Books The High Republic: The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray

I swear there’s a rule at Lucasfilm that every piece of Star Wars media must contain at least one mention of carbon scoring.

 

Just finished it. Very good book and definitely rewarding for those that read everything but I could definitely see how some who haven't read everything could get a little frustrated.

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It has a lot of different point of view characters and several of them are pulled right out of YA novels and the story kind of expects you to be familiar with the events of those YA novels to fully grasp what these characters are talking about in many instances. Also in order to fully understand where Avar, and Stellan are at in this book you need to have read about the past six issues or so of the comic.

All in all though a really good book and another top notch release from Claudia Gray.

 

Not sure why

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Elzar is all messed up over killing Chancey. He jumped out, saw her go for a weapon and took her out. If she had told them what she was doing then she would still be alive.

 

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It's because of what killing her caused. If he hadn't killed her they would have been able to keep the station from crashing and Stellan wouldn't have had to sacrifice himself.

 

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I thought it was more that they were trying to link the killing to the Dark Side because of his anger at the time. I would have bought that if he had saw her and killed her from behind because he thought she was sabotaging the thrusters even more...but from what he saw it would have been a justifiable killing...but while angry.

 

I still feel like this Phase was a bit rushed

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Starlight Beacon should have been more present in the stories. Not even the main comics spend much time there, and I think that was a mistake.

If you're going to frag the thing as phase finale, it needed to be a setting we called home. I didn't feel much of an emotional connection to Starlight Beacon in part because we were barely ever there, even in the comics that follow the Jedi who are stationed there!

I think we needed to spend more time there doing every day things, as well as see diplomatic operations.

I can't believe they are just going to fully go into "prequel" mode for Phase 2 after this. They have to continue from here while also having our current Jedi heroes uncover the stories that set this all up. I have a hard time imagining it working very well to completely shift gears to give us a Prequel Phase while we have so many unresolved issues and fates of characters.

All in all, I love the era and enjoy the stories we've gotten but I can't say I'm not disappointed with the pacing and that the wrapped up Phase 1 in a year.

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They certainly don’t drive the main plot of Phase I, but the monthly short stories being published in Star Wars Insider actually do a good job of fleshing out

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Starlight Beacon — making it feel like a place that continues to exist between the big events of the multimedia project. They’ve been giving me a DS9 bottle episode vibe, in a good way.

I definitely agree with you in general, but for this specific example, the most recent Star Wars Insider short story actually beat Fallen Star to the punch:

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Ghirra’s collaboration with the Nihil is revealed as a cliff-hanger, to be expanded upon in the next (and presumably final) Starlight story.

 

I hope they collect those Insider stories in a book/ebook format, because I don't get Insider.

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It looks like that’s the plan with this collection.

I’ve been reading the electronic edition of Insider for free through my public library membership, though. Dunno if that’s possible outside of the US — distribution rights are tricky.

 

It was, fine. Took a while to get going but once it does it goes well.

But since phase 2 is going to dump this plot there isn't much to talk about honestly.

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The reveal of the Senator working with the Nihil was weirdly done, it just seemed to be there and I had to think if I was meant to know this already. Also the Sabotage seemed to easy and the team then don't to much other than fight two other people and then die.

It is a weird place to end the story. Since we are going back in time next. Not a good place to leave things.

 

The book really gripped me when reading it and it isn't bad. But the more I think about it and its rumfications, I think that overall it falls pretty flat for me. Generally the reception to this is pretty meh overall, I've seen a lot of people complain about it. Having this as the end point of Phase I is really quite disappointing. Mission to Disaster on the other hand was spectacular and I can only encourage everyone to check it out, if you don't mind ebooks or audio books and don't let yourself get distracted by it ostensibly being a book for children.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to read Mission to Disaster in March.

 

I think if Phase II was picking up where this book left off then this would have been a fine ending to Phase I. The main thing I feel that people are frustrated about right now is simply that they are leaving this cliffhanger on us for more than a year and we likely aren't going to see more of these characters (which they did a really good job with) until probably 2024.

I think if they developed the High Republic stories to take place over a time period of hundreds of years they should have started with the earliest period first and moved forward from there. But I am sure once we start getting more information about Phase II people will get more interested in it. Right now all we know is that it takes place in 382 BBY which means it's going to be quite awhile before we see the characters we have grown attached to again.

 

Though this isn't the end of wave 3 of phase 1 is it? Technically, isn't it the start?

 

As far as release schedule it is. But as far as the story goes I think this is the furthest we will go in the timeline until Phase III. I know Mission to Disaster for sure takes place prior to Fallen Star. I'm not a 100% sure about the YA book but if I had to guess it will happen before or simultaneously.

 

I'm pretty sure the YA book takes place simultaneously, there is a short reference to what I presume to be the YA books main event, judging from the blurb, in Fallen Star. HRA and the Marvel comic also will not go past Fallen Star, that has been confirmed. The only thing that could possibly take place afterwards is Eye of the Storm #2 as Charles Soule said on twitter that is the last thing one should read in Phase I.

 

There's v2 of the Edge of Balance manga but that'll probably be continuing its own parallel story.

 

I stand corrected them. In which case, yeah, I suppose that is rather like doing the Prequels in-between ESB and ROTJ.

 

machatte order but official.

Which I hear is a fun way to watch the saga films

 

It's a very deliberate choice - one I'm not seeing the need for the degree applied. Do prequel stories? Makes sense. Do only prequel stories ending the momentum of the current one built up over a year? Nope, not seeing it. They could have done both. Maybe it'll make more sense towards the end of the year.

 

I really hope prequel stories are framed as the Phase 1 characters finding out more information about what led to all this.

The phase title is Quest of the Jedi, doesn't it seem like that quest should be seeking info on Marchion Ro, the Leveller creatures and the who and why of the Nihil?

I hope that means the current story doesn't stop dead in favor of prequel stories. I hope they are set within the context of our heroes finding out why all of this is happening.

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Well in the long run it won't matter once all of it comes out.

I have faith in these creatives though know what they are doing.

 

"In the long run, all of us are dead."

 

True but I don't like to think about Star Wars how it's view in the hear and now...that's boring...i like thinking in generation from now.

Long game...Which is something I think more fans should do in general.

 

That really isn't how forums like this work. And the last two years offer ample demonstration of trying to pre-empt the future.

Before you know it, you'll be moaning about these new kid fans Jid.