Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Force Collector (Review)
While the real world journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is yet to truly begin, the literary journey is underway. We take a look at one of this series’ flagship novels Force Collector in this spoiler-free review.
The “Journey to” series of Star Wars books have become a tradition unto themselves. Each new film sees an adult novel, a young adult novel, and a myriad of comic books and junior novels the set the scene of the film released at the end of said journey.
Journey to The Force Awakens gave us Aftermath and Lost Stars, and The Last Jedi’s journey was set up with Phasma and Leia, Princess of Alderaan. With our first look at a galaxy beyond the Battle of Crait will be explored in Spark of the Resistance and Resistance Reborn, this series’ YA novel has headed in a different direction.
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Set before the events of The Force Awakens, is Kevin Shinick’s Force Collector worth the trip back in time? Or is it a journey worth missing?
Journey to Self Discovery
Force Collector follows Karr Nuq Sin, a force sensitive teenager from the planet Merokia. Karr is blessed with the ability to relive scenes certain objects have “seen” through the power of touch.
Following a chance meeting with Maize Raynshi, a new girl at school with a scepticism toward the existence of the Force, their pair plot an escape from their mundane home planet. Alongside RZ-7, Karr’s protocol droid in medical droid casing, the trio set on a planet hopping adventure to discover the ultimate fate of the Jedi, and their place in the Force.
The immediate comparison coming out of Force Collector is the aforementioned Lost Stars. Lost Stars told a love story against the events of the Original Trilogy, and slightly beyond. While Force Collector doesn’t tell a tale concurrent to any story we’ve previously seen, Karr’s ability to be shown the past gives it an almost comparable quality.
While Karr cannot control his abilities just yet, trips to sites of importance throughout the Skywalker Saga lead to him gaining a greater understanding of what he can achieve. A whistle-stop tour across planets, both previously seen and unseen, help deepen Karr’s understanding of the Jedi, and their role in the fall of the Republic.
In fact, Force Collector’s greatest strength is how it treats its flashback sequences. As a concept, it comes across as a little fan service-y, but the care Shinick puts into making it work in a narrative sense makes it easy to buy into.
Imagine the time travel aspect of Avengers: Endgame, without the weight of the stakes at hand, and you’ve got the right idea. Across his adventure, Karr stops at a host of worlds sure to absolutely delight the reader, from Utapau to Takodana, with a short trip to Batuu’s Black Spire Outpost in between and more. Force Collector clips along at a nice, brisk pace, never getting too bogged down in one location, resulting to a comfortable, easy read.
People Problems
What that does mean, however, is that our heroes are almost put in the back seat. Karr is a teenage boy, confused as to his place in the galaxy. He doesn’t have many, if any, friends, and doesn’t seem to get on at his school.
While it is great to see him control his connection with the force, as a person we don’t really see him grow beyond this. Similarly, Maize is the daughter of a First Order officer, and is constantly on the move as a result.
The pair are put together following an initial argument, but it’s one that feels resolved fairly quickly. The novel’s pacing is absolutely not an issue, however the speed in which our lead pair go from strangers to best friends is somewhat jarring, and isn’t really addressed further.
Furthermore, structurally, the seeming lack of conflict between the two is something that is both noted, and, again, jarring. A misunderstanding is all we have, and isn’t given the room to really affect and change our characters. I hate to compare this to Lost Stars again, but the manner in which Thane and Ciena are forced apart, and reconcile left a far greater impact than that of Karr and Maize.
The crew’s third member, RZ-7, is introduced as Karr’s “medical droid”. When Karr receives a flashback early on, he screams in agony and is hit by a white hot headache that causes him to faint. Karr uses these incidents as an excuse to cut class, and built RZ-7 to act as the only “medical droid” who can help him.
In reality, “Arzee” is a protocol droid in a medical droid shell, and absolutely not qualified to provide anyone with medical attention. If you can imagine a mid-point between C-3PO and K-2SO, you’ll have an idea as to what RZ-7 is as a conversationalist.
Where do we go from here?
What these books are supposed to do is set up the next film in the series. While Resistance Reborn and Spark of the Resistance are setting up The Rise of Skywalker in a narrative manner, my feeling is that Force Collector is giving us a peek at how the film may be structured.
We’ve heard time and again how Episode IX will feature elements from all previous eight entries in the series, and the impression this release gives is that we will be given a lot of history, and shown a lot of environments from previous films. Shinick has stated at New York Comic Con that Lucasfilm made contact to tell him he’d basically written a section of Episode IX, and he had to rewrite it. Something to remember as you turn each page.
In all, however, Force Collector is a story about forging your own path, of self discovery, and of accepting who you are. Karr is many things, but a tailor he is not. Despite his parents, he knows the Force is calling to him to achieve something greater, and it is gratifying to see him become something we haven’t really seen much of from those who are force sensitive.
It would be difficult to place it among the top tier of novels from the new cannon. When all is said, mind, Force Collector is a worthy addition to anyone’s collection, and a story you’ll enjoy from start to finish.
Journey to The Rise of Skywalker comic begins this week. dark. Next