John Jackson Miller was the perfect choice to pen “A New Dawn” (September, hardcover), the prequel to “Rebels” that launches the Disney era of “Star Wars” books, as he had proven his world-building mettle with “Knights of the Old Republic,” “Knight Errant” and “Lost Tribe of the Sith.” He really came into his own as a character writer on last year’s “Kenobi,” and that skill is on full display here, too.
While I like Kanan and Hera well enough on “Rebels,” “A New Dawn” (which, in an odd marketing play, is an adult novel, whereas “Rebels” leans toward kids, at least more than “The Clone Wars” did) makes me love them. Kanan and Hera – and later, their Ghost teammates Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Chopper (none of whom are in this book, set six years before the TV show) – aren’t galactic heroes like Han, Luke and Leia. But they aren’t your run-of-the-mill rebels, either.
Hera bides her time, choosing to pick up information on the evil Imperial efficiency expert Count Vidian. Kanan lays low, bouncing from one job to the next, never making friends, but always doing the right thing when it comes down to it – something he’d never admit to, but which Hera notices. Miller portrays a spark between the two, although Hera believes there’s no time for romance in an underground rebellion. In a nice nod to the fact that “Rebels” is an animated show with vocal talent, Kanan is mesmerized by Hera’s voice.
In contrast to the “Rebels” heroes, Skelly, an explosives expert working on the Imperial-controlled mines on Cynda, is more of a traditional freedom fighter who tries to blow up Vidian multiple times in “A New Dawn.” The Sullustan female Zaluna is a veteran surveillance agent who finally realizes – when her boss is yanked off the job — that the Empire ain’t what the Republic used to be.
In different ways, Hera and Kanan are clever in how they strike blows against the Empire. Often perched on catwalks and ductwork, Hera is good at sneaking around and gathering intelligence. Kanan is a masterful improviser. Similar to the recent “Rebels” episode, “Empire Day” – where he pretends to be a drunkard marveling at the fireworks when he’s caught by a stormtrooper – here Kanan tricks a Star Destroyer captain, Sloane, by claiming to be a personal agent of the Emperor.
All of Miller’s hero characters pop, and Vidian is a great villain. Like Grievous and Vader, he’s a nearly indestructible cyborg, and like clone troopers’ technology on steroids, he receives a wealth of information inside his faceplate. I picture Vidian as looking like one of those police officers from “THX-1138.” His job is to visit companies that are run (nominally or literally) by the Empire and get them to meet the Emperor’s impossible quotas. Murder of middle managers is very much in his arsenal, and employee safety is not among his concerns.
Much like “Rebels,” “A New Dawn” is not shy about digging into the details of the Empire’s oppressive evil and drawing stark parallels to the modern-day U.S. Zaluna’s spy job is an NSA parallel, the lack of legal accountability for Vidian mirrors the rising police violence against citizens, and Vidian’s positioning within both the Emperor’s staff and a major mining corporation calls to mind our oligarchical structure.
I don’t have anything bad to say about Miller’s work here, and I hope he writes more “Rebels” prequels down the road, perhaps telling the stories of how Sabine, Zeb and Chopper joined up with Hera and Kanan.
However, I do have criticisms of the book that almost certainly aren’t the fault of Miller, but rather the new Lucasfilm Story Group. The first thing that jumps out at me is that Kanan’s master was Depa Billaba, and this doesn’t jibe with her story in “Shatterpoint” and the “Republic” comics, where she was in a dark-side coma the last time we saw her. Choosing Depa specifically as Kanan’s master – when any lesser-explored Jedi could’ve served that purpose – is quite a middle finger to Expanded Universe fans and it puts a lie to the LSG’s press release about how they love the EU.
But even worse is the dropping of the cute, British-meets-sci-fi words that used to add a wonderful esoteric flavor to “Star Wars” books. Turbolifts are now elevators, refreshers are now restrooms and transparisteel is now a window. Hera’s lekku are always head-tails, and Zaluna is a Sullustan woman, not a Sullustan female. (On the plus side, at one point, “lift” sneaks past the editors. And “slicer” survives intact.) While I may have slightly tripped up on “Star Wars” Words when I first got into the EU, I quickly figured them out from context clues. The Story Group apparently thinks today’s young (or new to the GFFA) readers are too stupid to do that, and that’s a damn shame.
The editorial meddling makes “A New Dawn” difficult to grade. I loathe Disney’s misguided approach to drawing new fans at the expense of old fans. Yet the company is at least smart enough to tap the best writers from the EU for most of these new books (James Luceno’s “Tarkin” was recently released, too). From that perspective, I say don’t let Disney’s annoyances deprive you of Miller’s great writing. But perhaps check it out from the library rather than buying it.