Images Credit: Disney & Yihyoung Li
Woo. It's been a minute since I've read a Star Wars novel, and even longer since it's been one that has actually been considered canon. Most of the stuff that's been churned out over the decades has just been shuffled to Star Wars's "Legends" section, a sort of catch-all that looks at things more like a reimagining than anything. That is not the case with the books of The High Republic.
The High Republic effort by Disney includes books, audio dramas, comics, graphic novels, video games, a children's show, and a more adult-centric show that completely flopped. Whether or not that show flopped due to its content or due to the heavy review bombing that happened is perhaps up for debate, but I'm not going to discuss that in this particular post. I'll focus instead on the first two stories set in this era.
In an even longer time ago in that same galaxy we've come to know and love... Convergence starts us off in typical Star Wars fashion. You guessed it. There's a war going on. You guessed it again, it's amongst the stars. Two planets that are caught in one another's gravity well and doomed to revolve around one another for eternity, Eiram and E'ronoh, are at one another's throats because of a continued animosity that has been referred to as simply "The Forever War." Joe Haldeman reference, here, anyone?
The princess of E'ronoh, Xiri, and her counterpoint on Eiram, Phan-tu, meet in serendipitous circumstances. Phan-tu saves the young woman's life in the process, and she reluctantly begins to see that perhaps Eiram isn't the boogeyman that her father has made it out to be. Phan-tu also cannot help but be drawn by the strength and beauty of the young woman. Royal love aside, the societies are too ingrained in their old ways of thinking to suddenly change course. This is why the Jedi and the Republic have attempted to step in.
In theory, the Jedi are stepping in merely for attempting to bring peace and balance to the galaxy. The Republic, however, could easily be seen as trying to do more than just open up a couple more hyperlanes. They have grown exponentially in recent years, and the Eiram and E'ronoh conflict has put some strain on the trade and relations in the entire Outer Rim. It behooves the Republic, then, to ensure that the conflict is resolved and perhaps even convince the twin planets to join the greater cause at Coruscant's bright center of the galaxy.
It turns out to be quite a good thing that the Jedi and Republic step in here, because Eiram and E'ronoh prove to be wildly out of their depth regarding the heavy manipulation of a cult in the Outer Rim. The Path of the Open Hand preaches a sense of calm and freedom, especially in regards to the Force, but behind the scenes they are cunning. Led by a woman simply referred to as the Mother, the Path slowly becomes vicious in its secret ambitions to not only disrupt the Jedi-led peace negotiations between the planets, but also to eradicate the Jedi and disrupt the entire Republic.
It is up to Jedi like Gella Natai, Creighton Sun, Enya Keen, and Master Yaddle to stop the ambitions of the cult. But when the cult uses creatures that have the ability to drain the Force, and life itself, away from even the most powerful Jedi... what can they possibly do?
The Good
The writing of both books is definitely consistent. You can tell that both Cordova and Kang were a solid part of the storyboarding process going on at Disney. They had a coherent narrative they wanted to explore, and the two women were able to flesh it out. My only qualms regarding this were in Kang's delivery of the characters of Phan-tu and Xiri. Her versions seemed a little different from those portrayed by Cordova, and I don't think that it had to do with their recent life experiences.
Characters as a whole are well done. They are unique and well-built enough to be considered three-dimensional characters, with the obvious tipping of the hat going to the likes of Gella Natai and Axel Greylark. These two are arguably the two absolute mains, hence their depictions on the covers, and as such they have the most attention. Gella is a Jedi knight who is desperate to perform well after a recent mission performance left something to be desired. Axel is a disgraced playboy, the only son of a Republic Chancellor (there are two of them), who has been loosely keeping in touch with the Path of the Open Hand since his youth.
That brings us to the conflict. Overall, I think it's really well done. The Path of the Open Hand starts off as very behind the scenes in Convergence. You almost don't even remember they're there. They switch those tactics to full-on assault, complimented with missiles and enforcer droids, in Cataclysm. Their brutality is not only on display for us as readers, but even causes internal strife and fractures within the cult's structure to produce offshoots of the belief system like the Path of the Closed Fist. It's an interesting look at cult dynamics, and one that I find to be particularly realistic.
The Bad
The duo is definitely not without its frustrations. While I believe that Cordova fleshed out the characters and background story really well, some of the execution challenges lie with Lydia Kang. The characters' demeanor change I already mentioned, but there is more to be said about that regarding Gella Natai's naivete. This Jedi Knight is meant to be a strong woman in more than just appearance and abilities. The fact that she gets duped so easily, even by someone that she cares for, and multiple times... Gave me a bit of an eyeroll more than once.
Some of the writing style also ebbs and flows in Cataclysm. There are unnecessary repetitions, or sentence structure and delivery that could have been constructed a bit better if more thought had been put into them. These are minor moments, however.
The Glory
I'll give the duo a total average, but I think you deserve to know the separate scores for each book. Convergence is a solid 9/10, easily finding itself as one of my favorite Star Wars stories in recent memory. Cataclysm does a decent job of wrapping it up, but I think it warrant's a 7/10. That should not deter anyone from reading the pair, however, as the tale itself will whisk you to that galaxy far, far away and show something incredible. A Star Wars story that's totally wizard, and doesn't rely on the Skywalker family.
8/10
Glorious
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