Whenever I read a young adult or junior novel, I have to step back and remember one key sentence: I am not the target audience for this book. However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy them. Justina Ireland’s A Test of Courage stands at the top of the pack of Star Wars junior novels.

While Light of the Jedi introduced readers to the The High Republic Era for the first time and focused on galaxy-wide events, A Test of Courage drops down to focus on a single story featuring a Jedi prodigy (Vernestra Rwoh), a padawan full of doubts (Imri Cantaros), an ambassador’s son (Honesty Weft), and a mischievous-yet-brilliant 12 year old scientist/inventor (Avon Starros).

Of course, the Nihil are here, too.

After an attack strands our four heroes on a forested moon (No, not that one.), they must work together to not only save themselves but also overcome their Nihil attackers. Do they succeed? Well, it’s the first junior novel in The High Republic Era, and it’s almost a certainty that these four characters will show up again in the future… So, I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Ireland does a a great job in developing two of the characters (Imri and Avon); however, I felt like the other two (Vernestra and Honesty) received the short end of the stick here. I’m most disappointed about Vernestra, because I was really excited to learn more about the 16 year old Jedi Knight. While there was some development for her, I didn’t feel that it was strong enough for a character that I wan to see a lot more of going forward.

Speaking of Avon… She is an ancestor of Sana Starros who was introduced in the main Star Wars comic for Marvel and has since appeared in the Doctor Aphra comic series and Daniel Jose Older’s book Last Shot. It’s nice to get these little connections to the Star Wars era that everyone knows.

The Nihil were not overwhelmingly present in this book. In fact, only two characters even make an appearance, and they’re rather forgettable; however, we may been introduced to one of the Nihil who will be our “big bad” of the junior novels toward the end of A Test of Courage. It would’ve been nice to see her sprinkled more throughout the book, but I did enjoy the tease of more to come.

Overall, I’m pleased with what this book turned out to be, and while it doesn’t advance the overall period forward, A Test Of Courage does work to shrink this period down to a more personal story. I think kids that love Star Wars will love this book. For Star Wars completionists, it’s a junior novel that you can get through quickly, and it tells a fun and kind of unpredictable story.

(originally written January 2021)