Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDisconnected, Yet Constrained - An Example of a Book Written by Committee
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2021
I debated reviewing this book on its own merits or on the overall direction of The High Republic.
Let's do a little of both.
On Its Own
The story is entertaining as we get more insight into The High Republic Era. Reath Silas, who I think is the main character, is a padawan sent on a mission by his master. He's reluctant because he's not a risk-taker and rather study archives and holocrons than prance around from planet-to-planet on grand adventures.
I'd prefer the story focused on Reath only. But unfortunately, it doesn't. There is a large cast of characters that get a lot of word time. While I enjoy the characters, the spread focus diluted the impact any one character had on the story.
Let's talk about the writing. I enjoyed Claudia Gray's Star Wars book Lost Stars. It focused on two characters and the dynamics between them. Great book. This one just didn't mesh and the writing seemed dumbed down. When I see words and phrases like "Hells", "Landlubbers" and "Lucky as all get out" in a Star Wars book, I'm immediately taken out of the story. But, I guess, who knows? Maybe a couple of hundred years prior to Skywalker, they talked more like us in the 21st century.
And the main bad guys in this book, the Drengir, are quite ... well, silly. I don't want to spoil why, but these carbon dioxide breathing aliens seem out of place in the Star Wars galaxy. They might be more at home in an M. Night Shyamalan film.
There's also this overwhelming feeling in the book that a committee of authors are constrained by their think-tank ideas of Project Luminous. They have to stick so close to what the group has created that the creativity in the writing now suffers, which leads me to....
Overall Direction of The High Republic
These first two novels have dulled my anticipation for what The High Republic will become. I worried when it was set only a couple of hundred years prior to The Skywalker Saga that things would be too familiar.
And they are.
Other than the setting, all seems very similar to what we already know. Republic. Jedi. Coruscant. You've seen it all before.
Yet, even in these first two books, there is a disconnect. For instance, where in Light of the Jedi everyone and their mother says "We are all the Republic", I don't recall that phrase being uttered even once in this book.
The Nihil are this big threat, and yet, they seem so cliche in their actions. They play a role in this story, but they aren't the focus. They want to rule the galaxy. Who doesn't? They just don't seem like the big bad guys they're made out to be in the marketing for this era.
I've liked these first two books, not really liked or loved. I thought a group of authors could do better than this. It has become very evident that with a committee everyone wants their piece, and it feels like no one was willing to say "No" to whatever idea cropped up. This leads to a lack of focus on tying the first two books together. And it seems to force the authors to write in a specific way. It's weird because it feels disconnected and yet constrained at the same time.
Hopefully, this gets corrected with future books for The High Republic, and the individual tales are woven together through a larger story arc that intrigues and entertains more than we've gotten to this point.