My latest venture into A Galaxy Far, Far Away… was Zoraida Córdova’s Star Wars: The High Republic: Beware the Nameless. The middle grade modern surprisingly really advances Phase III of the High Republic publishing initiative in ways that I wasn’t expecting.

Beware The Nameless is the second to last middle grade nice that we’re going to be getting in the set publishing initiative. It’s hard to imagine that we’re almost done with this whole thing, but here we are. This is Córdova’s second book in the initiative following the adult novel Convergence from Phase II.

The main plot of the book revolves around a mostly-young group of Jedi and other Republic characters trying to capture two Nameless to bring back to Coruscant to be studied. It doesn’t exactly start that way, but it’s precisely where we end up. The book also expertly weaves in the story of the Hutts trying to capture a Nameless egg from the Nihil as a neat wrinkle.

I really liked that this book carried over nearly all of the young characters from Escape From Valo but also made them partially side characters so they were more in the background. This allowed the main newer characters like Zenny Greylark, Jamil Solid, and my personal favorite Churo the Hutt to get the most of the front and center treatment.

I loved seeing Ram Jomaran being thrust into a leadership position once again, but this time he takes the opportunity willingly, knowing that it’s his responsibility as a Jedi Knight to lead the way.

Like the previously mentioned Escape From Valo, Córdova continues moving the main story of the era forward while rewarding folks who are reading everything in the publishing initiative. Beware the Nameless is a fun addition to the saga.