Catalyst Star Wars Rogue Novel Reviews Summary

Character Development

Pros:

• "We get to know more of Galen as a character; his desires and fears and the way he works."
• "Great Story filling the gap on the Erso family and the trials and tribulations they went through working on Kyber Crystal research...from the humble beginnings as the Empire tightened their grip on them."
• "It adds some great depth to the story line and the Jyn Erso's struggles with the budding Empire."
• "Overall RogueOne: Catalyst provides a detailed back story to The Ersos and Orson Krennic."
• "Catalyst provides a background to the emotional core of Rogue One through the plight of the Erso family."
• "Catalyst really gives some great character development for the movie."
• "The author did a good job of capturing the spirit of Galen, Lyra, and a young Jyn Erso which resulted in a thoroughly enjoyable read."

Cons:

• "Exciting this was not, boring it was."
• "I felt this book was boring at times and was hard to get through."
• "The characters in this are not much more than their on-screen versions, even though they only have a few minutes in the movie."
• "Galen feels a bit one-note at times, the brilliant scientist obsessed with his work, but then he surprises."
• "The other main characters, Galen and Lyra Erso are a bit more predictable."
• "Galen's written as an absent minded genius who becomes obsessed with crystals, Lyra's written as a concerned wife with aspects of Force sensitivity that I thought had been decided against for Rogue One."
• "Galen is not the most interesting person in the universe."

Story and Pacing

Pros:

• "The novel in general is quite successful at uniting the prequels with the Rogue One movie (yes, the prequels are and will always be canon!)"
• "The pacing of the story was fast and entertaining."
• "Surprisingly, Catalyst is actually a very compelling, well written novel."
• "I thought the book had great pacing, some good action, and the dialogue kept me entertained throughout."
• "Catalyst serves as a great story from the perspective as both a prequel to Rogue One, as well as a standalone Star Wars novel."
• "It's the little things that link to the future that makes the book extra enjoyable."
• "Great character development and a well thought out storyline."

Cons:

• "Outside of that relationship building, however, there isn't a whole lot of 'action.'"
• "The premise would have been far more suited to a short story format, there's simply not enough going on to warrant this many pages."
• "The story falls into a lot of political maneuvering, bringing back some bad memories of the prequels."
• "While not horrible in it's attempt to fill in the gaps for a side character from Rogue One, parts of the book are quite good but others go into a direction that isn't addressed anywhere else in the book."
• "There isn't really a lot that happens in the course of the novel."
• "This was book was so slow and nothing happens."
• "The story was not bad, but pretty uneventful."

Writing and Style

Pros:

• "Luceno does it again! He's very good at subliminally relieving the political side of events."
• "The author gives more detailed background about kyber crystals, giving them more significance in later novels and the film."
• "Luceno expertly weaves together the origins of the Death Star and its early construction, which sets up the events of Rogue One."
• "Another excellent Star Wars novel by Luceno."
• "Like his previous Star Wars entries; Luceno makes it more about character than action and he does a fine job as always."
• "James Luceno is a great author and writes well."
• "The writing is excellent and the story is great."

Cons:

• "It's literary white bread: there's plenty of it, but there's no substance there."
• "The problem that I have with this book is that we know the outcome, thanks to 'Rogue One' and therefore there is precious little suspense to be had from the plotting itself."
• "There's a Simpson's clip which parodies 'Cosmic Wars'. This book is exactly that."
• "It's hard to qualify this a science fiction... it's set in the Star Wars universe but it doesn't read like a star wars story (to me at least)..."
• "80% of this writing dwells inside character heads. Great read if you like psychoanalysis. Tough to get through."
• "The characters are mostly compelling, and there is some sense of drama on numerous occasions, but it almost suffers from being a book about relationships."
• "It's just like a filler episode."