Why the Rogue One Novelization Is Required Reading for Star Wars Fans

That kind of thing can mean nothing at all, but fans were worried. We don’t know exactly what’s been changed as a result, but director Gareth Edwards has confirmed that, at one point at least, there was a significantly happier ending. Likewise, many bits from the various trailers didn’t make it into the finished film. The point being: there are lots of potential versions of any given film, and we have to thank luck, timing, and skill when it all comes out right, as it did here.
In this case, there’s an alternate version of the film we do have access to: the novelization from Alexander Freed, who previously wrote Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company, another story about a group of ground-level Alliance soldiers. The Rogue One novel is true to the movie in many respects, but there are several reasons why Star Wars (and Rogue One) fans will want to check it out.
Obviously, if you haven’t seen the movie, there are some spoilers ahead:
Fowl Stench
The appearance of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin in Rogue One was one of the year’s biggest surprises, given that actor who portrayed him, Peter Cushing, has been dead for over 20 years. The book doesn’t give the ill-fated governor much more time on the stage, but it does go into a great deal more detail with regard to the one-sided chess game that is his relationship with Advanced Weapons Research Director Orson Krennic. In the film, we get some sense of Krennic as a man whose ambitions, and desire for acclaim, far outstrip his skill as a politician. The book provides an inner monologue for Krennic, and in doing so perversely makes it clear why Tarkin is able to beat him at each turn. The director overestimates his own value to an extent, but he also overestimates the meritocracy of the Empire. He’s continually stunned that Tarkin can remain in the good graces of both the Emperor and Darth Vader while he’s doing the hard work, not realizing that the Empire rewards cunning over good intentions.
Part of the Rebel Alliance
The book also goes into a great deal of detail, more than we’ve seen in any of the canon media thus far, about the structure of the Alliance to Restore the Republic at this point in its history. We spend much more time Mon Mothma, a key character in the Star Wars saga whose reputation rests on her strong presence in a relatively tiny amount of screen time. Memos are passed, debates are held—it doesn’t swallow the narrative, but it’s nice to have a clearer sense of the stakes for the Alliance, as well as of the challenges of holding together a disparate band of fighters from all worlds and social classes.
Many rebels hold seats in the Imperial Senate, while others come from the gutter. We learn that there’s a triumvirate in the military leadership of the Alliance: Davits Draven leads intelligence, Jan Dodonna keeps the boots on the ground and the ships in the sky, and Mon Mothma serves as a political liaison to the other high-ups, while simultaneously trying to hold everything together. There’s also some neat detail about where all those rebel ships come from, and how they hold them together—if that kind of detail is your thing.
Catalyst

If you read James Luceno’s prequel novel (a prequel to this prequel) Catalyst, then you became fairly well acquainted with Jyn’s parents during the early days of the construction of the Death Star, when Galen Erso’s naïveté allowed him to be manipulated and used by his old, and generally trusted, friend Krennic. Even more so than the movie, this book feels like a natural sequel to that story. The movie just glances on the lives of Galen, Lyra, and Jyn in the years prior to Krennic’s arrival on Lah’mu. It’s not as though we get chapter after chapter about Galen learning how to farm (not very well, we learn), but an extended opening and Jyn’s fleshed-out recollections of that time, make for a more satisfying transition from Catalyst. If there had never been a Rogue One movie, the two books would make for a very solid two-part story.
Are you with me?
For that matter, all of the characters get just a bit more time. If I have one nitpick about Rogue One the movie, it’s that many of the characters are slightly underdeveloped. In introducing a whole new cast, I couldn’t help but feel that each of the rebels could have done with a bit more screen time, even Jyn.
The book remedies that: Jyn reflects on her past and circumstances, as does Cassian, the anything-for-the-mission rebel pilot who struggles with the morality of his choices. Same with Bodhe, and in his case we find out just what it was like to be touched by Bor Gullett, only a brief moment in the movie. Mon Mothma came up before, but there’s much more of her, including recollections of the events of the film from journals years later. The action still moves pretty fast, but the extra character work helps to clarify the stakes and makes you care that much more.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (a B&N Exclusive Edition) is available now.