Reviews

What an amazing start to this new era of Star Wars. My level of anticipation going into the High Republic publishing initiative was sky-high, and somehow, 'Light of the Jedi' exceeded every expectation. Charles Soule does such an excellent job juggling so many different (awesome) characters and balancing the hope in the galaxy with the darkness looming and striking. This is, hands down, of of my favorite Star Wars books, if not my favorite.

odin45mp's review against another edition

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3.0

"We are all the Republic."

This is promising but uneven start to a new multimedia, multiyear storyline by new Lucasfilm head honchos Disney. Even saying that fills me with a bit of dread, because I was ultimately torn away from the old SWEU by the New Jedi Order, another epic dozen-book-plus storyline and its subversion and casting aside of the characters and tropes I had adored throughout my youth.

We join a new era in Star Wars canon, far past The Old Republic but with years yet to come before The Phantom Menace and the re-emergence of the Sith.

Soule does a great job of setting up a lot of plates spinning in the air, and catching a few of them with a fantastic flourish. Some of the other plates are left spinning for other authors to catch and continue. A couple crash to the floor.

The Good: I love the teased setting of The Starlight Beacon. I love the Wookiee padawan. I love one of the Jedi generals/masters, Avar Kriss, and can't wait to see more of her. I also loved the relationship between Loden Greatstorm and his padawan, Bell. The new villains, the Nihil, start off as a caricature of marauding bandits and ended up with a personal code and structure of their own, and the Eye, Marchion Ro, is looking to be a great multi-book villain (or so I hope). The time spent developing them paid off by the end of this book. I loved seeing so much Jedi action page after page, it really felt like the best parts of The Old Republic and the Prequels.

The Bad: too many characters and plots, the book could have been trimmed by 50 pages and two subplots and been much stronger for the focus. Too much setup as Soule is responsible for setting everything up for the other authors to come and play in their own parts of the sandbox. Some death-defying stunts that felt like a reach, even for Jedi, to me. Due to the large cast of characters, only a few get the development that they all richly deserve - there are tantalizing hints but I want more full course meals to get to know these characters now. The lack of time spent with several of the characters hurt this book, for me. I would have appreciated a narrower but deeper focus on a smaller set of Jedi and villains.

If you have been staying away from the post-OT Star Wars new canon content, this is worth checking out to see if you want to explore this setting. Just don't expect everything to be immediately resolved, or even set up with intent to be resolved in the next 2 books. I'm already in for most of the first phase of The High Republic (adult and young adult novels, Marvel comic series) so we'll see how long I stick with it before I bow out, and whether or not Lucasfilm has struck gold or fool's gold with this unearthed era.

naveen_subramanian00's review against another edition

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4.0

A solid intro to the high republic era with great cast and good villain.

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

My only criticism of this book is that sometimes the organization felt weird to me. For some reason, the passage of time in this book felt very weird to me after the first part, like I couldn't quite tell how fast things were happening because of how the book moved between three different places. It follows an investigation, the villains, and a rescue attempt, and for some reason the time during which all three of these were happening was a bit fuzzy to me. That might just be a me thing though, because that is a detail I miss in books sometimes. I just felt like it was more prominent in this one. However, that is the only issue I had with the book. As a huge star wars fan, I've been meaning to get into the high republic for a very long time, but never really made the time to do it. With The Acolyte coming out I figured that was my sign to finally begin, and I am so glad I did! I loved the characters introduced and thought the villains were incredibly compelling. I am very excited to learn more about them. Bell was definitely a standout character to me, and was absolutely my favorite. If you're a huge star wars fan, I would highly recommend this, because it's a look at a very different Republic and Jedi Order than what we know in the prequels, and it's very interesting to compare and contrast. I'm super excited to continue diving into this era of star wars soon!

Content Warnings

longqhong's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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