Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows

The young adult novels continue to be the best part of the High Republic project, as they are more character-driven and less sprawling than the ostensibly adult novels. The Jedi prodigy Vernestra Rwoh is a bit more interesting than her weathered adult counterparts featured in the adult novels, although the blue-collar characters (Silvestri in this novel, Affie in Into the Dark) are a bit boring. It is good to see Star Wars making strides towards equality, with the lesbian romance just as awkward as the heterosexual romance in the prequels. The revelation at the end was a bit confusing--while certain characters' allegiances are clarified, the end goal of one of the major players is left extremely murky and does not make a lot of sense.

Out of the Shadows was a conundrum for me. This is very much a character-oriented story, but I was way more interested on the plot. Does it make it necessarily bad? No. But didn't work so much for me.

From the plot side, I love how this expanded a lot on the lore of hyperspace. It's something that runs in the veins of the High Republic plotlines and it was great to see this expanded on. The same can be said about a closer look at the politics and machinations on Coruscant.

My nitpick here is mostly the MCUfication of the franchise. I am reading everything but the comics, but a lot of the overall storylines are beginning to feel convoluted, and I can't help but wonder if I'm missing important information because I'm not following a show more particular media.

The characters are the central point of the book, and I have to give praise to how developed they managed to be even with constant pov shifts. True to YA, they are all dealing with self-discovery, insecurities and growing up, and it all read as very realistic to the teenagers. Which is exactly why I have a problem with Vernestra, and her having most of the povs along with Syl (who I really enjoyed) definitely put a hamper on my experience.

Vernestra is a great teenager, her character is definitely the most complex one and her relationship with Imri very sweet. But exactly because of how teen she is, I spent the whole time, since previous books, thinking to myself "why isn't this girl a padawan?". She is obviously extremely capable, but her immaturity in several situations doesn't reassure me that she wouldn't have benefited from a couple more years of apprenticeship. I just wasn't sold on the idea of her being a prodigy. I'm really glad this was briefly addressed, but it didn't help me stop being annoyed while reading her chapters.

Overall this was okay, there was no extreme excitement or surprise as other installments, but it told a solid story and explored interesting themes. show less

Super fun read, I did feel like I didn't read this in the right order. It seemed like every character had a backstory that I didn't know. It was distracting at first but then I really got pulled in to the characters in their adventure.

Very little is as it seems, and lately cast of characters includes two Jedis, two padawans, a surly, orphaned pilot, her battle harden ex-girlfriend, a lightning cat, a flamboyant megalomaniac, a mad scientist, politicians, conglomerates, and a terrorist organization.

Nothing happens and it's basically my favorite star wars book