Rae Carson (The Girl of Fire and Thorns) has written her 4th Star Wars novel, this time an adaptation of the final Skywalker Saga movie. Right from the beginning, Carson brings us into the heads of Jedi-in-training Rey, her master Leia Organa and their Resistance allies as they prepare to face Kylo Ren, Emperor Palpatine and the totalitarian First Order. The book especially focuses on Leia’s arc in more detail than the film could, due to actress Carrie Fisher’s 2016 passing. If you wish the movie had taken more time to let its events resonate, this could be the book for you. Deleted scenes are also adapted.
There’s an excerpt here, from the first chapter of the book, on the Randomhouse Books web site.
Chapter 1
Rey sat cross-legged, eyes closed. She didn’t remember rising off the ground, but she was vaguely aware that somehow she’d ended up floating. Pebbles and small boulders hovered around her, like a field of asteroids orbiting their sun.
There’s also an audiobook version read by Marc Thompson, a prolific voice actor. You can see an amazing interactive timeline of recent Star Wars books at Random House, just keep scrolling left on their site.
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David Raiklen wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. He began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He attended, then taught at UCLA, USC and CalArts. Among his teachers are John Williams and Mel Powel.
He has worked for Fox, Disney and Sprint. David has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2004 American Music Center Award. Dr. Raiklen has composed music and sound design for theater (Death and the Maiden), dance (Russian Ballet), television (Sing Me a Story), cell phone (Spacey Movie), museums (Museum of Tolerance), concert (Violin Sonata ), and film (Appalachian Trail).
His compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the first Disney Hall. David Raiken is also host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club.
