Perhaps it is because it is young adult, but Out of
the Shadows continues to be an installment in Star Wars: The High
Republic which just grabs me and keeps me interested more than the adult
books. Maybe it is because this line of books
in general has simpler stories that don’t attempt to overcomplicate things,
perhaps it is because these feel the most easy to someone who isn’t really a
part of the Star Wars fandom, or maybe they’re just that good. Out of the Shadows is essentially the
follow up to Into the Dark, though from a different author. Justina Ireland writes this one, her first book
for the franchise but far from her first novel, and while the characters and
plot threads Claudia Gray introduced are here and contribute to the plot, they
take more of a backseat. It is quite
nice to see Reath from the perspective of other characters who call out his
suspicious actions near the climax dealing with the Nihil threat of the novel,
largely how Ireland follows up on Into the Dark with the Nihil moving into
the open and no longer being an isolated threat. Nan is the one of the other major characters
from Into the Dark to reappear and have a major role in the novel,
Ireland being clearly interested in exploring the Nihil and their inner
workings. Ireland doesn’t actually talk
down to the younger audience, there’s a lot of internal bickering and
bureaucracy as well as espionage. Their
technology is quite advanced and dangerous, and the structured nature of their
society allows for Nan to have this innate desire to be seen and succeed. There is an interesting idea of advancement in
Nihil society that is driving Nan and the reader can tell it’s going to be
self-destructive, she ends the book in a very different place than she started
with a completely different faction as intergalactic tensions are largely
heating up.
Ireland’s protagonists for Out of the Shadows are
pilot Sylvestri “Syl” Yarrow and Jedi Knight Vernestra “Vern” Rwoh. This pair are essentially the alternating
point of view characters for the entire novel.
Syl is an interesting character since her journey is essentially a mafia
story dealing with a mafia family that are not the Hutts and slowly falling in love
with someone in a lovely piece of LGBT representation from a young adult novel
published by Disney that couldn’t easily be removed for certain international
editions. She has a dead mother who may
actually be alive, a scholarly streak, and is a pretty fun character to follow. Vern on the other hand is perhaps the standout
star of the novel, at least for me. Like
Reath in Into the Dark, Vern is a character with some uniqueness to her,
mainly because she is only 16 and is already a Jedi Knight, leading to a fascinating
internal monologue of being an outsider from her peers who are all still
Padawans. She’s perhaps a bit too cocky
as a Jedi for her own good, but there is the clear talent there. Perhaps my favorite portion in the novel is
this moment where Vern and Reath duel each other as a way to relieve stress and
learn from each other, because these characters really do shine together in
such an interesting way. It’s especially
apparent since the middle of the novel does suffer from largely dragging. The plot threads converge pretty easily and by
the end everything comes out, but it does feel as if Ireland has gone through several
drafts and the editing process on the novel was a little rough on the novel.
Overall, Out of the Shadows continues what has
been a pretty solid streak of Star Wars novels for me. The High Republic continues to be the period
of the franchise that is allowing the most interesting creative opportunities,
and several authors being in charge means that each installment has this nice
risk and reward quality to it. Justina
Ireland is also great when it comes to character work and worldbuilding, allowing
it to overcome some of the major issues that the plot of the novel had. This is a book that is such a fun and breezy read
that I can’t help but enjoy it even if there are problems to be
acknowledged. 7/10.
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