#thane kyrell

The biggest detail that I found odd but I grew to appreciate deeply was the characters never getting over Alderaan and the Death Star's respective explosions. The EU and New Canon have both wanked Star Wars powerscaling so much we forget blowing up a planet is a big deal and this book makes the characters feel that. Having an imperial from alderaan who witnesses the event and instead of defecting doubles down on his loyalty is really interesting.

I also like the change in characteristics from the rebel and imperial main characters, SW usually portrays the empire as rows of rich white people (and a blue man or two) and the rebellion as a very diverse group of humans and aliens so making it so the loyal till the end imperial is a black woman who sees it as a way out of space detroit and the rebel who defects after the events of a New Hope a rich white guy who sees the empire more cynically is an interesting take, although this may be up to personal interpretation.

I did mention that the legacy characters are handled very gracefully, much better than those Disney+ shows could manage, but there was a chapter that did feel too fanservicy, where the imperial main character, Ciena, is the one sent to tow Darth Vader's ship after the death star blows up, it seemed too forced of a meeting between the two, seeing as Ciena ends up in Darth Vader's Star Destroyer anyways for the events of episode V and VI, besides that I didnt feel any problem with the og characters.

The alderaanian imperial, Nash, left a lot to be desired, the book employs a lot of timeskips so it can extend over all the inportant years it needs to, but Nash's character arc doesnt adapt to these, seeing him go from a cheery imperial pre episode IV to an angry loyal commander during and after episode VI isnt handled *horribly* but you dont see the progression since they dont take enough time on him to make you feel the change, I do like that he isnt made comically evil and he does love his friends even at his worst, that is appreciated humanization.

Finally, the post Return of the Jedi events are a bit rushed, you can tell Claudia Gray wasnt allowed to spill too much details on the events since this was released before The Force Awakens, but the insider look on post Endor empire is pretty good, I dont necessarilly agree with the empire surrendering one year after Endor in the new canon, but the book makes it clear that the Emperor quite literally was holding the empire together by himself via duct tape and lightning and how him and Vader dying sent everything downhill, the Battle of Jakku is a great example of it, showing the Empire just getting completely pummeled.

Any character I didnt mention by name I dont have much to say about other that they were either very good if they first appeared on the first half (The other protagonist Thane and other imperials like Jude or Kendy), or a bit forgettable if they first appearned on the second half