A review by nerdynatreads
Into the Dark by Claudia Gray

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

 
Okay, so this isn’t quite the horror story I was hoping for, but it has still been a bit unique and exciting!

I actually really like following a Jedi who’s less interested in the daring adventure parts of the life. Reath is a total history nerd who’d rather spend his time studying artifacts and researching ancient texts, but his Master sends him on this quest to get him outside his comfort zone. This makes him a lot of fun to follow, seeing how an archivist Jedi would work, but also watching him become more comfortable and find joy in the more knight parts of being a Jedi. There’s a fellow Jedi archivist we see from as well, Cohmac, and something I’ve enjoyed with both of them is learning pieces about the history of this universe and the Jedi themselves. For example, the Kyber Arch, which is made up from the lightsaber crystals of Jedi killed in battle was a really cool bit.

Another character is actually in the process of transitioning to a role as a Jedi Wayseeker, Orla. Though we see some specifics about Jedi life and the struggles of sticking to the major tenets with every Jedi character, I’ve been really enjoying Orla’s struggle with her role. It reminded me of both Gella in Convergence/Cataclysm as well as Ahsoka in Clone Wars. After all, the Jedi live a life very based in doctrine, but they’re still human, err, well… sentient beings? So I always find it interesting to see these characters struggle with their beliefs and the philosophies they’ve been taught.

I do think this book is also falling prey to the issue of too many perspectives. We’ve had 4 Jedi, 2 pilots, and then a past timeline as well. The plot sort of takes place during the hyper-lane disaster from Light of the Jedi, but also calls back to events that took place some 25 years prior between Eiram and E’ronoh, continuing the conflict these planets have had for centuries. I don’t really think these two plots really wove together well? I understood the connection at the end, but it didn’t seem like a big enough part of the story to really warrant a whole additional section of the book. Rather, if we’d focused solely on this mysterious space station and the Dark Forces found there, I think we could have expanded on the history and emotional struggles of the Jedi characters we’d been following, which would have mirrored their more physical battles with the Dark Forces.

In the end this one was fine, but not especially enthralling. I do hope to see more of Reath, Cohmac and Orla, however.