Books The High Republic: Path of Deceit by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland

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Best romance in HR.

Definitely my favourite YA novel in this project so far, hope that deeper focus on smaller cast of characters will be a common trait in Phase II, Phase I had a problem with the cast often being too wide. Action scenes were few and rather quick, but very intense.

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Marda and Yana are just great, being both compelling and likeable characters and a proof that not all Evereni are psychopathic monsters. Seems like they are going to be the true main protagonists of Phase II, like Marchion was in Phase I. Well, the biggest intrigue now is which one of them is really the Nihil's leader's grand ... grandmother)

Have mixed feelings about the Path of the Open Hand. On the one hand, I like that its philosophy is not just "someone used and will use the Force to do harm, so using it must be forbidden for everyone", but rather "Using it here (even for something good) will cause disbalance and harm somewhere else" - it is something that is easy to believe and hard to disprove; the cult has rich benifactors, so it is possible that some shadow players can use (or think that they can use) it for their own goals and it can be an interesting plot point. One the other hand - even with the Leveler (that now reminds Xenomorph even more - really hope that the Nameless' species has a not-natural origin) the cult so far is hardly a terrifying threat, it has only a few enforcers and incomplete flagship, not to mention internal struggles. The Mother and The Herald have a potential to become interesting antagonists, but only with more development. Sunshine, well, is already a good sneaky secondary villain.

In general the Path somewhat reminds me of two villain factions from The Legend of Korra - Equalists and Red Lotus, hope that it will become as powerful and menacing as those two.

Regarding the worldbuilding - I very like the ideas of the Convocation and the Path's founder being a former leader of the Guardians of the Whills, as well as Evereni having a bad reputation in the Outer Rim, but being unknown in the Core. But in general so far it does not seem that the Galaxy is much different from the times of Phase I - the Jedi helping the frontier, San Tekkas and Grafs already being rich and notorious. Hope that the major differences will show up later.

 

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I don't think the Path of the Open Hand actually has rich benefactors. They were fencing stolen goods acquired on the same heists that they lifted Force artifacts from. The Mother is clearly not a believer, and I'm skeptical that the Herald even is.

Marda is a true believer, and she is going to be the founder of what becomes the Nihil. It's weird that Elder Tromak from Trymant IV was basically initiated by Marda when he was a Little of the Path, but he's clearly not with the Nihil 150 years later. So there's eventually a split between the Path of the Open Hand and the Nihil.

Ironic that Marda is so deep in the cult that she can't see that this horrible thing the Mother did to Kevmo is wickedness, not the cost of using the Force. She's going to have a vendetta against the Jedi simply because she is a full blown cultist.

The Path is going to bring war to Jedha.

 

Cultist are a plight on the Galaxy.

 

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Technically we don't know that Marda is going to start the Nihil. It might be Yana (though admittedly I kind of get the feeling that ironically Yana might end up more heroic than Marda in the long run, kind of like what happened with the three kids in Jedi vs Sith) for one thing.

Additionally, we know from Marchion's conversation with his cousin - who notably asks him if he has returned to the Path - the bulk of the family seems to still be associated with the Path of the Open Hand and only Marchion's particular branch of the family is with the Nihil. So I could easily see it if Marda stays loyal but then one of her kids runs off and decides to be a pirate instead.

As for Elder Tromak, I think he specifically refers to the Nihil as something that branched off of his own faith, so I think it likely that Trymant IV is run by the Path of the Open Hand, which seems to have chilled at least a bit (if still very anti force use as we see with Zeen) with the Nihil having origins in the Path but having dropped the religious beliefs.

 

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The Mother mentioned a specific name of a benefactor - Regnar Pulip - it is possible that this one is just a buyer of stolen goods, but , taking into account the Mother's charisma, also can be a gratuitous supporter.

 

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I felt it was pretty clear by the end that the Mother was fully lying about the benefactor(s) and all their proceeds came from selling stolen goods. I suppose it could be revealed otherwise, but the vibe was definitely that all the benefactor stuff was just a line of BS to hide the fact that they were selling off "liberated" artifacts.

 

The Path of the Open Hand reminds me of the Cosmic Balance, the dominant religion of Bakura in Legends.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Cosmic_Balance

 

Yeah I also got strong vibes of similarity there, though the cosmic balance seems to have expanded the concept beyond the force to everything having unintended consequences.

Wonder if it could work that the Cosmic Balance is a descendant of the Path of the Open Hand, but then again it is a big enough galaxy that you got have multiple people coming to similar conclusions independently of each other.

 

Just finished this book and wow this is definitely one of my favorite Star Wars YA books I have read (I think I would only put Lost Stars ahead of it).

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Can't remember if Path of the Open Hand was mentioned in Phase I or not but definitely a cool idea to have the Nihil have their beginnings from some force cult.

While reading this I was thinking that Kevmo and Marda were going to have a baby together but obviously that won't be the case. Wonder if they will let us know who Marda gets involved with?

So Marda is Marchion's great grandmother? Have to go back and read that Marchion To comic again and see if a great grandmother was mentioned.

Was a little surprised how much death there was in a YA book.

 

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We didn't get the full name, but I think the group did appear in Phase 1. Notably, Marchion meets up with a cousin who asks him if "he has returned to the Path" and keeps the shrine of the leveler. Additionally, High Republic Adventures is all about some kids from a colony run by "the Elders of the Path" who forbid any use of the force just they do here. Furthermore, the head elder there actually appears as one of Marda's littiles in Path of Deceit, mentions having met Yoda on Dalna over 100 years earlier, had the other half of the leveler control rod, and outright says that the Nihil split off of his faith.

I also thought that, especially since Marchion and his family look a bit different from Marda (namely more human - or Pantoran - like ears and hands than she has) but yeah that obviously isn't happening unless they got frisky offscreen sometime, which really doesn't seem likely.

I think a great grandmother was mentioned, but I am not sure if that is Marda or Marda's daughter. It is stated in the Rising Storm that most of Marchion's Ro family disagrees with him and his line's founding of the Nihil, so I think there was probably a split after Marda.

Indeed. Pretty dark overall.

 

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IIRC, Marchion's great great grandmother was mentioned in Light of the Jedi.

I also assumed that were going to have a baby together, but alas. My guess is that Marda will stay a rather decent person until the end of the phase when she will go full bloodthirsty Evereni and in epilogue it will be mentioned that she found herself an Evereni partner to continue her line (maybe there will be a confirmation that Evereni have matriarchy) .

 

PoD reader trauma count.... Rising.

 

Lol if people think this was surprisingly dark just wait untill the sequel comes out. A book written by Cavan Scott who is a big horror movie fan.

 

You might think that but Ireland really has form for this.

The whole sequence in Path of Courage with the Nihil sabotaging all the escape pods.... this is the kids book.

 

I'm curious is it known exactly what role each author had in writing the book? Generally in the situations where novels have two authors is it often that each write the chapters for the different main characters?

For instance in this situation Ireland could have written the chapters for Marda and Tessa Gratton could have written the chapters for Yana. Or vice versa?

 

To me this variant seems more likely.

 

Sometimes the fun is in not knowing.

In a book like Good Omens you can try to guess which bit is Gaiman and Pratchett, but it's far more fun not to.

 

I love the book and the overall story.. The final few chapters were tense.. question about the Mother though..

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so is she faking being force sensitive and having those visions since the Leveler doesn't even pay attention to her? or have I missed something during the read as English is not my primary language...

 

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She weakened after it hatched, so it seems she is really a Force sensitive, but not using it activly so that is why the Leveler did not attack her.

 

Just finished it today. Bit of a dark ending.

So considering Mother (Elecia Zeveron) shares the same last name as a Jedi (Oliviah Zeveron) on Jedha from the comic are we thinking sisters? Separated by the Jedi taking one but not the other? Some other relation? Just random coincidence they share a name?

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Elecia_Zeveron
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Oliviah_Zeveron

 

Definitely family, I would say.

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I can't help but wonder though, perhaps the Mother is actually Oliviah's birth mother. Maybe she's actually really angry that the Jedi took her baby.

Oliviah seems to be a fairly young knight.

 

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This has been my assumption as well. I mean, her title IS Mother. I know they’re using it in a religious context, but I think it has a double meaning for the audience.

 

Interesting ideas.

 

So hang on, do I read this first or Convergence?