke was hurrying to find her, before he caught her with Ren, he was trying to find her to tell her she was right and that he was going with her. That was shot to hell when he saw Ren.

Another interesting change–I say “change” but really they’re just parts left out of the movie–is in the third flashback, when Luke’s telling her the “truth.” It says Ben aimed a killing blow at Luke when he summoned his sabre from across the room. We thought he was just trying to defend himself, but this says he was attacking, and Luke parried. It’s kind of confusing the way it’s written–it almost sounds like Ben was trying to kill Luke the way he later kills Snoke–driving the plasma blade through the man’s body as he summons the sabre into his hand. But then I read it again and it sounds like he had it in his hand first before striking. I don’t know; it doesn’t make sense to me. Here, I’ll just give you the excerpt so you know what I mean.

Desperate, Ben’s hand reaches out, not toward Luke but beyond him, to the lightsaber he has constructed. Willing it into his hand, its blue blade a killing blow aimed at his Master. Luke’s own blade meets Ben’s and the locked lightsabers buzz and spark.

I just don’t know what to think about that flashback.

10:37 AM: Hey, ya’ll – Rey arriving in the escape pod was a bigger deal than the movie made it out to be. She and Ren actually talked, right there in front of the troopers, and I rather like the scene–though Ren is still doesn’t suit.

10:44 AM: The scene in the elevator–excuse me, the turbolift–was better. I see the scene as a wrench trying to turrrnnn the seemingly immovable bolt that is Ren and Rey’s relationship in this book. The paragraph that does all the heavy lifting?

Rey stared at him, but there was no lie in Kylo’s eyes. And a terrifying realization bloomed in her mind: Kylo’s churning emotions weren’t just about himself. They were also about her.

There could be several different meanings for that rather ambiguous line, but I think we know how most minds will go. And by that I mean we know how Reylos will read it.

I don’t not like her suddenly realizing that he might have feelings for her–that’s how I’m running with it; don’t like it, get lost–but it would have had more impact and made more sense if we’d gotten just the smallest bit of Ren’s POV as he’s thinking about Rey; if we’d witnessed some of those growing feelings. But there’s been nothing. All we’ve gotten from Kylo’s POV to this point is a brief little bit where he decides he can’t fire on his mom.

*hard, frustrated sigh*

There is one line I really appreciate, though. When Rey finds her gaze locked on Snoke and somehow she can’t make herself look away, she gets the same feeling from him that she got from the blowhole/cave. Snoke is that dark. Which we knew, but it’s a cool line.

11:16 AM: Fry seems particularly adept at writing military stuff. He’s knows the lingo, he’s good at describing procedure–military action in general–and the reasoning behind those orders. Particularly fascinating is that he’s describing the thoughts of various high-ranking personnel–Canady during the initial battle, Hux when he reported to Snoke after the Resistance got away, and now Snoke himself. We’re getting all these different opinions about how the First Order should be run.

Canady was disgusted by Hux’s theatrics, grand-showmanship, and lack of strategy.

Hux thinks Snoke is too preoccupied by mystics and won’t last long as a leader after the Resistance has been destroyed and the First Order reigns, that a mind and respect for science and technology as well as military training are what the Supreme Leader of the First Order needs–making him the ideal, inevitable, candidate.

And Snoke considers Hux a crazy pet and doesn’t take him seriously, just as he considers Kylo Ren a puppy who failed to grow into a bloodhound. Which we knew. But more interestingly, he says himself that he’s not who any of the leftover Imperials imagined leading them–because 1) they didn’t know how perilous the Unknown Regions were, where they meant to reform but would have died if not for Snoke, and 2) they didn’t consider the mystics–because they didn’t know Emperor Palpatine was also Darth Sidious, who did consider the Force in his plans.

12:10 PM: A couple more typos – a missing “at,” and a “‘s” that’s misplaced.

12:34 PM: Holy god, I don’t know where to start.

So the throne room scene, until he dies, is told through Snoke’s POV. He senses waves of emotion from Rey and Ren through the Force, but we’re pretty much robbed of their thoughts. Though it is very interesting to get inside Snoke’s head for once. We don’t learn any more about his origins, but we get some insight into his intent. Nothing new, it’s just interesting to read.

But we don’t know what goes through Ren’s head when he hears that Snoke bridged their minds. Just “sickly waves of pain and confusion.” Not good enough for me. However, there are several paragraphs that I’ll be adding to my Ben Solo character study that pretty much confirms the conclusions I came to, just from Snoke’s POV.

We don’t know what went through Ren’s mind when Rey was being tortured mid-air. It says he could feel her pain and panic–“But he did not intervene. Instead, he lowered his head and awaited his master’s command.” Which fits what happened in the movie, but Driver’s facial expression isn’t there. That’s why it would be so important to know what he’s thinking in that moment, but we don’t get it.

Skipped all the parts with Finn/Rose/Phasma/Etc.–honestly, I wish I could just rip those pages out. The only way it would disrupt the narrative is Poe’s plan, but that could be tweaked and made to fit. I feel so bad that I have such little interest in those characters–but they’re just simply not as interesting. To me.

Rey realizes Snoke must have taught Ren the mind-probing ability, though Snoke’s much better at it. So that explains how Ren could do it; I saw people questioning the ability somewhere a while back.

All we’re told is that Snoke’s apprentice was “surprised” when Rey summoned his saber from his belt.

Then it gets a little more interesting as Snoke describes his surprise at the sudden–“eerie”–calm and focus in his apprentice. BUT I WANT TO KNOW THE THOUGHT PROCESS THAT BROUGHT REN TO THAT CALM. *frustrated screech*

The moment Ren kills Snoke is depicted slightly differently than it is in the movie. Ren’s described as cold, determined, emotionless, which could maybe describe how Driver portrayed him then, but that’s not how I saw it. Determined, sure, but he was never emotionless or cold during that scene. Decided and resolved, yes, but anger and resentment roiled beneath the surface. Here, Kylo didn’t even look at Rey as he pretended to be about to kill her. In the movie it seemed like he never looked away.

After Snoke was dead, all that was said was, “Kylo and Rey had a moment to lock eyes.” BUT WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??

It is clarified that the guards didn’t notice the sabre turning, did not expect Snoke’s death, and while they were shocked, they reacted more quickly than the movie made it seem (because the movie was too busy giving Ren and Rey a wonderful fantastic moment). They fought to avenge Snoke’s death. The mysterious navigators fled, as I speculated in a previous Reylo Epiphany post. They weren’t mentioned while everything was going down, but later when Hux arrived, he noticed they’d fled. So maybe not so clarified. Whatever.

Rey actually struggled quite a bit in the fight against the guards. Halfway through she was tiring and kind of let the Force take over, let it guide her lightsabre and warn her about attacks. THERE WAS NO THIGH-GRAB, no kick-boost. All that was said was that in an effort to avoid a kick from a guard, “Rey fell backward, bumping into Kylo’s back.”

Once she was letting the Force in to help her fight, she sensed Kylo’s hunger–“as if he were a beast finally freed to confront its tormenters.” That’s pretty spot-on, at least.

The fight was described a lot more than I expected, all from Rey’s POV. But I had a hard time imagining it–a fight like that I have to see.

Most disappointing, though–we don’t see any reaction from Ren when Rey gets cut. Not that he sees it and doesn’t react, I mean it’s told from Rey’s POV, so we have no idea what’s happening with Ren at that moment, if he saw, what he felt. It’s a major moment in the movie, but it’s inconsequential here. Johnson deliberately put that moment in there, whether you believe it was for romantic purposes or not. But it’s not here. Which I suppose could tell a Reylo everything she/he needs to know about this book.

There’s two things I still consider plot holes:
First, how the fuck did Snoke not know about Ahch-To? He seems to be this huge guru about the Unknown Regions, he’s from there, and he’s got these special attendants whose purpose is to chart and navigate those places for him. And I mean, it says this, page 217:

For Sidious knew that the galaxy’s knowledge of the Force had come from those long-abandoned, half-legendary star systems [in the Unknown Regions], and that great truths awaited rediscovery among them.

Truths that Snoke had learned and made to serve his own ends.

Tell me, how did he not know???

Second, why didn’t Ren summon his own lightsabre into his hand when the guard had him in a headlock? He’d just dropped it on the floor a short distance away, and it says while he had one hand on the guard’s weapon, keeping it from slicing through his throat, the other was empty and “flailing for purchase.” (The image that inspires makes me giggle.) In the movie, I understand, because he was employing both hands to keep the weapon away. But not here. I can’t even tell myself he was too panicked to think straight–because if that’s true, what the hell were all those years of training for? I mean christ.

Next, VERY interesting, after the fight is over and she says his name, before he says, “It’s time to let the old things die,” he first responds, “That’s my old name.” Reylos were going on about the significance that he lets Rey call him Ben–NOT. I think I’ll just pretend that line doesn’t exist.

That scene is just as skeletal and unsatisfying as all the rest. Nothing in my fic Let Old Things Die was wrong, per se–but it remains fanfiction. *sigh* admittedly, there is one bit Reylos will cling to:

“You come from nothing. You are nothing.”

And then his eyes softened.

“But not to me. Join me. Please.”

That’s it. That’s all we get as far as proof of him falling in love with her–or even just caring about her. For fuck’s sake.

There was no internal dialogue, no facial expressions, nothing at all to tell us what they were thinking during the stand off. What’s a little cool, though, is that the book makes it seem like the kyber crystal in the sabre was crying out in pain as they pulled on it.

By the way–it’s pretty definitive that Rey’s nobody parentage is true. It’s true, it’s fact, there was no lying, get over it, Antis.

I liked that we got a tiny little prelude from Hux’s POV describing him going up to the throne room and finding the aftermath of battle.

One thing I’ve noticed in this novel–the term “alien” is used liberally to describe anything that isn’t human. I guess I always thought that term was somewhat inappropriate to use, preferring “creature,” because when all these different beings are interacting and bouncing around from planet to planet, just who is the alien?

The only thing noteworthy about the scene with Hux and Ren is this:

“Snoke’s escape shuttle is gone,” the general replied.

Kylo considered that. Rey had recovered first. She must have realized he was at her mercy, yet she’d left him alive.

Almost as if she cared for him.

And then it was ruined by the next line:

Well, it was another foolish, sentimental decision. And this one would be her destruction.

*exasperated sigh*

ON TO CRAIT!! In the words of Ren, “Let’s finish this.”

2:09 PM: WAIT!!! There’s a scene from Rey’s POV explaining her decision after she woke up!!!

Well, shit. It’s just her explaining that while she considered killing Ren while he lay unconscious (like fucking Hux, goddamnit), she ultimately didn’t because, “Kylo’s life was not hers to take.”

Not because she cared about him. Not even because she had hope he could turn yet–though that is a small part of it, but not because she wants him on their side. Because she realizes she can’t predict the future, that she put too much stock in her vision. She’s officially learned that the Force is not her instrument–she is the Force’s, and “the future would unfold as the Force willed.”

La-de-fricken-da.

3:05 PM: My god! It’s Ren’s POV! *reads* So he despises and distrusts Hux. Go figure.

Not sure I needed all that stuff with the Resistance landing on Crait and getting their shit together. If you’re really into those characters, it was probably pretty cool, but I was meh.

And with all the teases about Holdo’s backstory and Leia’s past, am I the only one who can practically hear Del Ray whispering in my ear, “Please read the other books. Please…”

3:30 PM: Whoa whoa whoa whoa. WHOA. Hold on there! Did they just… Did they just TEASE us with Ren’s redemption?

Goddamnit! *kicks dresser* *stubs toe*

[Leia:] “I held out hope for so long, but now I know. My son is gone.”

Luke’s eyes were warm–with understanding and love, but something else, too. It was knowledge, she sensed–a knowledge vast, deep, and strange, but also comforting. …

“No one’s ever really gone,” he said quietly, leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead as he took her hands in his.

When they touched, she immediately understood. A slight smile played at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes shone with the secret the two of them now shared. …

Leia opened her hand and smiled at the sight of Han Solo’s dice, resting in her palm.

WHAT THE FRESH HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN???

Those dice were mentioned two other times previously. Once just when Luke noticed them when he sneaks into the Falcon, and–

Ben as a toddler, forever following Han, carrying the dice from the Millennium Falcon–the ones his father had used to win the beloved, battered freighter–and promising anyone who’ll listen that one day he would be a pilot, too, like his daddy.

So is Luke and Leia’s little secret exchange referring to Han or Ben not really being gone? Or was he reminding her that one day they would all be happily reunited in the Force or whatever? Or maybe it was simply referring to the fact that Luke wasn’t actually there, and Leia knew once he tried to touch her, but she couldn’t feel him.

I am so sick and tired of ambiguity!

I’m pretty sure it’s referring to the fact that he’s merely a projection, and he’s letting her know that Ren can’t hurt him, or that once he’s dead she’ll always be able to feel him with the Force or some shit.

I’m a little annoyed. Can you tell I’m a little annoyed? Fucking LucasFilm and their fucking ambiguity.

Anyway, other notes thus far–we got Ren’s POV in the command shuttle a couple of other times, but there wasn’t one thought about Rey, not even when the Falcon swooped in. He reads so much more impassive and controlled than he was in the movie. It’s just…*sigh*

I did read the part where Rose “saves” Finn (I still wish she hadn’t done that), because I was curious if their falling-in-love ship is evident. And it is. She’s clearly in love with him, and he at least cares for her a lot. I don’t understand why Ren and Rey are being given the shaft.

4:31 PM: Yeah, Luke was definitely reminding Leia that if he passed, he would be part of the Force, and she would feel him if she sought him.

Interesting bits from the end:

When Luke shows up and walks out to meet them –

Hux looked at Ren’s face and saw terror–naked and undisguised.

Hux remembering his father studied Jedi methods and used them when building their trooper army –

So, in a sense, the First Order’s stormtroopers were the Jedi’s legacy.

While they were blasting Luke –

… Kylo Ren had gotten to his feet and was staring down at the strange spectacle below. His fists were clenched and there were tears in his eyes.

As Luke and Ren were facing off –

Ben Solo had sought to abandon everything he had been, even casting aside his name. But Luke sensed that Kylo Ren was just a shell around the same broken boy he had tried so hard to reach.

Ren’s venomous response after Luke told him everything he’d said was wrong –

“Rey,” Kylo said, speaking her name like it was poison. “Your chosen one. Chosen over me. She aligned herself with the old way that has to die. No more Masters. I will destroy her, you, and all of it. Know that.”

Luke searched Kylo’s eyes, found them full of fury and hurt.

Kylo and Rey’s last connection (for now) –

He stared at Rey. She stared back at him, her gaze level and unafraid. There was no hatred in her eyes, as there once had been. But there was no compassion, either.

Leia and Chewie have a very touching scene where they commiserate on their losses. I got choked up.

The scene from the Lanai matron’s POV was a pleasant surprise. It’s more or less telling us the Jedi will live on. The Lanai are keeping the light on for them, as it were.

The first line of Fry’s acknowledgments is this:

This book exists because Rian Johnson wrote a wonderful story and was so generous about letting me goof around with it.

In other words, “Rian Johnson wrote a love story for Kylo Ren and Rey, which I’m going to ignore in favor of technical jargon, bysodoing stripping the narrative of most of its power.”

Give me a bit and I’ll compose my overall conclusion.

Conclusion

6:33 PM: Seriously, though—what point was there to that prologue? What the hell did it mean?

I still sort of think that Ackbar’s POV was gratuitous, as was Tallie’s, and probably others that weren’t so obvious, but the POVs did jump around a lot; Hux, Snoke, Ren, Rey, Luke, lots of Leia, Poe, Canady, Ackbar, Finn, Rose, BB-8, C-3PO, Holdo, the Lanai matron, Temiri, more I can’t think of at the moment—everyone got a highlight.

So that’s just kind of the way it went, whether it was necessary or not. But that’s what happens when you have an overabundance of characters to give due diligence. On one hand, it’s neat to see the thoughts of the characters you watched in the movie—which is more or less the point of a novelization, so I have to concede that point. On the other hand, though, from a storytelling standpoint, it makes for a mess, and it’s virtually impossible for the reader to connect to any of them, because we hardly know anything about them. I think we got Leia the most, so I felt for her the most. Which was probably a conscious decision, considering Carrie’s tragic passing. The novel doesn’t give any idea what they’ll do with her character in IX, by the way.

I still maintain that this book stuck close to script, though the further in there were more unfamiliar scenes, which we’ll probably see on the blu-ray. But while it stuck close to script, that’s insofar as sequence of events and, for the most part, with notable exceptions, dialogue. But it’s not the same in tone at all; I would say that this is the version of TLJ that would better suit all those fanboys who were upset because it didn’t seem like a Star Wars movie. Reylos, though, probably won’t like it, because there is no Reylo.

And I’m so mad. LucasFilm can’t let Johnson made the film he did, declare it canon, and then produce this as its companion. There can’t be romance and intimacy in the movie and not in the book based on it. How does that make any sense? All the names listed in the acknowledgments, and not one of them was like, “Um…Rey and Ren aren’t supposed to be so cold to one another. Kind of the opposite.”

It’s ironic, because we had the opposite problem with TFA—the movie made Ren seem more villainous than he is in the book.

Get your shit together, LucasFilm. You can’t have it both ways. At this point, you’re going to piss off one sector of the fanbase or another, so make a decision as far as Ren’s character and his relationship with Rey and get it over with.

Ren became more than a stick figure with an angry face, but not much more. There were moments when he’d switch it out for a sad face or no face at all. But he remained a stick figure. One dimension. Maybe one and a half. And you have no idea how much it hurts me to see my favorite character neglected like that. In a way, he’s kind of treated here like he was when he was younger—like he’s the villain, when he doesn’t have to be. I wonder sometimes if Adam Driver has any idea what he does for that character. My respect for him—and Daisy Ridley—continues to grow.

Speaking of villains, they’re obviously lining up Hux to be the antagonist—or at least Ren’s antagonist—in IX. He flat-out stated—thought, rather—that he was going to be top dog someday soon. He just has to figure out how to get rid of Ren.

I do take back what I said about Fry not being able to write romance. I didn’t read most of Finn and Rose’s parts—don’t care—but what I did read seemed ahhhh-inspiring. (See what I did there? *wink*) He seems to have chosen to spit in the face of Reylos. He threw a couple of crumbs out so we can’t say there was absolutely nothing—but there was nothing.

Seriously, though, I don’t think Fry’s a bad writer—not at all. Some of his descriptions were damn near poetic, and overall the narrative had a smooth, easy rhythm. He’s a very talented writer—but I’m just not a fan of how he told this story and what he did with some of the characters. There was a lot of technical speak—describing systems and weapons and structures, etc., in detail. I have a lot of respect for that, because I don’t know the world of SW anywhere near that well, and if nothing else I can use this book as a resource, like an encyclopedia. But that’s not what I wanted to read in the TLJ novel.

But seriously—what the hell was that prologue about?????

I’m going to skim the junior novel, which had a different author, to see if it’s any different.

Junior Novel

I’m not far in, just past Leia’s Force moment, but already I like this one better. It still doesn’t quite portray Ren as I want, but it’s more than we got in the adult novel. And I just like Michael Kogge’s writing better. Stay tuned.

Later: Okay, I didn’t read everything, pretty much just the parts with Rey and Ren.
Interesting points/differences:

• Rey hears, or at least thinks of, the words she heard during her vision in the TFA novel–“Stay there. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.” It’s when Ren forces her to confront the truth that she admits to herself she created that voice, created the words, in her mind to comfort herself. So much for it being Ren, figuratively or otherwise.
• At the beginning of the second connection, Ren’s looking at the hangar out the window of his “ready room,” whatever the hell that means. And he can see the Falcon during that one. Huh. —> Per Wookieepedia: A Ready Room was a room on Imperial capital ships that allowed for briefings and debriefings.
• Here Rey actually sees the flashbacks like visions in her mind.
• Here the fight scene with the guards is a matter of a few short paragraphs. Rey doesn’t get cut at all. After, during the “proposal,” Rey’s thoughts resemble the ones I gave her in Let Old Things Die. She doesn’t completely give up on Ben like she seemed to in the adult novel; she just refuses him while he’s still Kylo Ren. So that’s nice. I like Rey quite a bit more here; she’s more like my Rey.
• Ren regains consciousness because he feels that he’s about to die. He knows Hux was about to kill him. That’s new, but it makes sense.
• The ski speeder battle on Crait is told exclusively from Rose, Finn, and Poe’s POV.
• Okay, remember above when I spazzed about ambiguity when Luke talked with Leia for the last time? That’s justified, because this tells it differently. This one implies Ben’s redemption for sure.
  So you don’t doubt me; page 185:

“This is the end…isn’t it?” [Leia] asked.

Luke’s eyes had a strange glint. “I came to face him, Leia. And I can’t save him.”

He says “and” not “but.” Interesting.

“I held out hope for so long.” Leia shook her head. “My son is gone.”

The glint in Luke’s eyes seemed even stranger. “No one’s ever really gone,” he said.

That was the old Luke talking, the Luke she’d once known who could discern even the dimmest light in the darkest of hearts. He had found a way to redeem a man she never could–their father. If Luke couldn’t save Ben, maybe he believed someone else could.

He gives her the dice.

Luke must have taken them from the Falcon, meaning he must have met Rey. Might he have taught her something? Could the girl from Jakku somehow help them all–even Ben?

Leia smiled. Maybe the Resistance–and the galaxy–still had a chance.

• Ren saw Leia boarding the Falcon when he and Rey get connected that last time, so he knows she’s alive, but the author didn’t make note of it. I wonder if he forgot that Kylo thought she was dead. I almost did.
• That last Force connection was better/different yet not than in the adult novel. It’s implied the dice bring about the connection; Ren picks them up, thinks about where he last saw them, and then he can see the Falcon, and Rey.

Rey turned her head in his direction  and glared at him. She was angry at him. She thought he had betrayed the person he should be.

But she was wrong. She had betrayed him.

The ramp closes, then–

He stood in the command center, seething with rage.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t see any rage in Kylo at the end of TLJ.

I don’t understand. I just don’t. While the Ren in the junior novel actually has thoughts like a real human being, he’s still rather cold and cruel. There are more Reylo-ish moments than in the adult novel, but they’re just as subtle and vague. But these are based off Rian Johnson’s script. Rian Johnson, who brought Reylo to the big screen and made it canon. How did the Ren in this script turn into the Ren we saw Adam portray? They are nothing alike.

In the junior novel, he fully intended to kill Rey when Snoke ordered him to. He wanted to kill her. But he hesitates and decides to take Snoke out instead, so that he can become his own master–not at all for Rey’s sake. Not at all because Snoke hurt her. But didn’t Rian Johnson confirm somewhere that her torture was the final straw that made him finally act on the plan he’d contemplated? How can these books and the movie come from the same source, follow the same script, and be so different? Did Rian write it before he was a Reylo? Did he write it like this to get it approved and then incorporated Reylo?

I just don’t understand. All it means to me is that they have no idea what they’re doing with his character over there at LucasFilm, and it breaks my heart.

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