Review: Star Wars- The High Republic: Out of the Shadows
Quick Summary
Pros: The main narrative is interesting. The story of one character’s personal journey is great. The book does a solid job building on and adding to the High Republic era.
Cons: The main narrative has several lulls that slow the read down in an unpleasant way. The majority of the book’s characters end up getting pretty lackluster stories.
Overall: This book is mostly positive but does contain a mix of negative features. It details a mostly compelling adventure that specifically highlights a great character. However, the pacing and the underdevelopment of other characters leaves the book feeling lacking. In the end, this book is for readers looking for a solid adventure within the High Republic era.
Story
Star Wars The High Republic: Out of the Shadows, by Justina Ireland, is enjoyable but has some problems. It ultimately succeeds with a few of its storylines but disappoints with others.
The main narrative running through Out of the Shadows is where it achieves most of its success. Here, there is a pretty engaging story about Republic forces and corporate interests facing off against the Nihil. There is even an interesting conspiracy wrapped up in this conflict that is fun to see play out. Plus, Sylvestri Yarrow’s personal journey is great. Her story has character development that embraces emotion, romance, family, and complex personal issues in a way that is great to see.
Unfortunately, there are problems here that hamper these otherwise positive features of the book. The main narrative is hampered by the book’s pacing. It starts out slow, gets a little interesting, slows down again, and then proceeds to improve in the final act. It makes for a read that is only running at peak efficiency for about half the pages. The character-focused aspect of the book is hampered by the book’s secondary characters. While Sylvestri Yarrow’s story is enjoyable and well-developed, the same cannot be said for any of the other characters. I closed the book wishing Vernestra Rwoh, Imri Cantaros, and Reath Silas could have had stories that were as well-developed as Sylvestri’s but, instead, their stories closed in a way that felt wanting.
Outside of the storytelling, Out of the Shadows manages to achieve some success through worldbuilding. I really enjoyed the way this book built upon the general narrative of the High Republic era. Readers get to learn more about the intricacies of Hyperspace at this point in time, get to witness developments in the stories surrounding the Nihil, and see a host of familiar faces. In this way, it makes the book better for readers already familiar with other High Republic books.
Continuity
Star Wars The High Republic: Out of the Shadows takes place in the High Republic era of Star Wars history. This occurs long before the events of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.
Specifically, this book takes place sometime after the events of The High Republic: The Rising Storm.
This book also makes a few references to other Star Wars works:
- The story surrounding Jora Malli’s apprentice, Reath Silas, is continued from Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark (Review).
- Vernestra Rwoh’s story mentions a number of events from her appearance in The High Republic: A Test of Courage.
- The Great Disaster took place in The High Republic: Light of the Jedi (Review).