Book Review: Rogue One by Alexander Freed

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The novelization of the first of Disney’s Star Wars anthology films Rogue One hit the shelves a few weeks after the film’s premiere in theaters to avoid spoilers, written by Alexander Freed based on the script by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy.

Freed followed the events in the script faithfully, but the narrative was improved with insights into the thoughts of the primary characters of the novel. Freed interlaced the narrative with one-time characters to add actions and descriptions to various parts of the narrative, especially the destruction of Jedha. Jyn, Cassian, Bodhi, and Kennic were the most well-rounded characters throughout the narrative with Freed making them the dominate point-of-views through more appear during the Battle of Scarif giving the event the big time feel it deserved. The added “Supplemental Data” interlaced throughout the book gives additional background information without being the dreaded “info dumps” that interrupt the narrative flow of the story.

Rogue One is the first novelization that I’ve read that is of equal quality to the film its adapted from.

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