It gets across what’s at the root of the story: a group of misfits trying to be heroes. Some of them don’t come across as misfits at first, and some definitely do. But they’re all imperfect people, trying to defy stereotypes and going through zany hijinks in order to get there.

[...]

Join the Resistance isn’t just a sequel trilogy tie-in for kids, but it’s a story that actually makes use of its TFA-era setting in ways I really don’t want to spoil. It’s different from Journey to the Force Awakens, with framing stories that were pretty unnecessary and irrelevant to the main story. And it’s different from Before the Awakening, which was designed as a character introduction. Instead, it invites the readers along with the characters to try to make sense of the political situation and what that means. There’s a lot of character intro stuff before that happens, but it means that I’m confident that the continuing books in this series will pull us even more into the TFA period and make great use of the setting. Combine the effective use of story setting with the compelling characters and the deft, humorous hand with writing and I’ll say I’m quite looking forward to the next books in the series.