Fourteen year-old Ezra Bridger lives alone on the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. He fends for himself by picking up odd jobs and hustling the unsuspecting Stormtrooper. But when Arena Day arrives--an underground tournament where mighty beasts battle to the finish and all the swindlers, gamblers, and no-gooders come from all corners of the planet to make a profit--Ezra is whisked into an unlikely partnership with the fearsome bounty hunter Bossk and enmeshed in a high-stakes chase against an endless fleet of troopers. Ezra isn't willing to trust anyone, but he soon learns that surviving doesn't always mean just fending for himself.
Ryder Windham is an American sci-fi author who has written over sixty Star Wars books, including novels, comics, reference books, and so on. He has also written junior novelizations for Indiana Jones movies. Since 1993, he has been working on Star Wars projects either by himself or with other authors. His reference book Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks in 2005. Although he has written lots of books, accepted interviews, and appeared at several fan-conventions, little is known about his personal life.
This is a children's book that takes place before the beginning of the television show. In this one, Bossk travels to Lothal for a bounty and Ezra is hired to be his guide. Hijinks ensue.
Going into this one I didn't think it would work. There is no way that a team up between Bossk and Ezra would work. I am here to say that it actually does work. This book was fun as we get to see Bossk and Ezra in your basic buddy cop adventure as they try to evade the Imperials that are on the planet. The highlight of this book was the portrayal of Bossk. I have read other portrayals of Bossk where they depict him as dumb oaf and there is no way that he could last as a bounty hunter. This book doesn't paint him as the most intelligent being but gives him some competence as well as his brute nature. The portrayal of Ezra was well done as we get to see him as the brash kid we meet in the opening season of the television show. As for the story nothing new here. An Imperial commander is corrupt and running illegal activities on the planet he is suppose to be monitoring. Like I said nothing really new to the overall arc.
This was better than I thought it was going to be. It was meant to be fun and it was. There are enough callbacks and sightings of various species to keep all Star Wars fans interested and it was a nice prequel to the television show.
This was awesome! I really enjoyed seeing Ezra working with Bossk in this story. Bossk is a popular bounty hunter that appears in The Clone Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and some other books. It was really interesting seeing a bounty hunter getting help from Ezra and actually really cute. It was an easy, quick, well written story that I totally recommend. I also appreciated the very ending and how they connected it to the beginning on the Rebels tv show.
This was a fun one. It's really short and it's enjoyable to see Ezra running with Bossk for a while. This also follows Ezra relatively close to when he meets the Ghost crew, as he's fourteen in here. There's a tie-in at the end of this book that I really liked, too.
Also - this isn't the first time Star Wars has pulled this, but it still gets me. Seriously, that still gives me chills.
3.75/5 stars. Nothing critical here; this was just a fun glimpse into Ezra on Lothal. I'm going to enjoy getting to Servants of the Empire next.
An Ezra and Bossk team-up seems extremely random, even for the standards of a Star Wars galaxy where every named character knows every other named character, and unfortunately this book never quite got past the sense that Bossk's name had been pulled out of a hat. The plot is fine, I guess; the writing is simplistic, with no real space given to getting into characters' heads and giving them interiority. Acceptable for a kid who's really into Rebels and Just Wants More, but not much to feed adult interest.
Simple, straight-forward, yet enjoyable young reader novel. Read it mostly out of curiosity as I had heard some of the Star Wars books aimed at younger audiences were pretty decent even for adults, and I don't regret spending an hour reading through it.
Excellent original story set before the events of the Star Wars Rebels show. Action, excitement, intrigue, danger, and some A+ banter between Ezra and Bossk. Ryder is an excellent writer and perfectly captures that Star Wars feel.
This story is basically a prequel to the Rebels show, and ends running right into the show. Ezra and the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk end up teaming together for a short time on what starts out as ostensibly an easy task but ends up involving danger from a corrupt Imperial official.
This one is a bit different than the other Rebels book I read in that it’s original content, not a novelization of Rebels episodes. Not essential reading by any means, but a fun read for kids maybe 3rd grade and up in love with the show!
A very cute middle grade Star Wars Rebels adventure. Ezra is content swindling rich visitors on Lothal, when Bossk shows up though he gets roped into a fast-paced Bounty Hunter adventure. This is fairly short; there wasn't a bunch of fluff. It very much read like a Rebels episode. Ezra by the end does get that taste for something more off world. I think younger Star Wars fans will enjoy this to the point story.
A fairly mundane and childish story, but it’s a child’s story so that’s a fair assessment. It does however have some fan service in putting Bossk in the story alongside Ezra, and it even goes so far as to make him out to be a good guy as well.
Ezra's Gamble is a bit of a prelude to Star Wars Rebels, introducing the character of Ezra Bridger and his homeworld of Lothal and getting you ready for the adventure that's about to begin. I'm a bit late to the party with this series, as Rebels has been finished for a while now, so it's nice to go back to the beginning and start meeting all of the characters again.
As you might guess based on the cover, the story is an unlikely team-up of Ezra and the bounty hunter Bossk, famous from his appearance in The Empire Strikes Back and later showing up again in The Clone Wars animated series. Thinking back to when this came out, at the time he was the known character and Ezra was brand new, so it was a nice way of including something fans were familiar with amid all of the things being introduced for the first time.
The story itself is fairly straightforward, with a bounty hunt gone wrong that Ezra somehow finds himself caught up in. There's a lot of action to keep you interested, but also a good amount of detail about things on Lothal that will come into play as the TV show gets going.
Overall I certainly enjoyed Ezra's Gamble and seeing the unexpected pairing of the two protagonists. If you enjoyed Star Wars Rebels and want some more adventures from Lothal, you should definitely give it a read!
I am fond of the Star Wars fictional universe: I have a nostalgic attachment to it, and despite some drops in quality along the way (e.g. The Phantom Menace), recent installments like Rogue One, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi were even better than the original series. Because of this fondness, I started reading some of Star Wars books during my commute or doing some chores. The quality is not always great, but they are usually at least enjoyable. This is the story of fourteen year-old Ezra Bridger. He lives alone on the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. He fends for himself by picking up odd jobs and hustling unsuspecting stormtroopers. But when Arena Day arrives, an underground tournament where mighty beasts battle to the finish and all the swindlers, gamblers, and no-gooders come to make a profit, Ezra is whisked into an unlikely partnership with the fearsome bounty hunter Bossk. He find himself ensnared in a high-stakes chase against an endless fleet of troopers. Ezra isn't willing to trust anyone, but he soon learns that surviving doesn't always mean just fending for himself. It is a cute prequel to the animated series Star Wars Rebels that I have not seen yet. I was definitely not part of its target audience, it is intended for very young readers, and that clearly limited its enjoyability.
This was my first canon Star Wars Junior novel, so I was very curious as to how "kiddish" it would be. And the verdict for me is essentially no more than the early episodes of Clone Wars, Rebels, or Resistance. Which was a nice surprise. Actually, I was very surprised at how much trust Windham had in his readers with regards to Star Wars lore. The book had tons of hints towards larger stories and many different alien, planet and ship names that were written extremely casually. The "adult" Rebels prequel novel, A New Dawn, in comparison, stayed away from naming too many different aliens— often sticking to Besalisks among many common other species. But Ezra's Gamble named many different unique species, often with loose descriptions that (would be enhanced by checking Wookiepedia, but) would be completely follow-able just with the words on the page.
So, it being a junior novel allowed me to forgive some instances, however, overall... There really wasn't anything all too alarming about it. The book was pretty straightforward in its story-telling and by design, that worked. Although it felt a little odd that Bossk (out of all the bounty hunters in the galaxy) would have met the main protagonist from Rebels, if you take into account that he was on Clone Wars and pretty much would look the same in this era, i completely understand why they would have him in— for familiarity. Nevertheless, being that Bossk is one of my favorite bounty hunters, it was a thrill to read him in a new adventure even if it was a bit forced as well as his care for Ezra because I understood why it was him and just took it for what it was. And speaking of Ezra, he surprised me as a character. Having not fully dived into Rebels, this was pretty much my introduction to him and personally I found it to be a great introduction. That’s pretty much my whole take on this. Its a fabulous introduction to Rebels and makes me want to jump right in! There’s not much to elaborate on aside from the fact that if you’re looking for a fun and quick action-adventure sory and/or a fun Rebels prequel... I highly recommend reading this.
Ezra’s Gamble shows that while not perfect, Star Wars stuff for young readers doesn’t have to be bad or cheaply written.
Unlike some of the other books in this bracket, Ezra’s Gamble tells an enjoyable story of Ezra Bridger and his dealings with Bossk. While that sounds like a mess, Windham mostly pulls it off, keeping the story going and, at the same time, giving some backstory to both Ezra and Bridger.
The problem though is that in writing for younger readers, Windham has to make Bossk far less menacing and deadly. I mean, he’s a freakin bounty hunter, yet in this book he uses stun blasts and not outright lethal force? And being a Trandoshan, Bossk’s vocabulary and grasp of Basic shouldn’t be nearly as astute as it is here.
But I digress as I’m being far too nitpicking for a book that is geared for readers 25 years younger than me. And, as I always say, bringing more young readers into the fold with Star Wars novels that do tend to be way better than what I had growing up, is always a plus.
Being a huge fan of Rebels and of the character Ezra I was thrilled to find this book and more especially as it's on Kindle Unlimited. Now this is a junior book so it isn't long or complicated and is wrote for a young audience but I just couldn't help myself.
This was from a time before Rebels when Ezra thought more of others than of himself. I do like seeing the more selfish side of this character especially as the changes you see in Rebels makes it feel all the more real.
Seeing Bossk who I always kind of felt was underdeveloped but still was one of my favourites just on looks alone. I always thought he seemed so intimidating and that he seemed even more so than most of the other bounty hunters to me including Boba Fett who while more powerful overall just didn't give me the fear that Bossk did.
This is quite fast paced with lots of action which really does make me happy. I love a fast paced book that has a lot of action especially when it deals with some of my favourite characters.
Interesting story and loved how you got to see the real Bossk.
So here's the second installment in the Star Wars Rebels series, and it was also extremely enjoyable. Ezra is a very likable character with hints of a very tragic past. He is funny, quick, and very independent. He encounters Bossk, a popular bounty hunter in Star Wars canon, and helps him with a mission. This makes for some funny banter and interesting situations.
This is an easy read, again meant for a younger audience, and puts Bossk in a different light than he's been seen before. I'm not really sure why people are not enjoying these books. It just feels like they want to hate on what Disney is doing with Star Wars so much so that it's just silly.
But anyway, this was fun for me to read. I read it in one sitting last night. Five out of five stars.
Taking place before the events of Star Wars: Rebels, this story teams up Ezra Bridger with the notorious bounty hunter Bossk, who absolutely steals the show.
Bossk is loads of fun, and there is some good snarky interplay between him and Ezra and they are thrown into a succession of dangers when Bossk gets set up by a corrupt Imperial officer.
With the younger intended audience, the violence was toned down a bit (lots of "stun charges" were fired), but not entirely, and in the end the adventure definitely ran up a body count.
The pacing was fast, and there was a lot of clever action, especially on some high-speed chases through city streets. The villain was ruthless, although he fell into several classic villain tropes.
All said, this exceeded expectations, and Star Wars fans will likely find it a quick, fun read and a nice addition to the Rebels adventures.
When first going into this book you have to keep in mind this is a story that is geared towards a younger audience. With that being said, it was an interesting tale that tied in the bounty hunter Bossk with Ezra's adventures and leads right up into the beginning of Rebels. It was interesting to see Bossk again and how he interacted with a child he didn't know. The story is a good recommendation for youths who enjoy Star Wars or for any hardcore Star Wars fan that would like to expand on their knowledge if the lore of this universe as long as they don't mind going through a read that is a bit childish.
I have only read a few of the books tied to Rebels and most of them are an adaptation of episodes. I really enjoy reading them regardless. However, this story was an original one that takes place just before the start of the series. I think that is part of the strength of this novel. I enjoyed more than the others, simply because it's original. This was a fun, short adventure with Ezra and Bossk. There is plenty of action and the characters were written authentically. The Rebels characters are great. I would love more adult and YA novels of their adventures. Perhaps some day we will get more.
Now this was your typical tie in novel. Although it was written competently, it featured some forced team up, resulting in a wild chase and ending in a rather cliche way. The characterization was ok, I guess, but I did not care for the story. If it was an episode of the TV-Show it would be considered a fast paced filler. Among all the books from the new canon I read to date, this is the true skip-able one.
This was a great little story about Ezra Bridger before he met up with the crew of the Ghost. Actually set right before Spark of the Rebellion, it tells the story of how Ezra aided a famous bounty hunter named Bossk. Bossk has come to Lothal to legitimately claim a bounty when he is beset by Imperial trouble. He and young Ezra team up. Ezra shows his cleverness along the way. A fun, short entertaining read for Rebels fans of all ages.
I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but it exceeded expectations. It's a junior novel primarily in length, and is as well-written as many adult and YA books in Star Wars canon. It's enjoyable getting into Ezra's hijinks before he joins up with the crew of the Ghost, and we all know that Bossk shows up all over the place, making him a good addition. Overall, a good story.
Not long ago, I finally got around to watching Season 1 of STAR WARS REBELS. Though far from great, it was certainly enjoyable, and far better than I'd expected. In many ways, this book left me with the same impression. As an adult, I found it to be a fun little time-waster. However, it does have a very cartoonish feel, and very little about the story feels in any way plausible.
For a junior kids novel this was pretty good. It was a fun storyline including two iconic Star Wars characters. Ezra is as loveable as in the series with his youth still intact whilst Bossk delivers a funny relationship putting them together
Probably wouldn’t read again but it was very cute and enjoyable
This was my son’s bedtime story. We read one and enjoyed then decided to go back and start from the beginning. I have to admit that this one was just okay. I’m not really sure what it was about it, but we didn’t enjoy this as much. But we will continue one with them, as he is a big Star Wars fan.
I enjoyed parts of this. Boskk is particularly fun. But I felt Ezra's characterization was a little flat and distant from how he is on the show. Overall it's not bad.
Not a bad junior novel. The writing was reasonably fast-paced and in many ways, it felt very bond-esk. The ending was good but could have gone without trying too hard to connect to Star Wars: Rebels. I can think of so many other better wars it could have connected.
Yknow I was never really into Bossk before, but this book actually made me really like him. It helped that we saw a different side of him from just the merciless bounty hunter. But yeah, this was a short but very fun book. I very much enjoyed it.