Star Wars Visions: Ronin: A Visions Novel
Author: Emma Mieko Candon
Cover Art: Kotaro Chiba
Publisher: Del Ray
After watching the first short in the Star Wars Visions: The Duel and being blown away by the animation and the story that was set in a Feudal Japan far, far away, I was excited to come across this book while roaming the bookstore. I instantly snapped it up and didn’t even wait to get home before I started reading it. For those who have seen the animated short, the book begins with a near faithful retelling of the short itself with a few notable changes.
Ronin, as he’s presented to the reader, is the same sullen wanderer, accompanied only by his faithful droid, roaming the countryside of a Star Wars-esque representation of feudal Japan. While the short would have his wanderings seem aimless, the book however, has Ronin being driven by a voice that points him toward Sith in the hopes that one will eventually take his life. After defeating the Sith, the voice spurns him onward, and it is revealed that the power of the voice has resurrected the defeated Sith who follows behind on a quest for revenge. As the story progresses and Ronin’s journey draws him closer and closer to the source of the voice, he’ll join a diverse cast of accomplices as he battles his way across the galaxy toward a planet once destroyed by the power of the Sith.
Ronin suffers from some serious pacing issues and can be quite confusing for readers who can’t give it their full attention. After the initial clash, Ronin is forced onto a journey he doesn’t want to make. As he reluctantly retreads his footsteps toward a past he doesn’t want to confront, we the readers are likewise dragged through this alternate world. The fluctuations between battles and world building are jarring and I think the writer, in an attempt to inject a bit of intrigue, makes the characters and their motivations a bit too complex. Character motivations and actions are all over the place from chapter to chapter, with very few being able to maintain a solid “arc” throughout the story.
Where Ronin excels is in the environmental details. The author does an amazing job in describing the environments and the best bits of the storytelling lead to me being able to close my eyes and imagine the spaces the author described. To see in terms of what the environment looked like, the beauty of some and the devastation in others. But these deviations to describe the world tend to be the main reason why Ronin suffers these pacing issues. More often than it should, these descriptive moments cut into moments of character building and revelation like a bomb. At one point in the story, Ronin comes across a mcguffin and while the audience is getting the backstory of this thing that’s so integral to the story, the author drifts off on a page long description of what the environment he’s standing in looks like, sight and sound, completely breaking the moment.
I really wanted to like Ronin. As I mentioned, I was excited to see it was adapted into a novelization. It started strong as well, easily drawing me in with the initial conflict between Ronin and the Sith. However, as the story progressed, the excitement drained with the momentum. It was very interesting to imagine a manga inspired version of Star Wars, however for most I’d recommend just rewatching Visions.
-Eric Snell
esnell@comicattack.net
