Ahsoka

As you can probably guess, you do need to have watched the Clone Wars TV show before you read this book. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as it is perhaps the best prequel story to come out of George Lucas's head since...well, never. This show was clearly made by people who hated what was done with the prequel trilogy, and wanted to make a better version of it. The dialogue here is better than anything in the first three films, and the relationships are better to, especially between Obi-wan and Anakin. You get the feeling watching it that these two are good friends, with nice moments where they agree on most things, disagree on others, and have many funny lines between them, like good friends do. Padme is no longer a girl with crappy dialogue who occasionally gets into fights, here she is smart, funny, and proactive, whether it is introducing a resolution in a senate meeting, or using a blaster to escape from a droid factory. Also, the body count is high for something like a kids show. People die regularly and this is something I like because it makes to topic of death very serious for these characters and it allows for the kids watching to understand the stakes of death in things like war.

Ahsoka was a character that started to annoy me, but gradually began to grow on me as the series went on and I started to see her grow as a Jedi. So, when she was written out of the show, I was curious to see what happened to her. Enter the Ahsoka companion novel. Firstly,let me say that if you have the chance, find this book on audio. The narrator is the same actress who voices Ahsoka, so in some places, it was like Ahsoka herself was telling the story. This audiobook also features all of the hallmarks of the Disney Star Wars Canon novels, which means various music, and sound effects come in where appropriate.

In fact, I almost couldn't help but compare this book to another Disney canon novel I listened to on audio, Bloodlines by Claudia Gray. That novel is all about how Princess Leia is trying to find a mysterious uprising in crime activity set just before the events of the 7th film. Both of these books had excellent production quality and great voice acting...but I think Bloodlines was better.

And that is because of two main reasons: 1. The writing, and 2. The narrator for Ahsoka. They just are not as up to par as anything in Bloodlines.

The writing is something that seems okay at first, but it gradually begins to fall apart. We do get an excellent depiction of Ahsoka as she feels so alone in the universe after Order 66 is carried out. And I do like how we get a sense of resourcefulness from her and the situation she is in. But then things begin to change and action begins to happen if only because the plot needs to move along. For example, on the first world that Ahsoka finds herself, she begins to lead a rebellion against the Empire. Sadly a raid goes wrong and a her and the rebels must run for the hills in order to escape the storm troopers. Then a rebel girl that Ahsoka knows decides that, right after a batched raid, it is a good idea to go back to the Imperial infested city. Please keep in mind that the girl gives no reason for doing this, and no reason why she has to go back now, and not later. Of course she gets caught, and Ahsoka has to rescue her. This is one of the instances where the only reason why this event happens is because the author needs it to, not because it made sense in the context of the story.

Then when it comes to Ahsoka being a smuggler, the author decides to skip it in the form of a written montague. He gives us a bare summary of what she did and the risks she took, rather than show them to us. This seemed like it would be the most interesting part of a book, yet he skimmed over it with barely a glance. Both of these elements show that the plotting and writing are just not as tight for Ahsoka as it is for Bloodlines, which makes me think that this is novel didn't have as much talent behind it as it's counterpart.

Then there is the voice actress. She just isn't as good at voicing other characters, or at least it seemed that way to me. This novel randomly switches between points of view, and the actress cannot handle doing a dark and menacing voice for the male antagonists. Also, many of the female character voices she had to do ended up sounding the same. Maybe this is a sign she does not have good range, but then why didn't they do what they did with Bloodlines and hire separate actors for the other parts? Perhaps it was because this book is attached, however distantly, to a kids TV show that many casual Star Wars fans may not have watched, and so it did not get the backing Bloodlines did? This is fair, I suppose but it is still noticeable. I've read that these changes in POV are done with grayed out pages, and a different font in the physical book, which makes for a good choice stylistically, but for an audiobook, you don't have that luxury. Your actor has to communicate this change with a difference in her voice such as contrasting inflections and even distinctive accents. Sadly, this actress does not have that here. Thankfully, those moments are somewhat few and far between. It just annoyed me that this problem was solved in Bloodlines but was not here.

In the end, this was fine. Not bad, not great, but fine. There is not much for me to recommend here, unless you like the original TV show with Ahsoka, then you'll get a nice story. And while listening to it is a must, just get it from a library or a friend. It really isn't worth buying. I give it a three out of five.