Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule
Light of the Jedi, written by Charles Soule
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Not only were the characters easily distinguishable as the story progressed, but they were well-rounded, fully fleshed out, fascinating beings. And I am over the moon about getting to know these people better as the other publishing initiatives within this campaign unfold! Find a character breakdown below (including minor characters that were passing mentions but, again, that did not bog down the story)!
As for the story itself, it was separated into a number of different mini-plotlines which really kept the forward movement of the overall story going at a quick pace. I never wanted to stop reading because I never knew what mini-plot was coming up next and was eager to find out what was going to happen in each and every one of them! Also, I had no idea where this story was going or what was going to happen next and goodness, Soule did not pull any punches. There were several characters who died not too long after we met them and yet they weren't throw away appearances, I still remember who they were and what they died doing! I'm not going to reveal these in this review though because I refuse to spoil this opening entry into a new Star Wars era!
One thing I did want to mention is that the Jedi in this novel can do some bad-a** maneuvers!! I mean, we thought the Prequel Jedi were bad-a** but heck no, these High Republic era Jedi are on a totally other level!! I wonder if that's part of the reason why the Order fell into disrepair and weren't able to sense Palpatine's Sith-ness as he rose to power?? Like they started taking the easy way out, using droids to help pilot and navigate their ships for example...something to definitely consider (see below for more info on their ships/vehicles and just how bad-a** they are!).
The overall story is separated into 3 parts: 1) The Great Disaster, 2) The Paths, and 3) The Storm.
The Great Disaster references the disintegration of the Legacy Run into many many pieces that fling out of hyperspace at first in the Hetzal system and then tens of other places, leading to death and destruction.
The Paths and The Storm reference the Nihil, the baddies of this book who become a large part of the story about 1/3 of the way through--they are a nasty, hedonistic, and selfish group that it seems will continue to come into play as the High Republic storyline continues in future works. The Nihil take indulgence to beyond excess, gorging on food, drink, and drugs (death sticks, uppowder, downfire, smash, rounders) of all kinds. They are led by the three Tempest Runners who command Storms (three jagged stripes) who command Clouds (two jagged stripes) who command Strikes (one jagged stripe). And The Eye--Marchion Ro--provides them with The Paths through hyperspace that help them continue to wreak havoc in the Outer Rim. The paths "allowed crews to use hyperspace in ways denied to every other ship in the galaxy. Microjumps, leaps to locations inside gravity wells, entering hyperspace from almost anywhere as opposed to having to run elaborate calculations or travel to a non-occluded access zone." See below for more details on the individuals involved. Their main base in in No-Space and "The Great Hall of the Nihil had no walls or ceiling, just invisible vacuum shields creating a dome of breathable air above a broad durasteel platform hundreds of meters long. It looked and felt as if it were adrift in the great nothing." Again, these are fully-fleshed out villains with some fascinating characterizations...and Marchion Ro is one sneaky dude!...that's all I'm going to say.
You really should go out and find this novel because it introduces us to a whole new era, has fully realized characters (and lots of them), contains exciting plots that keep you guessing, and still feels very much like Star Wars!
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Now that I've generally laid out my opinions on the book as a whole, it's time to dig into some of the nitty gritty--I promise that below there are no spoilers, I made a very concerted effort to be incredibly thorough without giving anything away.
Chancellor Lina Soh is a deeply good leader who has implemented a program of Great Works to bring the Republic together as one. Her newest mission is to bring the Outer Rim "into the embrace of the Republic through ambitious outreach programs such as the Starlight Beacon." "That was the problem with how good Chancellor Soh was at her job. The Hutts were quiet, the Mandalorians hadn't kicked up any trouble [in decades]"--referencing the Republic's lack of a true military force. She is frequently accompanied by her two pet targons (cat-like creatures) named Matari and Voru--"twins, a red male and a yellow female, both taller than [Lina] was with thick fur and tufted ears." Her primary aide was Norel Quo, "an unpigmented Koorivar, unusual among his people." I cannot wait to see what else Chancellor Soh has in the works for the galaxy during this era!!
The Jedi maintain outposts throughout the galaxy where they help local peoples with a variety of problems they may face. One of these is on Elphrona (a planet we first see in "The Rise of Kylo Ren" comic) where one of the mini-plotlines takes place. These outposts run independently of the great Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
Captain Hedda Casset is the captain of the Legacy Run, the ship that causes The Great Disaster. She started out as a fighter pilot for the Malastare-Sullust Joint Task Force, flying an Incom Z-24 (a Buzzbug) but eventually rose to command a heavy cruiser. After leaving the Task Force, she captained merchant vessels for the Byne Guild--which led her to what she was doing before The Great Disaster occurred, ferrying loads of people to the Outer Rim to start new lives. Her first officer was Lieutenant Jary Bowman and her navigator was Cadet Kalwar (a Quermian). The Legacy Run was a Kaniff Yards Class A mixed-use modular freight transport--I'm honestly a bit confused on what the ship is supposed to look like because the young reader written by Cavan Scott that came out simultaneously with this novel displayed a ship that I do not think matches the following description, "Most of the vessel's structure was taken up by a single gigantic compartment, shaped like a long, triangular prism, with engineering aft, the bridge fore, and the rest of the space allotted for cargo. Hollow boom arms protruded from the central 'spine' at regular intervals, to which additional smaller modules could be attached. The ship could hold up to 144 of these, each customizable, to handle every kind of cargo the galaxy had to offer." I'll post the above-mentioned picture in my review of that particular book--The Great Jedi Rescue--coming either Monday or Wednesday.
Hyperspace at this point in the timeline is still a slightly scary affair with no one truly understanding it. "If your navidroid miscalculated the coordinates, even a little, you could end up off the marked route, the main road through whatever hyperspace actually was, and then you'd be on a dark path leading to who knew where." The Outer Rim was especially dangerous because of a lack of mapped out routes. The San Tekka's give us a little more information on the phenomenon that it seems the average person doesn't have a handle on, "'Hyperspace is not like realspace. Once a ship--or anything else--enters it, there's no way to encounter anything. You're in a bubble of space-time that nothing else can interact with, because each lane is, as far as we can tell, its own distinct plane of existence.'" How freaking weird!!!
The Hetzal system is made up of Hetzal Prime (capital city is Aguirre City), the Rooted Moon, and the Fruited Moon. The whole system maintained "a deep focus on agricultural production," exporting "food all over the Outer Rim." "The world--the whole system, really--believed in using every bit of available space to grow, create, to cultivate. Buildings were roofed with cropland, rivers and lakes were used to grow helpful algae and waterweeds, towers were terraced, with fruit vines spilling from their sides. [...] On Hetzal, something was always in season." There were even solar harvesting orbital stations that "fed the sunlight back to the cropworlds, storing and beaming it down." And surprise of surprises--we get introduced to the first timeline appearance of bacta!! "There was that bacta stuff he'd been reading about, too, some kind of miracle replacement for juvan they were trying to grow on the primeworld, supposed to revolutionize medicine if they could ever figure out how to farm it in volume." Minister Zeffren Ecka leads the system with advisors Counselor Daan and Zaffa (a Devaronian). His security chief was "a portly middle-aged human" named General Vel Borta. Keven Tarr ("a slim young man with red hair and extremely pale skin") hails from the Ministry of Technology and turns out to be an incredibly important part of the story!! Not to mention the man is a true genius with tech! "He liked systems, and rules, and the systems and rules behind those rules and systems." Hetzal is a truly fascinating system and I hope we get more about it in future works!
The second Emergence of pieces of the Legacy Run occurred at Ab Dalis. "The seventh [fragment] hit a glancing blow on the most densely populated world of the system, a swampy wasteland interrupted only by city-sized factories, slums inhabited by the workers who operated those factories, and, here and there, the towers inhabited by those who profited from both." "Never a lovely world, always shrouded in swirling, brown-tinted clouds as if the swamps on the surface were trying to escape the planet's gravity." Garello Technologies was a company based out of Ab Dalis whose chief executive was Larence Garello. He put together a convoy of ships to leave Ab Dalis as the Emergence took place, the lead ship being the Arbitrage, "captained by a dark-furred Shistavanen named Odabba." Another ship in the convoy was the Maree's Diligence. Another fascinating new planet!
Eriadu, Tarkin's homeworld, and its people make an appearance a couple of times. And they are tough cookies--warriors by upbringing, sharp, and predatory. Mural Veen is the planetary governor. "A whole culture steeped in ideals of revenge and justice and blood and honor, easily slighted, always having duels and poisoning each other." Their ships "were all long, thin, bladelike craft. They looked like swords, edge-on". Yep!! Definitely jives with what we know about Tarkin's upbringing even a couple of hundred years later!
The new ships introduced include Republic Longbeams (workhorse vehicles, "Versatile vessels, each able to perform duties in combat, search and rescue, transport" "could be flown by as few as three crew, but could comfortably carry up to twenty-four"), Incom Z-28 Skywings (arrow-head-shaped fighters), Pacifier-class sector patrol cruisers (crew of a hundred each, the Marillion of Alderaan and the Yekkabird of Corellia were two examples), Jedi Vectors ("configured as single- or dual-passenger craft", weapons systems only activated by contact with a lightsaber--called a "lightsaber key," used interchangeably amongst the Jedi, "The Jedi were the shielding, the weaponry, the minds that calculated what the vessel could achieve and where it could go. [...] the Jedi inside coordinating their movements via the Force, achieving a level of precision no droid or ordinary pilot could match.", ), and the Third Horizon (Emissary-class cruiser, a super-sized flaghsip of the Republic commanded by Admiral Kronara (a MAJOR player in the novel)--"The ship's surfaces rippled along its frame like waves on a silver sea, tapering to a point, with towers and crenellations along its length, like a fortress laid on its side, all wings and spires and spirals."). The Republic Defense Coalition maintained a small peacekeeping fleet made up of the above ships.
There's also the by-land Jedi vehicle called a Vanguard (both Vectors and Vanguards are made by Valkeri Enterprises), nicknamed a V-Wheel. "It could operate as a wheeled or tracked ground transport, or a repulsorlift speeder for ground too rugged for even tank treads. [...] even had limited utility as an amphibious or even submersible vehicle, being able to seal itself off entirely as needed." Its weapons systems also required a lightsaber key. Aboard Vanguards are Veil speeders--"delicate, highly responsive machines. Little more than a seat strapped to a hollow durallium frame, with a single repulsor and four winglike attachments that sprang out from its sides, [...] basically a flying stick." lol!
And finally, the Jedi have a capital ship of their own called the Ataraxia--"almost a temple in and of itself."
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Mentioned planets that I haven't noted elsewhere: Tibrin, Abregado-rae, Alderaan, Mon Cala, Hosnian Prime (location of Republic shipyards), Glee Anselm, Chandar's Folly (where Tarkin "hunted" Vader in the comic "Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #18"), Bunduki, Bastion, Dantooine, the Ringlite system, Pasaana, Urber, Thull's Shroud by Belsavis, Byss, Kuat, Amfar (a vacation spot), Utapau, the Kur Nebula (very important to the end of the story), Chandrila, Ylesia, Travnin, Qualai ("a small, low-gravity planet on the edge of the Outer Rim")
Mentioned species that I haven't noted elsewhere: Ardennians, Givin, Lanniks, Anzellans (Babu Frik's species!!), Klatooinians, Quarren, Mon Calamari, Selkath (for some reason they were potentially angry about the prospect of bacta putting them out of business??), Mimbanese
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The new cast of Jedi:
-Avar Kriss: Jedi Master, hears the Force as a song, can connect many Jedi together in a Force-web allowing for deep communication and understanding, shoulder-length yellow hair, her lightsaber was made of silver-white electrum and bright-green seastone
-Elzar Mann: Jedi Knight, very close friend to Avar Kriss, "He was a tinkerer, if that term could apply to Jedi techniques. He never liked to use the Force the same way twice." Saw the Force "as a deep, endless, storm-tossed sea." Olive skin and dark, wavy hair, "a beautiful man"
-Stellan Gios: Jedi Master, besides Avar the only Jedi who worked with Elzar, stationed at a Temple outpost on Hynestia (from Lando's Luck!!)
-Bell Zettifar: Padawan to Loden Greatstorm, outposted on Elphrona, has major difficulties with falling from great heights and sticking a soft landing no matter how many times Loden throws him off high places, has dreadlocks, saw the Force as dancing with fire
-Loden Greatstorm: a Twi'lek, master to Bell Zettifar, outposted on Elphrona, his "philosophy as a teacher was very simple: If Bell was theoretically capable of something, even if Loden could do it ten times as fast and a hundred times more skillfully, then Bell would end up doing that thing, not Loden." Saw the Force as dancing with wind.
-Indeera Stokes: Tholothian, outposted on Elphrona
-Porter Engle: Ikkrukki (Ikkrukk plays a huge role in the end of the "Poe Dameron" long-run comic series and the beginning of Resistance Reborn!!), outposted on Elphrona, "more beard than being" haha, "been in the Jedi Order for over three hundred years", "He had explored full careers in most of the primary Jedi roles in his time--teacher, explorer, diplomat, warrior--and the stories told about him in any one of those occupations would be enough to ensure his status in the chronicles", "had just one eye, [...] a long scar down his face", "his latest and final calling seemed to be cook", made a famous stew with nine different kinds of eggs in it, once called "The Blade of Bardotta"
-Te'ami: Jedi Knight, a Duros (apparently when stressed out, this species excretes oil that gathers in sacs along their ribs...and it smells acrid), blue lightsaber
-Mikkel Sutmani: Jedi Knight, Ithorian, not very talkative
-Nib Assek: Jedi Knight, fluent in Shyriiwook
-Burryaga Agaburry: Wookiee Padawan to Nib Assek, Saw himself in the Force as "a single leaf on a gigantic tree with deep-dug roots and sky-high limbs."
-Jora Malli: Jedi Master, a Togrutan, a member of the Jedi Council, "future commander of the Jedi quarter on the just completed Starlight Beacon", a white lightsaber--"She had retrieved [her saber's] kyber crystal, then a bright blood-red, from an ancient Sith lightspear and healed it, purging the rage and pain instilled in it by its original owner."
-Reath Silas: seventeen year old Padawan of Jora
-Cohmac Vitus and Orla Jareni: Jedi Knights, had pulled Reath into a mission alongside them
-Sskeer: Jedi Master, a Trandoshan, second-in-command to Jora Malli, green lightsaber, see more on him when I review "High Republic #1" on Friday!
-Douglas Sunvale: only mentioned once, "saw the Force as a huge, interlocked set of gears, made of an endless variety of materials from crystal to bone."
-Estala Maru: only mentioned once, saw the Force as an endlessly spiraling nighttime city filled with buildings with windows shining with light
-Vernestra Roh: Jedi prodigy, Master to Padawan Imri Cantaros, had "their own encounter with the Nihil at Wevo"
-Other Jedi simply named but with no real details given: Rohmar Montgo, Lio Josse, Rah Barocci, Zaviel Tepp, old Arkoff
-Jedi Council members: Yarael Poof, Rano Kant, Oppo Rancisis, Keaton Murag, Ada-Li Carro, Rosason, Yoda, Adampo (long white whiskers dangle from her chin), Ephru Shinn (newest member, Mon Calamari, "selected by Yoda to hold his seat while the great Master was on his sabbatical from Council business"), Grandmaster Lahru
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Jedi from the Prequels!!:
-Yoda: taking a sabbatical from the Council, "Ordinarily, the ancient master avoided non-essential social gatherings with determined glee, but here he was with the class of younglings he had taken under his tutelage in recent months. His reasons for attending the dedication of the Starlight Beacon were his own. Yoda kept his own counsel."
-Yarael Poof: Quermian, on the Council
-Oppo Rancisis: Thisspiasian, on the Council
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The new cast of non-Jedi:
-Petty Officer Innamin: a twenty-something human who was always questioning orders, part of the Longbeam Aurora IX crew
-Captain Finial Bright: a Nautolan, part of the Longbeam Aurora IX crew, very brave and strongly believes in helping others as well as the ideals of the Republic--"We are all the Republic"
-Ensign Peeples: has a proboscis and nineteen eyes, part of the Longbeam Aurora IX crew, badly placed humor
-Joss and Pikka Adren: contractors who had worked on the Starlight Beacon, volunteer their time on a Longbeam to help save Hetzal, married couple, Joss--not all that socially-skilled, Joss "looked like an engine block with a head stuck on top, with hair he kept cropped tight to his skull so he never had to think about it," Pikka was "very beautiful, with light eyes, and dark, curly hair and a pile of dark freckles across slightly lighter skin." A fabulous thought-quote from Joss, "So, what could Jedi do? They could use those laser swords of theirs pretty well. [...] Jedi could jump high and run fast. [...] They could stand around and look cool. He'd seen them do that plenty of times. They could...move things with their minds." Stand around and look cool?!?! LMAO!
-Senator Izzet Noor: of Serenno, "spokesperson for the majority of the Outer Rim Territories," absolutely abhors Chancellor Lina Soh's closure of hyperlanes through the Outer Rim even though they are meant to protect planetary systems from future Emergences, problem is--not allowing trade through these hyperlanes leaves some planets starving...
-Jeni Wataro: a Chagrian, aide to Senator Noor
-Jeffo Lorillia: transportation secretary, "a no-nonsense Muun" who "disliked uncertainty of any kind"
-The Blythes: a mining family who had migrated to Elphrona, mother--Erika (super smart with tech), father--Ottoh, daughter--Bailen a.k.a. Bee (nine years old, has a stuffed varactyl toy!!), son--Ronn (thirteen years old)
-Marlowe and Vellis San Tekka: Marlowe--"the scion of the San Tekka empire", husbands, check out this week's "Aphra's Artifacts" for more on this queer couple!!
-Serj Ukkarian: a young boy who...let's just say he's really important...
-Shai Tennem: a Bith, Starlight Beacon's "officious" and "overzealous" overseer
-The Ranorakis: rich family on Hetzal Prime who employ armed guards, won't let any Hetzalians in to take advantage of their large ship for evacuation off planet during The Great Disaster
-Scantech (third-class) Merven Getter--a Mirialan from the Rooted Moon with a crush on a Twi'lek barkeep named Sella--and Scantech (second-class) Vel Carann--reads books instead of doing her job--,both of which first discover the "anomalies" headed for the Hetzal system.
-Other mentioned characters: Illoria Daze (a famous gill-singer from Hetzal "who could vibrate her vocal apparatus in such a way as to sing melodies in six-part harmony"), Sheree and Venn (workers on Solar Array 22-X), Omar Berenko (poet on the artist island of Varykino--"a place for creative outcasts to live together and think deep thoughts"--on Naboo), Longbeam pilots Marcus Augur and Beth Petters
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The new cast of bad guys--all Nihil:
-Marchion Ro: The Eye, his father was Asgar Ro, wore a mask of "smoked transparisteel with a single symbol slashed into it, a primitive, brutalist etching, swirls and lines that evoked a stylized planet-killing superstorm as seen from space, with its central eye centered roughly over his face", "black pants and jacket over a sleeveless white tunic, and tight leather gloves with padding at each knuckle", long limbs, slate-gray skin, his flagship (bigger by far than any other ship in their fleet) is the Gaze Electric (the bridge of which is "a beautiful chamber carved entirely from the trunk of a single huge wroshyr tree, imported from Kashyyyk"), has a HUGE secret which I will not divulge here!!
-Pan Eyta: a Dowutin Tempest Runner, super stylish and therefore typically concerned with his appearance, wore a mask that was a distorted version of a Dowutin face, his flagship is called the Elegencia ("beautiful, with surfaces covered in soft leather, lighting designed to perfectly accent every lovely little tasteful design choice he made"), his "people were precise...planners"
-Lourna Dee: a green Twi'lek Tempest Runner, thin arms cabled with muscle, about forty years old, whip-thin, "emaciated lekku with bone-white stripes", "wore armored leather made from the hide of a kell dragon and a mask to match", her flagship is called the Lourna Dee ("outfitted with all sorts of devices and shielding that made it all but impossible to pick up on a scan"), her "group was subtle, introverted, keeping their intentions close until the result was achieved", they were also the cruelest
-Zagyar: a Storm under Lourna Dee
-Belial: a Devaronian Cloud under Lourna Dee who works the monitoring station of her flagship
-Attaman: a human lieutenant to Lourna Dee,
-Strikes under Lourna Dee who go on the mission to Elphrona: Asaria (a Trandoshan), Egga, Rel, Mack Buggo
-Ultident Margrona: the Cloud under Lourna Dee who's in charge of the Elphrona mission
-Zoovler Tom: an Ugnaught Storm under Lourna Dee and over the Strikes and Cloud on the Elphrona mission
-Kassav Milliko: an aged Weequay Tempest Runner, "skin like sun-dried meat, wearing only a fur cape, stained leather trousers, and [...] a thin plate of hammered metal with slits cut into it for eyes, nose, and mouth", his flagship is called the New Elite ("felt like the interior of a trashy nightclub"), his "group was chaotic and impulsive, all of his Strikes and Clouds and Storms chasing the next score, the next insane story they could brag about while so high on smash they could barely talk"
-Kassav's Storms: Gravhan (a Chevin, super strong), Dellex (essentially a cyborg, once had a "relationship" with Kassav), and Wet Bub (a Gungan!!!, "Used to be, when he'd go on raids, he'd end up covered in blood, head-to-toe. Like, soaked." Yikes!!)
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Other interesting trivia:
-Chewfly swarms "used to plague the Fruited Moon until they had been genetically modified out of existence."
-A book genre referred to as "Jedi Romances" exists!!! "they were all set at outposts on the far Republic frontiers, full of unrequited love and longing glances...the only action was the lightsaber battles that were clearly a substitute for what the characters really wanted to do." HAHAHA!!
-The symbol of the Jedi Order is supposed to represent a living sunrise.
-The "Jedi Mind Trick" is referred to as "the mind touch" throughout, a more pleasant name...except for when Elzar refers to the ability.
-"For operations in the field [Jedi] would ordinarily wear their leathers, sometimes even armor, depending on the task at hand."
-Pill droids were prominent and extremely versatile. They were floating silver cylinders, "vertically oriented and rounded on top and bottom. [...] Very simple design, with one large, round crystal eye and a speaker grille below. [...] had a variety of extender arms hidden behind sleek panels on its body, and could use them for everything from moving wreckage off trapped victims to performing basic on-site surgery." They even had stretcher attachments for gravely injured patients.
-Nihil ships "had two things in common, no matter their size or design--three bright slashes down their sides, like war paint, and a strange attachment to their engines, a metal lattice like a half-moon filled with rippling green fire." These attachments were the path engines that allowed the Nihil to flit through hyperspace in all different directions, including parallel to known hyperlanes.
-Umate is "the tallest peak of the Manarai range" a mountainous area on Coruscant. "The mountain's summit was some twenty meters" above a park called Monument Plaza commemorating the natural feature, "and its base was somewhere 5,216 levels below."
-Starlight Beacon: "The station would be the first responder for virtually every Republic- or Jedi-related issue in that massive expanse of space. [Jedi Master Jora Malli] would hold equal command with an RDC [Republic Defense Coalition] admiral and a Republic territorial administrator, with all significant decisions made by a majority vote." It would serve many purposes including, "a Republic embassy that could also serve as a fortress if necessary; a projection of security presence to discourage raider and marauder activity. A Jedi outpost containing the largest single contingent outside the Coruscant Temple itself, where they would research and teach and listen for the guidance of the Force. Cultural spaces showcasing the beauty of the many worlds making up the sector. A communications relay that would boost transmission times in the region by a factor of ten. The most state-of-the-art medical facilities in the Outer Rim." "'There's a biosphere zone, where visitors can check out actual recreations of various world in the Outer Rim Territories. Dantooine jungle, an ice flat from Mygeeto.'" "'The idea is to showcase the diversity of the worlds out here [...] They'll rotate the biospheres from time to time, bring in different creatures...it's very ambitious.'" "built to allow [all citizens] to experience the Republic in all its grand diversity. From subsonic whisper-fiber concerts by Chadra-Fan masters, to Mon Calamari ocean dancing, to modules demonstrating the flora and fauna of worlds from Kashyyyk to Kooriva."
-"The Order often built its outposts to fit in with the natural surroundings and culture of the planet where they were based. The outpost on Kashyyyk was a huge tree house. On Mon Cala, it was a gigantic raft grown from coralite, kelp dangling from its underside, providing a reeflike habitat for local sea creatures as it drifted with the currents." On Elphrona, "the Jedi had built their outpost out of a mountainside, or rather into it. A face of the iron mountain had been sheared away, carved with laser chisels into a columned templelike entrance."
-Elphrona's primary industry is mining of a variety of minerals--aurodium, platinum, crystals. "The entire planet was divided into a grid, and no one family, corporation, enterprise, or association was allowed to own more than four claims at a time." Ogden's Hope is a settlement there.
-Ember is a charhound that lives with the Jedi at the outpost on Elphrona, she can shoot flames out of her mouth!!
-"Veteran Jedi could live wherever they liked once the passage of time naturally reduced their ability and desire to participate in the more active work of the Order. Most remained at the Coruscant Temple, which maintained lodgings for all its older members, to live out their days as they pleased."
-An interesting quote from Porter Engle referencing even before the High Republic era, "I remember when the galaxy was just pulling itself together, a few centuries back...we couldn't think about anything but survival, really." I do so hope Lucasfilm eventually goes that far back!!
-"mole mines were designed to race toward their target just below the surface of the ground, and then shoot up into the air, exploding at roughly a meter high, sending out a ring of horizontal shrapnel along with a crown of intense heat and flame." This scene in the book is super epic!
-The Panacea is "a gigantic medical aid ship, one of Chancellor Soh's earliest Great Works."
-There is TOTALLY a hint at romantic entanglements amongst Padawans..."Shared moments as Padawans, tolerated and understood and even common--but things to be left behind once one ascended to become an adult in the Order." This in reference specifically to Elzar and Avar. Oooooh!!!
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Well, thousands of words later (oops) that's all I've got. A thoroughly complete breakdown of this wonderful novel and the multitudes of new information that it contains!! The junior novel A Test of Courage is my next endeavor...hopefully I can get started reading it tonight and that review will come out either Monday or Wednesday. My review of The Great Jedi Rescue (a children's retelling of parts of The Great Disaster) will also be either Monday or Wednesday depending on when I finish the junior novel. And "High Republic #1" will follow these two on Friday as the timeline puts them in this order. I'm going to make a concerted effort to review these High Republic works in the actual timeline order so that I don't spoil anything unnecessarily!
Definitely check this one out!! Soule has done a bang up job introducing us to a new and exciting era in Star Wars!!
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