Rebel Rising — The Andor Season 1.5 Story You Need To Read

I’ve found that in general, Star Wars fans tend to rank Rogue One very highly when told to rank the Star Wars movies. People love it for its darker tone compared to most pieces of Star Wars media, the way it masterfully emulates the look and feel of the original trilogy, and the way it bravely kills off its entire main cast in a way that feels earned and leaves the audience on a note of hope. However, most Star Wars fans do agree that the Rogue One cast does not feel very fleshed out in the movie itself. While this can be seen as a strength by some to have, essentially, everyday people be the ones to change the galaxy, others view it as a weakness and desperately want to get to know Jyn, Cassian, Baze, Chirrut, Bodhi, and K-2 more, to get to know what made them who they are going into Rogue One.

To address this, the series Andor has given us Cassian’s origin story (and will give us K-2’s next season). The show released to widespread acclaim from the Star Wars fandom for its portrayal of the dark side of the Rebellion through characters like Luthen Rael, its demonstration of the nuances of the Empire through characters like Dedra Meero, and the way it made the galaxy feel big, building out new worlds like Ferrix and Aldhani.

But today, I’d like to share a companion story to Andor with you all, a story that every single Andor fan should read. This story is remarkably similar to Andor in its tone and thematic material, exploring the nuances of the Galactic Civil War. It’s incredibly dark and at times, it may leave you feeling hopeless, but in the end, it gives you a feeling of fulfillment and hope. And like Andor, it stars a main character of Rogue One — in this case, Jyn Erso.

That story is Rebel Rising, by Beth Revis, and here are the (non-spoiler) reasons why you should read it:

It changes the way you watch Rogue One

This book essentially bridges the gap from the opening scene of Rogue One to the rest of the film — essentially, it covers the life of Jyn Erso from the moment Saw finds her on Lah’mu to the moment she’s rescued on the Wobani prison by Melshi. This book primarily covers Jyn’s years with Saw Gerrera and how she was raised to be the best fighter in his cadre. We see Jyn go on missions with brutal Partisans, often as the youngest member of the group who serves as the team’s slicer. As she gets older, we see her train to use the truncheons (which she used during Rogue One on Jedha!) and become a hardened rebel fighter. But most important, we see the bond between Saw and Jyn. Even though war is all that Saw knows, we see Saw truly try to become a father to Jyn in place of Galen Erso. Saw encourages Jyn to look past Galen and to think of him as nothing more than an Imperial. In this way, we follow Jyn’s mental journey from longing for her father to eventually hating him and accepting Saw as her father.

Rogue One can never be watched the same way after reading this novel, as so many of the scenes with Jyn, Galen, and Saw just hit differently. The scene where Jyn sees Galen’s message and the scene where Galen dies hit so much harder now that we see how much it took for Jyn to open herself back up to loving her father after hating him for so many years. The scene where Jyn reunites with Saw is much more emotional — after seeing Saw as a front-line rebel fighter in this novel, we now see him as a broken shell of himself, just as Jyn does. But most importantly, we truly feel Jyn’s sacrifice on Scarif. The book goes to show that in her life, she had very few moments of happiness, and those moments that came to her were quickly taken away by the Empire. Ultimately, she never was able to live a life of peace, and her sacrifice for the Rebellion hits incredibly hard after reading this novel.

It delves into Saw Gerrera and the Partisans

Saw is someone who fights what he hates without regard for saving what he loves — primarily due to having lost both his planet, Onderon, and his sister, Steela. In this book, we see the emotional side of him that tries to be a father figure to Jyn, which is a side of him we didn’t even see in the Clone Wars. Despite everything he’s been through, he still truly wants the best for Jyn, and their chapters together were very heartwarming to read. In addition, the exploration of the Partisans was something I thoroughly enjoyed about this novel. The Partisans have always compelled me as a group since I saw Rogue One — watching them ambush an Imperial convoy in the streets of Jedha, you’d almost think they were the villains. We meet Partisans in this book who do some truly brutal things in against the Empire — there’s a particular sequence on a Core World, Inusagi, that might be one of the most violent scenes I’ve read in Star Wars. It’s not violent for the sake of being violent, it’s violent because it makes sense for the story — you can see these Partisans fighting side by side with Luthen Rael and Cinta Kaz and the other more brutal fighters from Andor. These are truly broken people who will go to any lengths to take down the Empire. In this novel, we see some Partisans become disillusioned with Saw and join the main Alliance, but we also see people radicalized by his cause and give in to a life of darkness and war, and it’s incredibly compelling to read about.

It delves into Jyn’s time in prison

If you liked the prison arc in Andor, you’ll definitely appreciate the prison chapters in Rebel Rising. The book spaces out six chapters throughout the story delving into Jyn’s time in prison, and these chapters were the highlight of the story for me. The prison system on Wobani is incredibly similar to Andor’s portrayal of the Narkina 5 prison, and Jyn’s mental and physical struggles with prison life — everything from brutal Imperial wardens cracking down on the prisons, other prisoners losing hope and killing themselves, and Jyn’s own mental struggle to hold on the hope at the absolute lowest point in her life — these are the chapters that made me realize this book is a masterpiece. They were incredibly emotional, and at the end of one prison chapter, I had to set the book down and recover for a few minutes — it was that emotional and well-written.

It builds out the galaxy, introducing great new worlds and characters

This book and several other pieces of Star Wars media (Andor and Shadow of the Sith are among them) do something that I can’t quite express in words how it happens — they make the Star Wars galaxy feel big. We’re introduced to numerous new characters, new planets, new species, new cultures — and they’re all so compelling and well-written. In particular, I thought Xosad Hozem, Idryssa Barruck, Reece Tallent, and Hadder Ponta were some of the standout new characters in this novel, and the worldbuilding on Five Points, Inusagi, and Skuhl was very compelling and enjoyable to read about.

It’s the most emotional Star Wars book I’ve read — and makes Rogue One hit ten times harder

There’s a moment in this book at the end of its second act where Jyn is at her lowest point after losing some people she was close to (no spoilers here!). There’s a chapter after that where she walks around aimlessly around a station, trying to find some credits and a place to stay for the night, and she ends up in a random closet and collapses, crying. There’s a similar beat in the novel during a prison chapter where after one of Jyn’s inmates commits suicide, she’s forced to contemplate whether there is hope at all. Whether any light connects the stars in the galaxy at all, or whether there’s nothing but darkness between them.

And despite everything, she never gives up hope. She holds onto her mother’s kyber crystal and never decides to give up.

For these scenes alone, and the buildup to them, and their subsequent payoff — this is the most emotional Star Wars novel I’ve ever read. It single-handedly made Jyn Erso one of my favorite Star Wars characters. It nails the tone of Andor, making the galaxy feel dark and delving into the nuances of the Rebellion. It makes Rogue One hit ten times harder. And above all, it’s just a powerfully written story that I still think about, despite having read it six years ago.

I cannot recommend it enough — and after reading this novel, seeing the Death Star be destroyed is never more satisfying.