Read an article today called '27 Force Awakens questions answered by the novelization'
http://mashable.com/2015/12/29/force.../#RmHd7sRRKPqM
Amongst other things it gives a little bit more fleshing out to the state of the Republic and what the First Order is all about.
The First Orders goal is basically stated by Kylo Ren:
“... It is the task of the First Order to remove the disorder from our own existence, so that civilization may be returned to the stability that promotes progress. A stability that existed under the Empire, was reduced to anarchy by the Rebellion, was inherited in turn by the so-called Republic, and will be restored by us. Future historians will look upon this as the time when a strong hand brought the rule of law back to civilization.”
It also gives a bit more depth to the First Orders reasons for destroying that system:
"Their center of government, its entire system. In the chaos that will follow, the Resistance will have no choice but to investigate an attack of such devastating scale. They will throw all their resources into trying to discover its source. So they have no choice but to investigate fully, and in so doing…"
"Reveal themselves.”
One of my issues with the film was also that I didn't get the galactic feeling from it. When the Starkiller base fired, then people on other planets could see both the beam and the exploding planet, it made it feel (to me) that it was all happening in one Solar System. Then when people went into hyperspace only to seemingly get to their destination in minutes rather than hours or days, it all just felt very compressed.
Hopefully when I see the movie again I wont feel the same way.
