The Crystal Crown is a young-adult novel set at the end of the High Republic era of the Star Wars universe, written by Tessa Graton. It is centered on the characters Yord and Jecki (played by Charlie Barnett and Dafne Keen in the live-action Acolyte series) when they were both padawans. It is the second (as of this writing) prequel novel to the Actolyte series (which was canceled after the usual bitching and whining by the Star Wars "fanbase"), set an unspecified amount of time before the events in the TV series. In it, Jecki and Yord accompany their masters to a planet called Siline, whose inhabitants emphasize honor and duels to clean up a political mess caused by another Jedi who refused to duel during negotiations to bring the planet into the Republic. Jecki and Yord do not particularly like each other, but are forced to work together when they are enlisted to participate in a coming-of-age series of competitions that draw easy comparisons to the Hunger Games series.
The hardcover version of the book is just under 440 pages. It reads fairly quickly and has a good mix of action and non-action material. The only other character from the series who appears in the book is Master Sol, although Osha and Vernestra are also mentioned in passing. It does not really hint at the Sith threat (which, at that point, was still unknown) and is very much a self-contained story. Ultimately, the story is okay but not great. It is not one of the novels that I would call a must-read, but if you liked the series and want more stories from that time frame, it is worth checking out. However, you are not missing anything critical if you do not read it. Hopefully, down the line, they will continue the story that the show would have told if it had not been canceled, as that would be much more interesting and critical to the overall universe of stories than this one.
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