To say that build up to Star Wars: The Force Awakens is at a fever pitch is a gross understatement. The hype machine that Lucasfilm and Disney began late last year has been matched by very few films in history. It is hard to believe that in August of this year, some fans were worried the juggernauts were not talking about The Force Awakens enough. Then, “Force Friday” hit, and we quickly had more lead up than any one person could wrap their head round.
Amid the myriad of Star Wars action figures, Micro Machines, pillow cases, and just about anything else one could imagine you could put a name on, Marvel, Del Rey Publishing, and Disney Press issued a series of books and comics that promised to, “give clues about the highly anticipated new film,” and so was born The Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens .
The journey to #TheForceAwakens continues as we revisit #StarWars : Return of the Jedi! https://t.co/TsjstRCFv5 pic.twitter.com/SXdaozytMJ
— Adam Hlavac (@adamhlavac) December 11, 2015
We sit on the precipice of the most highly anticipated film that has graced the silver screen in quite some time. In a few short days, according to Kathleen Kennedy from the Costco Connection as reported by The Hollywood Reporter , fans will see the continuation of the Skywalker family as told through the episodic adventures. The only real question is, “Did The Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens live up to the hype?”
The short answer to some could be no. In fact, it may leave some fans actually worried about what is to come this week. If the writing of not just these books but canon stories in general are any indication of the stories fans can expect from the story group, those who wanted George Lucas gone may be begging for him to come back.
The stories are not all bad. In fact, the three middle grade novels, The Weapon of a Jedi , Moving Target , and Smuggler’s Run , did a fine job of capturing the essence of what a Star Wars story really is. The young adult novel, Lost Stars , has also been a favorite of fans. It did have a few scenes in particular that readers are not quite accustomed to in a Star Wars novel, but many looked past that because the story itself was intriguing. It can even be argued that the comic Shattered Empire was great in parts.
See what happened between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, as told by the Journey to the Force… https://t.co/qF07dc7b4N
— Star Wars Minute (@SWminute) December 11, 2015
However, the novels of the new canon have left little to be desired. No book has been more critiqued than Aftermath . Aftermath is the lone adult novel that was tagged with The Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens . Unfortunately, most had deemed it the one they had to get right. Instead, readers were given a splintered story revolving around characters that no one knew about.
Was this really the best the story group could come up with out of the gate. Outside of just a few pages, the characters Star Wars fans over the years had grown to love were nowhere present. The meat of the story takes place on a world no one is familiar with. The vast majority of the novel has one guessing who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist. The heroes are that forgettable.
Aftermath isn’t the only unpopular book in the new Star Wars Canon. Heir to the Jedi may be the worst of all Star Wars books written over the last 20 years. Tarkin was highly anticipated, but ultimately most fans feel it could have and should have been a lot more. It is enough to make some wonder if this particular part of the Star Wars Universe was worth doing.
In the end, most fans are trusting that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan will do the films justice. George Lucas himself , according to Vulture, liked Star Wars: The Force Awakens . If it is true what he said about Disney using none of his ideas, that should make most fans happy. However, in the end, it is unclear if Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a success from a critical standpoint, but it will not matter because the movie is about to recoup most of what Disney paid for it.
[Image via Lucasfilm]
