I think this book marks the end of year one in The High Republic. Or maybe this is the transition to the next phase. Not sure. Anyways, this book ended up being my favorite one so far. This would be the Empire of this particular saga. I cannot wait to see where things go from here. Spoilers from here on out…
-The tension in this book was incredible. The Jedi being weakened from the Leveler and not knowing which ones would live or die made it nerve-wracking. That said, the Jedi could feel something was wrong, but they just chalked it up to stress. This will be their undoing.
-I liked that the Fallen Star refers to two things: Starlight Beacon (which literally fell onto a planet) and Stellan Gios. The Stellan fall is more tragic since he is basically this era’s Obi-Wan. He believes in the Jedi Order and the Republic. As Elzar likes to say, Stellan is the pole star in the constellation of Stellan, Elza, and Avar. I wonder how Stellan’s death will affect Elzar and Avar.
-Can we talk about how great Leox and Geode are? Gray stated earlier that Leox was like the opposite of Han Solo and that she imagined him as 90s Matthew McConaughey. I am not going to lie, I may have shed a tear when it seemed like he was dead. Also, screw all the haters who do not like Geode. The idea of a sentient rock is funny and brings comic relief. When he jumps in front of the blaster and the bad guy thinks “how did he move over here so fast?” (paraphrasing), I cracked up. And Leox??? Being the Deus Ex Machina of any situation. Station is falling, but no one knows? Oh, Leox knows how to calculate orbital position with a sextant. Need a thermal detonator? He has one. And a parachute. Oh and he can rebuild couplings, even though it is something no one does anymore. I LOVE IT!
-But now we get to the sad stuff. I mentioned how Stellan died. Orla Jareni, Regald Coll, and Nib Assek die by the Leveler. Stellan sacrifices himself to make sure that Starlight Beacon does not crash into a city. Then Burryaga sacrificed himself against the Rathtars, so Elzar could open the bay doors.
-Where does Bell Zetifar go from here? He believes Burryaga is still alive and will search for him. If Master Stokes dies or comes out of her coma and is unable to continue his training, maybe Bell will be the Jedi that falls to the Dark Side (look, someone has to fall at some point, right? Someone will fall and become an apprentice to whoever the Sith lord is at this point…I thought it might be Elzar, but one of the comics with Luke kind of put the kibosh on that theory since Luke meets a Force imprint of Master Elzar or something like that).
-Marchion Ro has a crew of all droids (some kind of elite, enforcer droids). His plan is to crush the Jedi. There is definitely more to his origin (or did the comics already tell that story?). At first I thought maybe he was a Jedi who left the Order or maybe his father was (maybe a disgraced Jedi, are those a thing?). But now I honestly have no clue. I just look forward to finding out.
I think another book comes out soon (looks like a YA novel), so we will not have to wait long to see where this story is going. As I have said before, this series is truly setting up how and why the Jedi fell so easily to Darth Sideous.
