– Spoiler Review –
In Force Collector, a YA novel from author Kevin Shinick that’s part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker program, a young man takes his new friend and his droid on a journey to discover the history of the Jedi, coming to understand his own abilities in time.
Force Collector‘s main character, Karr Nuq Sin, is a young teenager who is struggling to understand the latent Force-abilities inside him, and the lack of knowledge or belief in the Jedi a tad prior to The Force Awakens makes his family very concerned for him. Karr’s abilities are much like Quinlan Vos’ or Cal Kestis’ in Jedi: Fallen Order: by touching objects, he can see visions of the past and future, also known as psychometry. Due to a lack of training, Karr’s visions cause him to pass out, so his parents seemingly believe he’s sick, while his grandmother, J’Hara, tries to teach him how to connect deeper with the Force, despite a lack of Force herself. Eagerly, Karr wants to see a Jedi in his visions, and when he and new found friend Maize Raynshi find the only option to avoid problems with their parents is to steal her dad’s ship and tour the galaxy looking for objects to touch, Karr begins to hone his abilities and see the past of the Skywalker Saga. Force Collector walks on a tight rope between feeling like an earnest exploration of uncovering the galaxy’s true history considering it’s been written and rewritten by both villains and heroes and coming off like fan service, and it felt like it stumbled a few times throughout. Karr’s visions and lack of knowledge about the past mirrors our own universe’s struggle with all the facts within our past, like how we all know who won/fought in World War II but many can’t name every specific battle or reasons for fighting, so for denizens of the galaxy by the time Karr is alive, they don’t quite know the specifics of what happened with the Jedi at the end of the Clone Wars or the rising Empire wasn’t actually the good guys. At times it’s a refreshing way to view the GFFA, as it makes sense these things got muddled and highlights the importance of Luke Skywalker’s return in The Last Jedi, and other times it did feel like a greatest hits/easy way to catch up on what’s happened in the previous movies in a fan service way, as the coincidences it takes for Karr uncovering the details he needed to fill in the blanks felt a little far too great for even the Force’s strange ways; It never fully takes away from the book, but it’s a feeling that’s hard to shake. Recently, we’ve seen novels pull off the concept of seeing the galaxy from the average citizen’s eyes in a stronger way via books like The Legends of Luke Skywalker or Myths & Fables, as stories being told by people in-universe makes it far easier to avoid coming off as fan service then direct visions of important scenes.
Karr is a good enough character despite being a teenager rebelling against his overly protective parents, but his new friend Maize, and her family’s problems beyond being members of the First Order, felt far more interesting, had greater potential for drama, and gave Maize a far more righteous reason to be rebelling as only a teenager can against their parent’s flaws. Maize arguably goes through the tougher journey, as while they both get relatively happy endings by novel’s end, she doesn’t get everything handed to her like Karr does, and has to fight a bit to get the family resolution she wants. In fact, their entire journey through the galaxy, even though it’s at “peace” around this time, felt far too easy, as even when the First Order gets in Karr’s way and tries to torture him for information on Luke Skywalker’s whereabouts, there’s a distinct lack of tension to any of the proceedings; the kids are never in any real danger scouring the galaxy for clues about the past, and the threats of the FO officer fell flat, and even their parent’s aren’t much in the way of a hindrance to their exploits, giving the kids the chance to continue the journey after coming home and fess up to everything. The fact Karr gets everything he wants, like knowing the full picture, a cool new female friend in Maize, acceptance for his abilities by his family, a purpose with his abilities, and even a chance to meet a Jedi, further compounded the ease of the book’s adventure. While Karr being around as a Force Collector, in a little too on the nose moment, opens some good potential for post-The Rise of Skywalker stories/Rey’s potential Jedi Order, it felt far too simple and easy for him to get there to feel like the moment is earned.
Here are a few other things:
- From a convention appearance to a few interviews, like this one at THR, Shinick revealed a section he wrote for the book was rejected because he had essentially written a part of The Rise of Skywalker! Hopefully once the movie’s out, he can reveal which part he happened to write!
- The only connection to TROS I noticed so far is placing one section on Kimiji, a planet we’ll be seeing in the upcoming film as it’s homeworld to the masked Zorii Bliss.
Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s Force Collector might be a little too on the nose for me, as while the novel ends up a decent read, your memories of it will be lost to even Karr’s abilities.
+ Maize’s story
+ Can feel natural to uncover the past…
– …but also feel too much like fan service
– Journey is far too easy
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER REVIEWS:
Allegiance (comic miniseries) | Spark of the Resistance (novel) | Resistance Reborn (novel)