Next week will see the release of the latest novel from Lucasfilm Publishing, entitled Star Wars: The High Republic – Defy the Storm, and below are my mostly spoiler-free recap and thoughts on this book.
Back in 2022, authors Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland collaborated on what is probably still my favorite novel of The High Republic era– Star Wars: Path of Deceit. In my mind, that book succeeded with its laser focus on the Force-worshipping, Jedi-hating cult known as the Path of the Open Hand and the repercussions of one of its followers falling in love with a kind and unsuspecting member of the Jedi Order. Now, Gratton and Ireland have combined their talents once again in the new young-adult High Republic novel Star Wars: Defy the Storm, and based on my significant appreciation for their previous effort I was very excited going into this one. I’ll say right off the bat that Defy the Storm didn’t entirely live up to those expectations, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. It’s quite a bit of fun, has some good action and plenty of memorable character beats, and generally feels like something right out of the Star Wars galaxy of storytelling. It just felt a little more scattershot than its predecessor.
This novel focuses on three main protagonists– which is a welcome number compared to some of the overstuffed adult-targeted High Republic books– plus a few supporting cast members. There’s youthful Mirialan Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh (who we learned at last year’s Star Wars Celebration will be featured in the upcoming live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: The Acolyte), who has spent the year since the fall of Starlight Beacon in seclusion on a remote planet, finding her connection to the Force again. Then there’s young genius Avon Starros, the daughter of disgraced Senator Ghirra Starros and an engineering student at a university on Coruscant under an assumed name. And lastly we’ve got former Tiikae deputy Jordanna Sparkburn, who now travels around the galaxy running odd jobs for Pirate Queen Maz Kanata with her girlfriend Sylvestri Yarrow and their pet vollka Remy. As you might guess by the attractive cover illustration, Defy the Storm sees these three characters venturing into Nihil territory together, but first it has to gather them all in the same place.
This is mostly at the behest of Avon, who has her own reasons for crossing the so-called “Stormwall” into the Nihil-occupied territory known as the Occlusion Zone, but each of the other characters have their personal motivations for the mission as well. This means that after the process of bringing them all together, Vernestra, Avon, and Jordanna must pretty much immediately split apart to chase after their individual goals in the O.Z. Along the way they interact with supporting characters like wealthy physicist Xylan Graf, displaced smuggler Cair San Tekka, and Jordanna’s brother Harth Sparkburn. Some of these personas are newly introduced here, while others like Xylan apparently were introduced in previous books, though I wouldn’t have remembered which without the help of Wookieepedia (I know I read and reviewed Star Wars: Out of the Shadows a few years ago, but there have just been so much Star Wars media since then, from The High Republic and otherwise).
Splitting up the three protagonists into separate narratives also kind of dampens the impact of each, though one story does stand out among the others as being more significant for The High Republic as a whole. The other two do move the overarching plot along in tiny increments, but I can’t say I wasn’t wishing for something more zoomed-in, purposeful, and consistent when it comes to stakes. I do like that only one of the main characters is a Jedi (hooray!) and that we have gotten to know Rwoh, Starros, and Sparkburn well enough over the past few years to care about where their journeys take them. That said, I think my biggest complaint about Defy the Storm is that the most intriguing parts of the novel were its final few chapters, which are chiefly designed to set up the next books in The High Republic publishing initiative. That feels a bit like the Marvel Cinematic Universe strategy of always looking down the road to the next big thing, instead of taking heed of the wise Master Yoda and keeping our minds on where we are.
Star Wars: The High Republic – Defy the Storm will be published next Tuesday, March 5th, but is available for pre-order right now.