Rick C

Reading this book, I was really impressed by the depth of the world building and characters. The structure of the plot didn't grab me though as it ended up feeling more like a TV series with an overarching A-B plot and then a bunch of “episodes” that happen on the way to B.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it. The characters are fun and the world-building is very well thought out and detailed.

3.5 / 5 Stars

Really great start to a series. I was hooked from the start and enjoyed the balance of inspirations from Hunger Games/Battle Royale to Game of Thrones. Surprised that this hasn't been turned into a TV series yet.

A brisk, light read. Fun to hear the insight and behind-the-scenes trivia from Cary Elwes' perspective. The audiobook includes voiced sections from some of the other cast members too and director Rob Reiner.

Definitely entertaining, but was a little too pulpy. I still enjoyed my time with it, though. I've heard the prose gets better as the series progresses, so it may be something I revisit.

I haven't read a Star Wars novel in a long time, so I figured this would be a good place to start. I'm trying to embrace the foregoing of the original expanded universe and try to settle in to this reboot of it, but this opening chapter didn't do it any favors. The only character I wanted to read more of was made a side character while the main ensemble were just cringe-worthy in a lot of respects.

To make things worse, there were these excerpts, the author called them “interludes,” that not only stopped the flow of the story, but just teased you with these frustrating little morsels of information about characters you actually care about. This book repeatedly dropped you into other stories in much the same way that Marvel movies use end credits scenes to set up for what's coming. Since none of these interludes had any resolution, it was frustrating at best and really made the book a bigger disappointment than it had to be.