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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Books Star Wars The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Captain RX, Feb 24, 2020.

  1. ConservativeJedi321

    ConservativeJedi321 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 19, 2016
    We also need to keep in mind that "there hasn't been a full scale war since the formation of the Republic."
    And it will be a delicate balance between making this a serious threat short of a full scale war.
     
  2. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    There's ways of getting around this. They reform the Republic after the High Republic war.
     
    AusStig likes this.
  3. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Or, the Yoda Doctrine:

    If I say war there is not, war there is not.
     
    Chrissonofpear2, Kato Sai and Daneira like this.
  4. Coherent Axe

    Coherent Axe Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 20, 2016
    Not if Palpatine's Republic has stood for a thousand years.
     
    ConservativeJedi321 likes this.
  5. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    and Darth Vader killed Luke's father.
     
    Vialco and AusStig like this.
  6. Sinrebirth

    Sinrebirth Mod-Emperor of the EUC, Lit, RPF and SWC star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 15, 2004
    @Hopeless, you've been warned before not to circumvent rules of other parts of the forum by complaining elsewhere. Please don't.
     
    Xammer and Hopeless like this.
  7. Maythe14thBeWithYou

    Maythe14thBeWithYou Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 26, 2014
    Till January.
     
  8. Lobey-One Kenobi

    Lobey-One Kenobi Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2009
    Really excited for this, but sad it's been postponed until January. Seeing some pre-prequel content adds a new dynamic to the Star Wars EU, which definitely needs more fleshing out.

    Wondering how much (if, at all) the Sith will be covered.
     
  9. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...he-jedi-kicks-off-star-wars-the-high-republic
    Charles Soule — writer behind the first of the new generation of stories from a galaxy far, far away — talks about its origins, and what to expect.


    This January, fans of a galaxy far, far away are going to get to visit a longer time ago than they’re used to, when Star Wars: The High Republic — a publishing program that spans multiple publishers and multiple mediums, set in an era that predates even the prequel movie trilogy, and shows the Jedi at the height of their powers.

    The High Republic begins with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi, a prose novel published by Del Rey and written by someone familiar to fans of the franchise: Charles Soule, who’s been writing Star Wars comic books for Marvel for the past five years, including his current tenure on the core series.

    It’s the first Star Wars novel from Soule, and one that has to introduce readers to a number of new worlds, literally and figuratively — which, of course, makes it an ideal opportunity for Soule to get very ambitious indeed. “It’s a disaster movie; it’s a mystery; it’s a race-against-time-team-on-a-mission story,” he told The Hollywood Reporter when talking about the book.

    That’s not all Soule revealed about Light of the Jedi, The High Republic, and building a whole new era of Star Wars. Keep reading to find out much more — including some teases about just what kind of threat faced the galaxy in the days before the Galactic Empire.

    You’ve got the first of the High Republic projects to be released — something that, it’s fair to say, fans have been eagerly awaiting for more than a year by the time it’ll come out. Is that an exciting feeling, or simply a terrifying one?

    Can’t it be both? Light of the Jedi will finally open the doors to the Star Wars: The High Republic for Star Wars fans – it’s the first huge piece of the actual story my High Republic collaborators and I have been building for years. A lot of the teases and such that have been released so far are focused on the character designs or the state of the galaxy…but I can tell you that we’ve all spent most of our time on the story itself. Light of the Jedi, Into the Dark, Test of Courage, the Marvel and IDW comic series… they’re really what The High Republic is. It’s an amazing new time period for Star Wars, but it’s the story that will get fans hooked.

    And so, having the responsibility of introducing that story with the first novel out of the gate… I’m thrilled that I got the opportunity, and I took it very seriously. The scope of Light of the Jedi, and the fact that so much is sort of keyed to it… I’m obviously aware of all of that, and knew it when I took the job. Is it a little intimidating? Sure. But I really think it inspired me to work at my highest level. I’m very proud of the book, and I can’t wait to see what people think.

    How did you get involved in what was once called Project Luminous? You’ve been working on Star Wars projects at Marvel for some time; was it as simple as, you were an experienced hand in this property and Lucasfilm knew you had the goods to help build a new wing onto the property?

    That’s basically it — I’d been working on Star Wars comics for Marvel for several years when I was approached by Michael Siglain [creative director at Lucasfilm Publishing] to be part of what was known at the time as “Project Luminous.” I started with the Lando miniseries in 2015 [with] art by Alex Maleev, and had done a number of other well-received books along the way – and I’m still doing it; I’m writing the primary Star Wars comic for Marvel at the moment.

    At any rate, Mike was building a group of five writers to help put together what became The High Republic, and I was just lucky to get the call. The writers are all pretty different – I’m not Justina Ireland, and Daniel Jose Older isn’t Cavan Scott or Claudia Gray – but Mike was really smart in bringing together a group that could use our individual points of view on Star Wars to build out a really fleshed-out new era in The High Republic.

    Was the aim of Project Luminous always The High Republic? As in, was the intent always to build a narrative in the past of the movies and rest of the franchise that exists? Was there any discussion about doing so in a space — no pun intended — far from the action in the rest of the series but the same timeline, or even in the future of Star Wars?

    The High Republic was an idea that emerged from some massive story retreats that took place at Skywalker Ranch with the five writers, Lucasfilm Story Group, editors, and execs in the early days of what we then called “Project Luminous”. Our mandate was always to create a massive new chapter in Star Wars history, able to be told across multiple publishers and mediums, with something for everyone… from casual fans to the sort of person who knows Jabba the Hutt’s uncle’s name — that would be Ziro.

    We needed to make something authentically Star Wars but also brand new and fresh. It was a challenge. We had a lot of ideas on the table, and ended up settling on The High Republic era in part because it allowed us our own corner of the galaxy, where we could use established continuity to some degree if we needed or wanted to, but could also do entirely new things. The elements of the story include bits from literally everyone’s pitches, which is a good thing – from characters to vehicles to creatures, we all were able to contribute our own ideas.

    As far as, was there discussion of other approaches – absolutely! We talked about everything. Nothing was off the table. It was a blast. But I’m not going to lay any of that out here – we’re keeping a lot of those ideas in our back pockets for future storytelling in the publishing space, whether in The High Republic or elsewhere.

    What was the world-building like inside the writers’ room for The High Republic? We’ve not really had a lot of insight into the nuts and (restraining) bolts of the thing, in large part because the details of The High Republic have been kept under wraps. Was there much agreement about the decisions made, or fierce battles? Did everything fall into place, or did the nature of the room allow for each individual writer to make significant structural decisions in their own individual project?

    When it all began, as Luminous, the project kicked off with the very basic question “what would you like to see in Star Wars?” As I said, nothing was off the table — and with so many creatives and stakeholders involved, there were many, many points of view, and every voice was heard.

    One of the things I remember clearly was a moment early in the first day of the first in-person meeting when the curtain was pulled back on more or less everything Star Wars had in serious development at that point across their portfolio. That stuff was and remains top secret, and learning about all of it felt very much like “okay we’ve made it.” The fact that this was happening at Skywalker Ranch didn’t hurt, either. We needed all of that information so we could understand the guardrails around what was already in development, but it was still pretty incredible.

    From there, we started building what became The High Republic — and when it ended up getting to the point where we got the actual assignments, we all pretty much got to do our own thing. There’s a lot of structure to it – we built the history of the era ahead of time, and then wove our stories within it. Light of the Jedi has to carry a lot of weight, since it’s introducing the era and a number of very significant cast members, but every project has massive beats. There’s very much a plan, and every story big or small has a place within it.

    For Star Wars fans, I think you’re probably better known as a comic writer. Was working on a Star Wars prose project different from what you’d expected, either in terms of “different from your Star Wars comic experience,” or “different from your prose experience on things like The Oracle Year”?

    I’ve never done anything like The High Republic — from the writer’s room approach to the scope, stakes and opportunity… it’s wild. The closest analog I can think of is working on the big multi-title crossover comic stories I’ve done at Marvel and DC, but this is bigger by at least an order of magnitude. There’s also the sense that even though The High Republic is its own era, it’s part of a shared history with the entirety of Star Wars continuity, and things that happen in a different piece of Star Wars content might have a direct influence on what we can do in our stories.

    As far as writing Star Wars prose specifically… I’ve written two novels (The Oracle Year and Anyone), and I’m working on my third, in addition to Light of the Jedi. It’s a job I understand. I think if there’s any significant difference, it’s just in the work this book has to do. It’s not just a fun Star Wars story – it has to wear a bunch of hats and accomplish a number of different things… but as I mentioned, I knew that going in.

    Light of the Jedi has some heavy lifting to do; you’re introducing a franchise, a setting, and a number of characters that have to both be brand new and recognizably “Star Wars,” and do it all in such a way that feels organic and exciting. It's especially surprising in the way you treat the Jedi and the Force — it feels almost close to a procedural in a lot of ways. How did you arrive at that approach, and is it a sign of how The High Republic as a whole is going to proceed?

    My personal mandate for Light of the Jedi was to explore genre in a way we hadn’t directly seen in the franchise – to bring the concepts of Star Wars to places that would feel fresh and cool. It’s a disaster movie; it’s a mystery; it’s a race-against-time-team-on-a-mission story.

    I also wanted to try some new things within my own novel-writing style — experiments with pace and tension and intercutting and the way secrets get revealed. The structure of the novel is unusual, in some ways, but I got that from the Star Wars films, really. If you break down Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the timeline doesn’t make a lot of sense — but it still works. Light of the Jedi has some of that going on. It’s elastic — the story can stretch and pull as needed, and then at the end, it all snaps together for what I hope is one hell of a punch.

    Every one of The High Republic projects is different — they reflect the sensibilities of their authors — but they’re all part of the same larger story. What I did with Light of the Jedi isn’t what Claudia Gray did with Into the Dark, for example, but I think that’s good. Each piece of The High Republic tells its own story but is also part of the larger initiative.

    In a similar, “how did this come about” vein, where did the idea come from to begin the series with a disaster that reshapes and sets everything in motion? It’s something that also redefines a lot of what people know about their surroundings, allowing for the reader to be on an equal footing in terms of knowing what’s happening as everyone else.

    One of the primary concepts of The High Republic initiative is the idea that there are certain key events that happen at the “same time” across the storytelling. It’s a lot like the way the destruction of the first Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope has been seen from endless angles since it was first depicted in the first film.

    Those are all mapped out – there’s a document with all of it laid down. The “Great Disaster” that opens Light of the Jedi is one of those. I thought it would work because of the things you cited — the idea of having a lot of people involved in one event that operates on a galactic scale seemed very appealing. I could introduce a large cast in a very organic way, in various locations from the highest levels of galactic government to the “Jedi on the street” as they respond to the disaster.

    Plus, it’s a chance to show heroism in many different ways. Light of the Jedi has plenty of lightsaber action, but that’s not the only way to solve problems, and you don’t need the Force to be a good person. There’s a sort of slogan that pops up in the book: “We are all the Republic,” and the Great Disaster seemed like a perfect way to reflect that idea.

    What can you say to tease those curious about The High Republic as a whole, or Light of the Jedi in particular, in order to convince them to sample the book? Are there secrets to hint at, or mysterious prophecies to drop to drive fans wild?

    I hope I’ve conveyed that The High Republic is a huge story, multifaceted, meticulously built to give anyone who experiences it that real deal Star Wars we all love. We’ve had some of the legends of the franchise contribute to its design and visual storytelling — Iain McCaig, the Lucasfilm Art Department and more — and the intricate details of the world-building have been given the full support and power of the mighty engine that is the Lucasfilm Story Group. A lot of people who care very much about Star Wars have been involved — and we’ve swung for the fences.

    I mean, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the story here. We haven’t talked about the Nihil — the main villains of the piece, who are a group of anarchic marauders with some unique abilities that make them very powerful and very dangerous in this era. I wanted to paint them as truly frightening — the villains we’re used to seeing in Star Wars at least have some sort of loyalty to an ideology or code… the Nihil do not, except perhaps to do whatever they want whenever they want, and to destroy anyone or anything that opposes that goal. They have a deep and detailed history that will be explored throughout the initiative — the Nihil and what they get up to is one of the coolest parts of the whole thing.

    It all begins with Light of the Jedi. The heroes, the villains, the worlds, the concepts, the weirdness (Ensign Peeples!), the sacrifice and heroism and tragedy and inspiration… it all starts with this book, and it goes to incredible places. The scale of this whole thing is wild. This is not small. It’s an epic, from start to finish. Can’t wait to see what folks think.

    ***

    Star Wars: Light of the Jedi will be released Jan. 5, 2021.

     
  10. Dawud786

    Dawud786 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 28, 2006
    I dont know if anyone has brought it up, but the whole "Yoda is training younglings going around the galaxy" thing is a perfect way to make the Chu'unthor canon.

    IG: @jedisufism
     
  11. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    There's some really weird coincidences going on between Trek and Wars right now. Disco S3 spoiler, heard of but not yet watched:

    Apparently the demise of the Federation in Disco S3 was due to a galactic cataclysm.

    Meanwhile, over in the High Republic, we have the Great Disaster.
     
    Kato Sai and ColeFardreamer like this.
  12. Jid123Sheeve

    Jid123Sheeve Guest


    Seems like the Republic as of now got the better deal in terms of it's cataclysmic event things just got bad 200 years later :p

    Funny enough this reminds me of a what a friend of mine once said about wanting a Star Trek series set in the far future with the federation destroyed
     
  13. Sauron_18

    Sauron_18 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 1, 2005
    The time period for this series coincides with unbalancing of the Force in the EU, doesn’t it? Luceno called it a rend in the Force, and he wouldn’t specify more about it in interviews. Perhaps the HR writers will bring that back.

    I don’t think the Nihil will end up related to the Sith, but I think they do have a connection to the dark side. My hope is that the dark side itself is more central to the villain’s side of the story, since it is the one thing the Jedi fear the most. Though I’m not sure what it would take for the Force to become unbalanced.
     
  14. Jid123Sheeve

    Jid123Sheeve Guest

    I'm curious how much of the High Republic stuff will be influenced with whatever Lucas had in mind for ancient Jedi.
     
  15. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    https://www.starwars.com/news/light-of-the-jedi-exclusive-excerpt
    CHAPTER TWO

    THE OUTER RIM. HETZAL SYSTEM.

    2.5 hours to impact.



    Scantech (third-class) Merven Getter was ready.

    Ready to clock out for the day, ready to get the shuttle back to the inner system, ready to hit the cantina a few streets away from the spaceport on the Rooted Moon where Sella worked tending bar, ready to see if today was the day he might find the courage to ask her out. She was Twi’lek, and he was Mirialan, but what difference did that make? We are all the Republic. Chancellor Soh’s big slogan — but people believed it. Actually, Merven thought he did, too. Attitudes were evolving. The possibilities were endless.

    And maybe, one of those possibilities revolved around a scantech (third-class) staffed on a monitoring station far out on the ecliptic of the Hetzal system, itself pretty blasted far out on the Rim, sadly distant from the bright lights and interesting worlds of the Republic Core. Perhaps that scantech (third-class), who spent his days staring at holoscreens, logging starship traffic in and out of the system, could actually catch the eye of the lovely scarlet-skinned woman who served him up a mug of the local ale, three or four nights a week. Sella usually stayed around to chat with him for a while, circling back as other customers drifted in and out of her little tavern. She seemed to find his stories about life on the far edge of the system inexplicably interesting. Merven didn’t get why she was so fascinated. Sometimes ships showed up in-system, popping in from hyperspace and appearing on his screens, and other times ships left . . . at which point their little icons disappeared from his screens. Nothing interesting ever happened — flight plans were logged ahead of time, so he usually knew what was coming or going. Merven was responsible for making sure those flight plans were followed, and not much else. On the off chance something unusual occurred, his job was just to notify people significantly more important than he was.

    Scantech (third-class) Merven Getter spent his days watching people go places. He, in contrast, stayed still.

    But maybe not today. He thought about Sella. He thought about her smile, the way she decorated her lekku with those intricate lacings she told him she designed herself, the way she stopped whatever she was doing to pour him his mug of ale the moment he walked in, without him even having to ask for it.

    Yeah. He was going to ask her to dinner. Tonight. He’d been saving up, and he knew a place not too far from the cantina. Not so far from his place, either, but that was getting ahead of himself.

    He just had to get through his blasted shift.

    Merven glanced over at his colleague, Scantech (second-class) Vel Carann. He wanted to ask her if he could check out a little early that day, take the shuttle back to the Rooted Moon. She was reading something on a datapad, her eyes rapt. Probably one of the Jedi romances she was always obsessed with. Merven didn’t get it. He’d read a few — they were all set at outposts on the far Republic frontiers, full of unrequited love and longing glances . . . the only action was the lightsaber battles that were clearly a substitute for what the characters really wanted to do. Vel wasn’t supposed to be reading personal material on company time, but if he called her out on it, she’d just tap the screen and switch it to a technical manual and insist she wasn’t doing any- thing wrong. The trouble was, she was second-class, and he was third-class, which meant that as long as he did his job, she thought she didn’t have to do hers.

    Nah. Not even worth asking for an early sign-off time. Not from Vel. He could get through the rest of his shift. Not long now, and —

    Something appeared on one of his screens. “Huh,” Merven said.

    That was odd. Nothing was scheduled to enter the system for another twenty minutes or so.

    Something else appeared. A number of somethings. Ten. “What the — ?” Merven said.

    “Problem, Getter?” Vel asked, not glancing up from her screen. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Got a bunch of unscheduled entries to the system, and they’re not decelerating.”

    “Wait . . . what?” Vel said, setting down her datascreen and finally looking at her own monitors. “Oh, that is odd.”

    More icons popped up on Merven’s screens, too many to count at a glance.

    “Is this . . . do you think it’s . . . asteroids, maybe?” Vel said, her voice unsteady.

    “At that velocity? From hyperspace? I dunno. Run an analysis,” Merven said. “See if you can figure out what they are.”

    Silence from Vel’s station. Merven glanced up.

    “I . . . don’t know how,” she said. “After the latest upgrade, I never bothered to learn the systems. You seemed to have it all under control, and I’m really here to supervise, you know, and — ”

    “Fine,” he said, utterly unsurprised. “Can you track trajectories, at least? That subroutine’s been the same for like two years.”

    “Yeah,” Vel said. “I can do that.”

    Merven turned back to his screens and started typing commands across his keypads.

    There were now forty-two anomalies in-system, all moving at a velocity near lightspeed. Incredibly fast, in other words, much quicker than safety regulations allowed. If they were in fact ships, whoever was piloting them was in for a massive fine. But Merven didn’t think they were ships. They were too small, for one thing, and didn’t have drive signatures.

    Asteroids, maybe? Space rocks, somehow thrown into the system? Some kind of weird space storm, or a comet swarm? It couldn’t be an attack, that much he knew. The Republic was at peace, and looked like it was going to stay that way. Everyone was happy, living their lives. The Republic worked.

    Besides, the Hetzal system didn’t have anything worth attacking. It was just an ordinary set of planets, the primeworld and its two inhabited moons — the Fruited and the Rooted — with a deep focus on agricultural production. It had some gas giants and frozen balls of rock, but really it was just a lot of farmers and all the things they grew. Merven knew it was important, that Hetzal exported food all over the Outer Rim, and some of its output even found its way to the inner systems. There was that bacta stuff he’d been reading about, too, some kind of miracle replacement for juvan they were trying to grow on the primeworld, supposed to revolutionize medicine if they could ever figure out how to farm it in volume . . . but still, it was all just plants. It was hard to get excited about plants.

    As far as he was concerned, Hetzal’s biggest claim to fame was that it was the homeworld of a famous gill-singer named Illoria Daze, who could vibrate her vocal apparatus in such a way as to sing melodies in six-part harmony. That, in combination with a uniquely appealing wit and rags-to-riches backstory, had made her famous across the Republic. But Illoria wasn’t even here. She lived on Alderaan now, with the fancy people.

    Hetzal had nothing of any real value. None of this made sense.

    Another rash of objects appeared on his screens, so many now that it was overloading his computer’s ability to track them. He zoomed out the resolution, shifting to a system-wide view, making a clearer picture. Merven could see that the things, whatever they might be, were not restricting themselves to entering the system from the safety of the hyperspace access zone. They were popping up everywhere, and some were getting awfully close to —

    “Oh no,” Vel said.

    “I see it, too,” Merven said. He didn’t even have to run a trajectory analysis.

    The anomalies were headed sunward, and many of them were on intercept courses with the inhabited worlds and their orbital stations. The things weren’t slowing down, either. Not at all. At near-lightspeed, it didn’t matter whether they were asteroids, or ships, or frothy bubbles of fizz-candy. Whatever they hit would just . . . go.

    As he watched, one of the objects smashed through an un-crewed communications satellite. Both the anomaly and the satellite vanished from his screen, and the galaxy got itself a little more space dust.

    Hetzal Prime was big enough that it could endure a few impacts like that and survive as a planetary body. Even the two inhabited moons might be able to take a couple of hits. But anything living on them . . .

    Sella was on the Rooted Moon right now.

    “We have to get out of here,” he said. “We’re right in the target zone, and more of these things are appearing every second. We have to get to the shuttle.”

    “I agree,” Vel said, some semblance of command returning to her voice. “But we need to send a system-wide alert first. We have to.”

    Merven closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “You’re right. Of course.”

    “The computer needs authorization codes from both of us to activate the system-wide alarm,” Vel said. “We’ll do it on my signal.”

    She tapped a few commands on her keypad. Merven did the same, then waited for her nod. She gave it, and he typed in his code.

    A soft, chiming alarm rang through the operations deck as the message went out. Merven knew that a similar sound was now being heard across the Hetzal system, from the cockpits of garbage scows all the way to the minister’s palace on the prime world. Forty billion people just looked up in fear. One of them was a lovely scarlet-skinned Twi’lek probably wondering whether her favorite Mirialan was going to come by the tavern that evening.

    Merven stood up.

    “We’ve done our job. Shuttle time. We can send a message explaining what’s happening on the way.”

    Vel nodded and levered herself up out of her seat. “Yeah. Let’s get out of — ”

    One of the objects leapt out of hyperspace, so near, and moving so fast, that in astronomical terms it was on them the moment it appeared.

    A gout of flame, and the anomaly vanished, along with the monitoring station, its two scantechs, and all their goals, fears, skills, hopes, and dreams; the kinetic energy of the object atomizing everything it touched in less than an instant.
     
  16. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Worth pointing out on that new excerpt. We're actually giving away the first EIGHT chapters of Light of the Jedi, absolutely free. Chapters 1-2 are up and through the rest of this week (including the weekend) we'll be posting a few chapters per day at a special landing page. No need to wait for January. You all waited long enough.

    All the chapters are being posted here. The full eight will be available by Sunday: https://sites.prh.com/highrepublic
     
  17. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    Chapter 3 and 4.
    CHAPTER THREE

    AGUIRRE CITY, HETZAL PRIME.
    2 hours to impact.

    “Is this real?” Minister Ecka asked as the chimes rang through his office—consistent, insistent, impossible to ignore. Which, he supposed, was the point.

    “Seems so,” Counselor Daan answered, tucking a curl of hair behind his ear. “The alert originated from a monitoring station at the far edge of the system. It came in at the highest priority level, and it hit system-wide. Every computer linked to the main processing core is sounding the same alarm.”

    “But what’s causing it?” the minister asked. “There was no message attached?”

    “No,” Daan replied. “We’ve repeatedly asked for clarification, but there’s been no response. We believe . . . the monitoring station was destroyed.”

    Minister Ecka thought for a moment. He rotated his chair away from his advisers, the old wood creaking a little beneath his weight. He looked out through the broad picture window that made up the wall behind his desk. As far as he could see: the golden fields of Hetzal, all the way to the horizon. The world—the whole system, really—believed in using every bit of available space to grow, create, to cultivate. Buildings were roofed with cropland, rivers and lakes were used to grow helpful algae and waterweeds, towers were terraced, with fruit vines spilling from their sides. Harvester droids floated among them, plucking ripe fruits—whatever was in season. Right now, that would be honeyfruit, kingberries, and ice melons. In a month, it would be something else. On Hetzal, something was always in season.

    He loved this view. The most peaceful in the galaxy, he believed. Everything just so. Productive and correct.

    Now, with the alarm chimes ringing in his ears, it didn’t look like that anymore. Now it all just looked . . . fragile.

    “Something’s happening out there,” another adviser said, a Devaronian woman named Zaffa.

    Ecka had known her for a long time, and this was the first time he’d ever heard her sound worried. She was staring down at a datascreen, frowning.

    “A mining rig out in midsystem just went down,” Zaffa said. “The satellite network’s starting to show holes, too. It’s like something’s taking out our facilities, one by one.”

    “And we still don’t have any images? This is madness,” Ecka declared.

    He pointed at his security chief, a portly middle-aged human.

    “Borta, why don’t your people know what’s happening?”

    Borta frowned. “Minister, respectfully, you know why. Your recent cuts have reduced Hetzal’s security division to a tenth of its former size. We’re working on it, but we can’t bring much to bear.”

    “Is it some sort of natural anomaly? It can’t be . . . we’re not under attack, are we?”

    “At this point, we don’t know. What’s happening is consistent with some sort of enemy infiltration, but we’re not seeing drive signatures, and the locations being hit are pretty random. We do still have some orbital defense platforms out there, and they’re all intact. If it’s an attack, they should be targeting our ability to strike back, but they’re not.”

    The chimes sounded again, and Ecka spun his chair and pointed at Counselor Daan, who cringed back.

    “Will you turn off that blasted alarm? I can’t think!”

    Daan pulled himself up, standing a little straighter, and tapped a control on his datascreen. The chimes, blessedly, ceased.

    Another adviser spoke up—a slim young man with red hair and extremely pale skin, Keven Tarr. The Ministry of Technology had sent him over. Ecka didn’t have much use for tech that wasn’t related to agricultural yields. In his heart, he was still a farmer—but he knew Tarr was supposed to be very smart. Probably wouldn’t be long until the boy moved on, found himself a job in some more sophisticated part of the galaxy. It was the way of things on a world like Hetzal. Not everyone stayed.

    “I think I can show you what’s going on, Minister,” Tarr said.

    The man had long fingers for a human, and they danced over his datapad.

    “Let me give the data to the droid—it can project the information so we can all see.”

    He tapped a few last commands, then unreeled a connection wire from his datapad and plugged it into the access port on the squat, hexagonal comms droid waiting in the corner of the room. It rolled forward, its single green eye lighting up as it moved.

    From that eye, the machine projected an image on the large white wall in the minister’s office reserved for the purpose. Normally, presentations on the vidwall would be concerned with crop yields or pest eradication programs. Now, though, it displayed the entire Hetzal system, all its worlds and stations and satellites and platforms and vessels.

    And something else.

    To Minister Ecka, it looked like a field overrun with a swarm of all-consuming insects. Hundreds of tiny lights moved through his system at what had to be tremendous speed, all in the same direction: sunward. More particularly, planetward. Toward Hetzal Prime and the moons Fruited and Rooted not so far away, not to mention all those stations, satellites, platforms, vessels . . . many of which had people on them.

    “What are they?” he asked.

    “Unknown,” Tarr responded. “I got this image by linking together signals from the surviving satellites and monitoring stations, but they’re going down quickly, and we’re losing sensor capacity as they do. Whatever these anomalies are, they’re moving at near-lightspeed, and it’s very difficult to track them. And, of course, whenever they hit something, it’s . . .”

    “Not good,” General Borta finished for him.

    “Apocalyptic, I was going to say,” Tarr said. “I’m tracking a good number on impact paths with the primeworld.”

    “Is there nothing to be done?” Ecka said, looking at Borta. “Can we . . . shoot them down?”

    Borta gave him a helpless look. “Once, maybe, we’d have had a chance. At least some. But system defense hasn’t been a priority here for . . . a long time.”

    The accusation hung in the air, but Ecka did not indulge it. He had made decisions that seemed correct at the time, with the best information he had. They were at peace! Everywhere was at peace. Why waste money that could help people in other ways? In any case, no looking back. It was time for another decision. The best he could make.

    He did not hesitate. When the crops were burning, you couldn’t hesitate. As bad as things might be, the longer you waited, the worse they tended to get.

    “Give the evacuation order. System-wide. Then send a message to Coruscant. Let them know what’s happening. They won’t be able to get anyone here in time, but at least they’ll know.”

    Counselor Zaffa looked at him, her eyes hooded.

    “I don’t know if we can actually implement that order effectively, Minister,” she said. “We don’t have enough ships here for planetary evacuations, and if these things are really moving close to lightspeed, there isn’t much time until—”

    “I understand, Counselor Zaffa,” Ecka said, his voice steady now. “But even if the order saves just one person, then one person will be saved.”

    Zaffa nodded, and tapped her datascreen.

    “It’s done,” she said. “System-wide evac in progress.”

    The group watched the projection on the wall, fritzes of static lancing through it now. Tarr’s makeshift network was losing capacity as more satellites met fiery ends, but the message was still clear. It was like a massive gun had been fired at the Hetzal system, and there was nothing they could do to save themselves.

    “You should probably all try to find yourselves a way offworld,” Ecka said. “I imagine the starships we do have will be very full quite quickly.”

    No one moved.

    “What will you do, Minister?” Counselor Daan asked.

    Ecka turned back to his window, looking out at the fields, golden to the horizon. It was all so peaceful. Impossible to believe anything bad could ever happen here.

    “I think I’ll stay,” he said. “Broadcast to the people, maybe, try to keep folks calm. Someone has to look after the harvest.”

    Across Hetzal Prime and the broad expanses of its two inhabited moons, the message of Minister Ecka traveled rapidly, appearing on datapads and holoscreens, broadcast across all communication channels, saying, in essence: Nowhere is safe. Get as far away as you can.

    Explanation was limited, which caused speculation. What was happening? Some kind of accident? What disaster could be so huge in scope that an entire system needed to be evacuated?

    Some people ignored the warning. False alarms had happened before, and sometimes slicers pulled pranks or showed off by breaking into emergency alert computer systems. True, nothing had ever happened on this scale, but really, that made it easier to dismiss the whole thing. After all, the entire system in danger? It just wasn’t possible.

    Those people stayed in their homes, at their workplaces. They turned off their screens and got back to their lives, because it was better than the alternative. And if they glanced to the skies from time to time, and saw starships heading up and out . . . well, they told themselves the people in those ships were fools, easily spooked.

    Others, elsewhere, froze. They wanted to find safety but had no idea how. Not everyone had access to a way offworld. In fact, most did not. Hetzal was a system of farmers, people who lived close to the land. If they traveled anywhere else in the Republic, it was for a special occasion, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now, being told to find a way to space on a moment’s notice . . . how? How could they possibly do such a thing?

    But some people in Hetzal did have starships, or lived in the cities where space travel was more common. They found their children, gathered their treasures, and raced to the spaceports, hoping they would be the first to arrive, the first to book passage. They, inevitably, were not. They were greeted by crowds, queues, ticket prices spiking to unattainable levels for all but the wealthiest, thanks to unscrupulous opportunists. Tension rose. Fights broke out, and while Hetzal did have a security force to calm these squabbles, these officers also eyed the skies and wondered if they would spend their last moments alive trying to help other people to safety. A noble end, if so . . . but a desirable one? The security officers were people, too, with families of their own.

    Order began to break down.

    On the Rooted Moon, a kind trader decided to open the doors of the starship he used to transport the exceedingly fresh produce of the moon to the voracious worlds of the Outer Rim. He offered space to all who could possibly fit, and though his pilot told him the vessel was old, and the engines were a bit past their prime, the trader did not care. This was a moment for magnanimity and hope, and by the light he would save as many as he could.

    The ship, holding 582 people, including the trader and his own family, managed to take off from its landing pad, once the pilot pushed its engines to maximum. It just needed to escape the moon’s gravity well. Once they were in space, everything would get easier. They could get away, to safety.

    The vessel achieved most of a kilometer before the overtaxed engines exploded. The fireball rained down over those left behind, and they were not sure whether they were lucky or not, considering they still had no idea what was coming for them. Minister Ecka’s message did not say.

    A variant on that message was sent out from Hetzal to any other systems or ships that might hear it: We are in desperate trouble. Send aid if you can.

    It was picked up by receivers in the other worlds of the Outer Rim—Ab Dalis, Mon Cala, Eriadu, and many more, spreading outward via the Republic’s relay system, and then inward to the planets of the Mid and Inner Rims, the Colonies region, and even the shining Core. Virtually everyone who heard it wanted to do something to help—but what? It was clear that whatever was happening in Hetzal would be over well before they could arrive.

    But ships were sent anyway—mostly medical aid vessels, in the hope they might be able to offer treatment to injured citizens of Hetzal.

    If any survived.

    “Get to your nearest offworld transport facility,” Minister Ecka said to a cam droid recording his words and image and broadcasting them across the system. “We will send ships to pick up people who don’t have other ways to leave the planet. It might take time, but stay calm and peaceful. You have my word, we will come for you. We are all of the same crop. Hearty stock. We will survive this the way we have survived harsh winters and dry summers, by pulling together.

    “We are all Hetzal. We are all the Republic,” he said.

    He raised a hand, and the cam droid ceased transmitting. This was the fourth message he had sent since the emergency began, and he hoped his communications were doing some good. Reports suggested they were not—riots were beginning at spaceports on all three inhabited worlds—but what else could he do? He broadcast his messages from his office in Aguirre City, demonstrating that he had not abandoned his people even though he surely could. A show of solidarity. Not much, but something.

    Around him, the rest of his staff coordinated their own attempts to assist in whatever way they could. General Borta worked with his meager security fleet to both keep order and ferry people offplanet. With the help of Counselor Daan, they had organized a number of the huge crop freighters currently in transit to act as relay points, ordering them to dump their cargo and clear all space for incoming refugees. Each could hold tens of thousands of people. Not comfortably, of course, but this was not a situation where comfort mattered.

    Smaller ships were ferrying Hetzalians up to the cargo vessels, off-loading their people then rushing back to pick up more. It was an imperfect system, but it was what they had been able to arrange on no notice. There was no plan for something like this.

    Minister Ecka blamed himself for that—but how could he have known? This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was impossible, whatever it was. He was just a farmer, after all, and—

    No, he thought, suddenly ashamed of himself. He was Minister Zeffren Ecka, leader of the whole blasted system. It didn’t matter if he couldn’t have anticipated this disaster—it was happening, and he needed to do everything he could.

    As he considered that thought, he looked over at Keven Tarr, who had never stopped running his little network, trying to keep information flowing. The young man was now working with three separate datapads and a number of comms droids projecting various displays on the walls, pulling in as much data as he could about the scope of the disaster that continued to wreak havoc in the system. He still had no real answers, other than to continually confirm that Hetzal was being savaged by whatever was afflicting the system. Satellites, arrays, stations . . . smashed apart by the storm of death that had come calling. It was like the seasonal chewfly swarms that used to plague the Fruited Moon until they had been genetically modified out of existence.

    If the swarm came, there was nothing you could do. You hunkered down, survived, and sowed your fields again once it was all done.

    Ecka watched as Keven Tarr wiped sweat from his eyes, then looked back at his main datapad, the one he had propped up on the little side table he was using as a desk.

    Tarr’s eyes widened, and his fingers froze, hovering over the screen.

    “Minister,” he said. “I’m . . . I’m getting a signal.”

    “What signal?” Ecka said.

    “I’ll just . . . I’ll just put it through,” Tarr said, and there was an odd note in his voice, of surprise, or just something unexpected.

    Words crackled into the air, one of the technician’s comms droids broadcasting the message out into Minister Ecka’s office. A woman’s voice. Just a few words, but they brought with them, yes . . . the one thing most needed at that moment.

    “This is Jedi Master Avar Kriss. Help is on the way.”

    That one thing.

    Hope.
    CHAPTER FOUR

    REPUBLIC EMISSARY-CLASS CRUISER
    THIRD HORIZON.
    90 minutes to impact.

    A vessel appeared in the Hetzal system, leaping out of hyperspace and rapidly slowing as it returned to conventional speeds. It was deeply sunward, and the gravity wells it needed to navigate would rip a lesser ship apart, or even this one, if its bridge crew did not represent the best the Republic had to offer.

    The ship was the Third Horizon, and it was beautiful. The ship’s surfaces rippled along its frame like waves on a silver sea, tapering to a point, with towers and crenellations along its length, like a fortress laid on its side, all wings and spires and spirals. It spoke of ambition. It spoke of optimism. It spoke of a thing made beautiful because it could be, with little consideration given to cost or effort.

    The Third Horizon was a work of art, symbolic of the great Republic of worlds it represented.

    Smaller vessels began rolling off berths on the ship’s hull, peeling away like flower petals in a breeze, darting specks of silver and gold. These were the craft of the Jedi Order, their Vectors. As the Jedi and Republic worked as one, so did the great ship and its Jedi contingent. Larger ships exited the Third Horizon’s hangars as well, the Republic’s workhorses: Longbeams. Versatile vessels, each able to perform duties in combat, search and rescue, transport, and anything else their crews might require.

    The Vectors were configured as single- or dual-passenger craft, for not all Jedi traveled alone. Some brought their Padawans with them, so they might learn what lessons their Masters had to teach. The Longbeams could be flown by as few as three crew, but could comfortably carry up to twenty-four—soldiers, diplomats, medics, techs—whatever was needed.

    The smaller vessels spun out into the system, accelerating away from the Third Horizon with purpose. Each with a destination, each with a goal. Each with lives to save.

    On the bridge of the Third Horizon, a woman, human, stood alone. Activity churned all around her, in the arched spaces and alcoves of the bridge, as officers and navigators and specialists began to coordinate the effort to save the Hetzal system from destruction. The woman’s name: Avar Kriss, and for most of her three decades or so, a member of the Jedi Order. As a child, she came to the great Temple on Coruscant, that school and embassy and monastery and reminder of the Force connecting every living thing. She was a youngling first, and as her studies advanced, a Padawan, then a Jedi Knight, and finally . . .

    . . . a Master.

    This operation was hers. An admiral named Kronara was in command of the Third Horizon—itself part of the small peacekeeping fleet maintained by the Republic Defense Coalition—but he had ceded control of the effort to save Hetzal to the Jedi. There was no conflict or discussion about the decision. The Republic had its strengths, and the Jedi had theirs, and each used them to support and benefit the other.

    Avar Kriss studied the Hetzal system, projected on the flat silver display wall in the bridge by a purpose-built comms droid hovering before it. The images were a composite gathered from in-system sources as well as the Third Horizon’s sensors. In green, the worlds, ships, space stations, and satellites of Hetzal. Her own assets—the Vectors, Longbeams, and the Third Horizon itself—were blue. The bits of hot death moving through the system at incredible speed, source and nature as yet unknown, were red. As she watched, new scarlet motes appeared on the display. Whatever was happening here, it was not yet over.

    The Jedi reached to her shoulder, where a long white cape was secured by a golden buckle made in the shape of her Order’s symbol—

    a living sunrise. This was ceremonial clothing, appropriate for the joint Jedi–Republic conclave the Third Horizon had attended at the just now completed, galaxy-changing space station called Starlight Beacon. Now, though, considering the task at hand, the ornamental garments were a distraction. Avar tapped the buckle and the cape released. It slipped to the ground in a puddle of fabric, revealing a simpler white tunic beneath, ornamented in gold. At her hip, in a white sheath, a metal cylinder, a single piece of sleek silver-white electrum, like the handle of a tool without the tool itself. Along its length, a spiraling incised line of bright-green seastone, serving as both grip and ornament, running up to a crossguard at one end. A weapon, with which she was skilled—but she would not need it today. The Jedi’s lightsabers would not save Hetzal. It would be the Jedi themselves.

    Avar sank to the ground, settling herself, legs crossed. Her shoulder-length yellow hair, seemingly on its own, moved back and away from her face. It folded itself into a complex knot, a mandala, the creation of which was itself an aid to focus. She closed her eyes.

    The Jedi Master slowed her breathing, reaching out to the Force that surrounded her, suffused her. Slowly, she rose, ceasing once she floated a meter above the deck.

    Around the bridge, the crew of the Third Horizon took notice. They nodded, or smiled faintly, or simply felt hope bloom, before returning to their urgent tasks.

    Avar Kriss did not notice. There was only the Force, and what it told her, and what she must do.

    She began.

     
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  18. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    All eight of the free LIGHT OF THE JEDI chapters are now available at that link. Enjoy! (if you so choose)
     
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  19. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    Read through the eight chapters.
    I can't tell you what my initial impression of chapter one was, because I first read it months ago whenever it was first released. Chapter two really played with my expectations. I was like, okay, there was a lot of character development for the captain in chapter one and then everyone died at the end, obviously Soule's not going to do the same thing in chapter two. I started thinking that Sella was going to be revealed to be some sort of a spy or something, that's where my mind was going, so when Merven died at the end of the chapter without even getting to the bar I was taken aback, in a good way. So far, a pretty brutal two chapters. I also thought it was really funny every time the text said "scantech (third class)."

    By the time chapter three came around, I figured it was only a matter of time before all those characters died, too. The timeline gets a bit confusing at this point - from what I understand, considering the beginning of chapter three says "2 hours to impact" and the beginning of chapter four says "90 minutes to impact," does that mean all of chapter three only happens in 30 minutes? Quite a lot of action for such a short time. But I digress. I love how the minister of the agricultural planet considers himself a farmer and thinks of everything in farming metaphors. I thought this was a great line: "We are all of the same crop. Hearty stock. We will survive this the way we have survived harsh winters and dry summers, by pulling together." This was probably written before the pandemic, but I thought that line about how some people went through a mad panic and others just went about their lives and didn't believe anything was wrong was very fitting for Earth in 2020.

    Anyway, now we get to chapter four and it slows down a little and perhaps we're finally to the meat and potatoes of the story, but who knows? At this point the chapters all sort of blur together for me. So far, I like how the Jedi are being portrayed. I like how Avar is basically doing battle meditation - this is supposed to be the Jedi at the height of their power and so far it does seem like they're more powerful than the prequel Jedi. I'm also really excited about the new ships! We don't have any art for those yet, right? I really want to see what a Longbeam looks like. Cool detail that the Republic shipyards are on Hosnian Prime. I don't think there's ever been any mention of shipbuilding there in the modern era. The Vector needing a lightsaber to work the weapons is a little ridiculous, but I still really like the way that line was written: "Weapons on a Vector could only be operated with a lightsaber key, a way to ensure they were not used by non-Jedi, and that every time they were used, it was a well-considered action."

    It's also interesting how Merven in chapter two thinks no one would attack the Hetzel system because it's extremely unimportant, yet in the following chapters we find out it's basically a triumph of science with unique technology, which is what allows them to be such prosperous farmers who export their food galaxywide. Also kinda bummed the bacta predecessor is "juvan" and not kolto like in Legends, which would've been a cool shoutout, but it's not a big deal.

    Overall, I have no real complaints and I'm enjoying the story so far. Like many of you, I imagine, this is the first prose I've read by Charles Soule aside from his short story about Lando in FACPOV, which I don't have any strong feelings about at all. This book, on the other hand, is really doing it for me. Soule is like a reverse Stover in some ways. All those philosophical lines in the Revenge of the Sith but without the crushing inevitability of failure and darkness attached to them. There's just so many great positive lines, like "Her lightsaber, ugly as it was, served as a perfect reflection of the great truth of the Force: no matter what a person was on the outside . . . inside, everyone was made of light." There's so many good lines in chapter eight, the Avar POV chapter, I couldn't even single one out. So far I have a feeling I'm going to really like her character. Of course, maybe the whole vibe of the book will change as the story goes on and everyone becomes cynical and pessimistic.

    January 5th can't come soon enough!
     
  20. starfish

    starfish Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 9, 2003
    I didn’t know there was eight chapters available, I guess I’m going to be reading while I cook dinner today
     
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  21. Dawud786

    Dawud786 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 28, 2006
    I'm holding out until Jan 5th. I read chapter 1 ages ago, I dont want to feel like 1-8 are rehashed once I get the book.

    IG: @jedisufism
     
  22. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    https://www.starwars.com/news/the-makers-of-star-wars-the-high-republic-charles-soule
    As we prepare to enter a new era of Star Wars storytelling with Star Wars: The High Republic, StarWars.com sits down with the five authors — Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott — penning the first round of books and comics. “The Makers of Star Wars: The High Republic” will run weekly through the end of the year to celebrate the January 2021 launch of the storytelling epic.

    Spoiler warning: The article contains plot details from Light of the Jedi.

    “We are all the Republic.” It’s a phrase that echoes through Charles Soule’s new novel, Light of the Jedi, available for pre-order now and hitting bookshelves January 5, 2021. The tale serves as an introduction into the heyday of the Jedi Order, some 200 years before the events in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Yet it feels as relevant today as it might to someone in a galaxy far, far away.

    And beyond this unifying rallying cry is an immersive new era ripe for exploration, when Jedi Knights uphold peace and justice in a galaxy experiencing a kind of tranquility as they pioneer the Outer Rim.

    That is, until disaster strikes. Although concept art hints at a gilded age of finery and nobility — when grandeur was no delusion — from the first chapter, Soule’s story is an intense reckoning amid The Great Disaster. New characters are introduced, their lives and hopes laid out for readers, only to be dashed in the next sentence as the system-wide emergency takes shape. And through it all, the Jedi emerge as heroic as the stories of old, courageous individuals rushing into the fray, prepared to do whatever it takes to bring some semblance of calm back to every last corner of their beloved galaxy.

    Recently, StarWars.com sat down with Soule to discuss the extraordinary opening sequence to his new novel, how life in 2020 impacted his writing, and what he hopes readers will take away from their first foray into The High Republic.

    StarWars.com: There’s a purposeful composition to the storytelling, an ebb and flow, serenity and pure chaos. You’ve got these lovely scenes of bucolic normalcy and then absolute terror, and it just kind of builds as you pull together this picture for the readers of the anomaly and what it means and what it is. Why take this approach to introducing this new era?

    Charles Soule: The Great Disaster is the first real introduction the readership and the fandom is going to get to The High Republic. It’s an opportunity for great heroism or for ordinary people to step up. People really expose who they are and systems really expose how well they work in the time of crisis, as we’re seeing now in a time of crisis in the real world. And it’s funny because I wrote this…I finished it largely before these times and I did a substantial revision during the quarantine. But most of the ideas in terms of the big plotting stuff all came before coronavirus. I don’t want to spoil too much about what happens in The Great Disaster sequence, but it’s long. It’s a third of the book. It’s well over 100 pages of material based on this one event and how it affects a group of people in one particular system where it hits with most of its impact, the Hetzel system in the Outer Rim…and even though Hetzel is isolated — it’s important but it’s isolated — when it’s in danger, people from all over the galaxy try to help. And so I thought that was a way to show the interconnectedness of The High Republic era. The fact that systems exist to help when a system is in trouble.

    There’s a phrase that echoes throughout the book, which is, “We are all the Republic.” And that is basically the motto of the High Republic in this era. Chancellor Lina Soh runs the Republic and that is her motto that has become kind of omnipresent throughout the galaxy. And it’s something that people take very seriously. The Jedi take it seriously. The Republic takes it seriously. And the individuals on the planets take it seriously. So I just wanted to show what that would mean. Because that really sets the tone for everything. In a galaxy where people really can say that and believe that, that’s united in that way around a principle idea, and when bad stuff starts to happen, the strength of that idea gets tested.

    StarWars.com: It’s funny that you mention that you wrote this pre-pandemic, because when I was reading it in the midst of 2020, I was wondering… Do you think some of those elements and the constraints of COVID, in general — all of us being a lot more sedentary, introverted, and sequestered — do you think that had an impact on the changes you made in revisions?

    Charles Soule: I think it is impossible to believe that this year has not had a significant impact on every creative person’s work whether they acknowledge it and believe it, or not. For me, there are elements in the book that people will not believe that I had in the book before quarantine! But they were there. And they’re based on the way systems and governments and institutions respond to disasters. So it’s not surprising that those things would happen but I do think they will resonate much more strongly because of the shared experience literally everyone around the world is having. If there’s ever a time to think, “We are all the Republic,” we’re all human beings and we all have the same strengths and weaknesses… The main threat in Light of the Jedi is not a virus, but it is certainly something that can pop up anywhere, at any time and be very dangerous. And so people take actions to try to protect themselves from it and, you know, as they said, I wish this had never happened to the world. But I’m hopeful that when people read Light of the Jedi on January 5 that they will find themes that will be resonant because of the time in which it’s coming out and because of the time in which it was written.

    StarWars.com: To get into some of the new characters, as I was reading the first eight chapters, I realized at some point that it sort of made me feel like I was Jedi Avar Kriss. You’re showing us this disaster playing out in moments large and small and it’s very similar to the way you’re describing the way she experiences the Force, and the way she can feel all the other Jedi wherever they are. What can readers expect from Avar and the other new Jedi and Padawans they’ll meet in this story?

    Charles Soule: One of the guiding principles behind the entire High Republic initiative, even back when it was still Project Luminous, was to create Star Wars that was quintessentially Star Wars but also that still felt fresh and new. And this is with respect to every element whether it’s creatures, the Republic itself, the space ships, and vehicles, and, of course the Jedi, which have been one of the most important elements of Star Wars since the beginning. This is an era that’s very stable and prosperous. There’s no galactic civil war happening. It’s a time when, thankfully, focus can be placed on development, expansion, cultural pursuits, that sort of thing. So the role of the Jedi in this era is just different. They respond to problems that sometimes are a little bit localized. They negotiate disputes. They have outposts on various planets. But, you know, they’re still the Jedi. They’re going to be very recognizable. But one of the things that we thought we’d be able to do was, in a time when there are many thousands of Jedi in the galaxy — and they are not quite so focused on the encroaching shadow of the Sith or a civil war that’s about to break out or corruption in the senate — we thought that we could spend time thinking about the way that they all look at and think about the Force. And Avar Kriss in particular is one of the first characters we meet doing this and she experiences the Force as basically a song, a huge symphony of voices and instruments, assonance and dissonance and all these different things. Harmony and counter harmony and all of these different things that, really, any time you look around our world you see it. You may not hear it, but life is a symphony. And so that’s how she experiences the Force.

    Other characters do different things with it. You have a very cool Padawan and Master team Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm, and they each have their own way of experiencing the Force. And what you come to see is that Yoda’s description of the Force as sort of this luminous web of light that connects and binds all of us, or Obi-Wan’s description, the ways we’ve heard it described are only one way to look at something that is truly a very interesting and complex and diverse thing. Just like many philosophies on Earth and religions experience spirituality in different ways, the same is obviously going to be true of the Force. So we see that explored in the book. They also have cool different lightsabers. We see them using different Force powers we haven’t really seen in a while or that are totally new. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are some really, really neat Jedi things in Light of the Jedi and across the whole High Republic initiative.

    StarWars.com: Speaking of the Force and the way characters experience it, I really enjoyed your description of Bell tapping into the Force, like meditating on a flame. As the author, how did exploring a new era of Star Wars storytelling alter the way you understand the Force or how you convey it to readers?

    Charles Soule: I think that one of the things that I believe is true about the Force — to the extent that something can be true about a made-up construct — is that it’s hard. Using the Force is challenging and you have to find your way into it and you have to find a path to connect to it. And that’s why Jedi train literally their entire lives to use it and improve their connection to it. It’s something that you have to calibrate yourself to be able to tap into. It’s out there. You’re not changing the Force by tapping into it. You have to change yourself or find your own resonant frequency within yourself that allows you to tap into what the Force is. And it’s hard. You have to be super focused. You have to become the Force to use it properly. You have to tune yourself to it. And I think that is very much like the experience of writing a novel. Because when you’re writing a book you have to completely envision a new world and then you have to inhabit that world and you have to make new people that live in that world and then you have to let those people do the things that they would do if that world were real. And it’s very, very challenging. It’s an exhausting mental discipline that I love doing, but it’s really hard. And so that’s my version of tapping into the Force, I think, is trying to write a good book.

    StarWars.com: You have a very compassionate approach to the struggles that individual Jedi might have as they’re trying to maintain their grasp of the Force. I thought that was a really interesting shift in things because it feels like by the time we get to the era of the Republic and the shadow of the Sith hanging over everything from the prequel trilogy, that the Jedi are a little bit more black and white, regimented, and a little less forgiving maybe of some of those faults and trespasses. And we get a Wookiee Jedi, Burryaga, and a Duros Jedi, Te’Ami! Do you have a favorite character among the new ones?

    Charles Soule: It’s really hard because I put a lot into trying to make all of these characters really interesting, unique, and relatable. Even Hedda Casset, who is the sort of older starship pilot who you meet in Chapter 1, I try to make her feel really unique and cool and special. I really like her. In terms of the Jedi, I really, really like Bell and Loden, the Padawan and Master. Of the ones we met, I’ve always loved the teacher/student dynamic that Star Wars has done so well for so long and to be able to create my own teacher/student duo was really gratifying. Avar is super cool. Burryaga is great. Just a super sensitive, huggable Wookiee Jedi is a cool thing.

    StarWars.com: What more could we all want, really?

    Charles Soule: I know! And he has some scenes that I think people are really going to melt over. There’s another Jedi that may be my favorite one in the whole book that you don’t meet until later named Porter Engle. He is Ikkrukkian, which [are from] a planet I made up in my Poe Dameron series. In my head he looks like an old prospector dude. He’s got lots of hair and a beard — I think I describe him as more beard than being — and he’s basically a cook now. He’s a guy who’s known for his recipes. But as his character is revealed you find out that he had a very different past and he’s sort of a legend within the Jedi Order. And he’s left that past behind definitively. He’s old. He’s been in all the different Jedi roles and now the only Jedi role he really wants it to be a cook. But the Force is not done with him yet and there are some really cool things that he gets to do. So he’s definitely up there. You know what they say. They’re all my children and I love them all.

    StarWars.com: Can you tell us a little about the origin of the title of this book, Light of the Jedi, and what it means to you and the story?

    Charles Soule: The Jedi have always been deeply associated with that word and that idea, whether it’s the fact that their weapon is made out of light — they use lightsabers to protect peace and justice. The fact that they are considered to be guardians of the light side of the Force as opposed to the dark side, which is what the Sith work with. The fact that they consider, at least from Yoda’s teachings, that beings are luminous, that the Force gives us all an inner light. So the idea of “light of the Jedi” is kind of right there. It’s low hanging fruit. But then within the story itself we really wanted The High Republic to feel like a golden age. When you are in need, the Jedi are there. They don’t always succeed. Sometimes problems can overwhelm them. They’re still people. But they will never stop trying to help. And the idea that there’s a Force like that out there in the galaxy, literally and figuratively, that is there just to help, that’s a reassuring thing. So that’s a theme that runs throughout the book and there’s a very literal expression of it. I’m a big fan of movies that include their title in the dialogue at some point so there’s a moment in the book that directly references those four words that I think is pretty beautiful, and I look forward to people getting to [read it].

    StarWars.com: Do you remember how far along you were in the process when you came up with the title?

    Charles Soule: It was very, very early! There were title discussions. I could look in my notebook…I will look in my notebook!

    StarWars.com: This is the one good thing about 2020. Everyone’s at home. We were talking to Ben Burtt earlier this year and he just pulled down a notebook from the production of The Empire Strikes Back and he found the answer he needed.

    Charles Soule: [Paging through a notebook] There’s a page in this where I wrote tons and tons of possible titles. Ask for cover and title notes — that was October 25 [of 2019]! Somewhere around October or November of last year is when I had it. I had the title before I wrote a word of the book. I had a very detailed story outline and so I knew the beat that was going to reference the title ahead of time.

    StarWars.com: And the book is out on January 5. What are you hoping readers take away from this story once they get to read it?

    Charles Soule: I’m hoping that readers love The High Republic and cannot get enough and cannot wait to read more and cannot wait to see what these characters do, all their trials and tribulations, successes and failures. I’m hoping that it really feels like Star Wars to everyone who reads it and gives people that sense of joy that all good Star Wars gives you. We’re getting it now with The Mandalorian, and I got it when I saw A New Hope for the first time. That thrilling rush of, “Oh wow, how are they going to get out of this one?” And then they do and you can’t believe it! All of the huge sort of messy wonderful stew that is Star Wars.

    This is going to sound maybe a little melodramatic or emotional or whatever, but that idea that “We are all the Republic.” Those five words. I think that that’s a really important idea, especially these days. And you know if there was ever a time to hang together and help each other out it’s now. So that’s the thematic thing I hope people take away. That we are all the Republic.

    StarWars.com: I love that. And I think that’s a new way of approaching that other essential bit of Star Wars, which is that, I think Star Wars always has to have some element of hope. That’s what holds it all together. No matter how bad it gets and no matter how often you think, “How are they going to get out of this one?” Somebody always has a little bit of hope. And “We are all the Republic” feels like a really eloquent way to say it. And also, we’re all in this together.

    Charles Soule: Exactly. And I think a big element of hope is thinking, “I’m not alone. I don’t have to face whatever challenges I have to face all by myself.” In this time of isolation I think Star Wars is something that unifies a lot of us. It’s something we all can share and love together. And I hope that Light of the Jedi and all The High Republic will be received in that way. I really cannot wait for January 5. It feels like it’s been a long time coming.

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  23. Fjall

    Fjall Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2014
    is that loden greatstorm at the back?
     
  24. Krueger

    Krueger Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2004
    I love those silver steeds.
     
  25. DarthInternous

    DarthInternous Editor - Del Rey Star Wars star 3 VIP

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2017
    Yes
     
    Jaxxon- likes this.