Monday, January 3, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Star Wars Visions: Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon

 



Released this fall, Star Wars Visions was a revelation - a series of nine short (10-20 minutes) pieces of animations from prominent Japanese Anime studios set in the Star Wars Universe (although non-canon).  I reviewed the nine shorts here - but honestly, would recommend you ignore my reviews until you get to experience them yourself - they are tremendous in both animation and how they explore the Star Wars universe from a different point of view - an Eastern POV, which was all the more fitting how much George Lucas tried to mimic the style of Akira Kurosawa in creating Star Wars in the first place.  

The first of those shorts was The Duel, a glorious bit of animation featuring a mysterious lightsaber wielding character named the Ronin facing off with a Sith Bandit in a samurai/ronin alternate Star Wars universe.  It was only about 14 minutes long, but it was perfect on its own, and really didn't demand more, and was basically universally acclaimed.  Naturally as Disney correctly figured fans would want to see more of the Ronin, it was this short that was quickly announced as being expanded into a full length novel, by Japanese-American author Emma Mieko Candon.  

And so I came into Star Wars Visions: Ronin with trepidation as we really didn't need more from The Duel - it was perfect as is.  But to my surprise, after the first two chapters retell the Duel, this book becomes a fascinating story about the souls and justifications of Jedi/Samurai and Sith/Ronin in a very Japanese/Samurai inspired galaxy that really does justify its own existence.  I'll explain a bit more after the jump:  

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Two decades ago, the Sith rebelled against the Jedi clans of the galaxy, who were sworn to their various squabbling lords.  The Sith were led by two figures - their Dark Lord and the Witch, a woman who could resurrect even the dead into fighting demons, and took the Imperial Capital world of Rei'izu in their fight.....before the Dark Lord turned on his own people, resulting in the Sith falling apart and the planet Rei'izu disappearing.  

Now, a nameless Ronin, a Sith warrior, travels the galaxy, haunted by a woman's voice in his head, hunting down other Sith with his own red lightsaber.  But when he meets a strange traveler skilled in the force, and finds a slain Sith bandit resurrected to hunt him, the Ronin realizes that merely hunting down his former allies will not be enough.  

No, to make up for his sins, he will need to find a way to return to Rei'izu, to slay the Witch once and for all.....
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The first 40 pages of this book are basically a transcription of The Duel, with the only real addition being the fact that it's told from the head of the Ronin himself, where we hear him speaking to the mysterious female voice in his head during the confrontation.  It feels kind of superfluous and makes the book seem like it serves little purpose....only for the book to blossom after that, as the book expands to feature the points of view of various other characters - particularly Kouru the resurrected Sith Bandit who the Witch demands kill the Ronin and Ekiya the non-force sensitive woman who was a girl on Rei'izu when the Sith came and has spent the past decades gathering relics of the dead of Rei'izu to find some way to return home.  

The result is a fascinating book combining Japanese Samurai stories and the era (I forget the name, sorry) with that of Star Wars.  So the Jedi are force sensitive people (Samurai) sworn to feudal-esque lords (who have combined to form an Empire that is slowly crumbling apart in a succession crisis) while the Sith are force wielders who act only for themselves (like the Ronin).  And so of course the Sith aren't simply evil, nor are the Jedi good, and there are people with grudges towards both.  

And so you have the Ronin, who certainly does not like the Jedi and what their lords make them do to people, but also feels an obligation to take out the other individual Sith who were set loose on the galaxy; you have the Traveler, whose story I won't spoil, but is clearly that of a force user running from their past and the Jedi most of all; you have Chie, an Auntie of a woman who is not afraid to mess with either the Jedi or the Sith; you have Kouru, a young girl when trained during the Sith Rebellion who wants nothing more now than to be free - only to be leashed by the power of the Witch; and you have Ekiya, who hates the Sith for what they did to her world, a world she barely remembers, but knows the Jedi have done nothing to help since. 

And you have a story of people trying to escape and better the mistakes of the past, mistakes that they can't even fully recall quite clearly, and of homes lost both physically and spiritually.  Yeah there's a lot of fun moments of lightsaber fighting and other combat, but other than 2-3 scenes, what this really turns out to be is a story of the conflict over one's soul and being.  Of what it means to find a home, of what it means to do something for ones' self instead of for others; of the costs of war for freedom and whether it ever ends; of love and the costs of betraying that love on one's soul.  It's some really interesting stuff, in the style of again Samurai-esque tales....but also in the style still of Star Wars.  

This is a book that absolutely could have been completely self-indulgent, a Star Wars Visions version of Solo, for instance.  Instead it is something truly interesting and special, and I highly recommend it.  

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