Reading progress update: I've read 214 out of 560 pages.

Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lost Stars - Claudia Gray, Phil Noto

My enjoyment with this book increases the more I read.

 

Maybe it's all the tie ins with the known story line. Some of the characters you are introduced to play an important part in the story that we already know.   And the author cleverly uses known twists and turns to further her characters' story. I was wondering how she was going to get one character off the Death Star before it went Kaboom. I assumed it would happen one way but was pleasantly surprised. She does things obsessive fans would get a kick out of - there was at least twice that the fangirl in me smiled catching a new connection made or the underlying reference - but the story itself can be read on a surface level and still be enjoyable.

 

Curious, I checked out the author's website and she apparently is a huge fan, attempting to turn her closet into an X-Wing cockpit when she was a kid. I can tell. She seems to have done her research. She nails the Vader characterization. To most, he's not Sith, people don't know quite what he is, just that he scares the mess out of them. At one point, one of our main characters describes him as being the monster described in childhood stories.

 

I like what she's doing and where she's taking the story. Hopefully she'll keep this up.