Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence by: Zoraida Cordova

 

You know I’m kind of surprised after the several Star Wars novels, there hasn’t exactly been one that’s riffed the original trilogy in the way that Convergence by: Zoraida Cordova does.  Not so much in terms of plot, it doesn’t make the mistake of trying to follow the plot of Star Wars because that’s a plot that had already been done to death in 1977, but a lot of the other aspects that makes the film work.  Structurally, it doesn’t resemble Star Wars, but more than any other installment in The High Republic publishing initiative it rYou know I’m kind of surprised after the several Star Wars novels, there hasn’t exactly been one that’s riffed the original trilogy in the way that Convergence by: Zoraida Cordova does.  Not so much in terms of plot, it doesn’t make the mistake of trying to follow the plot of Star Wars because that’s a plot that had already been done to death in 1977, but a lot of the other aspects that makes the film work.  Structurally, it doesn’t resemble Star Wars, but more than any other installment in The High Republic publishing initiative it resembles many of the adventure serials that inspired George Lucas so long ago.  There’s a lot of moving parts in Convergence, Cordova approaching the novel with a sense of political intrigue, this second phase meaning to parallel the prequel trilogy makes it apt, though there is more focus than really anything Lucas ever put on screen in that trilogy.  At its core are two central romances, both couples representing opposite ends of love.  The general cast also reflects several of the archetypes that populate the main cast of Star Wars: there’s a princess just attempting to do right by her people in a difficult situation (a similar enough brink of war), a dashing rogue character who is so clearly going on an interesting arc of his own, and there is a sense of being on the edge of a much larger narrative.  Convergence is clearly in conversation with The Path of Deceit and though technically it takes place before the young adult novel, it actually feels better to read this one after.  This is largely because the Path of the Open Hand, while clearly defined here with the Mother appearing and being integral to the plot, they feel in many ways more a background element.

 

Having Grafton and Ireland’s context gives the reader further insight into what the path is doing, but the way Cordova uses them in one final twist regarding the character of Axel Greylark is fascinating.  Axel in many a way is a parallel to Han Solo as a character, at least in terms of personality and how his, for lack of a better term, romance with Jedi Gella Nattai is a romance of contrasting philosophies.  The way that it develops by the end of the novel is what really elevated Convergence for me from a fairly decent book to a great book.  It’s the epilogue that really starts Phase II in terms of what these books marketed towards adult will be facing with.  The big ideas of different philosophies in exploring the Force is still present, but Cordova is clearly interested in using that as exploring the general philosophies of people.  This novel is a question as to what happens when the chips are down and the danger is coming.  Because this is taking inspiration from the Star Wars prequels on the general direction level, Cordova makes this a novel that is dripping with dread.  There is a tragedy that is about to happen, the book is set on the eve of war and it is clear from the beginning that anything the characters are about to do is only going to lead to war.  The subtextual goal is not avoiding war but mitigating exactly what it might be able to do.  Now, for me the other romantic pairing in Convergence while not poorly portrayed and clearly understandable, for whatever reason was not compelling to me.  Xiri is certainly a well developed character and her decision to marry for political reasons is great, that half of the plot just doesn’t quite spark what the Axel/Gella pairing does (it probably helps that Gella gets two lightsabers and there’s just some fun action throughout the book with that).

 

Overall, Zoraida Cordova’s Convergence works so well because of the epilogue which should annoy me more than it does.  It’s also a novel which centers romance through the lens of Star Wars among the larger backdrop of a brewing space war, something that shouldn’t appeal at all to me.  But because of how strong the characters are and Cordova’s general structure, it’s a book that makes me quite glad that I’m essentially doing Phase II of The High Republic all at once.  8/10.