Ahsoka Book Review

Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston

The year was 2008. A new Star Wars movie was coming to cinemas and I didn’t have the least interest in seeing it. That might be surprising for someone who has lined up to see all eight Star Wars films. But in 2008, I had no interest in being a Star Wars fan. I had been severely disappointed with “Revenge of the Sith” as I still am to this day. The thought that the future of Star Wars would be a cartoon series, perpetually locked between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”: it did not interest me. If Disney hadn’t purchased Lucasfilm, I fear that we would be on The Clone Wars Season 9 by now… and that I would still be angry at Star Wars.

This was the state of mind I was in when I was first introduced to the character of Ahsoka Tano (aka Snips).

So Ahsoka and I have had a rough past. Still today, I don’t really like the design of her character. In a Youtube review video I referred to her only as “Orange Clown Apprentice”, which made people in the comment section very, very angry. Yet, in the wake of “Star Wars: Rebels” I have come to appreciate Ahsoka.

First of all, Ahsoka is a fan favorite. And it’s not hard to see why. “The Clone Wars” TV series is kind of all over the place in terms of focus, but if there has to be a “main character”, I think most people would skip over Anakin (who is unlikable and unrelatable) and move right ahead to Ahsoka Tano. In this way, Ahsoka was the female lead of Star Wars, years before Rey or Jyn Erso.

E.K. Johnston’s “Ahsoka” chronicles Ahsoka’s story between when we last see her in “Clone Wars: Season 5” until we next see her in “Rebels”. I would recommend watching the last four episodes of “Clone Wars: Season 5” before reading this book. These are some of the best episodes of that show and, in my opinion, some of the only ones worth watching: “Sabotage” / “The Jedi Who Knew Too Much” / “To Catch A Jedi” / “The Wrong Jedi”. Knowledge of these episodes really inform the reader exactly where Ahsoka is coming from and to what her internal struggles are (none of this is really reviewed at all in the book itself).

In fact as far as this book is concerned… it doesn’t really stand on its own legs. The book is short, and there isn’t much to it. But we do learn how Ahsoka survived Order 66 and how she gets her new white lightsabers. She also battles an Inquisitor. In short: This book serves as a bridge between the Ahsoka we know in “The Clone Wars” and the one we meet in “Rebels” and that’s pretty much it.

If you read the audio version of this book, it is narrated by Ashley Eckstein who has voiced Ahsoka for “The Clone Wars”, “Rebels”, “Forces of Destiny”, and several video games.

Until next time: Happy Reading Star Wars Fans!

Brock’s Star Wars Book Reviews

June: "Thrawn" by Timothy Zahn
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/06/thrawn-book-review.html

Mid-June: "Lost Stars" by Claudia Gray
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/06/lost-stars-book-review.html

July: "Knight Errant" by Jonathan Jackson Miller
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/07/knight-errant-book-review.html

Late-July: "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/07/bloodline-book-review.html

Early-August: "A New Dawn" by Jonathan Jackson Miller
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-new-dawn-book-review.html

Mid-August: "Ahsoka" by E. K. Johnston
http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2017/08/ahsoka-book-review.html