Star Wars: Before the Awakening (2015)

Great book for background info of characters in The Force Awakens. On its own though it's not amazing.

An excellent anthology of three short stories, each focusing on one of the main characters of the Force Awakens. It really added a lot of depth and background to the characters and was an enjoyable read. ( )

EXCELLENT read, with lots of good backstory for The Force Awakens!!! ( )

A set of longish, yet still somewhat perfunctory, short stories. I found Poe's story to be the most interesting, probably because we get less of his story in Episode VII. Nothing in Finn's backstory is terribly surprising, especially for anyone who has read or watched any canon stories about Imperial cadet training (e.g., [book: Lost Stars] or the Rebels episodes that address it). Rey's story was drawn out a bit too long – not unlike the hot, sandy deserts of Jakku, I suppose – and the ending was telegraphed from miles away.

I don't mean to say these are bad stories, they just aren't great. They're worth reading for the Star Wars completist, but you won't really find much new in them. ( )

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ( )