Book Review: Star Wars: The High Republic: The Rising Storm

 

This is the second "main storyline" canon novel (basically meaning "adult" novel) set in the high-republic era of the Star Wars universe. As most know, since Disney took over, everything that is put out is considered canon, but the young adult and junior novels are ancillary to the main story that is told in the movies, tv-series, and adult novels. It takes place about a couple of hundred years before the events of the prequel and original trilogies. In this era, the enemy of the Jedi is not the Sith, but a group of pirates called the Nihil.  In this novel, the setting is a Republic fair on the planet Valo, put on by Chancellor Lina Soh, despite warnings of an attack. Most of the book involves the various Jedi trying to stave off the Nihil attack and keep the people safe. Within that is revealed in-fighting between members of the Nihil, whom each wants to take control of the group.

I think a lot of what has bogged down the two main novels is that it has a ton of characters, none of which is the focus. Unlike the prequel movies and novelizations which focused on about 4-5 Jedi and kept the rest in the background, the novels feel like an ensemble cast of characters that we don't really know and do not get much development. So, keeping straight who everyone is can be challenging, and getting invested in all of them is hard. And, I think it has been a mistake to exclude Yoda from the novels (aside from name-dropping him a couple of times). He is probably the most powerful Jedi at the height of his powers yet has been on the sidelines now for two major disasters in the Light of the Jedi novel and this one. 

Overall, the book is good, but not great. The author does a good job with the story and keeping the chapters relatively short. It does kind of jump back and forth between characters who get separated during the attack, so the storylines kind of shift all over the place. It can be hard, especially if you take a break from reading it for a day or so, to remember what was going on with the group that is discussed in the current chapter because they may not have been mentioned for three or four chapters. But, the fact that the chapters are short (about 10 pages at most, and some are about 2 pages) helps with that. It is definitely a "middle" novel that is setting up a larger battle/confrontation to come. It has a lot of action, and some suspense and drama. It is a fairly quick read (depending on how fast you read and how much time you devote to reading), despite being about 430 pages. If you are a fairly quick reader, and read a little every day, you can definitely get through this in a couple of weeks or less.