Book Review: Star Wars: Convergence

 

Convergence is, for the moment, the first (chronologically) in-canon Star Wars novel. It is still set during the High Republic era, but a generation or so before the novel Light of the Jedi and the conflict with the Nihil. So, there is an entirely new crop of characters in this book, and again, the one character that everyone is familiar with, Yoda, is only referred to in passing but is not directly included in the storyline.

The plot of this book involves warring neighboring planets Eiram and the E'ronoh, and the Jedi being dispatched to help negotiate a peace treaty during a cease-fire between the two planets. As you would expect, things do not go smoothly, and the Jedi must stop an attack that threatens to plunge the planets back into war.

The book is good, but not one that I would call a must-read.  It is a moderate length at just over 350 pages, but it is a fairly quick read. If you are a fast reader you can probably finish it in a day or two. I think it suffers from what the other High Republic novels do, namely too many characters that have no real backstory or setup that fans are just supposed to be invested in. I think that the books would be a lot better if Yoda was a lead character and then introduce the other characters around him. The story does have a good blend of action and mystery/suspense and does set up some of the elements that are used in the later High Republic novels. It is one of those books that I would say is worth reading once, but it is not one that a lot of people are likely to read more than once.