#thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2022 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: the Edge of Balance  by Shima Shinya & Justina Ireland

★★★★☆

My thoughts below…

This very Western take on a manga stars Jedi Knight Lily Tora-Asi. Together with other Jedi, she is working to transport refugees of the Great Disaster to the planet Banchii, where they hope to start a new life as simple farmers. 

It’s pretty neat that the Jedi Temple on Banchii is made into a giant tree. The Master Jedi of the temple must like that in particular, considering he’s a wookie! Jedi Master Arkoff. He’s also very fond of his house plants, which naturally I find very endearing. I always love a wookie.

Arkoff keeps telling Lily to broaden her perspective, as she struggles with her place on this planet and her role as a Knight while the world is suffering all around her. But when the Drengir attack the villagers, she realizes she’s right where she needs to be. It turns out one of the villagers is working with the Nihil and planted the Drengir seeds themself. Cliff hanger...

The manga felt very, very short. That’s really all there is to the story. It was fine, overall, but I really didn’t like all the characters constantly repeating everything the Wookie said. It isn’t natural. We aren’t dumb. No one does that to Chewbacca and we can understand what he means most of the time.

The artwork was really nice, but there was a few times where the action on page was hard for me to follow. I had no idea what I was looking at more than once.

There’s a bonus chapter in the end where Lily and the temple padawans stumble upon the planet’s native population. At first they look like tiny little bird assassins. They’re really cute and it was a better story than the rest of the manga. 

So, overall there’s not much to say because there’s not much to this. I’m interested enough to see more of Lily though, and look forward to the next volume.

#star wars manga #star wars reads #star wars #the high republic #star wars the high republic #high republic #star wars high republic #star wars books #manga #2022 reading challenge #lily tora asi #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2022 Reading Challenge: Star Wars the High Republic: Showdown at the Fair by George Mann ★★★★☆ My thoughts below…

Showdown at the Fair is a kid friendly retelling of the Rising Storm with the focus on Jedi Padawan Burryaga Agaburry. Burry is one of my favorite characters, so of course I’m happy he gets this small corner of the High Republic initiative to himself.



The other main draw of these books for me is that Bell Zettifar is often featured as well, though unfortunately not very much in this particular adventure.

The reason for this of course is because they really have to dumb down the story of the novels to fit anything into a few pages of an illustrated children’s book. But they’re missing so much context and actual story that I have a difficult time seeing any kids actually getting enjoyment from them.

Besides the fact that they can be a nice visual guide of sorts for novel readers, these children’s books seem kind of pointless. And to be really nitpicky, the art is sometimes pretty ugly. It definitely depends on if the character is an alien or a human, but some human characters are just really unappealing looking. Same ugly art style from the middle grade books. It’s just the faces that look bad to me.

That’s purely subjective though.

At least these kid books come with stickers!

#star wars reads #star wars books #star wars high republic #star wars the high republic #the high republic #high republic #burryaga agaburry #burryaga #wookie #showdown at the fair #star wars #2022 reading challenge #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2022 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic, Vol. 1: There is No Fear 

by Cavan Scott

★★★★☆

My thoughts below...

I didn’t keep notes on this like I do with some other books and comics, but my overall impression of the first 5 issues of the High Republic series published by Marvel comics was pretty positive! The art was consistent in quality and the colors were great. The characters were interesting and the conflict was nuanced. Not a bad story overall. Spoilers ahead...

The main hero of There Is No Fear is newly knighted Keeve Trennis. She doesn’t have much time to get her bearings before the threat of the Drengir overwhelms her and the other Jedi stationed at the Starlight Beacon. They come across a shipwreck carrying grain, a key ingredient needed in the manufacturing of bacta...along with the rotting corpse of a giant Hutt. The Nihil had clearly attacked the vessel, but something seems off about the body of the Hutt...

It was great to finally see Avar Kriss in action, and I enjoyed the character of Keeve’s former master, Sskeer, a Trandoshan.

It’s really nice to see some of the characters and settings from the High Republic novels in comic book form. There are some contradictions between the works in regards to skin and light saber color, but it’s still fun to put faces to names. And in this medium, you get to see all the awesome Jedi robes and lightsaber designs of the era! I’m a visual person, so I really appreciate it. Honestly, I would love to see graphic novel adaptations of the other novels some day. 

Anyway... joining Keeve, Sskeer, and Avar in this adventure are Ceret and Terec. They share the same mind. I’m not sure exactly how that’s supposed to work, but it is very handy while splitting up on a team mission! The only thing is that I can’t get over the fact that they look like Uncle Fester.

Come on, I’m not wrong...

Our characters head to Sedri Minor, where the grain for the bacta was produced, to find out why the Hutts were carrying it as cargo. Quickly they find out that residents of the village have gone missing. Seems there’s a whole new threat besides the Nihil and unauthorized grain trading to worry about..can you guess? Oh yeah, I already mentioned it. IT’S THE DRENGIR! They’re ruining the crop and eating the village children! And what’s even more wild, is that while Vern and Imri (who don’t play a large part in this story besides this) are studying the body of the Hutt they found, a drengir bursts forth!

Honestly it was so gross. There were a lot of gruesome moments like this in these issues. I honestly think I would have had a hard time watching these events if it was animated or in live action. 

While everyone is busy fighting the sentient plants, who should show up but a good ole Hutt.

It’s revealed the village leader was making deals with the Hutts, and they’re ready to take over the planet. Some battling ensues...nice action sequences, plot twists, and finally Avar convinces the Hutts to work with the Jedi to quell the Drengir threat. It all ends on a cliff hanger, so I’ll definitely keep reading on to Vol. 2...

#star wars comics #high republic #the high republic #star wars high republic #star wars the high republic #comics #2022 reading challenge #high republic vol 1 #high republic comics #star wars reads #reading #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott

★★★★☆

My thoughts under the cut...

The Nihil attack the planet Valo, where the Republic Fair is being held.

Here’s the non-spoiler thoughts:

My feelings on the first wave of the new High Republic multimedia project started off very positive. I was excited to explore a new era and see the Jedi at their height. Light of the Jedi didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, the young adult and middle grade books weren’t as good, and the later even introduced some really mind-boggling story choices that made me uninterested in any further reading that featured two specific characters prominently. Because of that, and some apprehension concerning the state of Star Wars in other mediums, I just became very wary about starting this book. I finally bit the bullet when my husband purchased the audiobook on Audible, and with no excuse not to at least give it a try, I started reading it just two days ago.

Now, I cannot help but directly compare The Rising Storm to the first major book in the series. TRS unfortunately suffers from the same problem that LOTJ had: too many characters! It is so difficult to keep track of all the characters, and even harder to care about even half of them. The audiobook narrator did help this to an extent, but some of the accent choices were very bizarre. Some aliens were so heavily edited with sound effects that I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I had to stop what i was doing and crack the book open to read along. Other characters sounded too comical for me to take seriously, with notable examples being a vague female Shrek impression, Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, and even a senator who sounds just a bit too much like Droopy the cartoon dog.

I would also say that the book rarely felt tense, with prolonged action sequences bogging down the flow. I definitely feel like some fat could have been trimmed here and there for a better reading experience. As for plot progression, too be honest, in the grand scheme of things it appears as if only the last few pages have any baring on the future of the series. Something is coming, and we’ve only just got a glimpse at it. I will go into details below, but if you don’t want to read any spoilers, just know that I love Bell Zettifar with every fiber of my being and he, along with good girl Ember the Charhound, deserves a vacation.

Spoiler talk now...

Concerning Elzar Mann...

When we see Elzar and Avar together at the end of Light of the Jedi, I became immediately apprehensive that they would focus too much on the “forbidden love” angle which is, as some of you may know, my least favorite recurring theme in Star Wars. This wouldn’t be a problem if the world building of the prequel era was different, but since it is what it is, I feel we are doomed for the rest of eternity to have the Jedi have silly rules that make no sense, and characters constantly can’t make up their minds on what’s okay and what’s not. I hate it. I hated the love vs. sex stuff in Master and Apprentice and how crudely it was presented. It seems the High Republic writers are not willing to leave it alone any time soon. So here’s my complaint with TRS. What do the writers want us to think about Elzar Mann? Cause I’ll tell ya my journey with him. At first, he’s a cool guy. Does things differently. Oh, look at that, he’s in love with Avar. But they can’t be together. Do I feel a little sorry for him? Yeah, maybe. He’s on a new planet now. Away from Avar. The author writes his inner thoughts a lot. He’s met a new woman. We hear him sexualizing her body in his mind. We read him flirting with her. We read as the author writes (in my opinion too explicitly for Star Wars) Elzar spending the night with this woman. Later on, he meets with another woman. They’re about to connect through the force, meaning she will see his thoughts and memories. He thinks about his connection with other friends, with his former master, with Stellan, and with Avar. When he thinks of Avar it’s memories of them having sex as padawans. Not their emotional bond, but their physical relationship. Is Elzar really just a middle aged white man who is obsessed with sex ...because that’s literally what he seems like to me. Thanks, I hate it. I have no idea what the High Republic writers are going for with Elzar, but he comes off as a lech! And out of all the things in the world a main character for Star Wars in the year 2021 could be... that’s not very high on my wish list. If I thought for one moment before this book that Elzar was in love with Avar, that feeling is gone now. Dude has issues and should just leave the Order. Go live your life somewhere else, bro. Be free. Now, he does have an interesting connection to the Force and he gives off generic Action Movie Hero™ vibes sometimes. But after all the weird stuff about how he thinks about women, i just don’t personally vibe with him. I have a feeling he might be our “fall to the dark side” character, but who knows.

Stellan Gios, besides being best buds with Elzar (who I now low key think is a bit gross), was a much cooler character. I still think it’s lame that the main two characters of the book are two white men, but at least this one felt better to me. I liked him. I hope we see him a bit more in the future though because I don’t really feel like I got a good grasp on his character...the problem with too many different focuses in the book.

We meet a Tholothian named Ty Yorrick. We don’t get her full story here, but it’s clear that she was once trained by the Jedi. She’s now a mercenary, but is currently helping Elzar and Stellan with the crisis on Valo. I was slow to like her, since she is shown manipulating a woman who has a crush on her, but that woman ended up being a bad apple and Ty proved herself to be a caring and compassionate woman. So I ended up liking Ty a lot. And from what I can tell, she’s doing the right thing. She’s out in the galaxy helping people. She can have as many lovers as she wants and she’s not breaking any silly code. She left the Order. But she’s still a force for good (at least most of the time). So I don’t want Elzar to “guide her back to the right path” as he so pompously states. Being a part of the Order should not be the only path for force sensitives. And thank the Stars she’s a lesbian, or Elzar would probably be obsessing over her next lol. One last note on Ty. She is briefly in jail during the events of this book, and escapes with the help of a padawan named Ram. Now this is a minor complaint, but that was so obviously a plug for the middle grade book that it was almost annoying. That’s not going to make any sense or get any closure unless I go read that other book. 

Bell Zettifar is by far still my favorite character. Precious, brave Bell. So pure. So troubled. If anything bad happens to Bell or Ember I will be honestly livid. Bell is the most interesting character in this whole initiative. He’s already been through a lot and Ember is basically a support dog. DO NOT KILL HER OFF. LET US HAVE THIS. I adored his dynamic with Loden in the first book, and I almost feel it was too cruel to reunite them so briefly at the end of TRS, just to have them meet such a horrible end. Bell really went through it in this book. I hope we continue to see his journey, with Ember always by his side. And I hope it’s a happy ending.

Speaking of the faithful charhound, there were several great animal moments in the book. I was happy to see the Jedi riding dragons into battle and trying to save the escaped fair animals. Chancellor Lina Soh’s two funky space lions were also featured prominently and I love them. They are fierce and loyal and I want one. Then, of course, we are left on a cliffhanger to find out what beast Marchion Ro unleashed on poor Bell and Loden.

Andddd speaking of Marchion Ro, he’s still super terrifying. My only real problem with the Nihil is just how unbelievable they are. They seem too chaotic, there’s too much infighting. I feel like they would have destroyed themselves by now. Prediction: if that mummy lady doesn’t somehow kill Marchion, I have to imagine Lorna Dee and Marchion may take each other out in the end. The book put a lot of focus on the Tempest Runners. Sometimes I found the petty squabbling of the villains to be uninteresting. But Marchion always had me a little tense. You never know what he’s going to do.

So overall, the story was fine. Nothing great, but nothing bad. A stepping stone of a book, really. Besides my complicated feelings about Elzar, there are still a lot of really interesting ideas and characters presented here. But I feel they really need to tighten up the storytelling a bit. Focus on fewer characters. And hopefully those characters aren’t always middle aged white men going through a midlife crisis.

Don’t be cowards. 

Give us an alien protagonist. 

Burryaga is ready for his time in the spotlight. 

#star wars #the high republic #high republic #star wars books #books #star wars high republic #star wars the high republic #star wars reads #my books thoughts #book thoughts #my book review #bell zettifar #ty yorrick #stellan gios #the rising storm #star wars the rising storm #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2022 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: Out of the Shadows  by Justina Ireland

★★☆☆☆

My thoughts below…

Out of the Shadows takes place after the events of The Rising Storm, meaning after the Nihil attack on Valo. It’s not the most bored I’ve been reading a book, but this was one of the least exciting, least engaging stories I’ve ever forced myself to finish. None of the characters were particularly likable, which made this poorly paced, character-focused novel a pain to get through. Way too much time is dedicated to the immature romance of two non-Jedi characters, and frankly that’s not what I read Star Wars novels for. And here it’s especially done poorly. There’s very little action, and it feels unfocused. What moments weren’t dwelling on the follies of young love were focused on the inner thoughts of characters. 30+ chapters of inner thoughts does not make for exciting reading. I enjoyed the murderous space cat and playful giant space dog in the story, at least. I can definitely relate to Imri’s quest to pet the cat at his own peril… “That belly is a trap! Haven’t you ever met a cat?” 

Truth.

Now for some spoilery ramblings...

The two main protagonists of the novel are Syl Yarrow, a human hauler, and the Jedi Knight Vernestra. Most chapters focus on one of these two character’s thoughts and p.o.v., but for some reason Ireland decided Reath Silas and Nan the sadistic Nihil would also get character-focused chapters...except every one of them felt like an afterthought. The very last chapter had some future implications for Nan, but Reath and his master, Comach, literally did nothing at all important in this story and very easily could have been left out. I don’t like Nan anyway, and I’m always grateful for less Nihil p.o.v. chapters, but this felt poorly executed over all. 

Syl is a new character, and frankly not a very likable one. In one way, she’s too much like Affie from Into the Dark. And for the first quarter of the book I thought she actually was that character! This is mostly because they share more than a few character traits, especially being young and having a ship and crew...and finding out their mom is actually a bit evil. Yes, both of them. It’s confusing. And seems redundant. Syl is also unfortunately...kind of a brat?? She’s mean and petty and childish. She was a bit better towards the end of the novel, where she finally kind of grows up and finds herself. But that doesn’t take away from my problems with the rest of the book.

The author feels the need to let us know how attractive Syl finds every woman she meets. If you must insist on putting this type of content in SW, can you do it without making Syl out to have mad raging hormones? It’s not really necessary for me to know how hot she finds Vernestra and Senator Starros...especially while Syl’s still pining over her ex. My biggest dislike about this book comes down to the focus on the poorly written YA romance. (And just as a reminder, I hated Elzar Mann for similar reasons in TRS) It’s just not what I want out of these stories, but they seem to throw romance and longing into EVERY Star Wars book and it’s exhausting. But it was done so poorly here and given way too much time in the text. Syl acts like she was horribly wronged and rejected because the “love of her life” abandoned her. In reality, she only knew the girl she thinks she’s in love with for four weeks. After just one month of infatuation, the teenager asked the older girl to leave everything behind and come with her. I would have said no too? It’s just..juvenile I guess lol. It would be different if they were older and their love was more...realized, I guess? But it’s just not. I don’t think I would care about this storyline much at all, if only it hadn’t taken up so much of the book. And the girl that Syl’s supposedly in love with doesn't really have much of a personality of her own anyway! The coolest thing about Jordanna Sparkburn is her giant electric space cat that helps save the day a few times in the novel. Even towards the end of the book, Syl is a bit horrified by something Jor does and Syl thinks to herself, “Oh noooo, did I give my heart to someone that I don’t even know???” And I’m over here like “YES. oF cOurse! You knew her for A MONTH!” Sigh...space cat though. It’s a “vollka” named Remy and she WILL kill you.

I think Jordanna has room to grow as an interesting character, but she really didn’t stick out much in this novel. It’s also pretty clear that Ireland was flirting with the idea of having a love triangle between these two and the character of Xylan Graff, but decided not to like half way through. 

Xylan isn’t all that interesting either, but he and his family will be important to the plot later on. Also, he is the owner of the giant space dog. Unfortunately I could not find any concept art for the “Grand Thelijian snow dog” named Plinka. The pup isn’t featured much, sadly, but they always pretend to be furniture so Graff’s unsuspecting guests sit on them. I don't know, it’s cute in context. 

The Graffs are a wealthy family who earned their money through hyperspace prospecting in the “old days,” which is also how the wealthy San Tekka clan made their dough. They try to make out like they’re huge business rivals, but I still laugh that the writers are trying to make the name of San Tekka relevant to Star Wars lore after The Force Awakens lol. Jordanna is a San Tekka, so naturally she hates Xylan. But Syl’s evil mom, Chansey Yarrow, is working with the Graffs to double cross the Nihil. 

Not really sure how, except she plans on making some sort of hyperspace weapon. And the Graffs want to privatize hyperspace lanes. And yes, Syl’s mom’s name IS Chansey. 

My other annoyances with this book stem from the same primal rage I felt over A Test of Courage. And every. single. time. we see Vernestra, my entire problem with her character seems to be emphasized and I am proved right. She has NO business being a Jedi Knight and no business having a padawan. She is full of self doubt and reliance on older Jedi to tell her what to do. It was a huge mistake to write this character in this way, and I am praying to the Maker that the Jedi in-universe realize that it’s extremely idiotic for a child to have a padawan. I don’t care about the political reasons behind the scene, but Xylan and Senator Starros were absolutely right to view Vern and Imri as an insult. If you need Jedi for an important mission, you don’t want children. And Vernestra having the nerve to be mad that she was called a child WHEN SHE IS LITERALLY A CHILD just irks me lol. I hate nothing more than the trope of a child that says “don't treat me like a child” or says stuff like “don’t call me kid” (like in the Kanan comics). 

I just don’t find Vernestra particularly likable or interesting at all. I swear she has done absolutely nothing to show me why she’s considered a prodigy in the first place. Her padawan, Imri, seems to be pretty different here than how I remember him from A Test of Courage. He’s sweet and empathetic and wants everyone to get a long because he’s heavily impacted by the emotions people around him are feeling. But like....remember when he tried to kill Vernestra in the last middle grade book? Because I do. It’s because he was felled with anger and jealousy and grief that was magnified by the feelings of others around him, but STILL...i’s weird he didn’t face ANY repercussions. He treats Vernestra like an older sister and friend and she treats him like a peer, not a student. The whole thing is a recipe for disaster. “Let’s put this young attempted murderer with another child who has zero experience and hope for the best!”

*sigh*

A lot of reviewers gave five star ratings for this book on Goodreads to try to balance out the one star reviews left by racist misogynists. And I totally understand that sentiment, because I get really angry when people review bomb books they haven’t read… and even tried to report some of those reviews on Goodreads (they basically told me they wouldn’t do anything about it). But frankly this book in no way deserves a five star rating and I will not lie about my feelings just because there are nasty people out there who cry every time they see a woman or person of color front and center in their science fiction. I love that Star Wars is getting more and more diverse, but these books are all over the place story-wise. At the end of the day, I am predisposed not to like stories like this and the Elzar Mann parts of The Rising Storm because I don’t like romances in my Star Wars books. I’m tired of constantly mentioning forbidden love or attraction every time we have a story. And nothing against characters like Affie and Syl, but I would honestly like more Jedi in my Star Wars stories. I have problems with Vern, but she’s a recurring character. The Jedi are the main focus of the High Republic series. Can’t we actually focus more on the Force and the Jedi in these stories and not the romances of random cargo haulers and space pirates?? There’s room for all kinds of different stories in this universe, but so far the High Republic just seems like an unfocused mess.

#star wars #the high republic #high republic #star wars the high republic #star wars high republic #out of the shadows #syl yarrow #vernestra rwoh #reath silas #star wars books #star wars reads #2022 reading challenge #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic Adventures, Vol. 1 by Daniel José Older

★★★★☆

Non-spoiler thoughts below...

I was planning on reading this when the trade paper back released, but unfortunately that’s still months away and the entire story was about to spoiled for me in the first few pages of Race to Crashpoint Tower. So even though I still have a long time to wait before my preorder arrives, I tracked down the first five individual issues of the comic book series to catch up with the current High Republic canon. 

First and foremost, let me say that comic books usually don’t impress me much. I like reading comics, but on average they always score about 3 stars for me. Fortunately, this one was a little better than average. It had a fairly tight, focused story and didn’t shift focus too often. 

The action revolves around a Padawan named Lula and a force-sensitive civilian named Zeen. From there, their stories intertwine in interesting ways. And I’m really curious to see what happens with Zeen in the long run. Lula is at her best when she’s with her fellow Padawans, and I really enjoyed their youthful camaraderie.  

Zeen’s childhood friend, Krix, is a source of strife in the story, but I have a hard time taking the kid seriously. And the little brat has no redeeming qualities. Sigh. Zeen, on the other hand, has cool head tentacles and an awesome pet cru named Cham Cham. 

We love Cham Cham.

Yoda and a Jedi healer named Buckets of Blood are also featured. While I found the artwork for Yoda to be downright atrocious at times, I enjoyed these two swapping baking recipes.

I love slice of life Star Wars.

Overall, I definitely recommend this one. I hope the story continuers to focus on these few characters and stays really centered on them to remain strong and coherent. It can be tough when dealing with a multimedia project...

#star wars comics #star wars #star wars reads #star wars books #star wars the high republic #star wars high republic #high republic #the high republic #high republic adventures #idw comics #comics #my book reviews #book review #my reviews #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

★★★★★

My thoughts under the cut...

Here’s the non-spoiler thoughts:

It was really good!

I was cautiously optimistic before taking this first step into the High Republic era, and I wasn't disappointed! There are a lot of characters to keep track of, so I always had my laptop out to look up alien species and take notes, but everything still flowed really well. I even teared up more than once, and chuckled a few times. There's more here than just the Jedi, although the main characters that stood out to me were the padawans, and a very interesting and...unsettling villain. Overall, a very enjoyable and engaging read. I look forward to experiencing the next High Republic adventure!

Now, here’s the slightly more spoilery, and infinitely less cohesive thoughts:

I took notes on my laptop while I read this, so my thoughts may not seem coherent. First off, I really really super loved the padawans in this, as I alluded to in my non-spoiler review. Burryaga the Wookie won my heart with his big, furry tenderness. Poor guy must feel super alone all the time, and I think the Jedi Order should make it more of a priority to learn other languages and ways to communicate with alien species who cannot speak basic. When Burry hugged that survivor child, I WEPT. He did what was natural to him. He saw someone hurting, and he wanted to help. This reminded me of my most recent Empire Strikes Back rewatch. I had noticed that Chewie was the most emotional character on screen, and admired him for it. 

Ya just gotta love a wookie.

My other favorite characters were Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm (a green skinned male Twi’lek) and his 18-year-old padawan, Bell Zettifer. I love their dynamic. Loden and Bell both have a great sense of humor, but also a very strong connection to the Force and what it means to be a Jedi. Bell goes on a nice little character-building journey here.  My only complaint about it is that some times when time is of the essence, Loden will use an emergency as a teaching moment. The narrator acknowledges that Loden could achieve all these tasks faster, but making Bell do it means he’s getting training. And that’s fine and all...but like...time is literally running out in most of these situations with billions of lives at stake. Besides that, I love them both very much and hope our boy Loden pulls through after that cliffhanger!

I also really enjoyed the Jedi we met at the outpost where Loden and Bell were stationed. And, of course, I cannot write my thoughts on Light of the Jedi without singing the praises of the best doggo... 

EMBER THE CHARHOUND, SAVIOR OF JEDI!

Ember saved Porter Engle, a Jedi Legend and budding Chef. I really enjoyed his character. Thinking he was about to die, he lamented not having more time to perfect his pie recipe. 

As for other characters, I felt like I didn’t really get to know anyone else very well. I didn’t particularly like Joss and Pikka (although their physical descriptions seemed slightly familiar to myself and my own husband---having 13 inches of height difference between us). The politicians and senators and defense coalition folks were all fine, but none particularly interesting. I never really felt like I got to know any of the other Jedi either. I know very little about Avar Kriss. I find it weird, but amusing, that the other Jedi we see her with is Elzar Mann...who was never mentioned in any of the marketing or concept art?? But Stellan Gios was very noticeably absent from this entire novel, only being alluded to a few times. Very odd. But apparently Avar and Elzar were “in love” as padawans, so there’s some forbidden love for ya, if you’re into that. I personally don’t like the no attachment thing, and believe that it makes no sense. So I’m not a fan of that really. Not unless they say it’s fine lol. It was insinuated that young love among the padawans was commonplace and even tolerated. So there’s something for your fanfics!

There wasn’t really a main character. There was a disaster, and various groups of people reacting to it. I loved the Nautolan Captain Bright. Out of all the names in the galaxy they brought in San Tekka as a powerfully wealthy clan. Eh. Some weird stuff going on with that, but it wasn’t fully explored in this novel. A lot of people died. Some I even got mildly attached to. 

I feel like the Jedi being based on Coruscant is fundamentally wrong. There is no nature there. Just metal. I feel like the Jedi at their height, as they are presented in this story, should know this. Part of it is addressed, with more outposts and temples in the outer regions. But Still. The connection to living beings, nature seems like a better place for them to be. I don't know. It would strengthen their connection to the Force, I guess? As a side note, there are lots of different jedi talking about how they perceive the force in different ways here, so that’s neat. For Avar, it’s a song. For Elzar, an ocean. 

Just a nitpick here, but at first I thought the Jedi ships, called Vectors, were really cool. You have to be a force wielder to fly it! Well, there’s a fundamental problem with this that makes the whole thing rather stupid. A guy passed out after using the force “too hard” and his ship immediately crashed. Hello, that’s supremely dumb. You get a little bump on the head or something and black out for a second, there’s NO auto pilot at all? That’s a pretty big flaw, guys. No very safe...

The enemies. Well. I have never thought Vikings and Pirates were “awesome” and never understood media that tried to frame them as such. The Nilhil are the worst of the worst. I was very grateful there were no illusions to rape though. Our main villain here is cold and calculating. He’s playing the long game. And he’s got some baggage from his past that’s just barely hinted at. He’s pretty unsettling. The “no space” area was really neat though. And the way they described recruitment reminded me an awful lot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie lol. But there’s nothing I hate more than thieves and robbers who act like their “freedom” is being taken away by anyone who tries to stop them (looking at you Red Dead Redemption 2).

The story ended on a cliff hanger though! If Loden dies I will be devastated. And Ember better be safe too!! Her and Bell need to grow old together. The 16 year old Jedi Knight, Vern, was mentioned. They said she had a padawan!? I get it... she’s a knight. But that seems recklessly irresponsible lol. Haven't met her yet though! That’s the next book, i think! 

In any case, I’m excited to see what happens next!

#star wars #the high republic #high republic #star wars high republic #star wars the high republic #light of the jedi #star wars books #star wars reads #reading #2021 reading challenge #books #book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

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2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: the Great Jedi Rescue by Cavan Scott

★★★★☆

Non-spoiler thoughts below...

If you're an adult, the best way to read this is concurrently with Light of the Jedi. It's great as a sort of visual aide, but not much else. It tells only about a third of the events of the main novel, but in a very child-friendly fashion. Besides an error in the skin color of a minor character (green in the novel, blue here), it's a very nice little companion book to have if you're excited for the High Republic.

And I love Burry the Wookie. I love the dynamic between Loden and his padawan, Bell. They were my favorite characters in the full novel, and they get several moments from their adventures highlighted and illustrated in this book.

#star wars #star wars reads #high republic #star wars high republic #reading #2021 reading challenge #books #star wars books #star wars the high republic #the high republic #bell zettifar #burryaga #burryaga agaburry #book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

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Star Wars Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark 

★★★☆☆

This was my last book of 2020, and I actually did want to make a little post about it. Despite the so-so rating, I do recommend this if you haven’t read it! 

Before starting this I actually was unaware that these stories were almost all just stories from the actual television series. Frankly, that was a bit of a disappointment. Most of these stories you’d be better off just watching in the actual tv show; however, there are a few that offer some really interesting internal monologue that you don’t get in the animation. 

I particularly liked the Yoda, Dooku, and Maul stories. I listening to the audiobook, and these performances in particular really made the stories great, even though I knew them already.

My absolute favorite short in this collection, however, is entirely new! It’s written by E. Anne Convery, who just so happens to be the wife of Dave Filoni. The narrator really helped to sell this story and it easily makes this book a worthy addition to any Star Wars library. 

#star wars #clone wars #the clone wars #clones #star wars books #books #star wars reads #star wars reading #reading #2020 reading challenge #clone wars stories of light and dark #book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

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2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray 

★★★★☆

See below for my thoughts...

Star Wars Age of Republic Villains was actually my first read of 2021, but I don’t always have enough to say about comics for a review. This is actually the first Star Wars book I’ve ever read. I’ve only read comics before this...well, and the collection of short stories from the Clone Wars, but that doesn’t really count. I also do want to read the Jedi Apprentice series, even though it’s no longer part of the new Disney canon. I just wanted to note that I have not read any of them yet, so they don’t affect my opinion of this book. 

I gave Master and Apprentice 4 out of 5 Stars on Goodreads. 

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Qui-Gon after reading this. I suppose I should mention that I do not particularly like the prequels. I think there were a lot of very questionable writing / world-building decisions that, err...weren’t very good? Ha. Phantom Menace is not a great movie, but I always at least liked Qui-gon and Obi-wan. Now seeing their relationship here gives me a new perspective.

Overall, the story of Master and Apprentice was pretty good. Some interesting flashbacks to Dooku and Qui-gon when the latter was still an apprentice, compelling side characters Pax and Rahara, and a conflict that had a bit of a twist. I really enjoyed reading Obi-wan’s bond with his mount, the image of Dooku making fancy dinners for his padawans, the different levels of the jedi temple (including pools for aquatic species),  how Qui-gon’s rooms at the temple are decorated with souvenirs from different planets he’s visited, and how a padawan’s apprenticeship could vary based on who their master was and what they specialized in. Obi wan was jealous some of his friends got more exciting missions, but he was stuck in the archives all the time ha. It was also pretty well displayed the current state of the Jedi in the world at large, and illustrates how they have lost their way, while still making them seem somewhat reasonable. Yoda wasn’t wrong when he said in order to stamp out all evil, it would mean having more power, something the Jedi should not seek. But Qui-gon wasn’t wrong either when he was disgusted that the Jedi did not do everything in their power to help those who are suffering. Ultimately though, I really liked Qui-gon’s speech to Rael Averross about serving the light, regardless of whether it means being on the winning or losing side. 

There was also a lot of interesting debate about the Jedi Code and attachment. I didn’t particularly like Rael at first, but I suppose ultimately he has a point. To me it makes sense that the Jedi Order cautions against it, but I think the message became twisted. I never liked the no attachment rule, and it never made sense to me in the first place. But I think I see now how it SHOULD have been. Perhaps the true meaning of that “rule” was that a Jedi should not lose themself to attachment. One should not define themselves by a single relationship to someone or something. One should find peace and contentment without it. It is okay to feel intense emotions, but being a Jedi should mean you are not governed by said emotions. You do not lose yourself in intense moments of excited emotion, you do not allow it to affect your judgment, but you are able to calm yourself to see and think objectively. This doesn’t mean attachment and emotions are bad, it just means you need to be in control of yourself. Rael ended up learning this in the end.

I will nitpick some things though.

I don’t particularly feel comfortable with a few things presented in this novel. For one, I never expected the phrase “get laid” to be in a Star Wars book, and if I’m perfectly honest, I wish it wasn’t. Not only did the exact phrasing take me out of the story, but I don’t really want sex in my Star Wars, and it was presented a bit crudely here, giving Rael Averross’ character. Dude is also shown multiple times casually chewing on a death stick. The other thing I am uncomfortable with is the relationship between a Master and his or her apprentice. They seem to be together very often, including alone in personal living quarters, and I gotta be honest, that seems a little worrying to me. It’s even mentioned once that a padawan’s duties may be to take care of their master’s clothes when Qui-gon is undressing in front of Obi-wan. I’m sorry, but that just seems way inappropriate. They said there is no concept of privacy at the Jedi temple, but clearly Jedi still are capable of sexual thoughts and feelings so I feel like this ain’t super cool.

I also think it’s super interesting that they are doubling down on the the whole “prophecy” thing in this, when I consider it to be one of the worst additions to the canon that the prequels brought. I never liked any of it and especially hate the “chosen one, born of no father” thing. But the book does shows how and why Qui-gon got so invested in prophecy. 

Very minor nitpick, but the word “hell” has been used in Star Wars ever since the original trilogy and it ALWAYS take me right out of the story everytime I hear it. What concept of “hell” does the galaxy have? What does it mean for different cultures? I don’t know, but hearing Rael mock Yoda by saying “up the hell he should shut” was certainly something. Also the word “gauche” being in this story.

Also I find it confusing that Obi-wan said he was brought into the Order at the age of 3, and that was considered “late” by their standards. Qui-gon said Rael was a controversial addition to the Order because he was brought in “extremely late” at the age of 5. He illustrates this point by saying Rael never felt like he belonged or fit in and he kept his home world’s accent and style of dress. This makes literally no sense at all to me, given what we can see in the Prequels and Clone Wars. There are tons of different accents among the Jedi, and several alien species are shown to still keep traditional dress or customs of their home world. So???? Okay. 

Anyway, the book was still good. I actually listened to the audiobook, which I think made it more exciting. I just think it’s interesting that they went out of there way a few times to mention sequel things that were completely irrelevant to this story just to have easter eggs to the new movies. Every time Takodano or Jakku is brought up in stories of pre-existing characters now, it immediately takes me out of the story. It’s not “Star Wars’ at that point, it’s “Disney” lol. But the core story here is good and if you like the prequels, I think you’d like seeing how Qui-gon and Obi-wan’s relationship was pre-Phantom Menace, at least according to new canon. I mean, we know now why Obi-wan hates flying.

#master and apprentice #qui gon jinn #obi wan kenobi #star wars reads #reading #books #star wars books #2021 reading challenge #book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

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2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray

★★★1/2

My thoughts below…

Okay, I rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads since they don’t let you do half stars and this book is definitely more interesting than some other books I’ve rated at 3 stars. The big problem here is that a majority of this book is a slog to read. There is an interesting story in here, and a few likable characters, but at the same time the story dragged a lot of the time, and I just never cared about the majority of the people we were introduced to.

You may be thinking, “But Light of the Jedi had a ton of characters!” and you would be right, but that book didn’t really set any of them up to be the main protagonist. It was much more broad in its storytelling as different people were reacting to different things. The action in this book is only divided between two main focuses: a group consisting of Jedi and civilian pilots, and a flashback to an event 25 years ago that’s supposed to give us insight into two of our Jedi characters. 

Our Jedi Characters: Padawan Reath Silas, the human male apprentice of Togruta Master Jora Malli; the newly self-declared Wayseeker, the white-skinned female Umbaran Orla Jareni; human male Cohmac Vitus, a folklorist; and finally Jora Malli’s former apprentice, human male Jedi Knight Dez Rydan. Our pilots: Affie Hollow, a young female human, the co-pilot of The Vessel and foster daughter of the Byne Guild leader, Scover; Leox Gyasi, human male pilot; and Geode, the ship’s navigator...and a rock.

I was really uninterested in the flashback chapters and found them very boring. Spoilers... Orla and Comach are padawans at the time. They are on their way to resolve a hostage crisis, two rulers from two different planets were kidnapped. Comach’s master gets killed in a crash. Orla hesitates to follow her instincts because she believes they go against the Jedi’s teachings and one of the hostages ends up dying. So we are lead to believe this event pretty much traumatized Orla and Comach 25 years ago. The book takes forever to actually tell this small story, making it really difficult for me feel any tension with such dragged out action. It is difficult for me to believe the impact this event had as well, since Jedi seem to frequently teach the benefits of following your instinct and trusting in the Force. Why is Orla under the impression that this is wrong? It makes no sense. Comach on the other hand, is struggling with intense anger over the fact that he’s not allowed to mourn his master...but like...no one told him he can't? It feels like this is a self made problem. He keeps telling himself that the Jedi are wrong for not allowing him to feel anything over losing someone he was close too, but they never tell him he can't...in fact, with the way they handle Reath later in the book, I’d say they’re very supportive dealing with loss! So this whole part of the book was weird. 

To me the best characters were Reath and Affie. Dez was hardly even in the book, so I really don’t have much to say on him. That seems to be a problem with every character besides Reath and Affie. No one else was developed enough, or just not interesting. Reath didn’t want to leave Coruscant because he prefers reading all day in the archives instead of going to the “backwaters” of the outer rim. He has the most character development, and this book is really his story.

“Adventure is usually a euphemism for going somewhere with lots of bugs.”

Affie’s story is more interesting than Orla and Comach’s backstory, but still a little under developed. She was orphaned at a relatively young age, and was taken in by the leader of the Guild her parents’ worked for. She finds out while exploring the abandoned space station they’re stuck on, that the Guild uses this place for some secret and nefarious purpose. She finds out the Guild uses indentured servants, that her parents were indentured, and this is likely where they died. The Guild would “reward” indentured workers by knocking off a few years of their service for doing dangerous jobs, but I never really understood what the Guild was doing at this station. The place was overrun with plants, and presumably the Guild did not use the hyperspace pods that made the station valuable to the Drengir and Nihil, so I suppose it was only for tech that was stored in the station? I’m unclear on it. In the end, she exposes her foster mother and gets her arrested. Despite not liking the side-story so much, Affie was an interesting character and I wouldn’t mind seeing her show up again in the future. I guess Leox is okay too. 

The villains of the piece:

The first part of the story takes place right after the Legacy Run disaster. Our Vessel crew have to jump out of hyperspace and take refuge in an abandoned space station. They send a message to all other ships in the area to meet there as well, hoping they can work together to survive for a while. Well they don’t get a long great, but not much time is spent on the conflict. We get over-protective killer pruning droids and creepy statues, but not much else during this first time in the station. Among the refugees are an old man and his ward, Nan. Nan acts flirty with Reath, but not much happens between them. The older Jedi think the statues are evil, so they plan to take them back with them to the Temple. Dez appeared to die in an accident while exploring the lower levels of the station. They get word that it’s safe to come home and they leave. Then they realize they need to go back. And they do lol. I just don’t think the way the story was broken up was really the most effective way to tell this story. The statues were actually keeping evil sentient meat-eating plants dormant, so by removing them, the Jedi inadvertently woke them up! Nan turned out to be Nihil, a connection Reath makes when seeing pictures of their distinctive ships. Nan had summoned her Cloud to the station. Dez is alive, a prisoner of the killer plants, and discovered after Reath gets transported through some funky hyperspace magic to the plant folks’ home world. Orla uses the Drengir to distract the Nihil. Reath ends up saving Dez, and ejecting all their enemies into space. That’s about it. Nan gets away.

So yeah, the story wasn’t great. I liked Reath though, but don’t know how i feel about him being apprenticed to Comach now that Jora Malli is dead. I really appreciated the way the Council dealt with him after his loss though. They made it very clear that whatever happened next to him would be entirely his choice and on his own time. They were very supportive. This is supposed to be Jedi at their best, so I hope that’s really reflected in future stories. I worried a bit after the mess of Orla and Comach’s backstory. 

When this book was described as having people stuck on an abandoned space station with a weird monster, I was really hoping it was going to be more creepy, and my expectations were completely unmet. I really struggled to keep my attention on what I was reading. 

Nitpicks: I have always said that if the Jedi are so set on preserving life then maybe their weapon of choice should not be a lightsaber, but a blaster that only stuns! It’s such a silly part of Star Wars, but it’s even funnier here because it actually came up multiple times in this book that a blaster would be more efficient. 

Too many humans. 

The narrator for the audiobook made Nan sound like Stitch from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch, which made even the slightest hint at a flirtation between her and Reath laughable in the extreme. 

Claudia Gray seems to like putting in a lot more sex and drugs in Star Wars than I would personally like. Even underage drinking found its way into this story. The part I really hated, however, was the super gross rapey scene with a pirate who was trying to kidnap Nan. “Good market out there for little girls” is one of the grossest things I’ve ever read.  I know the universe can be a dark place, but I just really do not want sex slavery in my Star Wars. Even in space fantasy women can’t just be.

Reath did a heck of a lot during this book, to the point where I was surprised he wasn’t Knighted at the end. I’ll just say he did a heck of a lot more impressive things than we’ve seen Vernestra do. Ugh lol. Yes, I am still bitter about A Test of Courage. Vern is 15 or 16, and this book refers to Affie (19, I believe) as a child. Vern is a child! She should not have a padawan!

More continuity errors! High Republic seems to have a lot of these, unfortunately. Lightsaber blade color differences and straight up gender differences between this book and Light of the Jedi. There’s more too, you can read them on Wookieepedia. (x)

Things I liked:

Wookie baby. Sentient rock.

#star wars #star wars books #book thoughts #high republic #2021 reading challenge #books #into the dark #star wars high republic #star wars reads #the high republic #star wars the high republic #my book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

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2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars - Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott

★★★☆☆

My thoughts below...

This was first produced as an audio drama, but the script was released later in hardback. As an audio drama it fails miserably, to me at least, at the most important aspect: Dooku’s voice. I believe we can all agree that Christopher Lee’s voice is iconic. Corey Burton did a fantastic job at capturing that voice in the Clone Wars animated series, but for some unknown reason he is not used here. Instead of getting someone else who could at least bare a passing resemblance to the character, we get a random male British accent. There is no resemblance to Christopher Lee whatsoever. This made it extremely difficult for me to connect this character with the Dooku we know from the films and animated series, and also made it difficult for me to tell who was speaking at times. Mind you, this is a full cast audio! Not getting Dooku right is really unforgivable. Still, overall the voice acting was fine. But there were some really bad moments...special mentions to the terrible line delivery of the Jedi Master who sounded comically snooty regardless of what she was saying and the “Doo-doo-Dooku” song that made me want to cut off my ears.

This isn’t a bad story necessarily, but it felt kind of pointless. It’s told to us through Ventress, as she reads Dooku’s journals and watches old holo messages. He gives her these sources as a means of research to aid her in a search for Dooku’s sister. How they actually could have helped is completely without answer, but whatever. We see Dooku as a youngling, a padawan, a master, a council member, and finally as a Sith (this last time period only directly though Ventress’ first hand interactions). The problem here is that there was never really a good balance to any of these time periods. The first third of this book focuses on his youth, and almost every bit of it felt like a Harry Potter rip-off. Then we see him become Yoda’s apprentice, but don't really see their relationship develop. Then there’s an abrupt time skip and we see Rael Averross (who continues to be gross) already a Knight himself and referring to his time as Dooku’s padawan. We get a brief moment with Qui-Gon as Dooku’s apprentice. Then in the last act, Dooku (probably pretty old at this point and a member of the Counsil) disobeys the Council’s orders and goes to his home planet to help his sister. Some stuff goes down, he kills his brother--whom we never really got to know, and Dooku leaves the Order. He had moments of Darkness at this point, but he didn’t “fall” as I would have thought. We didn’t see him “turn” in this book at all. Instead, it felt like watching a clip show of little moments that made him who he is, but without the big missing piece at the end of the puzzle. The story completely skips the character development from “guy who ignores Jedi council in order to save his sister” to “guy who tortures Ventress then makes her kill his sister” ...which I think would have been more useful to understanding the character than just seeing him disagree with the Council a few times.

Harry Potter parallels: There is literally a scene in this story where two boys sneak into the forbidden section of the Jedi library in the middle of the night. Arguments between Jedi masters on whether “defense against Sith artifacts” should be taught. The Jedi have four founders. Dooku can hear a creature that no one else can hear. Jedi younglings are placed into “clans” that have titles like “Hawkbat.”

High Republic references: This is super weird, but the Jedi make busts of the members they “lost,” hence the title of this book. Yoda refers to the bust of a “Master Trennis” and remarks on how tragic this story was. Keeve Trennis is a Jedi Knight in the Marvel High Republic series. The Ataraxia ship is referred to in this book. It is new at the time of the High Republic, meaning this space vehicle would be nearly 200 years old during the events of Jedi Lost. The actual term “High Republic” was used in this story to refer to the lives of past Jedi and I find that a little odd. This story takes place during the days of the Republic and the characters in this story would not know that the Republic’s days are numbered. I do wonder if we will eventually see the people they referred to though, especially the one who was rumored to have had an affair with the Chancellor’s secretary. 

Nitpicks: 1. Dooku is an idiot to not sit down and meditate with Yoda on his first day of training. You really gonna tell me this boy was too thick to realize this and instead just yelled at Yoda for a month straight?? I hate how prequel Yoda is written, but Dooku was an idiot here. 2. When Dooku sends a message to his sister apologizing for what happened at their mother’s funeral (a mother who was literally not in the story at all before this point), Dooku straight up mentions accidentally knocking the dead body out of the casket, even though that would be extremely insensitive to include in your apology and just make it more traumatic for his sister to relive again. It should have been in his journal instead, as it would not make sense for him to retell the story in such detail to his sister, WHO WAS THERE! 3. The agricultural planet that had the storm come in and knock out all their tech really didn’t have a fail safe in store? Their entire population resides on elevated platforms and they don’t have a backup plan in case of a power failure? Hard to believe... 4. Qui-Gon sounds like an old man even though he’s supposed to be a young teen. 5. Dooku’s sister is an old woman at the end of the story, but she sounds the exact same as she did when she’s first introduced as a child. It makes the story even harder to follow, as the passage of time is handled clumsily. 6. Sifo-Dyas loses his mind at the end of this story, but he supposedly hasn’t done his business with the clones yet, so how does that work?? His portrayal here does not seem to match up with other canon appearances at all. He would have been darn old during that, and in Clone Wars his hologram was youngish. 7. Dooku’s daddy literally threw him out of the house when he realized his child was force-sensitive. We do not see Dooku’s mother agree with this or be sorry or anything. She is not present at all until Dooku goes to her funeral! But anyway, we aren’t really given any idea why Dooku’s daddy is such a booty. Why does he feel force-sensitivity makes his son a freak? We’ll never know.

In conclusion, I really can’t say this story was worth listening to. Even if you love Dooku as a villain, we are missing key parts of his story here, and not hearing him sound even remotely how we are used to hearing him makes him seem like a different character altogether. The version of Dooku we are presented with here rarely feels like the same person we know from other media, and I don’t believe this story did as good a job of connecting Jedi Dooku to Sith Dooku as it could have. It was boring at parts and lacked a lot of character development. The Ventress connection felt like another missed opportunity. We get glimpses of her traumatic backstory, but nothing substantial. She’s really just a vehicle for learning about Dooku’s past. Her involvement with the overall story is minimal. I’d say the cover is a bit misleading.

#star wars #star wars reads #star wars books #dooku #count dooku #asajj ventress #books #dooku jedi lost #book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland

★★★☆☆

My thoughts below...

This is a middle grade book. I try to keep that in mind when I rate them. Unfortunately, I can’t say this was much more than a mediocre, forgettable story that offered very little insight into the High Republic era. After reading Light of the Jedi, it was even slightly boring. If this was the first book you read out of the new initiative, I’d say you’d be quite lost, as it does very little to set up the new era or current state of the world. Unless you want the complete High Republic experience, I’d say this is skippable.

The story follows a group of four children who become stranded on a moon after a tragic event, separate from the Legacy Run disaster in Light of the Jedi, but concurrent with the Emergencies. 

Now for the spoilers.

Our characters and where everything went wrong. 

Vernestra Rwoh, called Vern by some--to her slight dismay, is 15 (or maybe 16?) and a newly appointed Jedi Knight. We are told repeatedly that she is a prodigy within the Order. The problem is we are told these things, but never shown them. The idea of a Jedi being Knighted at such a young age is very difficult to believe in any case, but here we never really see any examples of her being special or particularly competent. In fact, she comes off as a poor leader, slightly immature, and has seemingly poor instincts. She doesn’t manage the other children well (perhaps because she’s a child herself!) and she doesn’t even see the point in being concerned about the ship they were traveling on being purposely sabotaged instead of accidentally destroyed by colliding with debris from the Legacy Run disaster. She is even shown to have fewer survival instincts than a 12 year old. Unfortunately, I just don’t think she was that interesting or well-developed. The only thing mildly interesting about her is her modified lightsaber, which can become a whip of sorts. But she is worried how others may perceive this, so hides it.

Imri Cantaros is the 14 year old padawan of Master Douglas Sunvale. Now who on earth thought Douglas was a cool name for a Jedi, I’d like to know. But I have a bit of a problem with ole Douglas besides his name. Douglas is described as a pale skinned human male with a dark beard. There is no art of him in this book or in the marketing. You know who there is art of though? Vern’s old master, the illusive Stellan Gios. The same Stellan who has multiple pieces of concept art. The same Stellan that has been mentioned in two books so far and still not shown up in anything. Here’s my problem with Douglas and Stellan...

...this guy is Stellan. See what he looks like? A pale skinned human male with a dark beard. So far there have been three adult human males introduced in High Republic and all three of them have been pale skinned with dark hair, and two of them have beards. That’s weird to me and makes it difficult to distinguish who is who. Just why??

But ole Douglas dies in this book anyway, so he’s out of the picture. 

Anyway, back to Imri. He’s a white kid with blond hair. He’s 14, like I said. He resents Vern pretty much from the start of this book. He’s jealous of her since she’s a Knight and thinks HE is ready to be one (even though he’s younger than her and she’s younger than usual for a Knight anyway AND he can’t even fix his own lightsaber correctly when he takes it a part). He struggles with using the force to manipulate objects. Imri is sensitive to emotions. He can sense them in others very easily. I’m fairly certain they say that’s rare, but I think that’s the exact same “special ability” the Wookie Burryaga has in Light of the Jedi. Anyway, young Imri is very sad he just lost his Master and is struggling with his emotions, as well as the emotions of another member of the group also experiencing loss. Imri straight up goes a little “dark side” and wants to kill the pirates whose actions resulted in the death of his master. When Vern stops him from acting in revenge, he tries to kill her--not just get around her and act as he wishes--straight up kill her. She stops him by destroying his lightsaber and then he acts sorry, but like... to me that was more than just a “whoopsie” moment. All Jedi make mistakes, yeah, I get that. Allowances should totally be made, for sure. But how many padawans try to kill their fellow Jedi?? In any case, Vern says he will face no punishment and offers to become his new Master....even though she is still a child herself...and only one or two years older than him. I personally think that’s a ridiculously bad idea. Like actually nonsensical and laughably idiotic. She literally has ZERO LIFE EXPERIENCE. They’re basically the SAME AGE. It’s the stupidest writing decision I’ve ever seen. It’s literally so unbelievably dumb that I don’t even want to see these two characters again.

But whaaaatever. 

Honesty Weft, a 12 year old pale skinned boy with brown hair. To be honest I didn’t really see a lot of difference in him from Imri. He’s younger and smaller and lacks Force sensitivity, but he is struggling with the loss of his father from the same ship explosion that killed Master Douglas. He doesn’t really like any of the other kids and he distrusts them. He slowly warms up to Avon, but we don’t really see his relationship change much with the others. It is Imri who convinces Honesty to act on his anger and attempt to kill the pirates who blew up the ship they were traveling on. His anger really only fades when he gets caught instead. Not the best character development if you ask me, but he decides to tell his story to the Republic in hopes that his father’s mission as an ambassador gets fulfilled to spite the pirates’ plans. 

Another 12 year old member of our moon-stranded party is Avon Starros. Avon is dark skinned with curly hair, a knack for inventing--and getting into trouble by doing whatever she wants despite people who know better warning her constantly. Avon has her good moments. She smart, fairly calm in a crisis--if insensitive, and ambitious. Where I stop liking her is when she thinks she knows better than everyone else and does very foolish and selfish things that she absolutely knows are wrong--specifically stealing! Not a lot actually happens in this book, but the big sin she committed here is stealing Imri’s broken lightsaber from Vern’s backpack. She has been told multiple times how personal lightsabers are to the Jedi and their culture, yet she does this anyway. I ain’t cool with that. She intends to study the kyber crystals in an effort to run scientific experiments on them to see how they may be useful for non-force sensitives. I don’t know, I just got irrationally upset at her for this. That’s kinda messed up. I know she means well, but it was wrong, girl. Earlier in the book she even cries thinking about a moment in her past where similar actions got her into trouble, so it seems odd that she still acted this way. 

She has a droid nanny, called J-6, but I found her to be uninteresting at best and cringe at worst. This is due to her “snippy” personality and sharp tongue--even though droids don’t have tongues. Droid characters are usually my favorite, so I’m disappointed. 

Special note: this is supposed to be Star Wars. I hate Avon’s clothes. She looks like human middle schooler in boring, normal Earth life. Lame. AND HER LAST NAME IS STARROS. Just like the San Tekkas in Light of the Jedi, the seemingly purposeless connection here with other canon characters is weird. I don’t think I like it very much...just like how name-dropping Sequel-trilogy planets constantly feels heavy-handed. 

Besides the characters, I didn’t particularly like the language used in the book. Several real-world slang terms and the phrase “hold on to your butts” took me right out of the story. I’m sure the kids that this book is intended for won’t mind that though. And one of our pirate villains falls into the tired ole trope of evil people having scars, which is a little disappointing. 

I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy this book more, but I don’t always super like children characters anyway...so, eh. I suppose there’s some interesting approaches to handling grief to be found here, but not much else for me personally. I read it one sitting and it felt like everyone was either napping or crying all the time. 

Vernestra could be an interesting character if developed a little more. Hopefully we’ll get to see her in a book intended for a slighter older audience, or perhaps she’ll be fleshed out more in the next middle grade book. Let’s hope. 

#star wars the high republic #the high republic #high republic #vernestra rwoh #avon starros #imri cantaros #star wars books #middle grade fiction #a test of courage #star wars reads #2021 reading challenge #star wars #star wars high republic #vern rwoh #book thoughts #my book thoughts #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2022 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic Adventures Vol. 2 

★★★½

My thoughts below…

This volume collects HRA #6-8, HRA Free Comic Book Day 2021, and HRA Annual #1.

Here’s my thoughts I typed out as I read...

“Attack on the Republic Fair” FCBD 2021

Ram is really cool. I love his use of the force with technology. This was really, really short though and basically just a small snippet of what Ram, Lula and Zeen went through in Race to Crashpoint Tower. Seeing Ty on the dragon was awesome. I mentioned in my review for HR Vol 2 that I enjoy the comics for being a visual way to see some of the cool things about the High Republic era, and that is certainly true here too. Except in this particular case you wouldn’t understand what was happening unless you read The Rising Storm and Race to Crashpoint Tower (which you needed to read HRA Vol 1 to truly get too). Interconnectivity mess.

“Mission to Bilbousa”

I assume this takes place during the events of Crashpoint Tower. Lula’s two Jedi padawan pals (Farzala and Qort) and Mushroom-head Jedi Master Oberatuk are traveling to Nal Hutta with Affie’s crew (from Into the Dark). 

Mushroom guy is in an unexpected hybernation and can’t go negotiate a lasting peace treaty with the Hutts, so Farzala and Leox go, while Qort stays onboard the Vessel with Affie and Geode. Affie questions why Qort wears a skull on his head, but he doesn’t answer. 

He and Geode quickly bond. Geode is definitely a highlight wherever he finds himself. 

Jabba must not want a peace treaty, because he hires some thugs to highjack the Vessel and shoot up Skarabda the Hutt (the sister of Myarga, the Hutt allied to Avar to quell the Drengir threat). The Hutts obvs think this was purposeful and put Farzala and Leox in jail. They send fighters to attack the Vessel, but Geode escapes Jabba’s men and flies away from the attackers. 

Flashbacks to baby younglings very cute, especially Qort. 

Jabba’s men have lost Affie, Qort, and Geode aboard the Vessel. One of the crew is a droid that keeps malfunctioning. He sounds like he’s repeating lines from a Holo-drama. He corners Affie, who has cornered a Jabba goon, who has cornered Geode flying the Vessel. The Mushroom destroys the droid. Mushroom man has many arms, and thus he wields many lightsabers--each forged in memory of a previous padawan (since he can live for over a thousand years). 

He raises the Hutts on comms and Jabba is exposed. 

I really like these two padawans. They were a highlight of the first volume of these comics as well. The moral of the story is that life isn’t like the holo-dramas. There is no shame in feeling fear, because feeling fear gives a Jedi an opportunity to overcome it and realize they’re never alone. These comics are for kids, so a “moral of the story” is fine with me.

“Back Together and Away Again”

The Hutt “muscle” that grew to trust Farzala in the last comic is with him now on Starlight Beacon. Her name is iSHNAR TI-KHARATAL. And I messed up caps lock but i’m not retyping that. Lula and Zeen have also brought Ram. They’re all introducing each other. It’s right after Valo. We are so close to getting the weird Pluto/Goofy moments between Ram’s bat-like sentient mechanic friends and Zeen’s pet cru. Sadly it did not happen in this volume, even though the two different types of bat-like creatures were both featured separately. 

Zeen’s lame ex-bestie, Krix, is still here, licking tHE Eye’s boots. Krix’s art makes him look a bit more grown up now. Meanwhile, the Eye has blue skin… and I’m pretty sure he has pale skin on the cover of Eye of the Storm. I’ll double check that later.

Krix is the worst part about these comics. To the point of really dragging down my feelings about them as a whole. So many of the youthful characters portrayed in the HR have their personalities defined by completely asinine and unrealistic things. It’s like very little thought was put into them being believable and nuanced. Krix as a character, his whole conflict derives from the fact that his friend kept that she was a force user a secret. Even though we are given no legit reason why he should care so vehemently about force users. Their clan forbade force use, said the force wasn’t to be trusted or used, but that wasn’t really explained either. So the whole thing seems like a stupid overreaction… especially considering Zeen used her force abilities to save Krix’s undeserving little butt. He just went from 0 to 100 instantly. But what’s even more unbelievable is that the Eye would even look twice at this little punk. There is absolutely no reason for him to take this kid under his wing. None. And him doing so in these comics, actively takes away from his menacing persona in the main adult books. And Ro put this kid in charge of a Storm?? He’s like…8. Not believable at. all.

Krix’s Nihil attack the Jedi Temple on Takodana. Blatant Sequel plug. They couldn’t even show the temple without having Maz’s cantina literally right in the background lol. Must be a SMALL PLANET. The Jedi on duty makes quick work of them. Their name is Sav Malagán.

Buckets of Blood and Kantam confirm to the padawans that someone is researching what turned Loden into dust (TRS). Also, Kantam was Yoda’s padawan. Reminder: Yoda is with an elder of Krix and Zeen’s people. They’re searching for another part of the thing that is Ro’s secret weapon..I am having a hard time keeping this straight. The thing he got out of the cave in TRS or the thing used on Keeve in HR Vol 2? Maybe they’re the same thing. I don’t know.

Ends with Krix regrouping and determined to destroy the temple on Takodana. He’s probably just cranky because he missed his nap time.

Okay, so even though this was HRA Vol. 2, that’s it for our group of padawans. If I judge this collection for what it is, without looking at the bigger picture, it’s not great. Too little progression for these characters, who are supposed to be our focus.

HRA Annual #1 

“Set for Life” 

Bell and Loden adventure before Light of the Jedi. This is by far the best little contained story in this collection. Yes, I’m extremely biased. Bell and Ember are my favorite characters in the whole of this initiative. And Loden was taken from us much too soon.

“No Stone Unturned”

Just a very brief look into a gig that Leox and crew were on. Very forgettable.

“First Mission”

When Vernestra first met Stellan. Weird that she’d be assigned to him before they even met. I like Stellan. Not crazy about Vernestra. I think the story of these two as master and apprentice would be much more interesting than the content we actually are getting. And frankly, I would even say it’s needed to flesh out these characters better.

“Crash and the Crew: Do What They Do”

A security team in Coronet City works to protect Chancellor Soh. Some evil dude (Sabata?) was pleased. Said it all went according to plan. I don't know.

The art was very different in this one. Reminded me of Doug.

“The Haul”

Lourna Dee tries to steal a haul from another Storm, but they both are in for a surprise…it’s Porter Engle! He set a trap for them. Lourna runs away, Portal captures the other guy. End of story. Porter was cool in Light of the Jedi and really hasn’t been around much since, so it’s nice to see him here even if a bit random.

I am very glad to see some of the novel characters in comic book form, but these stories were all a bit too short. They felt kind of pointless at the end of it all. They weren’t long enough to be that interesting or important to the overall story. Forgettable and inconsequential. 

#High Republic comics #star wars comics #star wars #reading challenge #2022 reading challenge #star wars books #high republic #star wars the high republic #the high republic #star wars high republic #star wars reads #read this is the way #lula talisola #ram jomaram #zeen mrala #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads

[thedroidsyouarelookingfor]

2021 Reading Challenge:

Star Wars the High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower by Daniel José Older

★★★★☆

Non-spoiler thoughts below...

This book was much better than the last middle grade book, A Test of Courage, but unfortunately, I had to stop reading before I got too far in, as I realized I was about to be spoiled on the entire first part of IDW’s High Republic Adventures story arc. I closed the book, and ran off to track down the first five issues of the comic book series. They’re already out and available, but the collected issues will not be released in a trade paper back for months. So it’s more than a little inconvenient.

I managed to read the comics though, so I came back to the book feeling informed and ready to dive in. You can read this without any knowledge of the comics, but you’ll definitely be confused about some things the characters mention. The same can also be said for those who haven’t first read A Rising Storm. The events of Rising Storm and Race to Crashpoint are set during the same time, and you really won’t understand much of what’s going on if you don’t read both. At the same time, there is an interaction between two characters that is featured in both, but they play out very differently--from dialogue to actions. It’s all very jarring. The creators behind this multimedia project try to pretend that each book can stand on its own, but that simply isn’t true. And continuity mistakes abound...

Still, if you aren’t being too nitpicky, this is a fun little read. Padawans Lula and Ram are the stars of this book for middle grade readers, and I’m sure many will find them relatable and likable. I loved seeing Ram’s special use of the Force, and was excited to see the unique ways he used his abilities. Lula didn’t particularly shine too brightly for me in this book, but I grew to like her from reading the comics beforehand, so I was happy to see her back. Lula’s friend Zeen is also in the book, but not very much. If you don't read the comics (am i starting to sound like a broken holotape?) you won’t really understand her deal or her friendship with Lula as much. She’s an interesting character, and I look forward to seeing what happens with her in the same way I wonder about Ty Yorrik. 

Special shout out to the cute little bat-like mechanics that help Ram. I bet they’d be delightful to watch if this was made into a cartoon.

Hey, wait a minute...if Ram’s bonbraks meet Zeen’s pet cru....won’t that be a bit like Goofy taking Pluto for a walk...

#star wars #star wars reads #star wars books #star wars the high republic #star wars high republic #my book reviews #book review #book reviews #race to crashpoint tower #high republic #the high republic #middle grade books #ram jomaram #lula talisola #reading challenge #thedroidsyouwerelookingfor reads