Daniel Older

Two hundred years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in the era of the glorious High Republic, the Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy! Another exciting young adult adventure featuring Jedi and Jedi Padawans as they fight the nefarious villains known as the Nihil! The New York Times bestselling series continues....For light and life!

Star Wars the High Republic: Midnight Horizon

It's a good "epilogue" to Phase 1 but I feel is really reliant on the reader to have read the High Republic Adventures comics. 

Hyde F

Ashley

** spoiler alert **
           I’m going to be honest, I am conflicted on this book. I’m going to give it 3⭐️ because overall I did enjoy this book, however, it did not live up to the hype for me. 

Let me start by saying, I expected this book to focus on Reath and Cohmac because of the cover. Yes I know, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But I was really hopefully the cover would be accurate to the story. The book actually focuses on Ram, Crash, Kantam, and Zeen. 

So, I will start off with the things I enjoyed and then expand into what I didn’t. 

*Spoilers Below* 

Things I Enjoyed:
1. Ram. Diving deeper into this character was fun! It was adorable to see his bond with Reath and how talented Ram is. His lightsaber skills are outstanding! I also really enjoyed his quick thinking in the middle of battle when other characters seemed to struggle.
2. Crash. It was a roller coaster with Crash. I did not like her at first because I feel that she bonded way too quickly with the boys. But, the more the story went on, the more I liked her and her crew. 
3. The foreshadowing in Kantam’s story that lead to Cohmac’s decision to leave. 
4. Reath being knighted in the end, but the moment being a broken and sad thing. 
5. I really enjoyed seeing Reath and Ram act like teenagers in the way they sparred, pranked, joked, and flirted with girls. 
6. Cohmac. Anytime the story focuses on him. Especially when he was grieving. 

Things I did not Enjoy 
1. I feel that it took far too long to connect to the main high republic story and what was happening with Starlight Beacon. There was a lot of side story and back story happening throughout this book. Normally I enjoy that, but I felt it was too much. It slowed the pace of the story more than I enjoyed. All I wanted to do was skip to the ending parts. I was anxious to see how things would play out when they learned what was happening with Starlight. But, I feel we did not get a lot of that. I also feel that part of the problem was that the side stories were main about characters we have zero connection with in the books. If you read the comics, it’s characters you already love, but for just the book readers I’m not sure they will connect. As someone who reads both, I had a problem connecting. I believe it is because I would have preferred the comic characters to be introduced differently. I wish that we had seen them previously as side characters so that we were familiar with them in the books. I did not like that the focus was torn between two of the biggest characters in the high republic (Reath and Cohmac) and four characters we aren’t super familiar with. Which leads into my next point. 
2. Zeen. I like Zeen, but her part in the book felt very rushed as did her side story before she meets up with the team. I would have liked to focus and expand more on her struggles with Krix. It seemed to skip over it rather quickly (especially if you don’t read the comics). Zeen honestly should have had her own book and not be jammed into this one. I feel that a story focused on Zeen, Lula and Kantam would have played out better in a story focused only on the 3 of them. Especially if it was from Zeen’s POV. 
3. Reath. Now…. Let me emphasize Reath is my second favorite character in all of the High Republic. Which, I think, is exactly why I did not enjoy how he was written in this book. Again, I DID enjoy seeing him act like a normal teenage kid but that’s where the enjoyment stopped. Let me explain. When Reath was on missions he acted very awkward, bumbling, and always tripped over his words. This did not feel like the Reath I’ve come to know. He is introverted, yes, but he’s somewhat of a perfectionist. He’s obsessed with being the best at anything he does and has a lot of confidence in his skills because of how hard he worked for them. I understand that means he wasn’t always good…. But the Reath we knew from the start was already good at everything. So, seeing him stumble through a relatively simple mission, was not enjoyable. After all that he has already gone through and how he has never struggled like that before, it was uncomfortable. NOW, with regards to flirting with girls. Yes he’s awkward. But he should be. He’s a teenager and that makes sense to me. But, on the missions, I felt like Reath should be the one to take the lead and be quick to make decisions. Not Ram, who has very little experience compared to Reath. In the beginning they explain that Reath feels like Ram is a younger sibling, and yet, Ram is the one doing all of the protecting and leading throughout the story. Which… was fun to see Ram shine, but it really took away from Reath’s character. This adds to Reath being knighted in the end. He 100% deserves that yes, but seeing him be so awkward and never take the lead was not a great lead up to him being knighted.
4. Cohmac. Again, I absolutely love Cohmac. Which is why I’m disappointed. I really really really wanted to follow Cohmac and his struggle with the force and the Jedi order. But, he’s hardly in the book. Anytime he was it was the best part of the story, honestly. I was very upset that he was not with Reath 95% of the story. I wanted to see their bond and how things would play out with them as Cohmac struggled. Would Reath keep him grounded? Or would Reath encourage his behavior and leave with him?? How would Cohmac’s actions affect Reath as the story progresses and vise versa?? But no, they said hardly two words to each other the whole book. I saw glimpses of Cohmac’s rage and grief but not nearly enough. I wanted to see his struggle as we have gotten to see Elzar’s. Heck, we got to see Stellan’s struggle with the force more than Cohmac’s. I’m sad that we did not get a POV for Cohmac. I’m dying to know what went on inside his mind as this whole story progressed. Especially once everything started to play out with Starlight and then leading up to Reath’s knighting. What was Cohmac thinking?? What were his biggest struggles?? Why didn’t he talk to Reath?? How does Reath feel about it?? Why didn’t we get them together?? 😭😭😭

So, overall, it is still an enjoyable read. I still recommended it, and the High Republic is still my favorite Star Wars book series. You could chalk up my dislikes to me just being salty that I didn’t get more of my favorites 😂 I am excited for what is to come next!

Thomas Rock

First two-thirds lagged and the final rushed with no consequences to the wider galaxy. Often the characterisation was younger then YA, and the use of the name Crash instead of her first name felt odd, nicknames are rarely used in Star Wars and if Older wanted her name to be crash, he should've just named her so.

The Corellian ties to Solo were good, but largely superficial and after reading 400 pages, I was left wondering what had happened.

Older's MG outing, Race to Crashpoint Tower was a better offering, and this YA novel is the weakest of the three High Republic books so far. A stale end to the first wave of High Republic novels.

Star Wars the High Republic: Midnight Horizon

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