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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of my favorites things about Lourna Dee is you never know if she's telling the truth of if she is cooking something up, waiting for the perfect moment to execute her plans. The book centers Lourna Dee and is a deep dive into her characterization as well as her backstory. I'm glad that Lourna got her own book to herself since she seemed like such an interesting character in the other High Republic novels. I thought Cavan Scott really delivered in rounding out her character while also keeping it consistent with the appearances she's mad so far.
The metaphors for Lourna Dee are pretty on the nose, but I think they work to great effect.Making the setting of this novel a prison is a pretty overt way to frame her character arc, but I think that it worked out well. The mask she adorns is also a bit obvious, especially when other characters comment on it. But, like I said, it works. The contrast of these very obvious metaphors and the way she operates, withholding the truth, scheming, and sneaking around make her a very intriguing character. She wears her heart on her sleeve but thinks that covering up with a band-aid is enough to conceal it.
The main theme of this novel is about control and how others wield it. In Lourna's case,she had been at the mercy of men her entire life. The things she does, the things that she continues to do, all point to her wanting to finally take control of her life. During the flashback at the book opens with her trying to take control of the mount she is riding and ultimately failing, a pretty big piece of foreshadowing for the entire novel. We also see her try to take a subtle form of control when she asks her father to particpate in illegal spice trade, like the other Twi'lek colonies. Not only was it about control over capital, but she would also be taking control over the family with this plan. When her family resists her control, she betrays them for another form of control. Thus, the cycle starts.
This cyclical battle with control over what she really desires is consistent throughout the book. Does Lourna continue her battle for her ultimate goal, to control the Nihil and then the galaxy, or does she try to break free from this Ouroboros of abuse and finally do something for herself. I thought Cavan Scott did an excellent job at portraying this internal struggle. Lourna Dee wants to do the right things, some of the time, but she knows that she is too far gone for that to really matter. Even if she does stop, what about all the people that were left behind in her wake? Her anger and grief are so big that they amassed their own orbiting, sucking everyone in her life inside. The prison where she was trapped allowed her to look back on all this and think: what is it really worth it? While the question remains unanswered, I think the reader knows what she would say.
The plot itself was not much to write home about. I feel like most readers who have read The High Republic will know how it ends. I think the meat of this book is within the flashbacks you get with Lourna Dee rather than the actual A plot which just serves a vehicle for Lourna Dee's character arc. I found the drama pretty fun and the action sequences were pretty good as well. Overall, I never felt like this book was too slow or too fast. It is a pretty short listened compared to other audio books. The cast of voice actors did their jobs very well and kept me engaged until the very end.
The only compliant I have is that it was hard to get a feel for some of the sequences of events as well as the environments the characters were put in. I left confused when the perspective switched from past to present and some of the scenes were hard to image in my head.Lourna getting caught under the mining drill was one of them. I had a hard time pictures how that happened and had to look up pictures of them to make sure I knew what I was imagining.
This book made me even more of a fan than I already was and I really enjoyed my time with it.
The metaphors for Lourna Dee are pretty on the nose, but I think they work to great effect.
The main theme of this novel is about control and how others wield it. In Lourna's case,
This cyclical battle with control over what she really desires is consistent throughout the book. Does Lourna continue her battle for her ultimate goal, to control the Nihil and then the galaxy, or does she try to break free from this Ouroboros of abuse and finally do something for herself. I thought Cavan Scott did an excellent job at portraying this internal struggle. Lourna Dee wants to do the right things, some of the time, but she knows that she is too far gone for that to really matter. Even if she does stop, what about all the people that were left behind in her wake? Her anger and grief are so big that they amassed their own orbiting, sucking everyone in her life inside. The prison where she was trapped allowed her to look back on all this and think: what is it really worth it? While the question remains unanswered, I think the reader knows what she would say.
The plot itself was not much to write home about. I feel like most readers who have read The High Republic will know how it ends. I think the meat of this book is within the flashbacks you get with Lourna Dee rather than the actual A plot which just serves a vehicle for Lourna Dee's character arc. I found the drama pretty fun and the action sequences were pretty good as well. Overall, I never felt like this book was too slow or too fast. It is a pretty short listened compared to other audio books. The cast of voice actors did their jobs very well and kept me engaged until the very end.
The only compliant I have is that it was hard to get a feel for some of the sequences of events as well as the environments the characters were put in. I left confused when the perspective switched from past to present and some of the scenes were hard to image in my head.
This book made me even more of a fan than I already was and I really enjoyed my time with it.
When I was reading all the (canon) high republic books I skipped this one because I couldn’t stay concentrated on the script format of the book. I tried twice, then I got the audiobook and for anyone who struggles with reading a script the audiobook for this one is a great listen with a full cast. I found myself really enjoying this book when I listened to it.
An enjoyable listen of an audio-only book in the High Republic series, featuring fantastic and memorable voice actors and a glimpse into the character of Lorna Dee.
Girlboss Daughter (Lourna Dee) or Slut Son (Marchion Ro)?
really liked laurna dee’s history, i felt myself rooting for her halfway through the story only to remember she is a bad guy. the audio book was awesome, i loved how much was put into it, definitely going to hit the next “script” as an audio book, im super excited.
Star Wars: The High Republic - Tempest Runner is the third fully-produced Star Wars audio drama released in the past few years, after Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott, and Doctor Aphra (adapted from the first volume of the Marvel comics by Kieron Gillen). Tempest Runner is also written by Scott, and performed by a full cast.
I've read all of the High Republic material to date, with the exception of the second arc of the High Republic Adventures comics by Daniel José Older, and the Edge of Balance manga by Justina Ireland that was just released this week. Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, the novel that kicked off the era, is my favorite Star Wars book of all time, and Scott's own The Rising Storm is very near the top of my list as well. Indeed, I've greatly enjoyed the whole publishing program as a whole so far.
One thing that has always felt a bit off to me, though, was the Nihil. I love the look, and I love the idea of this entropic, chaotic force challenging the Jedi through these amoral pirates. But in all their appearances, they have felt somewhat inconsistent to me. In Light of the Jedi, they're introduced as cold-blooded killers obsessed only with money and drugs, who don't care at all for any rules.
Yet... they have their own hierarchy, their own ways of doing things, that ARE structured, for all their talk of doing whatever they want. This kind of gap between their ethos and how they operate might be deliberate-- maybe we are MEANT to question them, to understand that while they're absolutely dangerous, they're still people, and people, on the whole, aren't simply evil for the sake of it, no matter what kind of game they talk.
Then there's Nan, from Claudia Gray's Into the Dark, and more recently and more confusingly, Ireland's Out of the Shadows. Nan is a young female Nihil who winds up having to put on a charade of normalcy to evade detection by the Jedi on a space station in the former book--and that's all well and good--but then in the latter, she's framed as tied directly to the Eye of the Nihil, and as some sort of super bad-ass spy... but it's entirely unclear WHY, or WHAT she is good at.
All of this to say, there's a bit of a trend of telling and not showing with the Nihil. To be sure, the Great Disaster and the attack on the Republic Fair on Valo were horrific attacks; they're definitely bad news. But from the uncertain role of Marchion Ro in the Nihil's power structure to the unpredictable loyalty or lack thereof between any given members of the group, they're tricky to pin down, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
So going into a story entirely about Lourna Dee, the Tempest Runner whom the Republic have mistaken as the leader of the Nihil, I had reservations about how the Nihil as a whole would be presented. As it turns out, the majority of the audio drama does not directly involve the Nihil much, beyond Lourna herself and a few others, plus the return of Pan Eyta.
I think that Tempest Runner did a good job presenting the Nihil, finally, as an organization that truly IS without constancy-- loyalty is always in flux, backstabbing abounds, and I think their lack of a unified vision will be their downfall before long. We see how, once taken out of the immediate violent energy of the gang of pirates, the individual Nihil are all people, capable of change, sometimes even willing to do so. They all have a past before the Nihil, and many of them are more than willing to cut and run when the going gets tough.
Lourna's backstory, as a de facto princess, and then a military grunt, was very surprising. Her continual rebellion against authority reframes her violence against the Republic, and the Jedi specifically, as deeply grounded in personal issues with anybody in power, and I love that.
But I have to say, at the end of the day, this book could be summed up in just about one sentence: Lourna Dee was captured by the Republic, but managed to escape with a new loyal crew, and return to the crippled Nihil in a position to assume an even greater role in their ranks. She underwent a journey of self-discovery, learning to trust not only her physical strength, cunning, and ruthlessness, but to make her own decisions, and take EVERYTHING she wants, including power, without subterfuge or trickery. She tried doing the right thing and found, in the end, she just didn't want to-- she wanted to take control, so she did.
But I'm not convinced she ended the story in a terribly different place than she started. Of course, as they say, "it's the journey, not the destination," but I wasn't always very invested in the various subplots, as many of the secondary characters weren't fleshed out beyond "jailed mob boss" or "gruff military guy."
I suppose we'll have to wait and see how her dynamic with Marchion Ro will change, but beyond the death of Pan Eyta and Lourna taking on more power in the Nihil, this one felt a little underwhelming.
I've read all of the High Republic material to date, with the exception of the second arc of the High Republic Adventures comics by Daniel José Older, and the Edge of Balance manga by Justina Ireland that was just released this week. Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, the novel that kicked off the era, is my favorite Star Wars book of all time, and Scott's own The Rising Storm is very near the top of my list as well. Indeed, I've greatly enjoyed the whole publishing program as a whole so far.
One thing that has always felt a bit off to me, though, was the Nihil. I love the look, and I love the idea of this entropic, chaotic force challenging the Jedi through these amoral pirates. But in all their appearances, they have felt somewhat inconsistent to me. In Light of the Jedi, they're introduced as cold-blooded killers obsessed only with money and drugs, who don't care at all for any rules.
Yet... they have their own hierarchy, their own ways of doing things, that ARE structured, for all their talk of doing whatever they want. This kind of gap between their ethos and how they operate might be deliberate-- maybe we are MEANT to question them, to understand that while they're absolutely dangerous, they're still people, and people, on the whole, aren't simply evil for the sake of it, no matter what kind of game they talk.
Then there's Nan, from Claudia Gray's Into the Dark, and more recently and more confusingly, Ireland's Out of the Shadows. Nan is a young female Nihil who winds up having to put on a charade of normalcy to evade detection by the Jedi on a space station in the former book--and that's all well and good--but then in the latter, she's framed as tied directly to the Eye of the Nihil, and as some sort of super bad-ass spy... but it's entirely unclear WHY, or WHAT she is good at.
All of this to say, there's a bit of a trend of telling and not showing with the Nihil. To be sure, the Great Disaster and the attack on the Republic Fair on Valo were horrific attacks; they're definitely bad news. But from the uncertain role of Marchion Ro in the Nihil's power structure to the unpredictable loyalty or lack thereof between any given members of the group, they're tricky to pin down, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
So going into a story entirely about Lourna Dee, the Tempest Runner whom the Republic have mistaken as the leader of the Nihil, I had reservations about how the Nihil as a whole would be presented. As it turns out, the majority of the audio drama does not directly involve the Nihil much, beyond Lourna herself and a few others, plus the return of Pan Eyta.
I think that Tempest Runner did a good job presenting the Nihil, finally, as an organization that truly IS without constancy-- loyalty is always in flux, backstabbing abounds, and I think their lack of a unified vision will be their downfall before long. We see how, once taken out of the immediate violent energy of the gang of pirates, the individual Nihil are all people, capable of change, sometimes even willing to do so. They all have a past before the Nihil, and many of them are more than willing to cut and run when the going gets tough.
Lourna's backstory, as a de facto princess, and then a military grunt, was very surprising. Her continual rebellion against authority reframes her violence against the Republic, and the Jedi specifically, as deeply grounded in personal issues with anybody in power, and I love that.
But I have to say, at the end of the day, this book could be summed up in just about one sentence: Lourna Dee was captured by the Republic, but managed to escape with a new loyal crew, and return to the crippled Nihil in a position to assume an even greater role in their ranks. She underwent a journey of self-discovery, learning to trust not only her physical strength, cunning, and ruthlessness, but to make her own decisions, and take EVERYTHING she wants, including power, without subterfuge or trickery. She tried doing the right thing and found, in the end, she just didn't want to-- she wanted to take control, so she did.
But I'm not convinced she ended the story in a terribly different place than she started. Of course, as they say, "it's the journey, not the destination," but I wasn't always very invested in the various subplots, as many of the secondary characters weren't fleshed out beyond "jailed mob boss" or "gruff military guy."
I suppose we'll have to wait and see how her dynamic with Marchion Ro will change, but beyond the death of Pan Eyta and Lourna taking on more power in the Nihil, this one felt a little underwhelming.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In audio format, this novel was not always the most clear when in the timeline events were happening.
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes