Max highly praises Claudia Gray in his review of Star Wars: The High Republic – Into the Light, the latest volume in Lucasfilm’s initiative.
“Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Light” was written by Claudia Gray and serves as a follow-up to her earlier book, “Into the Dark.“ This earlier title, also authored by Gray, is set three years before “Into the Light.” It depicts the onset of the Nihil’s conquest of the galaxy and introduces the terrifying Drengir—sentient plant monsters that devour everything in their path.
I need to apologize to Ms. Gray. After reading George Mann’s work, one of Claudia’s colleagues on The High Republic project, I got a bit of a literature “snob” vibe. I felt like her writing didn’t measure up to his. So when I picked up another one of her books afterward, it felt like it fell short, and I even thought it was “bad writing.” This was a horrible mistake I made. I have to learn that writers are just like you and me, human, and not everything they will produce will be exceptional.
Gray is no stranger to Star Wars, in general, and has penned other non-High Republic titles, such as 2016’s Leia novel Bloodlines, which I remember as relatively enjoyable. Yet, Into the Light is perhaps Gray’s best work, and I was embarrassed about having doubted her as a writer. The pacing, the pitch, the story, the lore, the dialogue, the characters-everything was perfect!
PERFECTION
The story kicks off amid the Nihil-Republic conflict. The evil brute, Marchion Ro, leader of the Nihil, has cordoned off a long swath of the galaxy with his Stormwall technology and established himself as the pirate-king of his newly created fiefdom. Yet, Ro is chaotic and lazy, cares only about luxuries for himself, and hurts other beings. He has no interest in ruling his new kingdom. His mistress, Ghirra Starros (a former human Senator), is frustrated by this lack of Order and grapples with her daughter, Avon Starros, who has wholly joined the Republic to help take down the organization her mother runs.
She is determined to save the galaxy from the Blight, a mysterious pathogen that destroys everything in its path (and is somehow connected to the Nihil’s monster, the Nameless), husking it out until it is just a fine gray powder and killing any organic life it touches. The Republic is desperate for a Blight cure, and this mysterious entity seems to spread across the galaxy at superluminal speeds, appearing on planets that are separated by hundreds of light years.
LIES AND DECEPTIONS
Marchion lies to the Republic by claiming he has a cure, but it is all a farce to give the Republic false hope. The Jedi Knight, Reath Silas (the hero of the tale), has been researching how to get rid of the Blight and works with his fellow Jedi and Avon to find a solution before it’s too late. The insidious Blight has been seeded on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, and an errant Nihil mad scientist named Zadina Mkampa also has an interest in Kashyyyk and plans to betray Ro and the Nihil and find something of vast and wicked power on the planet.
That’s a lot to digest, and I encourage all readers of this review to read the book itself, so I will not divulge too much of the plot. However, I have to talk about how well-oiled a machine this book is, with all the moving parts running smoothly and efficiently.
Gray has stuck by the characters she has created with “Into the Dark“. While some were poorly designed, I now think they have been fleshed out considerably and made into characters I enjoy reading about. I relate to Reath, as he spends most of his time reading EVERYTHING he can get his hands on in the Jedi Archive and is not the best Jedi when it comes to lightsaber dueling or strength in the Force. I am very similar, as I am a librarian by trade, love to read, and find athletic feats to be something that has always escaped my wheelhouse.
NON-JEDI HEROES
I also love the non-Jedi crew of Affie, Leox, and Geode. While I found the latter two to be a bit trippy, I am now starting to enjoy reading more about them. In my opinion, Leox was always a hippie weirdo, a mentor to Affie, but generally annoying and consistently high on spice. I felt Geode was a massive fail at creating a funny and bizarre alien character. He is a sentient, moving slab of rock, and the “joke” Gray was trying to present to us was that it was kind of a blink-and-you-missed-it, where Geode moved or said something that showed he knew more than everyone else.
I find this deposition quite lovely and was amused that many of the non-giant-rock characters find Geode to be one of the few “people” they like, including Nan and Azlin, a Nihil spy and former Dark Jedi, respectively.
Reath leads a mission to Kashyyyk to try and stop the progression of the Blight, because the massive wroshyr tree forests that compose the planet are beyond sacred to the Wookiee people. The Wookiees will likely never evacuate like the rest of the galaxy is with the Blight. My hat is off to Gray with her expanded Wookiee lore. It isn’t overwhelming and contradictory, and expands what we already suspected about the Wookiee species.
WOOKIEE BUSINESS
Wookiee Jedi are indeed rare, and due to their long lifespans, the Order deemed it acceptable that they are allowed to have some ties with their families and homeworlds. Most non-Wookiee Jedi grow up never knowing their parents or the planet they were born on. Gray also dips into some cultural aspects of Wookiees in the galaxy, and it is said that children in the Republic often have Wookiee dolls to play with. Also, kids’ holo-movies and stories usually take place in the forests of Kashyyyk. It’s so refreshing and logical, and it’s just the start of Gray’s expertise at lore-building.
I will keep the suspense and not go into the best bits of the lore, but I was blown away by Gray’s plot McGuffin towards the end of the book. It was SO cool and not forced. She has made an excellent addition to the vast repositories of Star Wars canon. Even two throwaway new planets she created were so aptly described, and as I read about them, I was so fascinated and even wanted to live on one! Usually, I hate when writers create a whole new planet and do almost nothing with it, but Gray’s details for these two made me titillated and want more!
MARCHION RO
I saw many parallels between Marchion Ro’s chaotic and apathetic ruling style and the current President of the United States, Donald Trump. I’m not entirely sure if this was an intentional decision on Gray’s part. But Ro’s inaptitude for ruling and only pursuing his own ego and selfish desires feels eerily similar to the administration of my current government.
I also need to retract my criticism, which I typically had for Gray’s fondness for squeezing sex into Star Wars. I remember when in Into the Dark, Leox tells Affie that he is asexual and should have no fears of him trying to “get” with her as they serve as shipmates aboard the Vessel. Perhaps this was always silly and unnecessary, and shoehorning sex and sexual orientations into the fabric of Star Wars should only be done if the story calls for it.
However, her subtle references work pretty well for the plot this time. Reath is the center of attraction for Avon and the Nihil spy Nan. I liked how Nan flirted with Reath by withholding information during the mission and making sarcastic comments about how he is a gentleman and protecting her.
GHIRRA
I also buy that Ghirra is only alive so long as she can please Ro in bed. Ro is famous for his evil killings of his subordinates due to his whims, and Ghirra is one of the rare few who can lose her patience with this despicable being and not end up thrown out of an airlock, at least for now.
Lastly, I want to touch on Azlin Rell, the 150-year-old human former Jedi-turned Dark Jedi who is begrudgingly allowed to participate in the mission to Kashyyyk. Azlin’s mind was shattered by the touch of the Nameless, a creature that can drain the life out of Force users and is employed by the Nihil as “Jedi neutralizers”. Whenever a Nameless is near a Force-sensitive, they feel overwhelming fear and paralyzing existential dread. They usually cannot fight back, finding themselves consumed and left as a powdery husk (suspiciously similar to the effects of the Blight on well, EVERYTHING).
AZLIN
Azlin survived the Nameless by gouging his own eyes out and became a bitter, hateful supercentenarian who is only allowed to work with the Jedi due to his experiences with these creatures. He cannot let go of his hate and doesn’t know why he is still confined to his “flesh prison” body. Gray’s writing evokes great sympathy for this lost, bitter individual. He is so miserable that he cannot help himself by trying to corrupt other younger Jedi with sarcastic and creepy advice, and his total apathy and perceived sense of self-superiority remind me a lot of the character, Rick Sanchez, from the highly popular Rick and Morty animated adult TV Series.
It’s also a shining example of Gray’s writing skills. She portrays how being back on Kashyyyk reminds Azlin of his youth and the light, and then has both the dark and light sides engage in a tug-of-war with his mind during his time on this planet.
VERDICT
Gray has spun gold with this work, and she has returned to the top of the list as one of my favorite Star Wars authors. The only criticism I could think of for this story was that it wasn’t always clear what Nan’s true intentions were with the Nihil and the Republic. Still, the nebulous shift may be interpreted by other readers as something profound. Mkamba was also a bit of a stereotypical mad-scientist type, but her contributions to science lore in the Star Wars universe were greatly appreciated.
Star Wars: The High Republic – Into The Light is available to buy now from all good bookstores.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
