Review threads are back for vengeance! Here's the review thread for Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott. Go ahead and give it a score on the 1-10 scale, as long as you have read or listened to the entire book. Reviews are not necessary but are encouraged, but they're fun to write so try to have some fun!
I'd definitely give Path of Vengeance a very solid 9 out of 10. Cavan Scott delivers a heartfelt, well written story that serves to wrap up the events of Phase II of the High Republic in a satisfying manner. One of the things I appreciate about this story is that people are allowed to be people. What do I mean about that? Throughout the story, people have real feelings and concerns outside of the role the story has assigned for them. One character is a raving fundamentalist, but he's also a grieving father and a concerned husband. Another character is a gruff stick in the mud, but reveals that they have a brighter, sillier side they keep under wraps. One character is rather unpleasant, but is shown to have standards and feelings outside of being a scummy person. Characters on missions are allowed to chat among themselves about things outside of their immediate mission. The problems they confront, therefore, feel more real and all the more dangerous because these feel like fleshed out people enduring these problems. I'd like to break down my review by focusing on a few different characters and factions. Marda Ro: Spoiler I mentioned in one of my posts in the general thread for Path of Vengeance that I felt Marda was the MVP of Phase II of the High Republic, and now that I have finished the book I would say that my earlier assertion still holds water. On the surface, Marda's story is the tragic tale of what happens to those who succumb to the influence of a cult. And that's true. But it's not the be all and end all of Marda's character. Frankly, I think a lot of people would ignore the warnings Marda's story offers, since most of us are unlikely to join a cult. For me, the real lesson to take from Marda's story is how to handle rejection and failure. And that is a lesson that applies to everyone, religious or secular alike. Throughout Path of Vengeance Marda is absolutely dumped on by most of the characters she interacts with. Nearly every character she speaks to at some point disparages her and what she's trying to do. The Mother, Sunshine Dobbs, the members of the Path, the townsfolk in Ferdan she used to be friendly with, everyone except for her new love interest treats her with disdain and just rags on her time and time again. I can feel this young woman's crumbling self confidence as she struggles not to show weakness. And I have to tell you, it hurts. It hurts so bad to see this woman have her feelings and ideas stomped on over and over again. It's just so needlessly cruel to have an idealist repeatedly have her dreams crushed. She's trying her absolute best here, and people are just so dismissive of her. There was one line that absolutely broke me. And it was the line where she wondered why the Force hated her. This is a woman who loves the Force. She clearly doesn't understand it, but she loves it and wants the best for it and she is pushed to a point where she wonders why it hates her. The problem, of course, is in how she responds to this repeated failure. Bluntly speaking, she snaps. She's tired of being pushed around and she makes it clear when she returns from Planet X that she's out for blood. She's not going to be a sweet, passive person anymore. She intends to use the Nameless to attack the Jedi, and anyone who gets in her way. The galaxy will be made to listen to her. She's not interested in peaceful dialogue. One gets the sense that she's on the verge of declaring a crusade, and if genocide came of that crusade, it wouldn't bother her a bit. And this is where the sympathy which we might have for the character ends. She cuts her cousin's hand off when she refuses to play by Marda's rules. Marda becomes vindictive, spiteful, drunk on power and assured that she is right. It takes the realization that the Mother has taken her precious children and taught them to plant bombs throughout the caverns, putting their lives at risk, to finally break Marda of the Mother's influence. Perhaps she is less of a villain following this revelation, but I don't think Marda escapes this story as a reformed person. She feeds the Mother to the Leveler. Now, the Mother was an awful person, but it's made clear in other material that being killed by one of these monsters is a terrible way to go. I don't know if we'll ever see Marda again, but I hope we do. She leaves this story vowing that no one will tell her what to do anymore. On the surface this would be an empowering statement. But we know that her descendants will quickly twist her new creed into one that asserts their superiority at the expense of others. Ultimately I don't think Marda can escape from the corrupting nature of reality, no matter what path she follows. She wants something pure, something true. But every ideology has its bad actors. I hope she doesn't live long enough to see what her descendants do with her new ideas. Matthea Cathley Spoiler I have to confess that I typically don't like goofy chatterbox characters. It leans too close to comic relief. And bluntly speaking I find most comic relief, especially modern comic relief, misses the mark more than it hits. However I did appreciate Matty's character in this story; in part because there was a self awareness to her character archetype. She's a chipper person who is trying to compensate for some deep seated pain and insecurity. This is her method of processing those feelings and releasing them in a manner that doesn't compromise her ideals. And she understands that her motormouth characteristics can be an annoyance to other people. She shows an awareness for the feelings of others, which is more than can be said for most people who talk too much (please ignore the irony of me saying that while writing this very long winded review) I admit also that, if there had to be a Jedi character who served as a focal point for the reader in this story, I would have preferred it to be Oliviah Zeveron, due to her connection to the Mother and the obvious emotional problems Oliviah was trying to keep under wraps. With that said Matty has an inner core of steel in this story that justifies her presence as a focal point character. She is making real efforts to act as a peacekeeper. While it doesn't go anywhere one has to commend her efforts to build bridges and make diplomatic overtures with the Herald. And one has to admire her own inner strength when she calls out the Jedi arriving in Ferdan for having inadvertently blown her attempts at bridge making sky high. She is willing and able to speak truth to power without being haughty or judgemental. Matty is the anti-Marda in how she deals with her frustrations. Matty feels stymied by Oliviah and undermined in her efforts by the other Jedi. So what does she do? She talks it through and processes it and comes to a healthy resolution. The Mother Spoiler Elecia Zeveron reveals herself in this story for the petty coward she is. It's interesting to note the contrast in how her character was portrayed in Path of Vengeance vs how she was portrayed in Path of Deceit. In Path of Deceit, she seemed kindly, with her more devious nature just barely hidden and occasionally slipping out. In Path of Vengeance, with her control over the Path of the Open Hand solidified beyond reproach, what friendly facade she was maintaining is dropped. She is surprisingly nasty to Marda early on in the story, and only reverts to the sweet motherly illusion when Marda has some real power of her own. I like that Elecia's motivation is so petty and small. She's jealous the Jedi picked her sister for training and not her. And she wants to take revenge on them simply because they wouldn't let her into their club. It's so utterly pathetic, and I love it. Not every crisis should be a galaxy threatening disaster. The only advantage the Mother had were the Nameless. She was able to manipulate the Path because she was a Force Sensitive amongst non Force Sensitives. And she's fairly easily incapacitated without her advantages. Elecia was a regular fish in a small pond who thought she could swim with the sharks. But as Qui-Gon famously said "there's always a bigger fish." Phase II is the story of the ideological struggle between the Path of the Open Hand and the Jedi and their positions on the subject of belief. Their struggle reminds me of the real world quote "The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty." Faith acknowledges the gray and black areas, the mess and disarray which life often creates. It accepts that there are no easy answers. The Jedi embody faith. Jedi throughout Phase II acknowledge that there is pointless violence and struggle and that sometimes people will let you down time and again. But they also accept that there is never a point where it is too late to turn back and start over. That as long as there is entropy there are also those with the conviction to do right. The Jedi are allowed to struggle with their values, to voice their doubts and fears and concerns. To work on them and ultimately, through that struggle, reach a new understanding of their ideals and how those ideals can be made into a reality. There is room for dissent and healthy discussion with the Jedi, both internally and with other Force faiths. The Path embody certainty. The Force cannot be touched. Period. The end. It's true because we say it is. Our way is the only way and there is zero wiggle room in our interpretation of this philosophy. Those who don't subscribe are either fools to be enlightened or heretics to burn. Path members cannot question without being ridiculed or having their voices silenced. Other faiths need to modify their views to reflect ours and we are going to throw a tantrum if you don't comply. Ultimately Path of Vengeance is a well executed conclusion to Phase II of the High Republic and leaves readers with an interest in seeing more of this era.
-This book really cemented Mattie as a favorite High Republic Jedi of the Phase II era. She is just very upbeat, energetic, and doesn't hesitate to pour out exactly what is in her mind and heart. It's very endearing and I want all the best things for her. -I do enjoy the continued expansion of the culture and various Force religions on Jedha. We get a lot of interesting lore like the hidden Archives under the statue of the Jedi that was destroyed in the Battle of Jedha. -What a bombshell drop that the Rod of Daybreak and the Rod of Seasons are combined what is needed to control the Leveler and that the Rod of Daybreak was hidden in the Archives beneath the Jedi statue. It really connects back to Path of Deceit and also makes the Yoda and Creighton Sun decision to cover up everything related to the Levelers all the more infuriating. Since it might have been possible to figure out more about the Levelers just by analyzing what was stolen from the Archives. -Some horror vibes with both Marda and Yana seeing the "ghosts" of those they have lost: Kevmo and Koi respectively. Kevmo especially seems to be far more bitter as a "ghost" than he ever was in life. -Marda's story really shows how people can be radicalized by a cult. -We do finally get to go to Planet X, home of the Levelers and see the Force nexus planet where the Levelers are from. It feels like great payoff especially since we didn't get to visit Planet X in the book entitled Quest for Planet X. It is just very satisfying to be able to travel to this planet at last after hearing so much about it during the Phase II era. -I think most people expected the Mother to be related to Oliviah from the comics but it is kind of a cool twist to have her be Oliviah's sister rather than Oliviah's mother. And to have her grudge against the Jedi not be that the Jedi took a family member away from her but that the Jedi didn't choose to train her. -I think this was my favorite and most moving depiction of the battle of Dalna in all the Phase II materials we have gotten so far. -And reading about the aftermath of the Battle of Dalna in this book really makes it all the more frustrating for me to think about the "coverup" that Yoda and Creighton Sun did in terms of keeping information on the Levelers out of the Temple Archives because it feels like the Jedi are collecting the clues and could have started to piece them together and unravel the mystery if the truth wasn't actively suppressed because Yoda and Creighton didn't want the other Jedi to panic -Overall, this feels like a worthy sequel to Path of Deceit. Final verdict: 9 out of 10 stars
Really enjoyed this book. I think this one and Path of Deceit are my favorite. Cataclysm was also solid, Convergence too convoluted for my taste, and the junior novels were overall meh. I am super impressed but High Republic and how detailed it is all planned out. Cannot wait how it all progress next in Phase III.
Throughout Phase 2 of The High Republic we’ve been following the the Eiram-E’ronoh War and its effects on the galaxy at large. But behind it all and cropping up in the fringes of most stories has been the Path of the Open Hand, a seemingly harmless group that time and again has been entangled in a myriad of nefarious schemes, and in Path of Vengeance we finally get a deep look into why they’ve been meddling the way they have. We got a bit of an idea of what the Path’s deal is in Path of Deceit, but now as Phase 2 wraps up Cavan Scott pulls back the curtains on the various machinations of the Mother, and how her influence on the Path has determined the journeys of several key followers, especially that of Marda Ro. We see through Marda how faith can be weaponized, how those with low self esteem can be used by charismatic people to do whatever they want, to the point where their mere presence is enough to get these sort of people to act in their favor. For most of the book Marda has such great faith in the Mother and the Path that she often acts against her own best interests, or those of her cousin Yana’s. Her insecurities are so great that she even sees them in the form of her would-be Jedi lover Kevmo, and her fight against them shows how harmful this lifestyle can be to a person of malleable convictions. Yana on the other hand continues to fend only for herself, sticking with the Path only as a means of self-preservation, which illustrates the other way the Path can be dangerous, utilizing amoral agents to further its goals. They’re two sides of the same coin, and as we finally gain insight into the Mother’s true motivations, so too do they escape her thrall; they both finally realize what it is they each truly want, and they’re finally able to let go of their demons and their respective illusory former lovers. What it really comes down to is the Path is a collection of lost souls who were all used by the Mother for her own selfish whims, and once the illusion fades away so does the Path as we have known it. This book covers a lot of ground seen in other High Republic works, and with its focus on the members of the Path it basically acts as the pulling away of the proverbial curtains into why all this crazy **** has been happening. Here the war between the twin planets and the Battle of Jedha are in the background as Scott dives deep into the stories of these instigators and zealots, but their stories are pivotal in understanding the breadth of the conflict, and they provide a cautionary tale that’s all too real about how those with the best of intentions can be misled into acting against the greater good. And at the center of all the manipulations and misunderstandings is the Jedi, whose mere existence has thrown this group into a mission to right their perceived wrongs, and the Jedi’s lack of understanding only exacerbates things and causes the Night of Sorrow to flare up and fall terribly out of control. Yes, the Mother has been priming the Path to take the fight to the Jedi, but the Jedi don’t know that, and their judgmental attitudes only embolden the Path to fight against them. It’s a very gray conflict where both sides have valid arguments, and even the presence of some bad faith agents doesn’t excuse the utter unwillingness of both parties to understand each other. The battles on Jedha and Dalna could have been avoided if cooler heads had prevailed and the two sides just listened to each other- the machinations of an angry instigator can be overcome when disparate people act harmoniously. Obviously there’s a lot of great stuff diving into the psyches of the members of the Path in this book, particularly with the Ro cousins, but there’s also plenty of good story to go along with it. Marda goes on a crazy mission to the fabled Planet X to retrieve more eggs of the Nameless, while Yana does some nice sleuthing to retrieve the Herald from the custody of the Jedi and the Guardians of the Whills. Marda’s mission especially is a great segment, with Scott going all in making Planet X both a world of wonders and one of nightmares, considering its home to some of the more dangerous creatures in the galaxy (it goes without say that the Nameless continue to be absolutely terrifying). We also follow a couple of Jedi, though their story is more on the outside of the Path’s this time around, at least until one of them is able to finally shed light on the Mother’s origin and motivations. Start to finish the whole thing is a wild ride, with allegiance pivots galore and enough backstabbing to make a Sith proud. I give this a 9.55 out of 10 for a thrilling conclusion to this chapter of the High Republic series, with lots of great character work and a great mix of highly exciting action sequences and devilishly complex insidious machinations.
