I think I’m getting geekier as I get older. I caught it from my kid. He’s just getting into Star Wars (and Marvel stuff), and he came to it by way of cartoons on Disney XD. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, “Star Wars Rebels” is an animated series, which is about to start its second season. The show takes place between Episodes 3 and 4 – the Empire is in charge, the Jedi are underground, and no one is happy.
On the show, there is a small group who are working to undermine the Empire and help the people, although they haven’t officially called themselves “rebels” yet. The leaders of the group are Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla. This book is the story of how Kanan and Hera met and joined together to mess with the Empire.
Kanan Jarrus (not his original name) was a Jedi in training when the clone wars started and Order 66 was issued. He’s been on the run ever since, basically out Han Solo-ing Han Solo (he’s got quite a bit of Mal Reynolds in him as well). While doing a job that keeps him off the Empire’s radar, he encounters some of the evil things that the Empire is doing to innocent citizens. Kanan’s trying to stay out of entanglements, but he’s also a Jedi at heart and can’t help but get involved and helping. Which of course gets him into trouble. He teams up with Hera (and a few others) to expose the truth about what the Empire is doing, and put a stop to it.
It isn’t necessary to be steeped in Star Wars lore to enjoy this book. It isn’t even necessary to have seen Star Wars Rebels, especially since this is backstory for that show anyway. If you’re at all into science fiction of any genre, this is an enjoyable story of good vs. evil that set me on my way to reading more Star Wars expanded universe novels. Especially ones by John Jackson Miller.
You should never be ashamed to watch cartoons. There are some really excellent cartoons to be watched. Is your kid into the Airbender universe yet? If not, you should get him into so you can watch, too :)
I haven’t read this book yet, or seen Rebels, but I did watch all of Clone Wars because it’s on Netflix, and the latter seasons of it were really fun! Hopefully Rebels streams somewhere soon so I can watch it.