Release way back in 2016, Ahsoka is an important tie-in canon novel for perhaps, one of Star Wars' most important characters, Ahsoka Tano. This novel is a perfect tie-in for Star Wars fans that want to know more about Ahsoka's journey between clone wars (after she left the Jedi Order and parted with her master Anakin Skywalker) and Rebels (when she is seen assisting the Rebllion). Fans have long wondered what happened to Ahsoka after she left the Jedi Order near the end of the Clone Wars, and before she re-appeared as the mysterious Rebel operative Fulcrum in Rebels. Finally, her story is told. Following her experiences with the Jedi and the devastation of Order 66, Ahsoka is unsure she can be part of a larger whole ever again. But her desire to fight the evils of the Empire and protect those who need it will lead her right to Bail Organa, and the Rebel Alliance.

In this novel, Ahsoka, doubting her role in the galaxy, attempts to lay low and go unnoticed (in a similar manner to Obi-Wan) on a small planet called Raada following the Clone Wars. However, she can't help but be a hero to the people of the planet and calls attention to herself by using the Force in order to protect them. This is when the inquisitors are introduced that we end up seeing in the Star Wars Rebels series. An inquisitor is tasked with finding this Jedi and destroying them. So, Ahoska goes on the run again. She gets her old job back with the Fardi family and continues fixing things for them. She ends up gaining their trust to make deliveries in their ships. And while making these deliveries she takes on some of her own missions to help others. The missions aren’t planned, she just helps those when she comes across them so that she doesn’t get the attention of the Empire. But, her good deeds don't go unnoticed! Bail Organa is in the process of starting the Rebellion and needs leaders like Ahsoka. Eventually Ahsoka and Bail meet and she agrees to help his rebellion with one favor. She needs help saving the people of Raada. So Ahsoka ends up going back to Raada and fighting the inquisitor that is after her. She wins of course, and ends up getting her new kyber crystals for her lightsabers in the most unlikely place (this is how she goes from a green blade to a white). She saves the people of Raada with Bail Organa’s assistance and takes the code name Fulcrum.

I thought the characterization of Ahsoka here is spot on. E.K. Johnston does a wonderful job illustrating Ahsoka's moral resolve and her inner struggles. No matter how much she wants to run away from her past - the Jedi, the Empire, the growing rebellion. She can't. She is a hero and even though she rejects the title Jedi she still - in many ways - lives by the Jedi code. The audiobook is narrated by Ashley Eckstein- the voice of Ahsoka herself!

I highly recommend the book Ahsoka if you’re a Star Wars fan and want to know more about this character or the storyline leading up to the Star Wars Rebels series. I believe this is one of the more important canon storms currently published. It's well worth your time. ( )

While Johnston's structure as a writer is sound, this book feels simply like it's checking off points on an editorial to-do list. It's clearly burdened with this list of tasks but to also be a compelling story with character development it probably needs to be twice or three times longer (or perhaps a trilogy). I've read worse, this is just flat, boring, and a lost opportunity. ( )

If I were to attempt to rate this more objectively, I'd probably give it three stars, I think. But, for me personally, it rates four.

I'm assuming anyone interested in reading this is at least familiar with the movies, and thus things like what happens to the Jedi in episode 3. If not, there are one or two spoilers below. You've been warned.

I was a huge fan of the original trilogy (OT), though a little skeptical of putting cutesy spear-wielding teddy bears in episode 6, Return of the Jedi. (Side note, the episode numbering is in-universe chronological, not the real-world release order.)

However, I found the subsequent movies in the meh to shitty range. Except for episode 9, as the shittiness of episodes 7 and 8 had driven any desire to see it out of me. Just... bad dialogue, painfully bad humor, inexplicable character behavior. Anyhow... not a Stars Wars movie series review. And in any event, I still love the SW universe and mythology.

When the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series came out, I ignored it, though friends told me it was pretty good. Like many, I was just in it for the movies. I've read the novelization of Empire, and four of the early non-canon books. (For the uninitiated, a lot of the early books and at least one early series have been declared non-canonical in the wake of the creation of a coherent Star Wars cinematic universe.)

Finally, I took a leap of faith and started watching The Mandalorian. It still had some flaws, but they were the flaws of A New Hope and Empire, not the painful shit from the later films. And it was pretty damn good. I mean, really surprisingly good. Really, if someone came to you and said, "I want to make a million dollar [or whatever it cost] an episode show, about a mercenary and his little green, toddler, alien sidekick, oh, and you'll never see the mercenary's face because he always wears armor." You would laugh in their face. But, because it's SW and because Disney, for all its faults, does know how to make good shows, it works. And works well.

Anyhow, so with Mandalorian watched and my interest in SW rekindled, I decide to give Clone Wars a go. And it's pretty damn good too. Plus, it develops the universe and mythology a lot, explores many characters (Obi Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu, Anakin, Bail Organa, Padme), and introduces a few new ones, including Anakin's padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka quickly became a fan favorite, got her own book (obviously), and has a limited series coming (next year, at a guess).

In the timeline of the movies, the series runs roughly from episode 2 through to the end of episode 3, but, being seven seasons long, adds a lot of detail to the period. It's also about 30 times better written.

So, now I feel like I can write a couple paragraphs about the book after writing a six-paragraph-long prelude. The Star Wars universe is a big, complicated thing.

I'll tell you right now, this is brain candy. It's a solid book. I didn't notice any glaring flaws in continuity or logical flow. As near as I can tell, this was Johnston's first SW novel (she subsequently wrote two others), and I can only wonder how much backstory a new writer in the SW universe has to wade through before they can actually write something that fits into the grand scheme of things. So, an A for presumed effort there. It helps that Ahsoka is fairly self-contained. It doesn't touch on too much outside of Ahsoka and the backwater planets she's on. And maybe that's typical for new SW authors so they don't have to spend three months reading backstory notes right off the bat. In fact, one of the story's principle tasks is to (re)connect her to what's going on (that being the start of the rebellion).

Ahsoka is popular for good reasons. First, she's one of the few major female characters. Though that hardly explains it, and it would be insulting to suggest that simply being female is what makes Ahsoka popular, both to the writers and to, well, most humans.

There is one big reason to be skeptical, at least without seeing the series. She begins the series as a sidekick (Anakin's), and so often the sidekick role gets botched terribly. Plus, she's the only major new character, which seems to enhance the botchability in these things. The writers, to their credit, did not make her annoying. She's not just there for comic relief or to do stupid shit to create plot points. She's a kid to be sure (maybe mid-to-late-teens at the start of the show), and does screw up at times to be sure, but she's learning -- and she does learn. She grows, she gains new responsibilities and independence. She leads trooper into battle. She has agency. And she's never sexualized.

Ahsoka the book extends this arc of Ahsoka the character into her becoming a full adult. She is one of the few Jedi to survive Order 66, but as she was away from the Jedi Temple, she does not know who else survived, only that she can no longer sense other Jedi through the Force. She is young, quite alone, quite sad, and constantly in fear of being discovered by Imperials.

As the Empire expands into the outer rim of the galaxy, Ahsoka skips from world to world, until she finally decides to stay and help the few hundred inhabitants of a moon about to have the resources wrung out of it by the Empire.

The plot is nothing intricate -- this is Star Wars after all. It took me just a couple dozen words to explain it. But the action is fast, you care about the characters, and you hate the bad guys. Sweetness for your cerebellum (don't come at me with your neuroanatomy).

Ahsoka's a bad ass -- she's a trained Jedi -- but not too bad ass. Her training is incomplete for one thing. And she just not as powerful as some of the more famous force wielders like Obi Wan, Luke, or Vader (to say nothing of Yoda or Palpatine). And she is as aware of these limitations as she is of her abilities. Years of fighting in the Clone Wars given her a lot of practical knowledge of strategy and tactics, as well as experience in tangling with other force-wielders. It makes for a satisfying story, especially when coupled with the strong reasons she has to keep her identity as a Force-wielder (to say nothing of as a mostly-Jedi) secret. And along the way, you do get to meet a couple old favorites to boot: R2-D2 and Bail Organa.

The audiobook is a delight. It's read by Ahsoka's voice actress, Ashley Eckstein, and comes complete with lightsaber and other sound effects, R2-D2 beeps, and various stirring bars of John Williams's SW score. Eckstein's a pro voice actress and you always know which character's speaking from the distinct voices she gives them.

Bottom line: If you're a disillusioned SW movie fan, or just never ventured beyond the films, give Clone Wars a shot and then read this. I sincerely doubt you'll be disappointed.

Though I have not watched it yet, as I understand it, Ahsoka's story continues in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, though she is not a regular in it, and after that, the eponymous, upcoming limited series.
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I enjoy the content more than the quality. ( )

A fairly dull first act, but that's by design: living on the run is depressing. Gets better from there. ( )