My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With the end of the Skywalker saga of movies and shows like The Mandalorian, Star Wars has begun to move away from the titular Skywalker family drama and delve into the unexplored eras of that galaxy far, far away. With Light of the Jedi, Star Wars began to tell the tales of the High Republic, an era in Star Wars history between the Old Republic and the Prequel era. Not even the pre-Disney Expanded Universe had touched upon this roughly 1,000 year period of Star Wars history where the Sith are believed to be extinct and the Republic and the Jedi are at the peak of their influence and power. In this first YA novel of the series, Ms. Gray has written a great action story that connects well to the events of that first novel, but is far enough removed from that book’s events to tell its own exciting tale.
Reath Silas is apprenticed to Jedi Master Jora Malli, a member of the Jedi Council who has just taken an assignment on the Republic’s new Starlight Beacon, an assignment Reath is not particularly fond of. While Master Malli goes on ahead, Reath takes passage with two other Jedi Knights and a Jedi Wayseeker aboard a small vessel with an unusual crew. But when a disaster in hyperspace strands them on an uncharted space station, this motley crew must work together to uncover a hidden evil and keep it out of the hands of others.
While I have read many Star Wars novels, this is actually my first YA Star Wars novel. But don’t let that designation deceive you. This book is just as exciting as any Star Wars novel written for adults. Indeed, despite there being only one lightsaber fight in the entire book, there is a great deal of excitement throughout. But there is also a mystery too as the abandoned space station harbors an evil that is making both Jedi and non-Jedi characters very nervous. The reveal at the end is incredibly satisfying too and sets off a climatic battle to contain this evil and keep it out of the hands those who would seek to abuse its power.
But this isn’t an isolated tale. As part of the High Republic series, this book is connected to a larger story in two ways. First, the hyperspace disaster that grounds our main characters on this space station is the same disaster from Light of the Jedi. Also, the main villains from that novel, the Nihil, make an appearance in this novel. What is great about this novel though is that while connected to and informed by this larger story, Ms. Gray is telling her own tale. You do not have to have read Light of the Jedi to enjoy this novel and vice versa, though I would recommend that you don read both.
Another great aspect of this book is the characters. All of the characters are engaging on every page. Reath is a book nerd on his first big adventure; Affie Hollow is a teenage pilot with a tragic past and a colorful co-pilot; Jedi Knight Dez Rydan is a former apprentice of Master Jora Malli’s who craves adventure and acts as an older brother to Reath; Jedi Knight Cohmac Vitus harbors an old, private grief that he has never fully reconciled; and Orla Jareni is a Jedi Wayseeker, a newly introduced category of Jedi who are still a part of the Order, but have made a formal decision not to be bound by the Jedi Council’s orders so that they can explore the deeper meanings of the Force in new ways. But the most interesting character is Geode, the third crew member aboard Affie’s ship. As his name suggests, he’s just a very large rock. That’s it. No cute catchphrase like “I am Groot” or hidden transformation from rock to rock creature. He’s just a rock. At first, this is played for laughs as nearly all the Jedi just assume that he is just a rock, because that’s exactly what he is. And yet, Geode plays a critical role at key points in the narrative. He may not speak much, or at all, but I look forward to reading many more adventures with Geode.
One thing I did not like about this book was a side story with Orla and Cohmac that is told in flashbacks. It involves a mission 25 years before the events of this book that went bad. While it is an interesting story in its own right and does much to explain how Orla and Cohmac became the Jedi that they are now, the flashbacks are dropped in the middle of certain chapters, which kind of took me out of the present action. I think it would’ve been better if they had been their own separate chapters rather than airdropped into the narrative. But, as I said before, it is important for Cohmac and Orla’s character development and it happens infrequently enough to not become a nuisance.
Overall, this is another great story set in the High Republic that both connects to and enlarges the boundaries of this era. Both adult and young adult readers should find this book highly enjoyable and I recommend it to all Star Wars fans.
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