Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi
January 2021
Dave
Dave
We have been exceptionally lucky over Christmas of 2020 as our friends at DelRey UK have been very generous in providing us with pre-release copies of the latest Star Wars novel: Star Wars; The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule.
This is my review of the novel, there are some spoilers, but I don’t think too many, and none that give too much away.
This is my review of the novel, there are some spoilers, but I don’t think too many, and none that give too much away.
What is the High Republic?
This is the first book set in the much-anticipated period known as the High Republic. It’s a time of relative peace in the Republic, approximately 200 years before the events in the movie The Phantom Menace. This will be a period which Lucasfilm will be exploring in much more detail over coming years, with a number of books and Marvel comics all being set in this era. We hope that this will lead to greater expansion into other forms of media (tv shows, animation, computer games and ultimately movies). The announcement at the Disney Shareholders event in December 2020 detailed a new show 'Acolyte' that will be coming to DisneyPlus, which appears to occur within this same general time so this looks to already be in the works. High Republic: Light of the Jedi First impressions are that this is a very good novel. Its incredibly fast paced and the story escalates rapidly from what first appears to be an innocent disaster of a ship breaking up in hyperspace, following the Republic and Jedi response to help those affected, then the discovery that the accident was not so innocent, finally leading to a confrontation with the main protagonists of this period: the Nihil (which literally translates to mean ‘nothing’), a group on anarchistic marauders whose secretive leadership appears to have designs beyond being mere thugs and bandits. |
Given that this is the first novel in a brand-new era of the Star Wars universe, it has a number of wide-ranging objectives as a novel. Of course, being a well-written and well thought through story is paramount, something Charles Soule has managed incredibly well. This IS a good story. But as well as being a good story, the novel also has to introduce a brand new period, new situations that are both familiar and different, it has to explain the current political structure (as that is a key component of the whole story – but don’t be put off as this is delivered exceedingly cleanly and succinctly) and a whole cast of new characters. This novel has NO existing known characters, and neatly sidesteps how Yoda (who would be about 650 years old and a member of the Jedi Council at this time) doesn’t become a focus of the story. All of these objectives are met, surpassed I would say, by the author. And in just 378 pages.
Who are the new characters?
There are a lot of characters in this book, and the diversity is fantastic. Given this is a universe where we know there are any number of alien species as well as humans, it is wonderful to see that many of the main characters are not humans, this is something that we have not seen enough of in recent years. That said, as we know from previous material, humans are a very prolific species and they do feature heavily. It provides the right balance for me, creating that feel of alien and ‘otherness’ that Star Wars has had from the very beginning.
The cast of this book is large, including members of local societies/planets in the places visited by the novel, members of the Republic Government (including the Chancellor – a visionary called Lina Soh), a whole raft of Jedi and their padawans, and various members of the Nihil. The novel does a very good job of introducing these various characters and creating individual personae for each, but because the cast is so big and the names are somewhat alien, it can sometimes be a case of reading about a character and hoping that the situation will jog your memory about who the character is! That is a very, very minor criticism of the book, and perhaps my only one.
In summary
I really, really, really liked this novel. Is that enough really? I had been looking forward to this new era, and its something I think Lucasfilm should have explored sooner – you all know my overall view of the Sequel Trilogy (good at times but flawed and perhaps should never have been made), and, for me, moving away from previous material to create genuinely fresh and new content, should have been the focus from the beginning.
If this novel is what we can expect from The High Republic, then I am very, very, very happy.
Happy reading and May the Force be with you!
Who are the new characters?
There are a lot of characters in this book, and the diversity is fantastic. Given this is a universe where we know there are any number of alien species as well as humans, it is wonderful to see that many of the main characters are not humans, this is something that we have not seen enough of in recent years. That said, as we know from previous material, humans are a very prolific species and they do feature heavily. It provides the right balance for me, creating that feel of alien and ‘otherness’ that Star Wars has had from the very beginning.
The cast of this book is large, including members of local societies/planets in the places visited by the novel, members of the Republic Government (including the Chancellor – a visionary called Lina Soh), a whole raft of Jedi and their padawans, and various members of the Nihil. The novel does a very good job of introducing these various characters and creating individual personae for each, but because the cast is so big and the names are somewhat alien, it can sometimes be a case of reading about a character and hoping that the situation will jog your memory about who the character is! That is a very, very minor criticism of the book, and perhaps my only one.
In summary
I really, really, really liked this novel. Is that enough really? I had been looking forward to this new era, and its something I think Lucasfilm should have explored sooner – you all know my overall view of the Sequel Trilogy (good at times but flawed and perhaps should never have been made), and, for me, moving away from previous material to create genuinely fresh and new content, should have been the focus from the beginning.
If this novel is what we can expect from The High Republic, then I am very, very, very happy.
Happy reading and May the Force be with you!