As most people reading this review are likely aware by now, the High Republic series of stories pit the Jedi and the Republic as a whole, not against the Sith, but against a group of pirates called The Nihil. The Nihil have been responsible not only for the hyperspace disasters, but the attack on the Republic fair, and a series of skirmishes that ended either with a draw or the Jedi barely winning. This book tells the story of a subversive attack on The Starlight Beacon, the space station that is essentially run by the Jedi and has been a focus of a lot of the High Republic stories up to this point. The Nihil manages to send a team to the station to sabotage it and release something (it is not clear even at the end of the book exactly what) that can severely hamper the Jedi's connection to the force and put them all in danger.
I will not go into great detail about what happens in the book, but I will say that The Nihil scores a decisive victory. In the end, Manchin Ro declares himself to all to be the real Eye of the Nihil and sends a message to the Republic that they are not at all done. One thing that the story does suffer a bit from is having a ton of characters and shifting the story from one point of view to another. It is not impossible to follow, but there are times when the POV switches multiple times per chapter, and it would be a lot easier to read if each chapter focused on one or two characters and then shifted to other characters in the next chapter. That is my only real criticism, otherwise, the story was very good, the pacing went well, and the book holds the readers in suspense all the way to the end. The book is 345 pages long, including a short Epilogue, which is about as long as most of the adult novels (and some of the young adult novels) clock in at. I am a fairly fast reader and was able to get through it in about 10 days reading for an hour or so before bed. If you are one of those who, like me, read all of the canon novels, you will probably have pre-ordered this and read it right away. If you are one of those who gets some, but not all, of the novels, I do think this one is worth picking up.
I will not go into great detail about what happens in the book, but I will say that The Nihil scores a decisive victory. In the end, Manchin Ro declares himself to all to be the real Eye of the Nihil and sends a message to the Republic that they are not at all done. One thing that the story does suffer a bit from is having a ton of characters and shifting the story from one point of view to another. It is not impossible to follow, but there are times when the POV switches multiple times per chapter, and it would be a lot easier to read if each chapter focused on one or two characters and then shifted to other characters in the next chapter. That is my only real criticism, otherwise, the story was very good, the pacing went well, and the book holds the readers in suspense all the way to the end. The book is 345 pages long, including a short Epilogue, which is about as long as most of the adult novels (and some of the young adult novels) clock in at. I am a fairly fast reader and was able to get through it in about 10 days reading for an hour or so before bed. If you are one of those who, like me, read all of the canon novels, you will probably have pre-ordered this and read it right away. If you are one of those who gets some, but not all, of the novels, I do think this one is worth picking up.
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