Book Review - Jedi Struggle to Hold Back the Blight in "Star Wars: The High Republic - Into the Light"

Last month saw the release of Star Wars: The High Republic - Into the Light by Claudia Gray– the final young-adult novel in (the current form of, at least) Lucasfilm Publishing’s ambitious multi-platform initiative– and due to everything going on recently in the worlds of both Disney Parks and Star Wars I was not able to get around to reading it until this week. Below are my thoughts.

Over the past decade, I have found Claudia Gray to be one of the most reliable Star Wars authors contributing to the Disney-era canon of the George Lucas-created space-opera franchise. Her Leia-focused novel Star Wars: Bloodline from 2016 remains one of my favorite books from A Galaxy Far, Far Away in recent memory, and her contributions to The High Republic have been nothing short of essential for those attempting to keep up with all of the initiative’s many twists and turns through its three increasingly impressive phases. (I didn’t end up caring for Gray’s take on The X-Files last year, but that’s neither here nor there except to say that I think her imaginative and adventurous style fits Star Wars a whole lot better.)

That brings us to Into the Light, which once again focuses on Jedi Knight Reath Silas (among other members of the Order such as Dez Rydan, returning from his Barash Vow, and Cohmac Vitus, similarly making his way back into the ranks of the Jedi) as the Republic still struggles to fend off the band of ruthless marauders known as the Nihil, while the existential threat called the Blight creeps ever closer to eliminating all life in the galaxy. I think I’m more intrigued by the Blight than any new villain that has been introduced into the Star Wars universe in a long time. It serves as a metaphor for dread and bleakness– a barren, ever-encroaching desolation that at first reminded me an awful lot of “The Nothing" from the beloved 1980s kids’ movie The Neverending Story (not to mention the 1979 novel that inspired it).

The Blight feels like more of a genuine threat than most Star Wars villains– even Nihil leader Marchion Ro– because the Jedi just have no idea whatsoever how to deal with it. They can simply slice it down with a lightsaber or use a mind trick on it. It has no motives, feelings, or– that we know of, yet– sentience. It just eats away at matter, both living and inorganic, until nothing is left but ash… spreading across the galaxy at a maddeningly (and terrifyingly) glacial pace. The best defense the Jedi have worked up against the blight so far is to sit around it in a circle and meditate, which only serves to slow its constant expansion, not reverse it or even halt it permanently.

Into the Light opens with the Jedi suffering another defeat at the nonexistent hands of the Blight, and then retreating to Coruscant where they find out that the phenomenon has appeared on another, very familiar and dear-to-fans planet. Yes, the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk is now threatened to be turned to ash unless the Jedi act very quickly, so the High Council puts Reath in charge of assembling a team to travel there and assess the situation. Joining the mission are young scientist Avon Starros (pictured above), two Wookiee Jedi (High Republic regular Burryaga and Kelnacca from The Acolyte), the creepy former Jedi Azlin Rell (who remains immersed in the dark side of the Force), and the trustworthy crew of the Vessel (Affie Hollow, Leox Gyasi, and our old pal Geode, the latter of which still sometimes feels like a practical joke being played on readers– he only moves and talks when he’s “off-camera.")

Also aboard for the ride is Nan, a Nihil operative (who we first met in Gray’s excellent 2021 novel Star Wars: The High Republic - Into the Dark, the mirrored titles undoubtedly intentional) who shows up on Coruscant just before the team departs claiming to have deserted her post and that she has valuable information that can help the Jedi in their quest. Obviously our heroes have to decide whether or not they can trust Nan, and as readers we don’t find out the answer to that question until the end of the story. Suffice it to say that the more overt and obvious villain of this book is Dr. Mkampa (from 2022’s The High Republic - Mission to Disaster by Justina Ireland), who has her own treacherous reasons for visiting Kashyyyk.

I was really enjoying Into the Light for its first two-thirds, but in its conclusion I think I found it to be equal parts triumphant and frustrating as a Star Wars novel. I absolutely loved seeing all these characters thrown into the mix together and forced to face a crisis that pretty much nobody in the galaxy seems prepared to deal with (except Ro, who we know at this point at least claims to have a cure). But while there are things that happen in the final act that had me literally gasping with shock and– not quite so literally– jumping for joy, there are also several major beats that left me scratching my head with their leaps in narrative logic. To discuss those specific story points in this review would constitute major spoilers for the book, so I’ll just say that I wished some of the central characters behaved more consistently in their reaction to certain events that take place here, and in their plans for how to use that newly acquired knowledge and experience to deal with the remaining galaxy-wide threats. At the same time, Gray remains a very good writer who knocks it out of the park when it comes to fostering character relationships and making the eerie parts of Star Wars feel even eerier. And thankfully, her undeniable talents mostly succeed in delivering this semi-climactic release (there’s still one adult-targeted novel left to go, from author Charles Soule) in The High Republic’s final phase.

Star Wars: The High Republic - Into the Light is available now wherever books are sold.