Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star by: Claudia Gray

 

The Fallen Star is essentially the finale to the first phase of the Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative.  As such, it’s a novel that is stuffed to the brim with characters and storylines all wrapped around a central event of a Nihil plan to strike the Republic where it is going to hurt the most.  Somehow this novel has felt the most Star Wars of any of The High Republic novels that I have read, juggling a multi-threaded plot and characters, as well as bringing together plots from different authors writing in different media.  Light of the Jedi is responsible for beginning this initiative and in my estimation struggled to juggle its plotlines, but Claudia Gray is responsible for making The Fallen Star work.  Once again, all of the plotlines are wrapped around the destruction of a space station, Starlight Beacon, and the efforts to mitigate the disaster as it is literally split in half.  Gray’s largest success in this novel is managing to keep the characters engaging as well as important to the plot, while running in parallel with Cavan Scott’s comic finale (which I have not read).  Each character is given their distinct goal and characterization, the Jedi largely furthering the themes of The High Republic’s examination of what it means to be a Jedi.

 

Elzar Mann is a Jedi who throughout the books that I have read has had this incredibly interesting relationship with the Force.  It’s a largely creative relationship that has had his own touches with the Dark Side of the Force.  Gray’s take on Mann’s perspective is both creative but heavily introspective.  One of the musings of the novel is the relationship with other Jedi as well as the general principles against forming romantic relationships, something unavoidable with adolescence and overlooked by the order until they become attached.  The Fallen Star wants to examine the loss of the state of the universe with the threat of the Nihil.  Mann is put under another Jedi, Orla Jareni, essentially to monitor his attraction to the Dark Side and the most effective scenes in this book involve the two and Jareni’s fate on Starlight Beacon.  Jareni is killed by creatures that essentially petrify and dehydrate her, creating a further danger in the novel other than the Nihil threat.  The Nihil plan is also fascinating as this is the first novel where despite all odds, the Nihil essentially lose in the end.  Marchion Ro is the primary antagonist of the novel and his particular brand of villainy is an example of the Xanatos Gambit, being one step ahead of the protagonists and Ro’s own allies until the very end when while his plans succeed there is enough of a wrench to throw them off balance.  This is a book that ends with a mirror to the destruction in Light of the Jedi, the destruction of Starlight Beacon ends in far less death and destruction than there should have been.  Gray is careful not to ignore the destruction that does occur, a decent amount of the resolution is devoted to it, but the Nihil are hurt as well in the process.  They lose some of their operatives in a “noble” sacrifice and Nan who appears here after Into the Dark and Out of the Shadows spends much of the book questioning the Nihil.

 

Overall, The Fallen Star is the strongest Star Wars novel that I have actually read yet.  While not a major part of my review, Claudia Gray’s writing style is something that genuinely makes the world more accessible with others (there is a major Wookiee character and Geode returns and while both have no dialogue their personalities and communication with other characters is a feat in and of itself).  The arc feels like it’s an ending and a very satisfying ending at that. 8/10.