Despite a slightly tedious middle section, when all character moments are set aside for plot progression, this was once again more than just some cheap set up for the TV Show. The obvious highlights were the cover characters, while Count Vader... I mean Darth Dooku... no... Count Vidian was a slightly inconsistent and unsurprising villain. The guy was once described as super smart only to suddenly lose all footing to become cheesy sadistic. It is no secret I did not care for yet another imperial cyborg with delusions of grandeur. He simply was your typical caricature.
The plot itself was interesting, but at its heart were the characters that shined brightest and super glued me to this book. I really did not feel, like this is a prequel to something, so it stands very well on its own.
Quite interesting was also yet another appearance of Sloane, who appeared here and there in earlier short stories. I like how we get an imp-character, that we can (maybe) root for on the side of the baddies. I am genuine interested to see where she is going.
Throughout reading the book I had one thought though, would it not have been much more interesting, if they scrapped Vidian and put Tarkin in his place. A demonic cyber-villain is very cliché, but if the antagonist would have been a military master mind, the very definition of a soulless bureaucrat - a human monster - that would be much more threatening. But I guess this is the dark times, when evil cyborgs rule supreme… but I do hope we will see less and less of such characters, they kind off undermine Vader’s uniqueness.

As the first novel of Lucasfilm Story Group's new canon, there has been high expectations for this novel. So, I'll state right out of the box that this is not Heir to the Empire 2.0. Neither is it a re-invention of the Expanded Universe, rather A New Dawn continues in the same style of Star Wars storytelling that we have all grown used to over the past twenty-three years: both of our story's heroes and villains are clearly defined within the Star Wars mythos. A New Dawn is as instantly recognizeable as being Star Wars as Heir to the Empire was.
Miller takes a small, tight cast of characters, who for differing reasons, find themselves together in a single location trying to reslove what, from the outset, would appear to be nothing than a minor local issue, but actually has ramifications for the whole galaxy should the "wrong side" succeed. Thus, our rather unlikely heroes, Kanan and Hera, are brought together as they assist a mining colony who find themselves being brought under the heel of an Imperial jackboot. And this particular jackboot is worn by one of the most sadistic and vile Star Wars characters ever created. Yet Miller takes time to explore this character's motives: loyal to Palpatine's Galactic Empire and some-one who clearly believes that the ends justify the means. On the otherhand, Miller also gives us Captain Sloane, a more idealistic Imperial while Kanan and Hera are partnered by a former Imperial surveillance operative who has had their "eyes opened" to Imperial methods. With Miller having a Master's Degree in comparative politics, readers will see parallels between Miller's depiction of the formative years of Palpatine's Empire and comparable times in 20th Century dictatorships, in particular Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. Yet however grim the situation appears for our characters, Miller subtely diffuses the difficulty, for both character and reader, with an injection of humour at just the right moment making A New Dawn an altogether pleasurable read.
Comparisons to Miller's last Star Wars offering, the award-winning Kenobi, are inevitable. While this book is not quite on the same par as Kenobi, perhaps due to the fact that in that book Miller captured the character of Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi so brilliantly (a characterization he repeats in A New Dawn's prologue), we have not had enough time to get to know Kanan and Hera in the same vein as we know Obi-Wan. But, as an introduction to two of Star Wars Rebels leading characters, and as the first novel in a new storytelling approach to the Star Wars universe, and as a Star Wars novel, A New Dawn is an enjoyable, entertaining and pleasurable read.

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