Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel

What's a Star Wars universe story without action, romance, heroism & the occasional laugh? Catalyst is the answer! Oh man, what a pointless waste of time. I couldn't even read the whole thing. Such a pedantic & ploddingly boring tale of nothing. It literally goes nowhere for at the least the first 12 chapters [which is where I finally, grudgingly admitted what a failure, not to mention waste of money, this book is!]. I really wanted to like the book, as I love just about any novel in the SW universe. But seriously, it's just an exercise in prolonging the inevitable. [Presumably so as to fill the space between the covers...] I've only truly thrown one book across the room in utter annoyance. Catalyst was that book!

Loved this novel! James Luceno does a phenomenal job of crafting personal, powerful, yet wide-sweeping stories and its just fantastic! I love how they incorporated a lot of other fun easter eggs from other new cannon stuff, and set up deep relationships for characters that are in the movie! I'd highly recommend this novel to any Star Wars fan!

By far one of the best Star Wars books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Its a great story that not only sets up Rogue One, but also provides a wonderful narrative of how the idea of the Death Star came about and how it was built. There is not a whole lot in the book regarding the Force or Jedi, but if you are interested in a more technical point of view then this is the book for you. Tons of great references and easter eggs are littered throughout the novel as well. Certainly a must read for any Star Wars fan.

I will recommend this book to any Star Wars fan who will be watching the Rogue One movie this weekend. It gives information about the Erso's and how essential is Galen Erso in the completion of the Death Star's Super laser and how he met Orson Krenic. It also reveals how Saw Guerra meets the Erso's and his importance in the upcoming film. The book captures your attention in every chapter.

Excellent prelude to Rogue One. This book provides the history of the relationship between Dr. Galen Erso and Orson Krennic (and the Erso family), as well as the clash of personalities between Krennic and Tarkin, as they both wrestle for the ear of the Emperor and control of the "battlestation project". The book describes Galen's kyber crystal research (for peaceful energy-producing purposes, per Krennic) and how that information is being used for development and early tests of a superlaser. The reader is also introduced to two new characters: Hans Obitt and Saw Garerra (the latter of whom we know to be in Rogue One). Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, and it's written by whom I consider to be the best writer of Star Wars novels.

It is a pretty good book so far. You know the guy picked the title to get more people to buy this book. This is not the book about the movie coming out this year. It is for just before the movie, so maybe you will understand things better going to the movie.

Catalyst, a prequel novel to the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One film, is a tightly-focused character piece revolving around the dreaded Empire's initial steps in constructing the moon-sized weapons platform, the Death Star (Note: that's no moon!).

James Luceno focuses his narrative on the Erso family and the Empire's engineer Orson Krennic. After Galen Erso and his wife, Lyra (pregnant with their baby girl, Jyn, who will be the all-grown-up lead heroine in Rogue One), are jailed, Krennic begins a long-game of strategy and manipulation to bring Galen, an energy systems researcher and pacifist, into the Empire's employ.

While the Erso's are a sympathetic bunch, this is really Krennic's book, in my opinion, and he's the most interesting and dynamic figure in the novel. Luceno draws on various characters from the Clone Wars animated series and prequel trilogy, with this book overlapping Episodes II and III, some of whom I had to Google to figure out why they were important. Not having seeing any of Clones Wars and having blanked out most of the prequel stuff, I had to do a little bit of research while reading to sate my curiosity, but it's hardly mandatory. But, again, Krennic is really star of the show, here.

Krennic is a classic Empire villain through-and-through. He's a bold chessman, duping and moving those unfortunate enough to orbit him into executing his larger plans, oftentimes unknowingly, and I really appreciated the level of subterfuge and guile this dude's capable of. He's cold, cunning, and calculating, and demonstrates exactly why the Empire is a supreme power to be feared and fought. Using the on-going battles against Separatist forces, Krennic all but gaslights Galen into working for the side of evil, and Catalyst demonstrates how easy it could be for otherwise good men to be swayed into the employ of fascism through domineering propaganda and the normalization of hate and corruption.

Star Wars has always been political, but to read this book so soon after the Electoral College appointed Donald Trump - a man who campaigned on a platform of racism and fear, and who lost the popular vote by at least 2 million ballots at the time of this writing - President of the United States hit a few still-raw nerves for me, but Catalyst is certainly a timely read given all that. Set firmly within the burgeoning fascistic Empire, the manipulation of good by evil, and the various degrees of in-fighting within the Empire, make for nicely dark subject matter, but Luceno keeps things light enough to prevent his story from being overwhelmingly dark. There's room for hope, particularly as Lyra scrappily fights to save her marriage and family. As Jyn states in the Rogue One trailer, rebellions are built on hope, and, frankly, I'm with her.

It's a decent backstory for Rogue One, and that's it. Too many happy coincidences, a very slow moving plot that is very predictable. While the characters are well developed over the course of the book it didn't feel like a star wars book to me. It could have taken place in any universe, or even on earth, just replace planets with countries. I kept reading hoping it would get good at some point, but the whole book read like filler. Maybe in the last 30 pages it actually gets interesting.

Great introduction to the events that detonate in RougeOne... Detailing the rivalry between Tarkin and Krennic, the complicity between Gerrera and the Ersons... the political situation of the galaxy and the ambition and stubbornness of the Empire to get their battle station and the SuperWeapon. Lucent great as always.

I loved the background story- this novel had so many great details. It did have great action, but even more importantly it dove into the minds of the main characters and really gives you an idea of how the Empire was viewed during the transition between "order 66" and right before Rogue One. It gives wonderfully detailed descriptions about the thoughts of people on both side of the conflict. Great read!

I didn't care for this book. There really wasn't much depth to the story. It offers some insight as to how the Empire acquired resources to build the Death Star. It also sets the stage for Jyn Erso in Rogue One. Outside of that, it was somewhat boring.

I forced myself to finish this book before going to see Rogue One because I wanted to know what happened, but it was not very enjoyable. The plot was disjointed, the characters were one-dimensional, and the transitions were abrupt. The language alternated between out-of-place modern English expressions and unnecessarily elaborate wording. I do not recommend this book.

Excellent prelude to Rogue One. This book provides the history of the relationship between Dr. Galen Erso and Orson Krennic (and the Erso family), as well as the clash of personalities between Krennic and Tarkin, as they both wrestle for the ear of the Emperor and control of the "battlestation project". The book describes Galen's kyber crystal research (for peaceful energy-producing purposes, per Krennic) and how that information is being used for development and early tests of a superlaser. The reader is also introduced to two new characters: Hans Obitt and Saw Garerra (the latter of whom we know to be in Rogue One). Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot, and it's written by whom I consider to be the best writer of Star Wars novels.

It is a pretty good book so far. You know the guy picked the title to get more people to buy this book. This is not the book about the movie coming out this year. It is for just before the movie, so maybe you will understand things better going to the movie.

Catalyst, a prequel novel to the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One film, is a tightly-focused character piece revolving around the dreaded Empire's initial steps in constructing the moon-sized weapons platform, the Death Star (Note: that's no moon!).

James Luceno focuses his narrative on the Erso family and the Empire's engineer Orson Krennic. After Galen Erso and his wife, Lyra (pregnant with their baby girl, Jyn, who will be the all-grown-up lead heroine in Rogue One), are jailed, Krennic begins a long-game of strategy and manipulation to bring Galen, an energy systems researcher and pacifist, into the Empire's employ.

While the Erso's are a sympathetic bunch, this is really Krennic's book, in my opinion, and he's the most interesting and dynamic figure in the novel. Luceno draws on various characters from the Clone Wars animated series and prequel trilogy, with this book overlapping Episodes II and III, some of whom I had to Google to figure out why they were important. Not having seeing any of Clones Wars and having blanked out most of the prequel stuff, I had to do a little bit of research while reading to sate my curiosity, but it's hardly mandatory. But, again, Krennic is really star of the show, here.

Krennic is a classic Empire villain through-and-through. He's a bold chessman, duping and moving those unfortunate enough to orbit him into executing his larger plans, oftentimes unknowingly, and I really appreciated the level of subterfuge and guile this dude's capable of. He's cold, cunning, and calculating, and demonstrates exactly why the Empire is a supreme power to be feared and fought. Using the on-going battles against Separatist forces, Krennic all but gaslights Galen into working for the side of evil, and Catalyst demonstrates how easy it could be for otherwise good men to be swayed into the employ of fascism through domineering propaganda and the normalization of hate and corruption.

Star Wars has always been political, but to read this book so soon after the Electoral College appointed Donald Trump - a man who campaigned on a platform of racism and fear, and who lost the popular vote by at least 2 million ballots at the time of this writing - President of the United States hit a few still-raw nerves for me, but Catalyst is certainly a timely read given all that. Set firmly within the burgeoning fascistic Empire, the manipulation of good by evil, and the various degrees of in-fighting within the Empire, make for nicely dark subject matter, but Luceno keeps things light enough to prevent his story from being overwhelmingly dark. There's room for hope, particularly as Lyra scrappily fights to save her marriage and family. As Jyn states in the Rogue One trailer, rebellions are built on hope, and, frankly, I'm with her.

It's a decent backstory for Rogue One, and that's it. Too many happy coincidences, a very slow moving plot that is very predictable. While the characters are well developed over the course of the book it didn't feel like a star wars book to me. It could have taken place in any universe, or even on earth, just replace planets with countries. I kept reading hoping it would get good at some point, but the whole book read like filler. Maybe in the last 30 pages it actually gets interesting.

Great introduction to the events that detonate in RougeOne... Detailing the rivalry between Tarkin and Krennic, the complicity between Gerrera and the Ersons... the political situation of the galaxy and the ambition and stubbornness of the Empire to get their battle station and the SuperWeapon. Lucent great as always.

I loved the background story- this novel had so many great details. It did have great action, but even more importantly it dove into the minds of the main characters and really gives you an idea of how the Empire was viewed during the transition between "order 66" and right before Rogue One. It gives wonderfully detailed descriptions about the thoughts of people on both side of the conflict. Great read!

I didn't care for this book. There really wasn't much depth to the story. It offers some insight as to how the Empire acquired resources to build the Death Star. It also sets the stage for Jyn Erso in Rogue One. Outside of that, it was somewhat boring.

I forced myself to finish this book before going to see Rogue One because I wanted to know what happened, but it was not very enjoyable. The plot was disjointed, the characters were one-dimensional, and the transitions were abrupt. The language alternated between out-of-place modern English expressions and unnecessarily elaborate wording. I do not recommend this book.

I gave this book 4 stars. Not a lot of action, but I did enjoy learning the back stories of some of the new characters coming in Rouge One. I believe it will make the movie more enjoyable. The book is well written and had good pacing.

I struggle with changes to the canon long time fans know. The Rogue storyline for the most part doesn't corrupt that history.

Episode 8 was an abomination as to the original storyline sactioned by Lucas beginning in the late 70's. That said the alternative timeline is well done and seems more plausible then the original one where Leia was head of the galactic government, Han a decorated general and Luke heading up a vast Jedi order. In that timeline the Solo's had three children...

I am looking forward to the movie Rogue One and read this book to help pass the time. This book introduced characters that will be in the movie, so maybe it will help to more easily be familiar with the characters and keep them straight in the film.

I was left with the impression the author didn't have enough material for a full book. I had trouble getting into Tarkin so maybe it's something about his writing style that I don't connect with. I enjoyed the two novels by Claudia Grey more. This just felt like filler which left me disappointed.

The book explores the origins of the Erso family that we will soon see on the big screen. Orson Krennic makes his debut as an imposing figure that will surely make his motion picture counterpart that much more of a villain. If you need or want any more depth for the upcoming film, this is it.

I've never read any Star Wars fiction, so this was a real treat. I'm still in the middle of the book, but after I finish, I'll read more of James Luceno's work. He really captures the World created in '77.

Luceno has done it again. Tarkin was great, and Catalyst left me even more excited for Rogue One than I was before. He did a phenomenal job with character development and setting the stage for what I perceive to be my new favorite Star Wars movie. Luceno can be very detail oriented, sometimes to a fault, but unlike Aftermath, where you had five hundred prominent characters to "care about," Luceno keeps the focus on the Ersos, Krennic, Tarkin, and a new character, Has Obbit. It's easier to manage, and I found myself emotionally invested in who they were and what was happening. Oh, and expect some good cameos, as well.

This book covered a great detail about the events concerning the Erso's and led you down a path of great storytelling as you uncovered the truth about the events leafing up to Rouge One. I am now more excited than ever to see where the movie takes us.

L'auteur a un style toujours aussi excellent: ça fourmille de détails sur l'Univers de Star Wars (Les liens avec le livre "Tarkin sont très sympa). Par contre l'histoire met beaucoup de temps à se mettre en place, ou plutôt elle est peut-être un peu trop étirée... la fin du bouquin est bien mieux rythmée.

Après pour ce qui est de Rogue One, pas sur que ce soit indispensable, il faudra attendre de voir le film pour savoir si c'est un vrai complément ou un simple amuse-bouche. Pas de grande révélation mais quelques éléments de décors sont plantés. L'éclairage sur les cristaux Kybers et leur lien avec les Jedis est très intéressant.

En bref: un bon livre d'un excellent auteur, mais pas forcément indispensable.

While I'm a fan of Luceno's works, this is the weakest. It has a strong Disney signature all over it. The nuanced foes of older books is wiped away for one dimensional and the protagonists are a hippy married to what could be considered an autistic scientist. $15 for a book that seemed a waste of time and money. Read the Rise of Darth Vader instead.

L'auteur a un style toujours aussi excellent: ça fourmille de détails sur l'Univers de Star Wars (Les liens avec le livre "Tarkin sont très sympa). Par contre l'histoire met beaucoup de temps à se mettre en place, ou plutôt elle est peut-être un peu trop étirée... la fin du bouquin est bien mieux rythmée.

Après pour ce qui est de Rogue One, pas sur que ce soit indispensable, il faudra attendre de voir le film pour savoir si c'est un vrai complément ou un simple amuse-bouche. Pas de grande révélation mais quelques éléments de décors sont plantés. L'éclairage sur les cristaux Kybers et leur lien avec les Jedis est très intéressant.

En bref: un bon livre d'un excellent auteur, mais pas forcément indispensable.

While I'm a fan of Luceno's works, this is the weakest. It has a strong Disney signature all over it. The nuanced foes of older books is wiped away for one dimensional and the protagonists are a hippy married to what could be considered an autistic scientist. $15 for a book that seemed a waste of time and money. Read the Rise of Darth Vader instead.

Boring.

This is really slow.

You are given one dimensional scientist characters. Cut-out genius without any palpable substance. Conflict without cause or care.

I had difficulty trying to care about anyone until I finally realized that there wasn't much to care about in the first place.

The first new canon adult novel that deals with the main characters of a film and has real concrete details that entertain as well as inform. This backstory is invaluable in knowing the relationships between the Erso family and Krennic over 20 years leading to the start of the new film.

Lucasfilm is so guarded about its Canon at this point that they miss a real chance to bring some New Magic into the story in the form of Science. While people bitch about 'midichlorians' at least Lucas had the balls to come out and just name them, then Luceno had the power to write Darth Plagueis which explained them, and made midichlorians beloved in the minds of readers. Here we have **spoiler** kyber crystals, Luceno in previous books has been very detailed about the force, but here we are left with a ton of questions, and not many answers. Is there synthetic Kyber? Was Galen working on sythetic Kyber in the beginning? What did Galen actually do to get power out of them? What role do they play in the force? How are they partially alive? This was the book to explain these things, not some later movie or book. If you are going to write a science book which stars kyber crystals in the Star Wars Universe, then we should get sufficient science about kyber crystals out of it. Plagueis was very good at expanding the role of the force, and especially midichlorians. Overall it is a good setup for the movie, I just hope we get more details about the crystals in the movie, they left much to be desired in this book.

Worst of the Star Wars novels. No climatic ending. Just a plodding story that may have some set up for the Rogue One movie, who knows. My biggest disappointment was there was very little real background on the Death Star, when this book would have been so perfect for that.

Catalyst gives you a couple of nice bells & whistles before you start: a cutaway view of the Death Star graces its prefacing pages along with a timeline of the Del Rey books, which will include the upcoming Thrawn novel- whom I’m curious to see how he’ll fit into the canon going forward.

Like a movie or a play, Catalyst is divided into three acts- each one focusing upon a particular aspect of the storyline. You start with the time during and immediately after the war with the Separatists led by Dooku, Act 2 is about establishing the Imperial presence and Act 3 brings us the realization of life under Palpatine's rule- and how these events relate to the construction of a technological terror.

Pacing is a little uneven as it waxes and wanes between all the time spent on Galen’s idiosyncracies and quirks, Has Obitt's conversion from rogue to rebel, Orson’s manipulations of his former comrades, Lyra’s suspicions and constant musings upon the Force… you get the picture. It’s all pieces of the puzzle and bears out on the story, but did slow things down.

Speaking to those characterizations, Luceno did a very good job of them. The conflict is more about character than hyperdrives. At the heart of it all are the people behind the events- who they are and why they’re driven to what they do. From the Vallt rebels who’re just trying to hold onto their planet to the smugglers kicking back at the Wanton Wellspring bar- it’s all about those just trying to survive in the galaxy. Save for a few examples, Galen and company all came across as living, vibrant people. Galen, your typical genius-level scientist who only wants to be left to his research, is critical to the plan but getting- and keeping- him involved is the trick. Orson’s Machiavellian machinations while clever, were just as often very clumsy and his own motives were never really delved into- mostly he was just there to move the plot along. And his Vader-esque moment at the end of the book was unnecessary.

Lyra’s character was confusing. She’s… sorta implied to be an untrained Force-sensitive, yet she never really does anything other than lecture everyone about the Force and lament the fall of the Jedi Order. Palpatine is always referred to and Vader makes a cameo, but I suppose he’s being saved for the next books. Tarkin appears during the second half when construction begins and brings his usual suaveness when dealing with insurgents.

We’re all familiar with the setting, but the story is both old and new- the origins of the Death Star: its conceptualization, planning, engineering, construction, etc. There’s some overlap with, reference to and expansion on events from the Prequel Trilogy- Geonosis, the fate of Poggle the Lesser, the fall of the Jedi & the sudden appearance of Vader, how the Death Star plans were drafted and who acquired them. What I really enjoyed was the exploration of the science behind kyber crystals- their nature, how Jedi might interact with them and the possibility of their possessing a latent sentience. Luceno admits to doing a lot of research on lasers, crystals and synthetic diamonds and it showed.

Luceno, as always, delivers a tightly woven tale from a galaxy far, far away. It gets a little bogged down at times, but more than does the job of helping stage the events of Rogue One.

I had a hard time making it through the book. Not very interesting characters, boring plot. Probably the worst new Canon book I have read, and I have read most of them. I don't usually write reviews but I was disappointed to have spent the money on this book.

I have read over 500 books in my life, and I've read many of the Expanded Universe Novels, and I've recently read most of the new Star Wars canon novels (Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, Tarkin, Dark Disciple). This was one of the worst novels I've ever read, and definitely the worst Star Wars novel I've read. I expect Rogue One to be much better than this book, and this book seems less like a Rogue One tie in, and more like just a total fluff piece for fans that are desperate for more Star Wars content.

Let me try to provide a non-spoiler metaphorical example to elaborate how useless I found this novel: Imagine a "Lord of the Rings" tie-in book, that features no pre-existing characters, and is about some mid-level evil lackey of Sauron conning some mid-level down-on-his-luck wizard into giving him the special gold that Sauron ultimate uses to eventually make his One Ring. Then to make it worse, don't even bother making the story really that interesting or relevant. Finally, to put the rotten cherry on top, after you have finished the bad novel, add 100 more pages of fluff to just get the word count up.

That pretty much sums up my feelings for this novel. I can't think of a single good thing to say about it, other than I finally finished it and can look forward to Thrawn by Timothy Zahn.

First I need to submit my biggest complaint about the entire book. One of the recurring characters is named Has Obitt. That's not possessive that's his first name. Reading through anything referring to Has as a proper noun is EXTREMELY difficult. That alone is a writing foul I feel merits the rating I've given the book.

However, I won't stop there. Nothing happens. In 330 pages nothing happens. You learn about Galen Erso, Lyra Erso, Orson Krennic, and a bit about Tarkin, but that's all that happens. You learn about characters. This could have been handled in about 5 pages. Just a bio for each of the characters.

I'm sorry but this one is going to compete with the Crystal Star for worst EU books. It's not an insult to the author. (The "Has" bit was) I'm sure the content was limited to make sure it doesn't become required reading for the movie or that it doesn't overshadow the movie, but wow. NOTHING HAPPENS.

So far I have been enjoying this book. However, as I flipped back to the time line in the front of the book this story takes place AFTER Revenge of the Sith but the story talks to the separatists and Dooku both of which were settled in episode 3...I'm now confused as to where in the time line this story fits because it reads like it should be before episode 3.
Anyone know about this?

***update 21 Nov 16****
Now that I am a little over 1/2 way through the book the time line is coming together, at first it's very confusing in terms of the time frame the story takes place.
The story is OK, I'm just so used to the old Star Wars books/stories that these "new" stories seem slow compared to the legends books. As a Star Wars fan I'm just thankful to still be reading stories of that galaxy far far away!!

Gives very little back story, and just a bit of character backstory....could have been a 10 page short story.

*Story plot below (Spoilers)*

Galen Urso is scientist would is studying about kyber crystals and wants to synthesize them, but not for weapons. Empire wants him to make a weapon for them, he doesn't want to. Then really want him to, he really doesn't want to.......the end. Such a boring book, I powered through it cause I was excited for the movie and wanted to know everything I could about the characters. So disappointed, I'll stick to Timothy Zahn written StarWars books.

Catalyst is an ok book. It is among the better of the new canon, it's better then Lost Stars (the two main characters were too much copy and paste for my taste) but not as good as Dark Lords of the Sith (the book had a better story period). Here I list some highlights and where they fall on the spectrum of good or bad.

The Goods:
1. The construction of the Death Star. While it's more of a backdrop, I really liked how they went about explaining it's construction.
2. Saul Greera. It's nice seeing the TCW character brought in.
3. Canonization of the Battle of Hypori. If you've seen the original "Clone Wars" series, Grievous is introduced during a battle on Hypori where he utterly annihilates the Jedi. While not every detail is canonized, the whole "Jedi and their forces ambushed" is made canon.
4. References to TCW in general. It's nice to see even the Unfinished Legacy TCW episodes getting mentioned in the book.
5. Deeper understanding of the kaiber crystals.

The Meh:
1. The rivalry between Krenic and Tarkin. It was basically what we've in almost every Legends and Canon book and even in the movies.
2. Lera and Galen Orso. Ironically, these characters I didn't find all that appealing. Sure, they were the central characters and they are the focus of the book. But they weren't ever anything that made me really cheer for them.
3. The opening part of book. I didn't care for the enter Vale segment of the book.
4. Absolutely no one could understand kaiber research besides Galen? Honestly this seems a real big stretch because in an Empire full of scientists and brilliant minds, none of them could figure out anything without Galen? Ok.....
5. Geonosians......

The Bad:
1. Modern parenting......never actual parent and reward your child if they throw a temper tantrum. The whole parenting portions made me cringe as they would allow their daughter to go around without a bedtime, rewarding her for throwing a tantrum by taking her to the park to play, letting her basically do whatever she wants. I really hope Jyn herself is an awesome character in the movie, because she is raised as a spoiled child.
2. Poggle the Lesser. Honestly, I don't know what they were wanting to do with him. His whole turn to helping the Republic seemed forced and inorganic.
3. Months fighting for a single planet? I have never cared for the new Canon's insistence that battles in the SW galaxy take months to resolve. Especially when the onscreen evidence in both TCW and the movies simply don't support it.
4. Endless resources for the Separatists and resistance against the Republic/Empire. They talk about months worth of endless droids battling endless lines of clones. Sorry, but that's simply not the case.
5. In summary, the battles were pretty bad and not believable within the SW setting.

James Luceno is back in true form for the newest release, and his second contribution, of the new SW story group. I read his previous book, Tarkin, and though I continue to be intrigued by the famed Grand Moff I thought the book was just ok, for various reasons. Catalyst tells the story of the logistics of constructing the Death Star, and specifically how its planet-destroying weapon was devised. It's also of course a prequel to the upcoming movie Rogue One, but while I'm sure it will enhance the experience it isn't required reading to enjoy and understand the film.

What I like most about the book, and what Luceno excels in, is the environmental details and depth of characters. Every single locale in the book jumps right off the page; it almost feels like you're there. Regarding the characters, the main five were all pretty well fleshed out, but I'm not so sure Galen Erso, the father of the main character in R1, is actually the protagonist in this book, because I feel his wife, Lyra, has the more heroic qualities of the two. Orson Krennic; however, is definitely the standout in this story IMHO. He's got the brains of Galen and the guile of Tarkin, who was even better here than his own book in my mind. Lastly, though I think whomever approved the name should've made a slight edit, Has Obitt was also endearing and empathetic.

The areas I felt could've been given a little more attention vary from nitpicky to moderately significant. For the sake of brevity, I'll gloss over the minor points and get to my main issue with the book: There's steady pacing over the entire story, which generally isn't a bad thing, but in this case there really wasn't much pick up in terms of excitement to speak of. While it seemed Luceno was under considerably less constraints writing Catalyst than he was with Tarkin, I'm guessing a lot of the payoff with this book was left to be told in the movie, because the buildup and climax is largely nonexistent. Not to say the novel wasn't worth it, and character development for the movie was the whole point of this book, but a little more suspense and unpredictability would've gone a long way.

James Luceno is easily my favorite Star Wars author, and I'd put Catalyst somewhere in the middle of his other books. It has the excellent characterizations found in Plagueis, combined with the machinations highlighted in Cloak of Deception, but I wouldn't say it exceeded those other two in story or breadth of continuity. One of Luceno's strengths writing SW is the masterful way he connects the current story with the larger universe. Now that that universe is considerably less large, we get to see the barest of plots on full display; which is good or not so much depending on your subjectivity. Having said all that, I would recommend Catalyst to any SW fan, particularly those who are excited for Rogue One and want to be more informed on the new and (hopefully) exciting characters, like myself.

Star Wars Catalyst, a Rogue One novel is the 12th novel released in canon. It was written by New York Times Best Selling Author, James Luceno. Luceno is no stranger to the Star Wars universe. He’s written several books in the Legends canon and recently wrote Tarkin as part of the new canon.

Summary: The tale takes place between the events of episode 2 through 4. The battle between the separatists and the republic, the Clone Wars, tears the galaxy asunder. A brilliant scientist, Galen Erso and his family are held captive. He wants his work to be used for the good of the galaxy… not for the military.

Characters: This is a great introduction to some of the characters we are to see in Rogue One. Every character fits in to the universe. Some characters we already know, Luceno actually spiked my interest with some of the old characters we’ve met before. I always like to mention at least two of my favorite characters from the book. One of them was introduced to us through marketing for Rogue One.

Orson Krennic: He’s an imperial officer who’s somewhat obsessed with rank and title. He’s overseeing the construction of the a massive space-station/super-weapon. The man is sly, a trickster and a smooth talker. An excellent villain, the best I’ve read yet.

Galen Erso was fantastic, but I’d rather talk about Has Obitt. Has is a smuggler. Has is a smuggler who’s been mixed up with the separatists, republic, and then the empire. He’s a humanoid with some morals. He gets caught up in the lies and web of some imperials before making a drastic decision.

Overall Review: I absolutely loved this novel. James Luceno knocks it out of the park with characters, dialogue, plot and even the subplot. The pacing of the story was fast and entertaining. Not a single moment did I think, “pick up already!” In my opinion, some events/characters from the prequels were polished, having them make more since and fit into the overall saga a lot better. There is plenty exploration into the Jedi. Creating new lore and myth for them, the Force, and for the power source of light sabers… kyber crystals. We get s look into the empire like we haven’t seen before. Luceno paints the devastation taking place on so may worlds in great detail. Thank you Luceno, for this awesome book

The book is OK. The book is sturdy. The plot makes sense, and the editing is top notched.

That said, I'm pretty neutral about this book.

It might not be suitable for the youngest readers as there is a lot of death for the key, point of view characters. (This is a fairly substantial departure for the Star Wars books; some parents will not be expecting the late night tears from the 8-12 year old reading the book.

I'm a Disney fan, and I was hopeful that the series restart of the beloved Star Wars story was going to be a Disney classic.

Disney has had many original characters and plots, but its mainstay as a company from the start was revitalizing classic tales and adapting those beloved stories for a new generation.

This story fits between episodes III and IV, or it came just before the "Original Star Wars movie" for those older Star Wars fan. In particular, it explains how the Rebel Alliance came to possess the plans to the Death Star.

Let explain (with spoilers) below.

--= Beware Spoilers Follow =--

The book crams in as many references and cameos by beloved Star Wars characters as I could imagine possible without it actually being a story about any of them.

Then, in the gravest of sins to the Star Wars faithful, there was a complete break with canon. Many fans were outraged and apprehensive when Disney announced that "if it did not happen in the films then it is no longer canon." There were whole book, game, and audio series based on the Star Wars story lines that emerged between the movies. Some of them were quite good (honestly, the quality did vary significantly), and fans loved them.

Most fans were willing to push the "I believe button" and wait for the first movie under Disney direction. That movie came, and the majority of folks were OK with the new film.

One of the most famous lines in a Star Wars film is "many Bothans died" to get the plans to the Death Star. That was in a movie. Therefore, it should have been canon.

Apparently not as -NO- Bothans died to bring the information. That breaks faith with the long-time Star Wars fans.

Additionally, every character that you care about in the book dies by the end. No, that is literally true. There will not be a Rogue 1.5 or 2 or any.

One of the questions that some asked over the years is "how did this Death Star have such a significant flaw in its design." The answer in this book is that the key designer didn't like the Empire and added the flaw and then let the rebels know about it.

Again, this breaks with canon from the movies as they made a big point of having pored over the Bothan captured plans to find this one weakness.

Also, the new explanation makes less sense than it just being an oversight. If this flaw was baked in from the start then it was more likely to be found. If it was just a mistake in a very complex, hurried project then it seems implausible, but less so.

All in all, this is a dark book with much point of view character death and a big "stick in the eye" to the long-time Star Wars faithful.

So first let me start out by saying that I am a big Star Wars fan and have ready many Star Wars books over the years and enjoyed most of them. However, there just isn't enough of a story in Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel to give it a good rating.

This book is solely about Galen Erso and how he was recruited to develop the super weapon for the Death Star. Stop reading now if you don't want to read any spoilers but there isn't much to spoil in this book. One thing I can say is at least this book helps you understand who Galen is when you see him being captured by Orson Krennic during the beginning of the Rogue One movie.

So Galen is a universe-class scientist that specializes in kyber crystals. He is being recruited by both sides but is not interested in developing weapons. Yet he can't pass up an opportunity to work for Orson Krennic. Galen truly believes his research will lead to cheap power and only finds out at the end of the book that his research is being weaponized. He then flees with his family which leads to his being found at the beginning of Rogue One.

Sadly that is all there is to the book. I like scientists and have a technical job myself but I don't think many people would want to read 352 pages about how I was recruited to my job and what I do each day. I give this book two out of five stars as there is some background to help you understand the movie but there are several far better Star Wars books to enjoy out there before Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel.

In the new age of multi-media promotion, whenever a new Star Wars movie comes out, there has to be a prequel story to it told in book form or graphic novel, or both!

This is the prequel story to the movie, Rogue One. It reveals the relationship between the villain, Krennic and his buddy ol' pal Galen. Galen is the mastermind behind the weapon on the Death Star but this story reveals that his original plan was for it to be used as a benevolent energy source.

Now we don't know the workings behind the scenes on how this project was made but it felt like Disney handed Luceno the idea but gave him very specific parameters in which to operate.

To put it simply, nothing really happens in this book.

You read about Galen and his wife and the birth of Jyn (main character in Rogue One). You read about the circumstances that led Galen to creating the weapon. And you find a quick snippet of another character in order to lead into the movie.

It honestly read a lot like Tarken. Very little action. Spending some time in the character's headspace but not really going anywhere.

To be sure, you won't miss out on anything if you don't read this book before watching the movie.

I haven't been too thrilled with the latest batch of "canon" literature from the Disney folks about Star Wars outside of Claudia Gray's Lost Stars. This one didn't do anything for my enjoyment of Star Wars.

Get if from the library in order to read it. You probably won't be rereading it.

This is a good primer for the upcoming Rogue One movie. It introduces some of the new characters that we will see in the movie and gives a good backstory on the Erso family and their involvement with the Death Star project. It also does a good job explaining the dynamic between some established characters in the SW universe and some of the new ones from Rogue One (Tarkin vs Krennic). The Catalyst story begins during the Clone wars and ends, as near as I can tell, a couple years after Revenge of the Sith (based on Jyn's age). However, as I look at the trailers for Rogue One, the end of this story may back into the beginning of the new movie, but at this point, it's pure speculation. (Any additional details would be spoilers).

Overall, I enjoyed the book and felt that it was an easy read. The writing style was great (as usual - thank you Mr. Luceno) and he did a good job presenting a story, knowing that he most likely had to work within some restraints from Lucasfilm/Disney.

Also, I want to make a point and express my appreciation to both the author and the publisher for keeping the thinly veiled politics out of this book that, unfortunately, we've had to endure in others. As a reader I enjoy being able to escape from the "news" of the day and read a story that takes place "far, far away" and not a reflection of CNN or FOX. I don't want far left or far right views showing up in the SW books and instead want to read about good vs evil, and not right vs left. (Okay - sorry - I'm off my soapbox).

I'd recommend this to any die hard star wars fan. Oh - and as a side note, I also recently re-read Death Star (written by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry) and there isn't much that contradicts between the two. Now, I expect Rogue One might change that, but at this point, you can read Catalyst and then Death Star and have a good lead into Ep. IV.

So I will say that if you haven't seen Rogue One and you read this book, that is actually cool because it gives you a lot of background about the Ersos and really gives you a look into Orson Krennic and why he does what he does. Also why Tarkin is pretty much babysitting him in the movie. I don't think you need to read this book to enjoy the movie, but I think it helps to understand why the Ersos were so desperate in the beginning of the movie.

James Luceno can be hit or miss with Star Wars books for me, but generally I do think he does a good job writing for this property. I enjoyed this book a lot. I think it got off to a little bit of a slow pace, but once Galen started to work on the Kyber crystal energy project that's when it started to get interesting. This is also when we start to see how everything has unraveled.

I hated Krennic in the movie, but he's even worse in this novel. This dude thinks he's the force's gift to the empire, when he's really not that competent in his job. This dude thinks he's amazing and he should be given promotions, when he doesn't deserve them. He even gets demoted as one point and says to a higher up that he refuses to accept it. Like, dude are you for real? It definitely made me appreciate the scene in the movie where Vader force chokes him. Dude kind of deserved it.

One thing I really like about this novel was Lyra's relationship with the force. I think when the movie came out a lot of fans were wondering if she was a Jedi. In the movie it definitely looks like her attire resembles Jedi robes, but she is not a Jedi. I didn't get the sense that she is force sensitive either, just that she believes that the Jedi were good and noble and she wants to believe whole heartedly in the force. I did appreciate that she was suspicious of Krennic for the entire novel. It made me like her even more.

I thought Galen was really naive in this book, but I think that is kinda of the point. We have to see how Krennic manipulated him, and we have to see why they were in hiding from him. Galen was too focused on his work to really see what was going on with The Empire and with his old friend, and he pays for it.

As a tie-in to the Rogue One movie, I think this book was pretty good and I found it very insightful to explain things that were left out in the movie. It's definitely for Star Wars geeks, so if that means you I'd recommend this one. It was definitely a book for me!

I could see this book not appealing to everyone. It’s not a story about saber swinging Jedi & Sith fighting for control over the galaxy. It’s a story about scientists, engineers, and the ethical impacts that come along with their responsibilities.

As an engineer, this book struck some major chords for me. Just last week, I received an email from the military offering a pretty penny for me to come work on a nuclear program. On my own ethical principles, I’ve chosen to never lend my mind to any form of “defense” endeavors. And hereinlies a fundamental theme of this book. Some of us will, some of us won’t, and some of us do almost by force or accident. I’ve perhaps never identified with a character more than Galen Erso before.

In a way, I feel that this book is actually more necessary to the Star Wars universe than Rogue One itself. Galen Erso has far more importance to the greater Star Wars galaxy than Jyn (although Jyn was and exceptional character!), and Orsen Krennic is an incredible not-too-evil but still perfectly villainous antagonist. It’s wonderful to see how the Death Star development played out during the Clone Wars era.

In the pursuit of a new super weapon to bring lasting peace through fear, the Republic rapes worlds to build what could be an impossibility.

Disclaimer: As a fan of the movies, I’ve not yet found a love for the novels. So perhaps my review is as appealing to the rabid fan as a Wookie personal ad on Match.com. A past attempt at reading Thrawn’s appearance in Heir to the Empire (which I hear is a fan favorite) left me unable to finish the novel. So, for the devoted Star Wars fan, you may not find any interest in finishing this review. You have been warned.

Where does Catalyst go wrong? We have a conniving power-hungry manipulator that works behind the scenes, a scientific genius with high morals, his strong-willed wife, a smuggler of some acclaim, and Governor Tarkin that is suitably patient to undermine his fellow Imperial when the timing is advantageous. It’s a varied cast that could have, should have, worked.

Nearing the end of the conflict with the Separatists, the Republic uncovers plans for an ultimate weapon. Opportunistic Engineer Krennic takes to the monumental task of managing the project to build their own, but it is quickly realized that the moon-sized battle station (even with the stolen schematics) offers nothing revolutionary, other than size. (Insert bad pun here.) The energy weapon that would one day make it a force to fear across the galaxy — and the constantly used rationale of fear-induced peace as the reason to build the dang thing — is not provided by schematic or even hinted at; Krennic, however, places his sights on scientific genius, Galen Erso. Certainly an intelligent fellow, and they have history, so he is aware of Erso’s research, but how Krennic can bet everything he has to lose and gain that Erso will unlock the secrets of the kyber crystals and unleash a new power is beyond me. For Krennic, who views everyone around him as but tools to further himself, who managed to uncover the varied and hidden exploits of an experienced smuggler, who manipulates Imperials that outrank him, it is a massive character inconsistency that grates throughout the book, for simply the one fact that he takes on Erso to create the weapon on a (wait for it): Leap of Faith.

And antagonistical masterminds with everything on the line always resort to that, right?

(And yes, yes, quick aside: The emperor is implied to have somehow manipulated/provided the schematics for construction of the Death Star, somehow washing his hands of the mess and putting it on other shoulders. But the kind of manipulation over years that this takes to accomplish leaves me still grasping for something more sensible. He’s the self-appointed emperor, with hushed atrocities happening all over the galaxy. If he wanted to build the weapon, why not just say: build it; then hand power-seeking Krennic the edict to convince his friend Galen to make the research happen. Maybe I should be emperor?)

And if that weren’t enough, the amount of resources utilized to build the battle station — literally scouring worlds for their minerals — was beyond ridiculous for a weapon, that has no…weapon. (Let’s go ahead and counter what the Separatists don’t have with something we don’t even know if we can build.) One would assume that once the schematics were revealed to have no real threat, other than size, it should have been more likely that the plans would join other data on the enemy in a giant doomium-clad filing cabinet.

This being the fundamental plot driving the rest of the story forward, it is sadly not the only error of logic. Granted, governments and law are full of inconsistency, but for me to want to read a good story, I want it well vetted. That, and these flimsy scenes didn’t have to exist; leave out the reveal of the schematics, leave the machinations of the empire and their massive construct up to our imagination.

But even if that were the case, the book suffers from contrived dialogue, uninspired prose, and as Krennic grows as the focal antagonist in the book, his manipulations stumble like a rusty droid. How a man just a few steps down from the emperor himself can flub up a conversation with the Ersos so dramatically when he knows everything they’re doing; and how they can bluntly call him out on issues that should normally put them on the other end of a discharging blaster…? Leaves me flummoxed. The reader has already been privy to the test-fire of Galen’s research, validating the power generation of the Kyber crystal. What more does Krennic need Galen for? Am I spouting into the air here? The book specifically said his research was utilized successfully; further need for Galen became unnecessary, and yet Krennic starts to act like he still is, and then Galen’s further need is restated— Despite all that we have read before.

Baffling. And not to mention the times where the Ersos realize they may be under surveillance by a ruling entity that spans hundreds (thousands?) of worlds and somehow think that using their personal com will avoid a tap of the communication. That’s not even likely in our day and age, yet alone in theirs.

I can only wonder what kind of timeframe the author had to write the novel. And what kind of editing allotment they had.

I’ve read that Catalyst shows some of the events leading up to Rogue One, and for the Rogue One fan that wants to know more, certainly you have that here, but I fail to see how the information in and of itself is sufficient reason to slog through a full length book. While certainly not poorly written, Catalyst lacks the story, the conflict, the dramatical tension that makes for good story telling.

(And there aren’t even any Jedi.)

When asked what I did over the weekend, I could take the time to break down each dish that was washed, the car that was vacuumed, the flavor of the latté that was drunk and the papers that were sorted; wasting hours in the telling if I really wanted to, or I could simply say it was uneventful with some work around the house, but relaxing. Perhaps the uber fan wants to know each and every detail, but for me, the allusion to details that are probably in Rogue One already are likely sufficient. If I happen to watch the movie and find that Catalyst adds so much more, I will let you know; but as a standalone novel, Catalyst fails to ignite.

An impotent 2 out of 5 Death Stars.

If you have read a few of my book reviews, you should know that I stick to books I like. The stinkers usually sink into oblivion. This stems from the fact that, as an author myself, it is painful to think of impacting another novelist in any sort of a negative way. There is the argument that any publicity is good publicity, and that every critical review (if well thought through) serves as constructive feedback to the publisher, to help improve books for all of us. So while other books I could not finish or failed to pique my interest might not have found me with time to review, this one I will. Star Wars is a BIG Intellectual Property with lots of money floating around and it is offensive to me when the conveyor belts of some large organization just crank out material, regardless of quality — stealing shelf space and mind space from other worthier products. You may disagree with me regarding the rating of this book, and you have that right, but it is certainly not strong in plot, character, or prose. It had potential, but I have to assume the timeline for production was so tight as to steal the light it could have held, leaving it simply mediocre.

May the Force be with you.

Read more of my reviews on my blog at CliftonH.com and about my own writer's journey.

Really just filler material. It's possible to make these kinds of books read well and grant greater insight into characters but this pretty much flopped. I kept waiting for the book to pick up or to raise my eyebrows and kept being disappointed. As I neared the end of the book, I realized there was going to be no pay off. If you have to decide between staring at a wall and reading this book, reading the book wins...but just barely.

A few things:

1) Don't name a character Has.
2) Lyra Erso was the biggest 'try hard' character. I know the author was dying to make her interesting and really cool. She wasn't. She was a flat character, and the book pretty much explains why Krennic is okay with shooting her with no problem. The author lost me with Lyra when there was a scene where she was taking Jyn to tumbling. Yes. Tumbling. Luceno was trying so hard to try to explain Rogue One. THIS IS WHY SHE'S SO ACROBATIC! IT'S BECAUSE OF HER PARENTS! SEE! SHE TOOK TUMBLING. No. Just no.
3) Krennic and Tarkin's rivalry was the best part of the book! I really wish the author seized on this area as the political scene has been largely ignored in all of the saga. Just a few highlights here and there. You could tell such a fascinating story of the political scene.
4) Try hard on the contemporary political situation. Luceno puts in 'legacy worlds' that the empire finds false pretense to exploit. And those greedy bastards pretty much strip mine the entirety of those planets. I bet they're 2nd Amendment advocates too. Oh wait, wrong universe. Again, the author could have made that work but I wasn't impressed.

Hate to be one of 'those guys' but honestly if you're interested in the Ersos, just read Wookepedia and save your time. This book was not an adventure...it was a chore.

James Luceno is back in true form for the newest release, and his second contribution, of the new SW story group. I read his previous book, Tarkin, and though I continue to be intrigued by the famed Grand Moff I thought the book was just ok, for various reasons. Catalyst tells the story of the logistics of constructing the Death Star, and specifically how its planet-destroying weapon was devised. It's also of course a prequel to the upcoming movie Rogue One, but while I'm sure it will enhance the experience it isn't required reading to enjoy and understand the film.

What I like most about the book, and what Luceno excels in, is the environmental details and depth of characters. Every single locale in the book jumps right off the page; it almost feels like you're there. Regarding the characters, the main five were all pretty well fleshed out, but I'm not so sure Galen Erso, the father of the main character in R1, is actually the protagonist in this book, because I feel his wife, Lyra, has the more heroic qualities of the two. Orson Krennic; however, is definitely the standout in this story IMHO. He's got the brains of Galen and the guile of Tarkin, who was even better here than his own book in my mind. Lastly, though I think whomever approved the name should've made a slight edit, Has Obitt was also endearing and empathetic.

The areas I felt could've been given a little more attention vary from nitpicky to moderately significant. For the sake of brevity, I'll gloss over the minor points and get to my main issue with the book: There's steady pacing over the entire story, which generally isn't a bad thing, but in this case there really wasn't much pick up in terms of excitement to speak of. While it seemed Luceno was under considerably less constraints writing Catalyst than he was with Tarkin, I'm guessing a lot of the payoff with this book was left to be told in the movie, because the buildup and climax is largely nonexistent. Not to say the novel wasn't worth it, and character development for the movie was the whole point of this book, but a little more suspense and unpredictability would've gone a long way.

James Luceno is easily my favorite Star Wars author, and I'd put Catalyst somewhere in the middle of his other books. It has the excellent characterizations found in Plagueis, combined with the machinations highlighted in Cloak of Deception, but I wouldn't say it exceeded those other two in story or breadth of continuity. One of Luceno's strengths writing SW is the masterful way he connects the current story with the larger universe. Now that that universe is considerably less large, we get to see the barest of plots on full display; which is good or not so much depending on your subjectivity. Having said all that, I would recommend Catalyst to any SW fan, particularly those who are excited for Rogue One and want to be more informed on the new and (hopefully) exciting characters, like myself.

Star Wars Catalyst, a Rogue One novel is the 12th novel released in canon. It was written by New York Times Best Selling Author, James Luceno. Luceno is no stranger to the Star Wars universe. He’s written several books in the Legends canon and recently wrote Tarkin as part of the new canon.

Summary: The tale takes place between the events of episode 2 through 4. The battle between the separatists and the republic, the Clone Wars, tears the galaxy asunder. A brilliant scientist, Galen Erso and his family are held captive. He wants his work to be used for the good of the galaxy… not for the military.

Characters: This is a great introduction to some of the characters we are to see in Rogue One. Every character fits in to the universe. Some characters we already know, Luceno actually spiked my interest with some of the old characters we’ve met before. I always like to mention at least two of my favorite characters from the book. One of them was introduced to us through marketing for Rogue One.

Orson Krennic: He’s an imperial officer who’s somewhat obsessed with rank and title. He’s overseeing the construction of the a massive space-station/super-weapon. The man is sly, a trickster and a smooth talker. An excellent villain, the best I’ve read yet.

Galen Erso was fantastic, but I’d rather talk about Has Obitt. Has is a smuggler. Has is a smuggler who’s been mixed up with the separatists, republic, and then the empire. He’s a humanoid with some morals. He gets caught up in the lies and web of some imperials before making a drastic decision.

Overall Review: I absolutely loved this novel. James Luceno knocks it out of the park with characters, dialogue, plot and even the subplot. The pacing of the story was fast and entertaining. Not a single moment did I think, “pick up already!” In my opinion, some events/characters from the prequels were polished, having them make more since and fit into the overall saga a lot better. There is plenty exploration into the Jedi. Creating new lore and myth for them, the Force, and for the power source of light sabers… kyber crystals. We get s look into the empire like we haven’t seen before. Luceno paints the devastation taking place on so may worlds in great detail. Thank you Luceno, for this awesome book

The book is OK. The book is sturdy. The plot makes sense, and the editing is top notched.

That said, I'm pretty neutral about this book.

It might not be suitable for the youngest readers as there is a lot of death for the key, point of view characters. (This is a fairly substantial departure for the Star Wars books; some parents will not be expecting the late night tears from the 8-12 year old reading the book.

I'm a Disney fan, and I was hopeful that the series restart of the beloved Star Wars story was going to be a Disney classic.

Disney has had many original characters and plots, but its mainstay as a company from the start was revitalizing classic tales and adapting those beloved stories for a new generation.

This story fits between episodes III and IV, or it came just before the "Original Star Wars movie" for those older Star Wars fan. In particular, it explains how the Rebel Alliance came to possess the plans to the Death Star.

Let explain (with spoilers) below.

--= Beware Spoilers Follow =--

The book crams in as many references and cameos by beloved Star Wars characters as I could imagine possible without it actually being a story about any of them.

Then, in the gravest of sins to the Star Wars faithful, there was a complete break with canon. Many fans were outraged and apprehensive when Disney announced that "if it did not happen in the films then it is no longer canon." There were whole book, game, and audio series based on the Star Wars story lines that emerged between the movies. Some of them were quite good (honestly, the quality did vary significantly), and fans loved them.

Most fans were willing to push the "I believe button" and wait for the first movie under Disney direction. That movie came, and the majority of folks were OK with the new film.

One of the most famous lines in a Star Wars film is "many Bothans died" to get the plans to the Death Star. That was in a movie. Therefore, it should have been canon.

Apparently not as -NO- Bothans died to bring the information. That breaks faith with the long-time Star Wars fans.

Additionally, every character that you care about in the book dies by the end. No, that is literally true. There will not be a Rogue 1.5 or 2 or any.

One of the questions that some asked over the years is "how did this Death Star have such a significant flaw in its design." The answer in this book is that the key designer didn't like the Empire and added the flaw and then let the rebels know about it.

Again, this breaks with canon from the movies as they made a big point of having pored over the Bothan captured plans to find this one weakness.

Also, the new explanation makes less sense than it just being an oversight. If this flaw was baked in from the start then it was more likely to be found. If it was just a mistake in a very complex, hurried project then it seems implausible, but less so.

All in all, this is a dark book with much point of view character death and a big "stick in the eye" to the long-time Star Wars faithful.

So first let me start out by saying that I am a big Star Wars fan and have ready many Star Wars books over the years and enjoyed most of them. However, there just isn't enough of a story in Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel to give it a good rating.

This book is solely about Galen Erso and how he was recruited to develop the super weapon for the Death Star. Stop reading now if you don't want to read any spoilers but there isn't much to spoil in this book. One thing I can say is at least this book helps you understand who Galen is when you see him being captured by Orson Krennic during the beginning of the Rogue One movie.

So Galen is a universe-class scientist that specializes in kyber crystals. He is being recruited by both sides but is not interested in developing weapons. Yet he can't pass up an opportunity to work for Orson Krennic. Galen truly believes his research will lead to cheap power and only finds out at the end of the book that his research is being weaponized. He then flees with his family which leads to his being found at the beginning of Rogue One.

Sadly that is all there is to the book. I like scientists and have a technical job myself but I don't think many people would want to read 352 pages about how I was recruited to my job and what I do each day. I give this book two out of five stars as there is some background to help you understand the movie but there are several far better Star Wars books to enjoy out there before Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel.

In the new age of multi-media promotion, whenever a new Star Wars movie comes out, there has to be a prequel story to it told in book form or graphic novel, or both!

This is the prequel story to the movie, Rogue One. It reveals the relationship between the villain, Krennic and his buddy ol' pal Galen. Galen is the mastermind behind the weapon on the Death Star but this story reveals that his original plan was for it to be used as a benevolent energy source.

Now we don't know the workings behind the scenes on how this project was made but it felt like Disney handed Luceno the idea but gave him very specific parameters in which to operate.

To put it simply, nothing really happens in this book.

You read about Galen and his wife and the birth of Jyn (main character in Rogue One). You read about the circumstances that led Galen to creating the weapon. And you find a quick snippet of another character in order to lead into the movie.

It honestly read a lot like Tarken. Very little action. Spending some time in the character's headspace but not really going anywhere.

To be sure, you won't miss out on anything if you don't read this book before watching the movie.

I haven't been too thrilled with the latest batch of "canon" literature from the Disney folks about Star Wars outside of Claudia Gray's Lost Stars. This one didn't do anything for my enjoyment of Star Wars.

Get if from the library in order to read it. You probably won't be rereading it.

This is a good primer for the upcoming Rogue One movie. It introduces some of the new characters that we will see in the movie and gives a good backstory on the Erso family and their involvement with the Death Star project. It also does a good job explaining the dynamic between some established characters in the SW universe and some of the new ones from Rogue One (Tarkin vs Krennic). The Catalyst story begins during the Clone wars and ends, as near as I can tell, a couple years after Revenge of the Sith (based on Jyn's age). However, as I look at the trailers for Rogue One, the end of this story may back into the beginning of the new movie, but at this point, it's pure speculation. (Any additional details would be spoilers).

Overall, I enjoyed the book and felt that it was an easy read. The writing style was great (as usual - thank you Mr. Luceno) and he did a good job presenting a story, knowing that he most likely had to work within some restraints from Lucasfilm/Disney.

Also, I want to make a point and express my appreciation to both the author and the publisher for keeping the thinly veiled politics out of this book that, unfortunately, we've had to endure in others. As a reader I enjoy being able to escape from the "news" of the day and read a story that takes place "far, far away" and not a reflection of CNN or FOX. I don't want far left or far right views showing up in the SW books and instead want to read about good vs evil, and not right vs left. (Okay - sorry - I'm off my soapbox).

I'd recommend this to any die hard star wars fan. Oh - and as a side note, I also recently re-read Death Star (written by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry) and there isn't much that contradicts between the two. Now, I expect Rogue One might change that, but at this point, you can read Catalyst and then Death Star and have a good lead into Ep. IV.

So I will say that if you haven't seen Rogue One and you read this book, that is actually cool because it gives you a lot of background about the Ersos and really gives you a look into Orson Krennic and why he does what he does. Also why Tarkin is pretty much babysitting him in the movie. I don't think you need to read this book to enjoy the movie, but I think it helps to understand why the Ersos were so desperate in the beginning of the movie.

James Luceno can be hit or miss with Star Wars books for me, but generally I do think he does a good job writing for this property. I enjoyed this book a lot. I think it got off to a little bit of a slow pace, but once Galen started to work on the Kyber crystal energy project that's when it started to get interesting. This is also when we start to see how everything has unraveled.

I hated Krennic in the movie, but he's even worse in this novel. This dude thinks he's the force's gift to the empire, when he's really not that competent in his job. This dude thinks he's amazing and he should be given promotions, when he doesn't deserve them. He even gets demoted as one point and says to a higher up that he refuses to accept it. Like, dude are you for real? It definitely made me appreciate the scene in the movie where Vader force chokes him. Dude kind of deserved it.

One thing I really like about this novel was Lyra's relationship with the force. I think when the movie came out a lot of fans were wondering if she was a Jedi. In the movie it definitely looks like her attire resembles Jedi robes, but she is not a Jedi. I didn't get the sense that she is force sensitive either, just that she believes that the Jedi were good and noble and she wants to believe whole heartedly in the force. I did appreciate that she was suspicious of Krennic for the entire novel. It made me like her even more.

I thought Galen was really naive in this book, but I think that is kinda of the point. We have to see how Krennic manipulated him, and we have to see why they were in hiding from him. Galen was too focused on his work to really see what was going on with The Empire and with his old friend, and he pays for it.

As a tie-in to the Rogue One movie, I think this book was pretty good and I found it very insightful to explain things that were left out in the movie. It's definitely for Star Wars geeks, so if that means you I'd recommend this one. It was definitely a book for me!

I could see this book not appealing to everyone. It’s not a story about saber swinging Jedi & Sith fighting for control over the galaxy. It’s a story about scientists, engineers, and the ethical impacts that come along with their responsibilities.

As an engineer, this book struck some major chords for me. Just last week, I received an email from the military offering a pretty penny for me to come work on a nuclear program. On my own ethical principles, I’ve chosen to never lend my mind to any form of “defense” endeavors. And hereinlies a fundamental theme of this book. Some of us will, some of us won’t, and some of us do almost by force or accident. I’ve perhaps never identified with a character more than Galen Erso before.

In a way, I feel that this book is actually more necessary to the Star Wars universe than Rogue One itself. Galen Erso has far more importance to the greater Star Wars galaxy than Jyn (although Jyn was and exceptional character!), and Orsen Krennic is an incredible not-too-evil but still perfectly villainous antagonist. It’s wonderful to see how the Death Star development played out during the Clone Wars era.

In the pursuit of a new super weapon to bring lasting peace through fear, the Republic rapes worlds to build what could be an impossibility.

Disclaimer: As a fan of the movies, I’ve not yet found a love for the novels. So perhaps my review is as appealing to the rabid fan as a Wookie personal ad on Match.com. A past attempt at reading Thrawn’s appearance in Heir to the Empire (which I hear is a fan favorite) left me unable to finish the novel. So, for the devoted Star Wars fan, you may not find any interest in finishing this review. You have been warned.

Where does Catalyst go wrong? We have a conniving power-hungry manipulator that works behind the scenes, a scientific genius with high morals, his strong-willed wife, a smuggler of some acclaim, and Governor Tarkin that is suitably patient to undermine his fellow Imperial when the timing is advantageous. It’s a varied cast that could have, should have, worked.

Nearing the end of the conflict with the Separatists, the Republic uncovers plans for an ultimate weapon. Opportunistic Engineer Krennic takes to the monumental task of managing the project to build their own, but it is quickly realized that the moon-sized battle station (even with the stolen schematics) offers nothing revolutionary, other than size. (Insert bad pun here.) The energy weapon that would one day make it a force to fear across the galaxy — and the constantly used rationale of fear-induced peace as the reason to build the dang thing — is not provided by schematic or even hinted at; Krennic, however, places his sights on scientific genius, Galen Erso. Certainly an intelligent fellow, and they have history, so he is aware of Erso’s research, but how Krennic can bet everything he has to lose and gain that Erso will unlock the secrets of the kyber crystals and unleash a new power is beyond me. For Krennic, who views everyone around him as but tools to further himself, who managed to uncover the varied and hidden exploits of an experienced smuggler, who manipulates Imperials that outrank him, it is a massive character inconsistency that grates throughout the book, for simply the one fact that he takes on Erso to create the weapon on a (wait for it): Leap of Faith.

And antagonistical masterminds with everything on the line always resort to that, right?

(And yes, yes, quick aside: The emperor is implied to have somehow manipulated/provided the schematics for construction of the Death Star, somehow washing his hands of the mess and putting it on other shoulders. But the kind of manipulation over years that this takes to accomplish leaves me still grasping for something more sensible. He’s the self-appointed emperor, with hushed atrocities happening all over the galaxy. If he wanted to build the weapon, why not just say: build it; then hand power-seeking Krennic the edict to convince his friend Galen to make the research happen. Maybe I should be emperor?)

And if that weren’t enough, the amount of resources utilized to build the battle station — literally scouring worlds for their minerals — was beyond ridiculous for a weapon, that has no…weapon. (Let’s go ahead and counter what the Separatists don’t have with something we don’t even know if we can build.) One would assume that once the schematics were revealed to have no real threat, other than size, it should have been more likely that the plans would join other data on the enemy in a giant doomium-clad filing cabinet.

This being the fundamental plot driving the rest of the story forward, it is sadly not the only error of logic. Granted, governments and law are full of inconsistency, but for me to want to read a good story, I want it well vetted. That, and these flimsy scenes didn’t have to exist; leave out the reveal of the schematics, leave the machinations of the empire and their massive construct up to our imagination.

But even if that were the case, the book suffers from contrived dialogue, uninspired prose, and as Krennic grows as the focal antagonist in the book, his manipulations stumble like a rusty droid. How a man just a few steps down from the emperor himself can flub up a conversation with the Ersos so dramatically when he knows everything they’re doing; and how they can bluntly call him out on issues that should normally put them on the other end of a discharging blaster…? Leaves me flummoxed. The reader has already been privy to the test-fire of Galen’s research, validating the power generation of the Kyber crystal. What more does Krennic need Galen for? Am I spouting into the air here? The book specifically said his research was utilized successfully; further need for Galen became unnecessary, and yet Krennic starts to act like he still is, and then Galen’s further need is restated— Despite all that we have read before.

Baffling. And not to mention the times where the Ersos realize they may be under surveillance by a ruling entity that spans hundreds (thousands?) of worlds and somehow think that using their personal com will avoid a tap of the communication. That’s not even likely in our day and age, yet alone in theirs.

I can only wonder what kind of timeframe the author had to write the novel. And what kind of editing allotment they had.

I’ve read that Catalyst shows some of the events leading up to Rogue One, and for the Rogue One fan that wants to know more, certainly you have that here, but I fail to see how the information in and of itself is sufficient reason to slog through a full length book. While certainly not poorly written, Catalyst lacks the story, the conflict, the dramatical tension that makes for good story telling.

(And there aren’t even any Jedi.)

When asked what I did over the weekend, I could take the time to break down each dish that was washed, the car that was vacuumed, the flavor of the latté that was drunk and the papers that were sorted; wasting hours in the telling if I really wanted to, or I could simply say it was uneventful with some work around the house, but relaxing. Perhaps the uber fan wants to know each and every detail, but for me, the allusion to details that are probably in Rogue One already are likely sufficient. If I happen to watch the movie and find that Catalyst adds so much more, I will let you know; but as a standalone novel, Catalyst fails to ignite.

An impotent 2 out of 5 Death Stars.

If you have read a few of my book reviews, you should know that I stick to books I like. The stinkers usually sink into oblivion. This stems from the fact that, as an author myself, it is painful to think of impacting another novelist in any sort of a negative way. There is the argument that any publicity is good publicity, and that every critical review (if well thought through) serves as constructive feedback to the publisher, to help improve books for all of us. So while other books I could not finish or failed to pique my interest might not have found me with time to review, this one I will. Star Wars is a BIG Intellectual Property with lots of money floating around and it is offensive to me when the conveyor belts of some large organization just crank out material, regardless of quality — stealing shelf space and mind space from other worthier products. You may disagree with me regarding the rating of this book, and you have that right, but it is certainly not strong in plot, character, or prose. It had potential, but I have to assume the timeline for production was so tight as to steal the light it could have held, leaving it simply mediocre.

May the Force be with you.

Read more of my reviews on my blog at CliftonH.com and about my own writer's journey.

Really just filler material. It's possible to make these kinds of books read well and grant greater insight into characters but this pretty much flopped. I kept waiting for the book to pick up or to raise my eyebrows and kept being disappointed. As I neared the end of the book, I realized there was going to be no pay off. If you have to decide between staring at a wall and reading this book, reading the book wins...but just barely.

A few things:

1) Don't name a character Has.
2) Lyra Erso was the biggest 'try hard' character. I know the author was dying to make her interesting and really cool. She wasn't. She was a flat character, and the book pretty much explains why Krennic is okay with shooting her with no problem. The author lost me with Lyra when there was a scene where she was taking Jyn to tumbling. Yes. Tumbling. Luceno was trying so hard to try to explain Rogue One. THIS IS WHY SHE'S SO ACROBATIC! IT'S BECAUSE OF HER PARENTS! SEE! SHE TOOK TUMBLING. No. Just no.
3) Krennic and Tarkin's rivalry was the best part of the book! I really wish the author seized on this area as the political scene has been largely ignored in all of the saga. Just a few highlights here and there. You could tell such a fascinating story of the political scene.
4) Try hard on the contemporary political situation. Luceno puts in 'legacy worlds' that the empire finds false pretense to exploit. And those greedy bastards pretty much strip mine the entirety of those planets. I bet they're 2nd Amendment advocates too. Oh wait, wrong universe. Again, the author could have made that work but I wasn't impressed.

Hate to be one of 'those guys' but honestly if you're interested in the Ersos, just read Wookepedia and save your time. This book was not an adventure...it was a chore.

I found this book boring. It doesn't feel like a Star Wars book at all. What the book does is give you detailed background on the relationship between Orson Krennic (the bad guy from Rogue One) and Galen Erso (the main character's father in Rogue One). Slowly, the book details how Krennic shepherded the development of the Death Star's Super Laser.

This story should have been, more properly, placed as a secondary plot line in another book (written to feel more like a Star Wars story).

I felt like I was reading biographical information in one of those Star Wars supplemental books.

It is not an engrossing novel at all--not in my opinion.

"Catalyst" is a bit of an odd duck: technically it's a prequel to the prequel of Star Wars: A New Hope, designed to sketch out the events that occurred in the years preceding Rogue One. I saw the film before reading "Catalyst", though I think both would benefit from doing the opposite: the novel provides background to the trio of Orson Krennic, Galen Erso and Lyra Erso that illuminates the dynamic between them in the film's opening scene.

In the midst of the Clone Wars, rumour of Count Dooku preparing a secret superweapon has the Galactic Republic gripped with fear. As a member of the Republic's Strategic Advisory Cell, Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic is determined to develop a weapon of equal power – seeing it as a way to advance his own career as well as subdue the Separatists.

But to do this, he knows he needs the involvement of his old friend Galen Erso, a brilliant scientist who specializes in energy-focused research. Seeing an opportunity to rescue Galen and his pregnant wife Lyra from Separatist kidnappers, Krennic gambles on the family's gratitude to him and offers Galen a job at a state-of-the-art research facility.

But where Galen appreciates the chance to study real khyber crystals (those which power the Jedis' lightsabres), his wife Lyra remains more suspicious of Krennic's intentions...

The book details the breakthroughs in Galen's research, the steps Lyra takes in order to expose the Empire's true designs, and the complications that surround the early stages of the Death Star's construction.

Naturally the creation of a giant space station with a world-destroying laser attached is no easy feat, and we're shown the challenges that went into its completion. For instance, Krennic finds it necessary to place the various engineering teams on different worlds so they don't realize they're working on a weapon of mass destruction, though their inability to compare notes means that progress is extremely slow.

The Empire also has to deal with funding the project and mining for the necessary resources, which results in the destruction of several Legacy planets (worlds that are meant to be protected under Republic law). This in turn requires a massive cover-up and the hiring of untrustworthy smugglers to transport the essential supplies.

And of course, the key to the entire project lies in unlocking the secrets of khyber crystals; a mineral that no one knows much about thanks to the secrecy of the Jedi. Galen is Krennic's best chance of understanding their potential, but he requires careful handling if he's to keep his mind on the work.

Author James Luceno does a stand-up job of exploring all these complications, technicalities and setbacks – to expand on the old saying: Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was the Death Star. He also finds a way to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Sith and "Rogue One" regarding the Geonosians (the original designers of the Death Star, whose absence from "Rogue One" felt like an odd omission).

It's informative and it's interesting, but it's not a particularly exciting story; foregoing the usual three act structure of rising action and climactic finish in favour of laying down the foundations of what occurs in "Rogue One". There's a deeper look at the characters of Galen and Krennic, which sheds light on their actions in the film: the former is deeply introverted and so easily lost in his own work that he hardly questions it's purpose, while Krennic's rising ambitions (and the start of his rivalry with Tarkin) highlight just how good he is at manipulating others.

But the character who benefits the most is Lyra; wife of Galen and mother to Jyn. Barely a blip in the film, here she's fleshed out as an archaeologist, researcher, translator, and the first to realize Krennic is not to be trusted. Sadly Jyn is too young to be anything other than carry-on luggage, but we get a sense of how chaotic and distressing her earliest years were (it seems fitting that she was born in prison – this was a child destined for a tragic life).

There's also an introduction to Saw Gerrera, and original character Has Obitt (what a truly dreadful name; whenever it came up I thought the text had incorrectly capitalized "has") who follows the prequel's theme of seeking redemption for past sins.

It's not a bad book, but it very much feels like a setup to "Rogue One" rather than its own story.

More of a 3.5 than a 3. I love Star Wars books. I've read a lot of both the Legacy series and now several of the new Disney Universe, and have enjoyed them all, and loved a few. This one is one I enjoyed, but I didn't love.
What I liked:
So much background for the movie. I loved Rogue One so dang much. This book gave a lot of depth to the Ersos, to Krennic, to Krennic's rivalry with Tarkin. It connects Episode III to Rogue One which connects to Episode IV. Lots and lots of background.
What I didn't like:
Not a lot really happens, in the end. Maybe its a symptom of trying to squeeze the story between 2 well known (at least to me) cinematic stories, Episode III and Rogue One. It felt like the author was a little to constrained on what could ultimately happen and so in the end there weren't really any surprises. And what can be more action packed than a scientist working on crystals all day long? Not much as it turns out.
In summary, this book is a worthwhile read if you're a die-hard fan of the Star Wars film universe and of Rogue One in particular. If you're one who wants to know everything about these characters, then dive right in. Just know it's not the most action packed or fast paced. If none of that sounds like you, you may want to avoid it.

In "Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel" James Luceno, author of numerous previous "Star Wars" novels, links the appearance of the Death Star plans at the end of "Attack of the Clones" with the beginning of "Rogue One", tracing Galen Erso's involvement in Project Celestial Power, Director Orson Krennic's rivalry with Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, and Saw Gerrera's transition from Onderon freedom fighter to friend of the Ersos and burgeoning Rebel. In his previous works, Luceno found ways to include elements of the old Expanded Universe in the new Disney canon and he continues that here, with the beginning of the Corporate Sector that Brian Daley first introduced in "The Han Solo Adventures". Luceno builds upon the concept of the Empire compartmentalizing the various parts of the Death Star project writing, "Each project was concealed behind names like Stellar Sphere, Mark Omega, and Pax Aurora" (pg. 212). This line explains the various project names Jyn calls out in "Rogue One" while tying them to the larger project. Examining Galen's eventual reluctance to continue with the program, Luceno writes, "His scrutiny of the inner workings of the crystal had become part of his waking and nighttime consciousness. Were the permutations in the kyber lattice comparable to emotional shifts in a sentient being? Could sentient beings compel what was inorganic to pulse in harmony with their tempers and appetites? Was there such a thing as a noble lie?" (pg. 240). Luceno describes Saw's eventual transformation into a rebel against the Empire, writing, "The Empire was quickly becoming the other, a featureless gray enemy that species of varied sorts would be able to stave off only if they united, all differences set aside. It was almost heartening to witness the dawning of hope, as cautious and fragile as it was. If the oppressed could coalesce before the Empire's burgeoning military grew too strong or its forces too widespread, then maybe it could be foiled" (pg. 274). In bridging the events of "The Clone Wars" with those of "Rogue One", Luceno succeeds in providing some backstory that enriches the "Star Wars" universe.

There’s a reason why the original film was not titled Star Drama. Other than an odd combination of words, it just reeks of tedium. By its very nature, the word “wars” implies action, adventure, danger. It is those very qualities that are lacking in Catalyst, the prequel novel to the movie Rogue One.

Having said that, however, the novel is not without its good qualities. A healthy does of backstory is crammed into this 11-hour audiobook narrated by Jonathan Davis, the fantastic actor who voices many of the current crop of Star Wars novels. But the listener has to understand that much of what happens in this book is, by definition, mere prelude to the events in the movie. And there’s not a lot of action. It’s like an episode of House of Cards in the Star Wars universe.

I purposefully didn’t read this book ahead of seeing the movie. I wanted as clean an experience as possible with the film. Now, having seen it twice, I dove into this book. Going in, I expected to get the backstories of all the major players in Rogue One. That’s not the case. The focus of the novel is solely on Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen in the movie), his wife, Lyra (Valene Kane ), and their mutual friend, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn). Only late in the story does Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera show up. Oh, Grand Moff Tarkin is present, but no one else. I was hoping for some background into the other characters, specifically Donnie Yen’s Chirrut Îmwe, the mystic who is blind and one with the Force. Perhaps future books.

Perhaps the neatest thing author James Luceno accomplishes is put these characters in the context of the prequel movies, specifically Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. You saw those events from their points of view, not always knowing what we viewers know about the Jedi, the Emperor, and Darth Vader. We get a nice scene with the Ersos—Felicity Jones’s Jyn is a mere babe through most of this novel—fleeing Republic droids when Order 66 is instituted. The droids fall dead. The humans don’t know why, but they also don’t care since they’re still alive.

As a huge fan of Ben Mendelsohn, I enjoyed the many scenes with Krennic and his machinations and politics behind the scenes. I’ve just started House of Cards and I can already see a partial parallel. Mendelsohn is a terrific actor who could have been used more in the movie, so it was nice to learn more about his efforts to maintain the production of the Death Star—a term never used in the book—while trying to woo Galen into the Empire’s folds.

Another great part of the book is the discussion of the Kyber crystals. These are the minerals Jedis use to power their lightsabers. Those are small. The ones needed for the Death Star need to be quite a bit larger. Luceno’s discussions of Galen’s attempt to understand the crystals is good. Moreover, his wife, Lyra, respects the Jedis and their ways even though she isn’t a part of their order. It’s a good dip into the greater Star Wars mythology that I, before reading this book, didn’t know.

In the end, however, and boy do I hate to say this, Catalyst reads like a well-written Wookieepedia entry. The material is nice, the drama is real, but none of it amounts to a decent story, at least one that stands on its own. I know it’s not supposed to, so I’m about to embark on the audio of Rogue One itself. I’m wondering how much the two novels will tie into each other. At the very least, however, there will be action.

This was a great book!I made a great decision in this book being the first one I read in the new Canon. Now there are minor complaints,but I'll get onto them
Now exploring the struggles of what Galen and Lyra had to go through before the events of Rogue One is super interesting. I really do wish this whole entire book was focusing on just their relationship as they struggle with stress from Galen's research along with taking care of Jyn. This book really establishes the family into stone as it makes the opening scene of Rogue One much stronger.
Now there are some boring parts. I won't get into too much detail to save some from spoilers.
There will be 2 major characters, Orson Krennic and Tarkin, which has been seen a mile away. I have no issue with them being in the novel, but the author sometimes put too much detail and complexity into their characters and thoughts, that you sometimes space off. There's at least a paragraph of details regarding their thoughts and actions as they rival in trying to 1-up each other. While it's cool to see people who are on the same side dislike each other, it isn't executed too well. At a certain point, the chapters in which they're included in can turn into a yawn feast.
Now there's another character who's completely new, Has Obbit, but.. I never found him interesting at all! Sure, I found some bits throughout where I'm like "Aye,that's pretty good" But around 85% of the time a part shows up that has Obbit in it, you just want to get back to Galen and Lyra, or maybe slightly read about Krennic. I really never find the moments with Has memorable.
Regardless, the fact that this book sheds light onto the relationship Galen and Lyra have is enough to outweigh the cons. (Also,you will see young Jyn,but she won't be a little Anakin, she'll be pushed to the side for the most part with lines here and there) This book was more about seeing how and why Galen and Lyra are wanting to escape the Empire. I really do recommend getting this novel! (But you do have to read the Has and Krennic/Tarkin parts for some other events to make sense)

I thought this book (got the audiobook version) would be interesting in providing some details to the Star Wars - Rogue One movie that'll be released in a couple of days from this writing.

As of Chapter 3, I'm BARELY able to stay awake as the Narrator is TERRIBLE and so is the Story!
The beginning is about the story of Galen, the person who will eventually come up with the laser weapon in the Death Star.

The story line is SLOW, there's NO emotional feeling tied to the characters as it's just the narrator trying to fake the different character's voices when reading, and did I mention that it was SLOW?!!

I may as well listen to it since I got it but it's going to be tough listening.

James Lucerne should NEVER WRITE another Star Wars novel ever again!
Jonathan Davis should NEVER NARRATE another Star Wars novel ever again!

Random House Audio should've hired Marc Thompson who read the SW "Legends" (aka SW Expanded Universe (EU)) novels. At least his character voices and impersonations ARE BETTER than J. Davis's renditions!

Go read or listen to the SW: Aftermath series #1-2, #3 coming in Jan. 2017 to finish off the trilogy series.

After Disney took over the SW universe, many things SWs went downhill!

Just go see the movie when it's released, at least based on the official trailers that were released which made the movie look good so you want to see it. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as "SW: The Force Awakens" with it's many plot holes and terrible writing.

I see some reviews that say this book is boring or that nothing happens. I think they are looking for epic dogfights or lightsaber duels, because there are plenty of things happening here. A nice bridge between the end of the Clone Wars and the beginning of Rogue One, the story centers on Galen and his family trying to find their way in the new order of the Empire. Galen is the loving father, scientist and unwitting conscript who is trying to find a means of creating cheap and renewable energy, and of course, we know where that leads. Some interesting insight into the workings of the Kyber crystals, a look at the interstellar politics and The Force from a point of view that's not inner circle, as well as the political maneuverings between Krennic and Tarkin, all of which sets things up nicely for a rewatch of Rogue One. This isn't a critical read, you won't miss out on the main story set up by the movies, but some nice insight overall to the characters and the rebellion to come.

I'd give this book about 3.5 - 3.75 stars. The first half is much stronger than the second half, because the Clone Wars are raging in the first half and there's a sense of urgency to everything that's going on. That sense of urgency is lost in the second half.

But still, I really enjoyed this book for the most part. Despite expectations, this is not in fact Galen Erso's story, but rather Orson Krennic's story. And what a character he is! He is such a political creature, such an upward-climber. Every word out of his mouth is a manipulation. He reminds me of Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, and I mean that as a compliment. He is ruthless and strategic and far-seeing. I enjoyed seeing Krennic's burgeoning rivalry with Tarkin. I got a sense from the movie "Rogue One" that there was some personal rivalry there, but to see it play out in this book was fantastic.

There are a few logical lapses, and shifting character motivations that don't always make sense. Also, a lot of time passes in this book, but it's not always clear when time is passing -- leading to some confusion.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the movie "Rogue One." Funnily enough, I found myself reading all of Galen Erso's dialogue in Mads Mikkelson's signature Danish accent. It's such a unique accent I couldn't NOT read his words in it, though I snickered a lot of times at just how delicious I found it to have Mads Mikkelson's voice in my head.

I've been wanting to read this book for at least a year, and finally borrowed a copy from a library in Singapore. The book didn't disappoint. I enjoyed the movie Rogue One, and this book adds a great deal to the movie. James Luceno did a great job of developing the different characters in this novel, including Orson Krennic, Governor Tarkin, and Galen Erso. This story may not have as much action as some would like, but it's a very good tale, very much driven by the story's characters, and Luceno does a great job of exploring the moral dilemmas Galen Erso and his wife, Lyra encountered in the midst of the Empire's project to construct the galaxy's ultimate weapon.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars, and who wishes to know more of the back story behind the movie Rogue One.

Finished reading the last third of this in one sitting after listening to the audiobook version to start with, and while I think the book is well-written, I still believe that this "essential" prequel to the movie got lost in the minute details behind the design/construction of the Death Star weapon. As I saw Rogue One before finishing the book, I didn't really feel the need/felt the desire to finish the book, so I basically skimmed that last third. For diehard fans that need to read ALL THE THINGS, this is obviously a good book for them, but I think most people will have no problem going into the movie without losing anything for having not read this book.

One of the best Star Wars novels I've read. James Luceno really develops Galen Erso & Orson Krennic's characters and motivations. I became very invested in their stories and perspective.

Lots of new information that was not in Rogue One. I highly recommend reading this novel after seeing Rogue One, but before reading Rogue One's novelization for Catalyst is a prequel.

Have you ever wanted to know how the Empire built the Death Star and got scientists to research into energy enhancement? Ever wanted to see into the rank and file and machinations of the Empire? Did you just want to know more about Galen, Lyra, & Jyn Erso's past? All of the above is explored in thoughtful detail carefully crafted into a compelling tale of Orson's manipulations into Imperial command, Galen's trials as a father, husband, and theoretician, a smuggler's ethical dilemma, and how the Empire was fated to rise. Read Catalyst!

If you're big on Star Wars novels you might enjoy this. I've read my share of SW novels, and this was probably the least interesting. I enjoyed Luceno's own Labyrinth of Evil, and maybe the problem is that here he just has much less to work with, being a prequel to a movie that's not out as of this writing and that the public (myself included) has no clear picture of. That said, he does little to explore the main characters, and the most interesting characters are secondary ones - particularly a smuggler who has the only clear, compelling story arc.
The best thing I can say is that it's a slow boil with some interesting climactic points, and that it does give some slight insights into the construction of the Death Star and a couple of characters who play important roles in Rogue One.
The tension over all is very mild, and characters are not explored with much depth.

Great book! It really enhanced my experience with the Rogue One Movie. If you are a Star Wars fan, or more, if you are a Star Wars: Rogue One fan then I recommend this Novel for you. It will give you quite a bit of background information about Rogue One, and has lots of tie in with the prequels.

Pros:
Inside Scoop - As mentioned earlier in this review, reading Catalyst before I saw Rogue One definitely enhanced the experience of Rogue One for me. I felt like I had the inside information on what was happening. I also felt more connected to the characters, which made me feel emotionally invested in the movie as well.

Cons:
Slow Sometimes - Although I personally found the story exciting and interesting, it did get slow at times. Typical Star Wars novels are full of adventure and action, Catalyst was more about the manipulation of the empire to get it’s super weapon done, and had less of the action and adventure then you would have expected.

Must read for any Star Wars fan, but those or are only interested in science fiction, or a good story, they may get bored with this novel.

I gave it 5 stars, but I don't know what to think about it.

I've always said: I don't care about tie-in novels, cartoons, comics - I want the story to be delivered in the main movies. If you can't do that, then you're just a bad storyteller.

But since I loved Rogue One, I gave this one a shot and marked other SW novels as something I want to read - in the near future, I hoped.

But now, I don't know.

While I can't say the novel is bad, it's not stellar, either. It's just like a filler episode. Prequels, sidequels, in-quels, whatever you may call them, can have the problem of being boring because we know what came before and what comes after. It is up to the author to make his story compelling and interesting nonetheless.

The problem here, while the story in general is interesting, there is nothing really compelling or more compelling than the little bits of information we got in the movie. And what I do hate are shoed-in mentions of things that happened in the movies (like the gladiator pit on Geonosis from Attack of the Clones).

But what I hate most and which is the main reason I was and remain against having to read a bunch of novels, comics and watch TV-shows for explanations of things in movies is this: while all those stories in all these media are considered "canon", they're not really canon. The moment someone making a new movie wants to retcon something that we had in the books, they will just do it. Heck, they probably won't even know about the book or what happened in it. Or if, by chance, they do know about it, they still choose to ignore it.

So, while this is a pleasant read - it's not really necessary. And it does not make you care more about the characters in Rogue One. Galen is not the most interesting person in the universe. Lyra just comes off as Jedi-obsessed. Jyn is too young, but does Luceno try and make her the Jyn from the movie as a toddler already. And I don't really care about Saw.

Especially the bland ending just shows you that this is nothing more than a story-filler. But hey, I repeat, it's not bad.

While not horrible in it's attempt to fill in the gaps for a side character from Rogue One, parts of the book are quite good but others go into a direction that isn't addressed anywhere else in the book - the most important parts in my opinion are left out or implied, which is the main drawback of this book. In a way I guess you could say it suffered from not knowing where it wanted to go and being in a proverbial box - this is a prequel to Rogue One so you know how it basically has to end already if you have seen the movie.

The background of characters from Rogue One was very interesting, and the layered complexity of Krennic's obsession with Galen was very well done. Delving into the nature of Kyber crystals and how they were basically enslaved by the empire in order to be used in the death star was fascinating as well. While those things among others were worthy of five stars, the slow pacing at times removed one. The tense moments didn't seem tense enough to accurately portray the peril the characters were in. Collected together I would still recommend this book simply for the way it fills in knowledge of the Star Wars Universe.

This Star Wars novel is neat for fleshing out the backstory between Galen Erso and Orson Krennic (and to a lesser extent Grand Moff Tarkin), but it gets bogged down in a few too many viewpoint characters and far too heavy a focus on Erso's incremental research into the kyber crystals that will ultimately power the Death Star. It's overall a tepid affair, lacking much of the space action and soaring emotion of the Star Wars franchise at its best.

Luceno does a fantastic job of placing Original Trilogy content in the Prequel era. It is seamless and ties both eras together perfectly. Catalyst is absolutely a tie-in novel for Rogue One, as reading it will give you a deep understanding of the relationships between the characters in Rogue One, as well as a deeper understanding of what motivates the Ersos and the main villain of Rogue One, Krennic.

Catalyst is not my favorite in the new canon but it is a must read for canon junkies. It explains a lot about the Death Star, where it came from, who built it, why it was built, and how they made it a super weapon.

Side note, I listened to this novel on Audible, and Jonathan Davis' performance was amazing and the overall production value was great!

I am a fan of James Luceno's writing, having enjoyed his other Star Wars books Darth Plagueis and Tarkin. This book, Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, provides great background on a few of Rogue One: A Star War Story's characters, namely Galen and Lyra Erso and Orson Krennic. Wilhuff Tarkin also features prominently in the novel. I really enjoyed the context this book gives surrounding the construction of the Death Star we see in Episode IV: A New Hope, in addition to Rogue One. If you're a Star Wars fan, give this book read. If you're a fan of the movie Rogue One, give this book a read. I enjoyed it, and while I can't guarantee you will, too, here's to hoping.

Do NOT waste your money on this product. This is barely a Star Wars novel. It reads like a three hundred page job resume. Galen has a job here. Then he gets a job there. Then he gets another job because his skills and resume are in demand. Krennic manipulates Galen along the way. Galen has a wife and a baby. BORING! In Catalyst, there is no: Yoda, Jedi, Force, Sith, droids (one has one funny line and disappears), Skywalkers, Rebel Alliance, Wookies, Ewoks (thankfully), Midichlorians (thankfully again), love story, hero story, Obiwan Kenobi, etc. Almost everything we love about Star Wars is absent in Catalyst. If you want to pay $20 to know what powers the Death Star (absent as well), then buy and read Catalyst. But be prepared to be incredulously bored in the process.

As a prelude to Rogue One, this novel helps to define characteristics and motivations of certain individuals present in the film; mainly Galen, Lyra and Krennic. Jyn Erso is more or less a passenger along for the ride as this is her parent's story. Much like Rogue One, this Novel brings you fairly close to the start of the film it precedes-although exact time passage from novel's end to film beginning is ambiguous. As a prequel of sorts it works well (better than the history of Star Wars prequels) and did keep me entertained in the description and execution of the tale. I have only attempted to read one other Luceno-Star Wars novel (Plageuis) and personally I was more locked in to this novel than the previous, which was about my favorite Sith Lord. Whether that's due to Luceno's flexibility as a writer or the boundaries of this particular type of tale,being a direct prelude to a motion picture, i do not know.

In closing, Catalyst was a good read that strengthens the Rogue One experience.

Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel details the events, characters and their related agenda around the development of the Death Star battle station. Central to the story is the manipulation of the scientist Galen Erso, whose research focuses on the generation of power from kyber crystals (the same ones used in Jedi lightsabers). Without revealing the plot details of the book, the genius of Galen is manipulated towards ends that he does not intend.

The viewpoint of the story follows five main characters: Galen Erso, his wife Lyra Erso, Imperial Commander/Engineer Orson Krennic, Governor/Moff Tarkin and Has Obitt; a smuggler. A few of the major Star Wars characters are mentioned in passing but have no direct interaction in the story.

The timeline of the story starts prior to the events of Revenge of the Sith. Count Dooku and the Separatists are still a threat and the Clone Wars are still creating havoc on multiple worlds. For the second act of the book the viewpoint jumps forward to a period a few years after the end of the Clone Wars and the destruction/disbanding of the Jedi Order. The newly formed Empire is tasked with chasing down pockets of Separatist resistance and these conflicts are used as justification for ever tighter control over the population of the Galaxy. The third act can't really be discussed without spoilers, but suffice to say that it involves a betrayal of trust, some shifts in allegiance and a glimpse at the beginnings of The Rebellion.

Pros:
- Luceno jumps in to the technology of Star Wars and the Death Star with both feet. If you enjoy the psuedo-science behind the Star Wars universe you won't be disappointed.
- Characters are all given sufficient back story and their choices and motives are spelled out
- The use of Clone Wars conflicts directly impacting Galen Erso is very effective for helping to understand his choices to go against his beliefs. I'd imagine we may even see some of this as flashbacks in Rogue One.
- Orson Krennic is an outstanding "villain" in this tale, using guile and manipulation to achieve his ends instead of direct violence. He's the classic sociopath; driven solely by his need to further his own power and influence.
- Luceno knows how to voice a character and paint a scene. I never felt like I was taken out of the story by his writing style or narrative voice. Contrast this to an author like Chuck Wendig who made me throw a book across a room with his ham-handed ineptitude as a writer.
- I loved the interplay between Krennic and Tarkin. These two characters come from different spheres of the Empire and both can be manipulative, but it's easy to see why Tarkin was seen in A New Hope and Krennic is (probably) dead.

Cons:
- Pacing is a tad uneven, and I often felt like nothing was really happening for pages at a time in the second act.
- I think we are meant to identify most with the character of Lyra, but she is very inconsistently painted as being both a strong-willed, adventurous naturalist and a caring mother willing to make concessions for the safety of her family.
- Action is thin and almost universally without consequence to the main characters of the story.

I didn't feel like Catalyst: A Rogue One novel was a book I'd read twice. The story is fairly linear and predictable, and more enjoyable for the characters it introduces than the adventure that they participate in.

Recommended as an entertaining backstory to what is sure to be the biggest movie of the year, but not required reading.

Rented as a library eBook. I've read many (20+) Star Wars books, and it's rare for me to stop reading a novel, let alone a Star Wars book, but after about a 1/3 of the way in, absolutely nothing is happening. Apparently Orsen Krennic and Galen Erso have a history together, which is gone over in excruciatingly slow detail. Since Rogue One is a one off, why exactly I should have any great interest in the background of these characters was lost on me. Recommend Tarkin or The Dark Lord by Luceno instead.

The sole purpose of this story is to give more depth to the events of Rogue One. There's nothing too grand within. With that said, having seen Rogue One in theaters at Christmas, and read Catalyst between February and March, I feel that the contents of this book are essential to getting the full impact of Rogue One.

You grow to love Galen, Lyra and Jyn Erso. Lyra is a major player in this book.
You learn why you hate Orson Krennic at the start of the film, and learn exactly where he fits within the Universe.
You get more Tarkin.

As far as scope It's a pretty nerdy read, meaning you aren't going to get a ton of action out of it... it's essentially giving you the "how" of the Death Star. Which to me, was extremely fascinating. It's not really a page turner or a barn burner, but those who seek more of an emotional investment to the new additions to the canon will definitely enjoy it. I liked it, and i bookend right into reading Rogue One's novellization, and it flows very nicely.

Hope you enjoy it.

It was great to know a bit more of the back story of my favorite movies of all time. I have never been much of a reader of these books but will definitely check more out. I will admit the book does start off pretty slow. There many places I almost outfit down,but it picks up when (spoiler) when Lyra starts to see through Orson.

I read this book before seeing the movie, and found it to be fairly dark and depressing, yet hopeful at the end. It's main theme is finding the courage to fight back against what seem to be overwhelming odds, which definitely supports Rogue One as well. My main gripe is that virtually everything any of the protagonists achieve in this book is nullified by the opening five minutes of Rogue One. Really, before I even saw a single shot of adult Jyn during Rogue One, I was already thinking, "Huh, I guess Catalyst was all for nothing." At least the book gives you a good look at the personalities of Orson Krennic and Galen Erso. Krennic in particular is a lot more interesting here than he is in the movie. A good read on its own, but given how the movie basically turns it into a big waste of time, I can't give it a full five stars.

I LOVED this book! I finished reading it and went to the theater and felt the two had a near-seamless transition. It switches from the perspectives of Orson Krennic, Lyra and Galen Erso, and toward the end we see Tarkin and Jyn. We see how Krennic manipulated Galen into researching for the Death Star and his rivalry with Tarkin. We see how Lyra is having trouble coping with the Empire after eradicating the Jedi and how her husband is obsessing over his work with the deceased Jedi's kyber crystals. The book ends with the perspective of Jyn and how she first sees and understands the Empire. Would recommend this to anyone before they see "Rogue One."

Catalyst (Star Wars): A Rogue One Novel is an excellent prequel to the overwhelmingly popular and well-scripted Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film. James Luceno depicts the life of scientist Galen Erso, his wife Lyra Erso, and the Director of the then Republic Special Weapons Group Orson Krennic. Catalyst offers wonderful insight on the genius philanthropist who wants nothing more than to create clean, reusable energy for the whole of the galaxy and especially for those planets struggling to survive... and how he fell into creating super weapons for the Empire.

As an avid audiobook listener--especially of the Star Wars variety--I can say with great confidence that Jonathan Davis always offers an extremely immersive experience for even novice Star Wars fans.

I thought this book did a great job detailing the end of the republic and the shift to the Empire. I particularly enjoyed Galen and Orson, and felt they were well expanded on from their roles in Rogue One. However, the last 100 pages dragged a bit. Still, solid read

The absolute most BORING Star Wars book I have ever read. I mean, its a back story, but it doesn't do anything that makes you happy you read it, or any more knowledgeable as to the events of Rouge One. There is no, "Ahhh, so that's why that happened in the book." Just a boring story that when you finish you just go, "That was a waste..."
This book was made on a bet that went something like this, "I be you I can write a book, a STAR WARS book no less, that has either "research" or "work" in every single paragraph. No joke. I'll create an entire novel around saying the words 'research' and 'work' as many times as I can. It's going to be great." The author uses those words sooooooooooo many times you start to dread reading it about every single page.
The story sucks, a researcher getting shuffled around from place to place.
Boring.
They talk about kyber crystals so that is kind of cool.
Very boring.
It is very tech heavy, but this is science fiction so they are making things up so you can care less.
It's a SERIOUSLY BORING BOOK.
Read it if you really want to, but if you want to start reading Star Wars books, STAY REALLY FAR AWAY FROM THIS until you have read many others.

This book lacked any real excitement or adventure. I liked it and it did provide some nice background information for Rogue One, but ultimately I was disappointed with the book.

I've read a lot of the Star Wars novels and I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of James Luceno, since I didn't care for the Darth Plagueis novel either, even though it was chocked full of information I found very interesting.

I had tepid expectations for RO and Catalyst after the disaster that was The Farce Awakens.
Reading this book before the movie painted a picture that was everything I hoped RO would be. Different. Taking risk.
Catalyst did this by being mundane, the most mundane and grounded SW book Luceno has written.
Expanding upon what was alluded to in the film, and giving a whole new dimension of character and how Galen, Krenic and Tarkin got to where they were.. While the film does enough required work to make the film work without Catalyst being required reading. Unlike Before The Awakening.
At the same time, Catalyst really breathes new depth into the movie as well. The Yin to it's Yang, it completes the picture. How the weapon works, the reverence and reluctance to allow access to the Kyber by the Jedi, how Saw comes into the picture, why Galen only refers to Orson by "Krennic" after he betrayed his friendship, I could go on.

The only thing i'd fault the book for, is that it is a lot slower and deliberate than a typical Star Wars Story. Which will no doubt turn off many people. To the same point, i'd fault the film for not quite including quite enough context and making the prelude act too short to keep the pacing fast.
It's not as poor as TFA was, but it was good enough to do the job.

So far I am loving everything Disney has done Pre-ROTJ era, they've nailed it. While everything Post-ROTJ has been completely mediocre, plays it too safe and excessively panders to a fault to emulating the rose tinted memories of a certain sub section of fans.

James Luceno does it again! I loved this novel. It works on every level, both as a prequel to Rogue One and as a story in its own right. I was totally invested in the Erso family, and Orson Krennic is looking to be one of my new favorite villains in the Star Wars lore. We get great insight into the minds and motivations of the characters, as well as some interesting information on how the Death Star was constructed. It also does a really fantastic job of bridging the prequel and original trilogy time periods.

I highly recommend you give this a read.

P.S. I also want to say that Mr. Luceno writes our favorite Grand Moff just as brilliantly as he did in "Tarkin."

It's a good character set-up for the new movie. I'm glad I read it, but it was predictable. I can't understand why you would write a book in this time frame, and have no appearance or action from Emperor Palpatine or Darth Vader. They are mentioned, but the fact they are not taking any action in the book is a huge missed opportunity in my opinion. I also found it very distracting that one of the main characters is named Has. I don't understand why the author has named him Has. I kept reading it as a verb, and not a character name.

Sorry I gotta be that guy. I hated it so much I actually returned it which I rarely do. It reads like one of those british made for TV melodramas. You know the type that's been going on for 50 years that they play in nursing homes. It starts off innocuously enough with a nice chase scene and the Erso family on the run from the separatists, but then we cut to Krennic having a conversation about rescuing the Erso's and employing them to work on the Deathstar with one of Palpatines cronies. This dialog of "intrigue" is about as tame as a wet napkin and I swear to god it went on for at least an hour before I finally gave up and shut it off(audible). It wasn't even some sort of verbal battle.
Krennic "So theres this guy"
Secretary "Ok?"
Krennic "he can build a weapon"
Secretary "ok?"
Krennic "we should hire him"
Secretary "sound good"
Imagine it taking an hour or say 20 pages to get from the first sentence to the last and they didn't argue or anything. It was like when you checkout at Target but the cashier desperately tries to start a conversation about the eggs you just bought. That was me trying to get through this book.
Reading the other reviews I get the impression thats all this is. Its like a tech manual that explains what happened to the Erso's pre-Rogue one. I was excited at first hoping something interesting happened behind the scenes that was worth writing a book about. Clearly nothing did. This one's a cash in plain and simple. skip it. *ITS A TRAP*

I saw Rogue One before I read this, so I can confidently say that this book certainly enhances the experience of watching the movie. It begins in the Clone Wars era and tells of the relationship between Galen and Orson and how each plays a part in the construction of a terrifying weapon station, the Death Star. The book added so much depth to certain scenes in the movie that I was emotionally moved when I wasn't as much so in prior viewings. Learn the whole story. Also I gotta say that the design of the book was awesome. There's really cool art on the title pages. Looking forward to a second read.

This is an excellent book. It is paced well the characters develop excellently. This book is superior to "Rogue One." Where Rogue one is fast paced and under developed this book focuses solely on the main character -- Galen Erso

Slow read. I like most of his books, I guess they didn't give him much to work on.

Spoiler: Galen (girls father from the movie) creates death star ray almost and unknowlingly. Tarkin takes over most of the death star planning from Krennic (imperial officer from movie). A few planets are taken over by the empire for some resources. Smugglers who help them do it become good at end. One is saw guerera (resistance righter from movie)

How do you judge this book? By the writing? By the story? By the changes to the story from what the EU had done to it? It fails at all of these so maybe it does not matter.

The writing was mediocre. The author had an amazing ability to not draw me in and not to leave me wanting more. The climax of the book happened about 1/3 of the way into the book. The last two thirds was even more painful of a slog. The use of thesaurus words and where the author would fit them became very predictable and neither added to the writing or the depth of the story. This was the first book by the author I have read and do not plan on looking into his other works.

The story...well there wasn't a story. The book had no point. There was no strong theme, not rush of events, not personal growth or development. This book like about as nutritious as a bag of equal except it didn't even taste sweet or have an aftertaste. The book spanned ~3-4 years of time in which nothing happened.

The book did accomplish one thing. It turned events and building of the death star from an interesting layered thing to a dull adaptation to use movie locations. Gone are the days of the black hole nebula. Gone is any love interest for Tarkin. Gone are the salves and prisoners who worked to create the death star and who had families and lives. Left is only a badly wrinkled blank page no longer suitable for writing on.

Do not waste your time, money, or thought on this book as it has nothing in it.

This book gives a great back story as to where the Death Star came from and about who the chief architects of the massive weapon were. It also gives you an idea of the other players from Rogue One actually were and why they fought.

tl;dr: meh

I've read most of James Luceno's Star Wars books and this one is okay. It's on par with Tarkin (almost) and definitely no where close to Plagueis. Catalyst plays to his strengths but also prominently displays his weaknesses. Luceno is very good with details and has an impressive ability to reference tiny details in the Star Wars universe. He's not especially good with stories or characters. Hardcore Star Wars continuity nerds won't want to miss this but, then again, they don't miss anything. More casual readers will find this dreary.

If you haven't read any other Star Wars books this one shouldn't be your first.

I listed to the audible book. The narrator was great. I loved how he did Orson Kennic and Lyra's voices. The book is great. I was upset when it ended, I didn't want it to. I fell in love with the Erso family. I'd been waiting for this since it was announced. It's very rich in story. It's a must for Star Wars lovers who are wanting to know what came before Rogue One. 10/10

In my opinion, Catalyst overall is Star Wars history in narrative form. It does not tell a compelling story with conflict, climax, and resolution. It is essentially the story of the construction of the Death Star including planning, resource allocation, political maneuvering, and malicious manipulation.

In general, I was impressed by Luceno's writing. The characters had me thinking, especially Orson Krennic, and the reading level of the book is probably up there at the high school level (as evidenced by the many times I had to google word definitions). I have not read any of his other Star Wars books, but, based on their titles, I am guessing they read very similarly to this one.

In general I would not recommend this book except to the most die-hard of fans. I thought I was one of those, but apparently I'm not.

Finally, a new Star Wars book to break the monotony of the Wendig disaster that is the Aftermath series. James Luceno is a staple of the Star Wars novels and needs to remain so. He has returned Star Wars novels to their glory days. There wasn't a ton of action in this book, but there was a ton of scheming, and though the movie has yet to be released, this prequel book sets it up very nicely. A great read.

Possibly my favorite novel of the new canon. Much like his "Tarkin" novel, Lucino hits it out of the park again. Incredible insight into the construction of the Death Star. If Rogue One is half as good as this, we will be in for a treat.

Ok, i am doing this to help out people. I have read only 50% of the book so far but like another review here i was confused as to where the book fits in the timeline of Star Wars.

Somewhat spoiler alert:

First of, the book starts roughly before the events of Revenge of the Sith. Galen and his wife are around doing their thing and Jyn is born roughly 2 years before Anakin turns into Darth Vader while Krennic starts to put things in motion to get the Death Star made. The book cover many years, a bit of history of how Dr Erso came to run into Krennic and their relationship between each other before Jyn was born and the events of Revenge of the Sith and then moves forward on to whatever the end game of the book is.

The Book does not take place straight right before Rogue One but rather the build up of all the events of Galen's Interaction with Krennic's probably end up just before Rogue One (movie ) and the movie will resolve the rest of their mutual stories while giving flashback to the book to make it make sense.

The timeline graphic is awkwardly placed in the book and i have made my opinion of it on Twitter. The book should have been prefaced with a small paragraph that states that the event of the book spans from the clone wars era, runs through Revenge of the Sith and end up at whatever time it ends up. That way people would not be confused about this book's timeline and the event that are taking place within it.

The book in itself is awesome so far. The character are vivid, the situations well explained and the book is not filled with too much techno babble linguo that is somewhat hard to decipher in some other sci-fi books. An absolute must by, despite the fact mentioned above.

Hope its clear as mud.

Cheers

Absolutely loved it. Adds a tremendous amount of back story to the film. The movie won't spend much time explaining Jyn's parents and Galen's connection to the Death Star project, but this book fully explores it.

Not sure why so many are giving this a high rating. Maybe they are just excited about Rogue One coming out. This is a very very s...l...o...w read. Not a page turner. Did not find the content interesting either. There are only a few characters in the story, and they are boring. It kind of... but barely, sets up Rogue One.

If you enjoyed the Darth Bane series or Darth Plagueis this is not the book for you. There is zero content of Jedi, Darth Vador, "Use the Force", dark vs light.... you know.... Star Wars "stuff". I would recommend Lost Stars instead of this book. I think it is a better representation of the Empire behind the scenes type of book than Catalyst. Not a fan...

One of the beat of the new books for Star Wars. Gives great insight into the story behind Galen Erso and Krennick. Not a lot of action, but very informative about the way the Empire's early years and the beginning of the Death Star building.

A very discombobulating 'tale' in the Star Wars Universe. Unfortunately for the 'fans' this is NOT Canon. (It's not even good 'writing'). All the 'fun-loving' characters Lucas 'gave' us in 1977 don't exist here. It's a 'completely different universe'.
The 'story' plods along like Jabba the Hutt trying to move a few yards. It's as static as Han Solo encased in carbonite.
If you are a Star Wars fanatic this 'book' may just either cure you or enforce it.

I purchased this book because I loved the Rogue One movie and wanted more of the backstory to the film. On the whole, the book was okay. It delivered an enjoyable story and definitely fleshed out the characterizations of Galen and Lyra Erso, and puts their actions in the film into perspective. The book also expands on Director Krennic's character, so if you are looking for more of him this is a good one to read. My major criticism is with the writing style - it just isn't very good and it made getting through the book somewhat more difficult than it had to be. It is certainly in sharp contrast to the writing style of Alexander Freed's Rogue One novelization, which I found fantastically well written. However, once I got into the story and could ignore the annoying writing style, I did very much enjoy the book.

This is by far the worst Star Wars book I have read to date. There are next to no details about the acquisition of the plans for the Death Star or how the war actually ended and each chapter includes a lengthy conversation where Lyra whines about the empire for no reason and Galen has to calm her down. Awful book.

James Luceno proving once again to be one of the best writers in the Star Wars EU (going back to the now "Legends" books). While not a fast paced action adventure romp like many Star Wars stories, this is a much needed story that helps cement to the new continuity. The film "Rogue One" was great on it's own, but I appreciated it that much more having been able to delve into the back story of the Ersos, and Krennic (the primary antagonist in the film). The novel also brilliantly portrays the last days of the Clone Wars and Republic, and it's transition into the Empire.

I really don't do review's on novels as there all subjective to an individuals tastes, but being as this is supposed to be a Star Wars novel you would expect some form of excitement.
You don't.
This novel reads like a sociology text book and not in a good way either. Uninteresting characters, unineresting story outlines.
I really liked the other two novels I read from this author this should have been sub-titled Star Bores.

I really enjoyed the book more. Gave a ton of insight into Galen Erso , Lyra, and young Jyn. Also great insight into Krennec, the building of the death star, kyber crystals, etc. Really good book for star wars fans.

I love reading all the Star Wars novels. This one I barely made past the third chapter. It was a painful read. I understand explaining new characters but none of them were interesting. Sorry to say I skimmed some of the pages because the book was so drawn out. Hopefully the movie is a million times better than reading this book.

The biggest crime of this novel is that it is dull. James Luceno is considered a premier Star Wars Universe Author, and this story just plain stunk. Very limited action, and mostly about the relationship of Galen Erso and his wife. In two words, "Who cares?".

Surprisingly I bought and read Catalyst after joining the widespread boycott of Rogue One (due to the writers' hateful social media comments toward white males). In any regards, Catalyst was a quick read. The writing was bland. Aside from a few new character introductions and learning about Death Star origins and mechanics, not much happens. Sadly, the only things I took away from Catalyst is that Galen (protagonist) is an emasculated male who depends on, and is protected by, Lyra, his exceptionally strong wife .... and how unfortunate it is to continuously see my beloved franchise become nothing more than a political platform for social justice; alienating over half of its American audience.

This was a really fascinating lead-in to the Rogue One story. Anyone who has read my previous Star Wars reviews knows that I am a Star Wars nut (sorry), but that I have been open minded about the changes (everything can do with a clean out now and then!), and I was willing to see what happened. Some things have suffered, but some things haven't.
The concept of standalone movies and stories is just so awesome in the Star Wars Universe (well unless we go back to cringe worth caravan of courage or the Star Wars Christmas Special…. Urgghhhhh)
Luceno has written a couple of prequel novels now, and he is good at it, giving us a nice lead in to the Movie, some background story, and something to think about for those that are fans or those that enjoy the expanded universe.
This is certainly no exception. Catalyst reaches all the way back to the middle of the Clone Wars, and the very start of the plans of the Death Star. It not only looks at the plans, but delves into the development of the Death Star, who built it, how it was built, and all sorts of background. It tells the story of Galen Erso, his wife Lyra, how he came to be involved with Orson Krennic, the families relationship with Saw Gerrera and how Saw became involved in it all.
There are multiple other characters as well, some that are just in this book, but many others that are introduced here only to be further evolved in Rogue One.
Whilst this might not be the classic Star Wars story in which there is a lot of fight scenes (sorry, that is sort of a spoiler, but not really), this is a very cleverly written book, that looks to engage the reader in the various Military and Political back stories that saw the creation of the Empire’s most powerful weapon.
For those that are true Star Wars fans, this book is a really exceptional story, full of clever twists and plots that will reveal all sorts of previously unknown information from the Clone Wars, all the way through to the years just before the Battle for Yavin. As someone who has always loved Star Wars canon, I found myself truly absorbed in this story as it lead closer to the stunning standalone movie that is Rogue One.
This is a truly compelling and brilliant story that is a must read for any Fan, and for anyone who wants to get some extra depth out of Rogue One.

I listened to this as an Audio book.
Pros:
Loved the Sound effects! (Almost makes you want to throw out the story and just listen to them)
Loved the Narrator, he read so well and had a bunch of voices up his sleeve.
The story helps you understand how Erso ended up on the remote planet he did, how his research came about.

Cons:
This to me was so dry. It has so much detail almost to the point where you could fall asleep. I never understood why they write star wars books with so much access almost as if we couldn't imagine it our selves and need assistance understanding. :/

Overall:
It was an OK novel with good information.

Like most of James Luceno's books, this is an intriguing insight into the characters of 2 men, Galen Erso the scientist and Orson Krennic the Republic and later Imperial officer who tries to manipulate Erso for his own ends. Catalyst was written with input from the filmmakers and Lucasfilm, so to me it feels a bit different than some of his other books, notably because of the need to establish the new characters of Erso and Krennic. Luceno writes villains so well that you actually root for them, despite their machinations. Krennic is quite likable, being a soldier coming through the ranks as opposed to someone like Tarkin who is part of the elite. Garmin does appear here and I love the political maneuvering between Krennic and Tarkin. If you've read the Tarkin novel, you will find him at his scheming best. The imperial power plays are my favorite parts of the book in addition to the background on the kyber crystals. The difference in this book is establishing Galen Erso and his family. Wife Lyra is interesting because she is force sensitive, but not a Jedi. Jyn is a child in this book, and we learn of her unusual early life. I know some fans don't quite "get" how Luceno writes. His books are more for those who want in-depth insight into the politics of the Star Wars universe, as he provides a great deal of fascinating information on how various factions act politically. This is a definite must read for Star Wars fans before seeing Rogue One, since you will need to know the history of Erso and Krennic. A great read and highly recommended.

I gave it 5 stars, but I don't know what to think about it.

I've always said: I don't care about tie-in novels, cartoons, comics - I want the story to be delivered in the main movies. If you can't do that, then you're just a bad storyteller.

But since I loved Rogue One, I gave this one a shot and marked other SW novels as something I want to read - in the near future, I hoped.

But now, I don't know.

While I can't say the novel is bad, it's not stellar, either. It's just like a filler episode. Prequels, sidequels, in-quels, whatever you may call them, can have the problem of being boring because we know what came before and what comes after. It is up to the author to make his story compelling and interesting nonetheless.

The problem here, while the story in general is interesting, there is nothing really compelling or more compelling than the little bits of information we got in the movie. And what I do hate are shoed-in mentions of things that happened in the movies (like the gladiator pit on Geonosis from Attack of the Clones).

But what I hate most and which is the main reason I was and remain against having to read a bunch of novels, comics and watch TV-shows for explanations of things in movies is this: while all those stories in all these media are considered "canon", they're not really canon. The moment someone making a new movie wants to retcon something that we had in the books, they will just do it. Heck, they probably won't even know about the book or what happened in it. Or if, by chance, they do know about it, they still choose to ignore it.

So, while this is a pleasant read - it's not really necessary. And it does not make you care more about the characters in Rogue One. Galen is not the most interesting person in the universe. Lyra just comes off as Jedi-obsessed. Jyn is too young, but does Luceno try and make her the Jyn from the movie as a toddler already. And I don't really care about Saw.

Especially the bland ending just shows you that this is nothing more than a story-filler. But hey, I repeat, it's not bad.

The sole purpose of this story is to give more depth to the events of Rogue One. There's nothing too grand within. With that said, having seen Rogue One in theaters at Christmas, and read Catalyst between February and March, I feel that the contents of this book are essential to getting the full impact of Rogue One.

You grow to love Galen, Lyra and Jyn Erso. Lyra is a major player in this book.
You learn why you hate Orson Krennic at the start of the film, and learn exactly where he fits within the Universe.
You get more Tarkin.

As far as scope It's a pretty nerdy read, meaning you aren't going to get a ton of action out of it... it's essentially giving you the "how" of the Death Star. Which to me, was extremely fascinating. It's not really a page turner or a barn burner, but those who seek more of an emotional investment to the new additions to the canon will definitely enjoy it. I liked it, and i bookend right into reading Rogue One's novellization, and it flows very nicely.

Hope you enjoy it.