Just like the announcement of the book (from Nerdist), I won’t spoil anything from the Star Wars Rebels Season 2 finale regarding Ahsoka Tano’s fate (update: my review does), but the upcoming YA novel simply titled Ahsoka will reveal pivotal moments in her life during the great swath of time between her final The Clone Wars appearance and her re-emergence in Rebels. As excited as I am for the Leia-centric novel Bloodline and the Rogue One prequel novel, this just shot up to the top of my list simply because more Ahsoka is a damn good thing in my book. More details below!
How about that artwork?! It’s absolutely gorgeous (almost as gorgeous as the newly released Ahsoka shirt over at Her Universe) and I certainly hope that’ll be on this book’s cover (even though the article states it’s not the final art). Here’s the full image:
From the Siege of Mandalore first being mentioned by Rex in Rebels’ S2 episode “The Lost Commanders” as a place where he battled with her that we haven’t seen yet, Filoni’s revelation (spoilers at the link, fyi!) about why Ahsoka was with Anakin and Obi-Wan (Maul-related, surprisingly enough) moments before them being summoned to Coruscant to save Chancellor Palpatine (aka the start of Ep. III), to the glimpse into an arc at the Untold Clone Wars panel last year, it seems like there are plenty of interesting adventures the young Tano got herself into in the intervening years between shows. And Ahsoka will cover a large chunk of those stories, per the Lucasfilm press release:
Ahsoka Tano, fan favorite character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, will be the star of her own young adult novel from Disney Lucasfilm Press this October 11, 2016! 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 will begin to be 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….
This almost sounds too good to be true, as I imagined learning more about Ahsoka’s missing time would be doled out slowly over the next couple of years. This will in no way be comprehensive, but still looks to reveal a lot of the details fans (like myself) have been waiting for. Her character arc on-screen has had the benefit of nearly a decade to bend and twist in exciting, character-driven ways, seemingly more so than any Star Wars character before and now it’ll be interesting to see how this novel will add to her legacy.
Ahsoka is to be written by E.K. Johnston, who has written a female-lead retelling of The Arabian Nights titled A Thousand Nights and she sounds just as excited by this project as the rest of the fans do:
“Writing for Ahsoka is tremendously exciting. She has a blank spot in her story that I know a lot of fans (including myself!) want to see filled in. And being able to help tell her story is a dream come true.”
If you’re worried about this because it’s a YA novel, remember one of the highest regarded books (by that, I mean most universally loved) of the new canon is a YA novel, Lost Stars. It proved the ‘age-range’ of a novel has nothing to do with whether it’ll be good or not.
Ahsoka comes to your local bookstore October 11, 2016.
All images via Lucasfilm
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
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STAR WARS REBELS REVIEWS:
Season One: Spark of Rebellion | Ep. 2: “Droids In Distress” | Ep.3: “Fighter Flight” | Ep.4: “Rise of the Old Masters” | Ep.5: “Breaking Ranks” | Ep.6: “Out of Darkness” | Ep.7: “Empire Day” | Ep.8: “Gathering Forces” | Ep.9: “Path of the Jedi” | Ep.10: “Idiot’s Array” | Ep.11: “Vision of Hope” | Ep.12: “Call to Action” | Ep.13: “Rebel Resolve” | Ep.14: “Fire Across the Galaxy“
Season Two: The Siege of Lothal | Ep. 2: “The Lost Commanders” | Ep. 3: “Relics of the Old Republic” | Ep. 4: “Always Two There Are” | Ep. 5: “Brothers of the Broken Horn” | Ep. 6: “Wings of the Master” | Ep. 7: “Blood Sisters” | Ep. 8: “Stealth Strike” | Ep. 9: “The Future of the Force” | Ep. 10: “Legacy” | Ep. 11: “A Princess on Lothal” | Ep. 12: “The Protector of Concord Dawn” | Ep. 13: “Legends of the Lasat” | Ep. 14: “The Call” | Ep. 15: “Homecoming” | Ep. 16: “The Honorable Ones” | Ep. 17: “Shroud of Darkness” | Ep. 18: “The Forgotten Droid” | Ep. 19: “The Mystery of Chopper Base” | Ep. 20: “Twilight of the Apprentice“