Rieve, a young woman making her way in the world, finds herself on the planet Vespaara, home of the ever-popular Hunters! Will Rieve make it in a new arena, or will her past doom her and her new teammates? Read our review of Mark Oshiro’s Star Wars: Hunters: Battle for the Arena!
Have you ever heard the phrase “let’s address the elephant in the room?”I feel like there are so many elephants in Star Wars: Hunters: Battle for the Arena‘s room that it’s a dang safari in here. A few of these elephants will guide this review, and then a few more points will finish it up. You might be wondering, as you come into this review, does this book exist? Does the game it ties-into exist? Does it read too much like a tie-in? And, well, does it even stand as a good book? Let’s dive into it!
Here’s some good news: the book does exist, as I have a physical copy in my hand! Sometimes, it’s weird to talk about the “meta” or “real life” contexts of a book when you write a review, but I’ve noticed this book existing has been a hot topic. A few podcasts I’ve listened to wondered where it was, it’s (as of the release of this article) not at any of the Midwest Barnes and Noble locations, and many bookstores don’t seem to be getting it either. I found mine at a Books-a-Million, on the shelf with other middle grade readers. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of chatter online, either, as I didn’t see any ads or tweets for the book. In this case, I recommend checking with your local booksellers to see if they can order a copy for you and telling a friend about the book, if you think they would be interested!
And here’s some mixed news: the game it ties into is currently available only in Malaysia. For you Malaysian readers of the Manor, thanks for joining us! Hope you’re enjoying the game. For the rest of the world, and for this author’s context of America, this game has not been released. That may help me answer the next question: does it feel like a tie-in? I don’t know! For what it’s worth, I have never gone to Galaxy’s Edge, but I found both Black Spire and Crash of Fate to feel like very heavy tie-ins. For Hunters, the tie-in material does make up the context of the book, but I felt like I understood the story and the main character, Rieve, well enough without having been able to play the game (literally). There are times when locations from the games, or I believe game modes, are referenced, and those aren’t explained super well or often, so I was a little lost on these points. I bet a quick two-hour session of the game would clarify a lot of these points for me, but again, I couldn’t play it. In this case, I did feel like the setting of the book was very underdeveloped, perhaps because it was written with the thought people would know the settings from the game better.
This leads me into maybe one of the most important things I could stress about the book: it’s a sports novel through and through. The middle grade book stresses the importance of teamwork, believing in your team, and finding yourself through a sport. Think Friday Night Lights but with lightsabers and droids. I know sports manga are very popular, and I felt like this was fairly comparable to the few that I’ve read. You’ve got a newcomer to the sport, and the story focuses on them learning the sport, learning to play on a team, and then learning how to use that team to solve the big plot conflict. I think this makes the book fairly unique, at least in Star Wars, but it presents a few challenges. As I’m not a sports fan, I know what it’s like to watch Big Games, season finales of football, not knowing what’s going on. This is the same experience I had while reading Hunters: I didn’t get what was going on with the sport, but I understood to an extent what it meant for the characters and for the plot. In this case, I think it stands strongly enough on its own apart from the game, but I imagine the game will help me enjoy it a bit better later.
The main character Rieve is well-written for being in a middle grade reader. We understand her wants and desires, we understand who she is and where she came from, and we even know her hobbies and her side-gigs. In reality, I feel like I know Rieve a lot better than I do a lot of modern characters. Rieve’s main character journey follows her finding her place: on a new planet, on a new team, and in a new sport. This is complicated by her past, which without spoiling much, is an outpouring of her relationship with the Force. She is not a Jedi, nor a Sith, but she does experience the Force and has to grapple with what it means to be sensitive to something she doesn’t understand. She is also placed in a context where she meets a lot of new people at once, and she has to learn to trust them and work with them. This makes for a great middle grade reader protagonist, and just a good character all around.
Unfortunately, a lot of the side characters play second fiddle to Rieve. One character, a droid programmed to act like a Jedi named, well, J-3DI, does have a little more screen time with Rieve, but other characters don’t get a ton. Imara Vex, from the Hidden Empire trilogy, makes an appearance, but may be the third-string player in this book. A lot of the side characters are built up by their gimmick – this one is two Jawas! this one is an Ugnaught on a droideka! – but there is one exception. Rieve is assigned a trainer named Rothwell, who has no gimmick, and I believe he is built up well, but not to the same degree as Rieve.
Two quick notes would suffice: as with the other middle grade readers, this book does feature three splash page illustrations. I enjoyed these, and if you’ve not seen any screenshots of the game, they help illustrate the characters well and give you a good idea of who is who and what they all look like. I should also note the plotting, which for my money, moved along at a pretty good pace. I made a joke that some of the Galaxy Edge tie-ins paused the plot to either look at a menu or have a tour guide take you around the park, but I didn’t quite get that feeling reading this book. Maybe it helps that I’ve not played the game, so I have no idea what’s in the game or not? Maybe if I had played the game, I’d feel more off-put by some of the events, but as it stands, I bet I missed a lot of tie-in material.
Overall, Hunters is a fine middle grade book. I think it suffers a bit from being a rudderless tie-in, as the book relies (in my opinion) on some knowledge of the game. Ultimately, though, the only thing that suffers is set dressing, and not the plotting or the characters. It features a stronger main character than a few before it, and I think it lends Rieve to a great introduction when/if the game ever launches. I’m not sure this book will make a big splash on its own merits, though, but rather through memes. I hope people get a chance to check this out if they’re interested, as I did enjoy it (once I found it!).
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!