A review by kierano
Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

3.25

 With the release of The Acolyte, Disney put a new era of Star Wars on screen for the first time—an era set hundreds of years before the dawn of the Skywalker Saga. For mega-fans though, The Acolyte is only the latest step in the development of this time-period which first began back in 2021 with the novel Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule.

Since then, there have been numerous novels, comics, and audio dramas set in this era dubbed ‘The High Republic’. I’m not the kind of fan who keeps up with all of that, but as The Acolyte approached release, I found myself interested in dipping a toe into the world of Star Wars novels. Mostly, this is because of author Charles Soule, who wrote a great Daredevil run for Marvel a few years ago. I’m not sure if I would’ve made the jump if I didn’t know there was that level of quality backing the story.

Regardless, I remained somewhat apprehensive, because I hadn’t the least clue what to expect from a Star Wars novel, given how much of the charm of the movies is found in the on-screen visuals and imaginative sound effects.

A really long time ago…

After a disaster in hyperspace destroys a cargo ship, sending fragments of the ship hurtling towards the population centres of the Hetzal system, the combined forces of the Republic and the Jedi race to uncover the cause of the disaster before it happens again. Meanwhile, a powerful group of marauders known as the Nihil seek to take advantage of the situation.

Light of the Jedi is told from more points of view than I can count. This is to both its benefit and its detriment. I have no issue with stories with multiple POVs, nor do I mind jumping to minor characters’ perspectives when appropriate, but this generally only works in stories longer than Light of the Jedi’s 380 pages.

Indeed, the entire first third of the novel recounts only the details of the disaster that sets the story in motion, flitting between chancellors, Jedi, apprentices, engineers, and many more. We never stay in any one perspective long enough for them to have any lasting impressions, though. Sometimes this works—several times Soule did quick and efficient work to get me to care about a character, only for them to be killed, which solidly raised the stakes—but I was also left feeling a bit groundless.

Really, that’s my biggest issue with Light of the Jedi; there just isn’t a single strong character arc backing the narrative. Every character feels like a bit-player, and while this makes for easy reading, it does mean that by the end, there’s no real sense of catharsis, other than a few bad guys getting their comeuppance.  

Pilot episode

I can’t imagine that this would be anybody’s first introduction to the Star Wars universe, so I’m not going to critique Light of the Jedi from that angle, but even if you happen to have a reasonable knowledge of the franchise like me, you’ll likely find it tough to keep track of all of the alien races. Listen, I like the movies, but don’t ask me to describe a Twi’lek for you. It’s an extension of the too-many-characters problem—there’s just no way a casual reader will be able to keep what everything and everyone’s supposed to look like straight in their heads.

That all said, the story does deliver on the kind of solid action set pieces you’d hope to see in any Star Wars story. There’s space battles and thousand-foot drops and chase scenes and ambushes and miraculous uses of the Force. The story might be spread too thin character-wise, but it’s never boring, and I found myself eating it up just to see how each set piece would resolve. Soule is a proficient and efficient writer, who writes action very well.

Conclusion

Initially, I was under the impression that this was a standalone story, which it apparently is not. Now, normally having this particular rug pulled out from beneath me at the end of the novel really bothers me, but I didn’t mind this ‘twist’ here. The final act actually really worked for me as it gave us a bit more of the main villain than we’d had throughout the rest of the story. There’s a decent sense of mystery and menace to this baddie, and I was actually kind of excited that this wasn’t the end of their story. I hadn’t been planning on reading any more Star Wars novels, but now I just might.

Light of the Jedi isn’t a bad book. It delivered on being a light, entertaining Star Wars story, but if you’re looking for something with real impact, you might be better off looking elsewhere. I couldn’t unconditionally recommend it to every Star Wars fan, but it was an easy, inoffensive read that provided enough thrills and tension to be worth engaging with.