I love The High Republic Era of Star Wars. I know what you’re thinking, “Don’t you love all Star Wars?” Yes, obviously that’s the case, but The High Republic just hits differently right now. The latest book entry, Defy The Storm by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland, pushes the main narrative forward in a character-centric story.
Defy The Storm is the first YA novel of Phase III to be released, and it does a wonderful job of continuing the pattern set forth in the first two phases of YA books with the focus being on more character-driven stories rather than galactic event-shaping like the full adult novels.
And who are those characters? Our main stories center around Vernestra Rwoh, Jordana Sparkburn, Avon Starros, and Xylan Graf. Yes, I said stories. They intertwine, but each story carries its own right in the book.
Avon wants revenge on Dr. Mkampa, so she enlists forces Xylan to help her strike back. She does, however, find Vernestra and tells her where her Padawan Imri Cantaros is hiding out in the Occlusion Zone. So, Vernestra heads out with one of my favorite looking new characters Deva Lompop to look for Imri.
The story following Jordana Sparkburn and her brother as she reunites with a San Tekka cousin on the journey was wild and not what I was expecting. I’m not sure exactly what the Nihil were doing on the planet where she finds her brother, but it sure seems like they’ve weaponized the Nameless beyond being Force Eaters. This could spell bad news for the Republic.
As I said earlier, the main focus of these YA books has been to tell a great character-driven story on a smaller scale than the adult novels. While Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann are fighting for the galaxy, the characters that we frequently see in the YA books are younger, and going-through-it emotionally for a variety of reasons.
Where Avon and Vernestra are now in the story compared to where they were when they were introduced in 2021’s A Test Of Courage (review), which was a middle grade novel, is night and day. They both have grown and are more confident in their decisions whether they realize it fully yet or not. Obviously, I’m thrilled that Vernestra will be in the upcoming Acolyte show, so I know she makes it out of this relatively ok; however, that doesn’t mean that I’m not stressing with her with what she’s going through at the moment.
I haven’t talked a lot about Xylan Graf in this one, but his character has been a joy to read over the years. He’s such a sleazebag but occasionally has the heart of gold. But, he’s still a Graf and always out for himself.
These recent combo-author books have been well done, and that sort of thing can make you a little nervous. This is the second one from Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton after Path of Deceit, and they definitely seem to work well together.
Defy The Storm isn’t going to progress the main story ahead by leaps and bounds, but we got some great development of some fan favorite characters while shifting pieces into place for future stories. I liked this book.
