When it was announced that Emma Mieko Candon would be writing a novel based around “The Duel” short from the first season of Star Wars: Visions, it was exciting. Candon’s book Ronin: A Visions Novel would expand upon what was seen in “The Duel” going even deeper to the world created by Kamikaze Douga. Visions was a revolutionary idea from Lucasfilm, allowing Japanese anime studios to tell a Star Wars story of their creation not bound by the existing canon. As volume two expanded to animation studios around the world, we’ve been treated to eighteen unique and fun stories.
In “The Duel”, the Jedi Empire and a breakaway sect known as The Sith have ended their war. A man known only as The Ronin shows up at a village under attack by bandits of former stormtroopers led by a Sith. While the Ronin’s droid B5-56 saves the villagers, The Ronin fights and kills the Sith, revealing himself to be a former Sith as well. After he kills her, he adds her red kyber crystal to his growing collection. The Ronin gives the crystal to the villagers, promising that it wards off evil.
Candon begins their novel with a retelling of “The Duel” before telling an expanding story. The Ronin meets and begins to travel with Chie, a bounty hunter who hunts Jedi Knights; Ekiya, a former Sith conscript and pilot of the Poor Crow; and the Traveler, a man surrounded by mystery. Unfortunately, this is as far as I feel comfortable talking about the plot without spoiling the story.
Candon does a great job contextualizing the Star Wars mythology in a Japanese mythological and historical context. As someone who reads so much of the Star Wars canon, it was difficult at times for me to partition my brain to remember that I had to ignore existing Star Wars canon and that this was always loosely connected to the franchise. I did struggle with the first half of the book; however, once I crossed the “set up” threshold, things flowed much easier.
I would be interested in reading a review of this book by someone who isn’t an already established Star Wars fan. I don’t think you would need to even have basic knowledge of Star Wars to enjoy the book, but I think knowing what canonical history is puts the story told in the book in an interesting context. I believe that with a few tweaks even this story could fit the historical context of the Star Wars timeline.
I liked Ronin, and what Candon did in their storytelling. Again, I don’t want to go into much detail for fear of spoilers of a great story here, one that I didn’t see coming.
You can pick up the book here.
