Star Wars Legends Fan Group discussion

February 2021 Canon Group Read

Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule



Group Read starts Feb 15th.


- Published in January 2021
- Set in the era of the High Republic - 232 BBY

Two hundred years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in the era of the glorious High Republic, the noble and wise Jedi Knights must face a frightening threat to themselves, the galaxy, and the Force itself....

It is a golden age. Intrepid hyperspace scouts expand the reach of the Republic to the farthest stars, worlds flourish under the benevolent leadership of the Senate, and peace reigns, enforced by the wisdom and strength of the renowned order of Force users known as the Jedi. With the Jedi at the height of their power, the free citizens of the galaxy are confident in their ability to weather any storm. But even the brightest light can cast a shadow, and some storms defy any preparation.

When a shocking catastrophe in hyperspace tears a ship to pieces, the flurry of shrapnel emerging from the disaster threatens an entire system. No sooner does the call for help go out than the Jedi race to the scene. The scope of the emergence, however, is enough to push even Jedi to their limit. As the sky breaks open and destruction rains down upon the peaceful alliance they helped to build, the Jedi must trust in the Force to see them through a day in which a single mistake could cost billions of lives..


Note: This group read is a test. We'll see if we can run two group reads in a month.
One for Legends and a second one for Canon.

If enough people join in we'll try to make canon group reads a regular feature.

February 2021 Legends Group Read: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, starts Feb 1st.
February 2021 Canon Group Read: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, starts Feb 15th.
Both reads run for a month. So if you're really interested in both books you can manage to join both discussions.

Discussion Rules & Schedule:

Read at your own pace. Post your thoughts in this thread. If you're ahead of the schedule bellow, USE SPOILER TAGS FOR MAJOR PLOT POINTS AND TWISTS. Have fun!

Week 1: Feb 15th - Feb 21st: Part 1 - The Great Disaster

Week 2: Feb 22th - Feb 28th: Part 2 - The Paths

Week 3: Mar 1st - Mar 7th: Part 3 - The Storm

Week 4: ...

For discussion within schedule you don't need to use spoiler tags.


How to use spoiler tags
<*spoiler>your spoilery text<*/spoiler> - without asterisk *

I just got my copy of this in the mail and I haven't read it yet. I'll save it for this. Yeah! so excited! Can't wait!

That's great, TAMRA. The more the merrier.

I started this book last night and finished it today, I could not put it down! This is only the seventh Star Wars book I’ve read so far, but is easily my favorite.

Kim, glad you enjoyed it so much. So far I've heard only good things about this book.

I hope you'll join the discussion in February.

I may be joining in for this one. It depends on if my library hold comes in time to read it with you all in February.

Zuzana wrote: "Kim, glad you enjoyed it so much. So far I've heard only good things about this book.

I hope you'll join the discussion in February."

Yes, definitely! I can't wait to discuss this one :) I also read A Test of Courage...I was surprised to find it in the kid's section! I didn't realize it was a junior novel from the free sample they released. It's pretty good! A fun, quick read.

first time on a group read!
excited to read with you all!

A week to go. I hope that you all will manage to get your copies in time for our Group read.

I posted the reading schedule - the book is divided into 3 parts - so let's try to read it in three weeks.

Picked up my hardcover at Target (30% off). Eager to get started this week as soon as finish a couple other books in progress!

Just started reading so I'm ready for Monday.

You can start on 15th, Hailey. I'm a bit ahead because I'm supposed to moderate the discussion. :)

Light of the Jedi introduces lots of new and interesting characters.

Sometimes it's hard to keep track who is who. Lucas Film was aware and made a lot of concept art for the new characters available for fans on Star Wars official website: https://www.starwars.com/the-high-rep...

Australian comic artist and illustrator Jake Bartok took all of the concept art and painted this picture with all the new Jedi characters, complete with names. I think it's really helpful.

Click image to view full size:


source: Jake Bartok's Twitter

What do you think about the covers? And which one do you like more - standard edition or special edition?

standard edition - cover art by Joseph Meehan


[from left to right: Burryaga Agaburry, Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann, Loden Greatstorm, and above them the Starlight Beacon]

Joseph Meehan: "Cover for Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, part of the new Star Wars the High Republic series of novels and comics. Getting this job was very exciting for me, I've loved Star Wars since before I can remember and I credit it for giving me the desire to get into this field of art. The cover ended up being a lot trickier than it may seem and there were many other versions with the characters moved all around and holding their lightsabers differently. I did the roughs not knowing who the characters were and what their costumes would be which made things more complicated once I got those details."


source: Joseph Meehan's ArtStation page


special edition - cover art by Jama Jurabaev


[this one's not entirely accurate - on the left side are the Nihil - on the right side: from front to back: Ember (the charhound), Indeera Stokes, Bell Zettifar, Porter Engle and Loden GreatStorm]

source: See the special edition cover for Star Wars: Light of the Jedi

The character art is such a good idea! Thank you for sharing!

So I really like both of the covers, but I splurged and got the special edition version, and I love the little pin that came with it (the socks that also came with it are gigantic, they are like men's dress socks!).

I set up a little High Republic display area on my bookshelf, but I felt like I needed the regular edition of the book with Avar facing out...and so I bought that one too... The wheels are coming off over here with buying books, but at least my bookshelf looks nice haha. My pandemic hobby is fussing over my bookshelf.

That's funny, Kim. Just keep enough space for all the new High Republic books. XD

Who was your favorite character in Light of the Jedi?

I quite enjoyed the Jedi duo of Avar and Elzar. And the Master-Padawan relationship of Loden Greatstorm and Bell Zettifar was both funny and heart-warming.

I really enjoyed those characters as well! Poor Bell and not landing his jumps!

The disasters though...it was almost heart-wrenching to read the first few chapters. But at the same time the vectors and the Jedi, and even Hetzel Prime, were so vividly written as golden and bright, and just really pretty imagery. I feel like that those elements haven't been captured like this before (although I haven't read a ton of SW books yet!).

I loved the first third of the book. It was like watching an old disaster movie - fast-paced, gripping with an ensemble cast of characters, something like 1974 The Towering Inferno.

Just finished part one and OMG! What a way to start a book. Action packed and fast paced. I love Avar. I think she is going to be one of my favorites. Can't wait to see what part two is going to give us.

So many characters, it was hard to keep them straight in the beginning. I also really liked the master/padawan relationship between Belle and Loden. I pictured myself as the young Belle afraid of jumping and falling:)

I also really liked the character Mari San Tekka, and how she fits into the story -- just felt so bad for her.

I liked that the book delved more into hyperspace and why the hyperlanes were important. We were buddyreading The Clone Wars (novelization) last month and were wondering why Jabba giving the Republic access to "his" hyperlanes was such a big deal. It makes more sense now.

Justin wrote: "I also really liked the character Mari San Tekka, and how she fits into the story -- just felt so bad for her."
I'm sure we'll learn more about her backstory in other HR books.

I am definitely interested in how this story revolves so much around hyperspace. It is something that I hadn't explored much before. I never envisioned hyperspace like a highway system.

In the Stars Wars Rebels animated series, they had two animals, the Lothwolfs and the Pergil which were able to travel through hyperspace. When they were on Lothal they described the space they were traveling through as the "world between worlds" which made me think that hyperspace had a force 'magic' element to it.

Prior to watching SW Rebels, I guess I just thought of hyperspace as "warp drive" from start trek.. Just substitute dilithium crystal with coaxium.

I definitely hope they delve deeper into Mari San Tekka in future books. I am really interested to see if they explain how she has her abilities. I am also interested in figuring out how she ended up in her current situation, and if she is ever going to get rescued.

Has anyone here read anything in Legends on the Hyperspace Wars? I'm still waiting on my library hold for this one so I haven't started reading it yet. I'm curious if this book has any similarities to Legends material concerning hyperspace and hyperspace based conflicts, or if it works differently in the Disney continuity.

I haven't read anything in Legends related to Hyperspace wars, so I can't tell. I can only say that the way hyperspace was explained in Light of the Jedi made sense to me.

I'm a visual learner... is there a map /guideline of how hyperspace connects all the worlds? I assume there's fewer hyperspace lanes in the Outer Rim. Also, trying to understand difference between using hyperspace "lanes" and just using hyperspace to travel. Is a designated hyperspace lane supposed to be vetted / safe for all users? seems like spacecraft travel at well through hyperspace most of the time in the movies / animated series.

I know there are atlases for Legends that show the hyperspace lanes. I'm not sure if the new continuity has one out yet though.

Melina, on Wookieepedia there is a picture of the Galaxy showing the 5 major hyperspace routes.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Hype...

It's Legends though. They might decide to make some changes in Canon.

Hailey wrote: "Melina wrote: "I'm a visual learner... is there a map /guideline of how hyperspace connects all the worlds? I assume there's fewer hyperspace lanes in the Outer Rim. Also, trying to understand diff..."

I was thinking of the same Han Solo quote as well! Thanks for reaffirming my interpretation. Looking at picking up one of the atlas books or maps for ongoing reference.

From Wookieepedia:

Hyperlanes were routes through space in which a spaceship could safely travel without colliding with a body in space, or some other phenomenon such as a black hole. There were five major routes in the galaxy, with hundreds of secondary routes and thousands of minor ones. Scouting new hyperspace routes was an incredibly dangerous task for an explorer.

In many parts of the galaxy, hyperlanes required periodic re-entry into realspace to manually maneuver the ship towards the next hyper-point. Pirate raids were common in these spots.The Galactic Empire and other governments often sought to lessen this threat by constructing deep-space platforms at hyper-points. Mine fields and probe droids were also deployed.

It fits nicely with what we found out about "hyperspace prospectors" in this book.

BTW Just found out that they published a children's fully illustrated book adapting the first part of Light of the Jedi.

The Great Jedi Rescue by Cavan Scott




[Avar]


[Bell and Loden]


[Te'Ami, Mikkel, Burryaga and Nib]

I think that the illustrations are cute. :)

Hailey, I felt like they tried to stuff all of the Hight republic era exposition into this one book.
I truly felt connection to only about 4 of the characters. And by connection I mean after reading the book I feel like I learned something about them and began to "know" them to the point I am interested in what happens to them next. While I liked the story I would have loved it much more if the author chose some of the characters and focused on them more.

I didn't mind the number of characters in the first part of the book that was fast-paced and focused on the imminent disaster but it started to slightly annoy me in parts 2&3. Especially when some of the new characters that appeared in part 3 were clearly just name-drops (for other HR projects).

Agreed on the dozens of characters that continue into part 2. Made me wonder if Disney twisted Soule's arm to include so many. Still, I think he does a good job of injecting some personality into each one with a bit of backstory.

Melina wrote: "Agreed on the dozens of characters that continue into part 2. Made me wonder if Disney twisted Soule's arm to include so many. Still, I think he does a good job of injecting some personality into e..."

Yeah really! I think he did a good job with all those characters!

I had read the free sampler that came out at the end of last year where a lot of the characters were introduced, and then re-read all those chapters again and that kind of helped to keep them all straight for me!

The Paths part of this book reminded me of the Chiss from the canon Thrawn books since they seemed to do their own thing with hyperspace too. I'm looking forward to the High Republic fleshing this out more!

Just finished part I!
and reading all your comments, I thought the same thing, too many characters all at once, and felt at some point kinda overwhelmed, but when Bell and Loden came up everything change. I can say they are my favorite characters! Hope to learn more about them in Part II & III.

Also, something that caught my attention was Avar way of connecting with the Force as listening to the song of the Force, I think it is beautiful.

Montserrat, does the book indicate if the music only how Avar connects to the force or also how others look in the force to Avar? I'm curious, because in Legends Jedi referred to other people in the force as force signatures and each person showed up in the force as a different color. I had a choir director who saw colors when he read and heard music. So each piece of music created a painting in his head. I wonder if it is something akin to that for Avar. Either way, that is pretty cool.

Rebecca wrote: "Montserrat, does the book indicate if the music only how Avar connects to the force or also how others look in the force to Avar? I'm curious, because in Legends Jedi referred to other people in th..."

Wow! sounds super cool!
I remember this mind exercise, where you answer random math problems and at the end, the last question is which color do you associate with the number one? (view spoiler)[must people answer red (hide spoiler)]

So far the book mentions this kind of connection with Avar and how she deepens in and navigates around the force. I think is the way she feels it and maybe has something to do with her rare skill: "She could detect the natural bonds between Force-users and strengthen them, use them as almost a sort of communications network."

Besides Avar, another interpretation of the Force that I really like is Elzar Mann's. He perceives it as a bottomless sea.

I really hope to know Loden's perception soon!

Montserrat wrote: "Besides Avar, another interpretation of the Force that I really like is Elzar Mann's. He perceives it as a bottomless sea. I really hope to know Loden's perception soon!"

Monserrat, there is a really lovely passage that shows how perception of the Force difers from Jedi to Jedi. It's really a very personal experience.

"What she [Avar] heard as a song, Elzar Mann saw as a deep, endless, storm-tossed sea. The Wookiee Burryaga was a single leaf on a gigantic tree with deep-dug roots and sky-high limbs. Douglas Sunvale saw the Force as a huge, interlocked set of gears, made of an endless variety of materials from crystal to bone. Bell Zettifar danced with fire. Loden Greatstorm danced with wind."

I still love Elzar's interpretation the best.

"To Mann, the Force was a bottomless sea, never ending, in which all things swam. Brightly lit in its upper reaches, fading to darkness below, but all one great ocean. He reached out to it, letting himself race along its currents, going deeper than ever before, seeing and sensing things he had never before known. The sea never ended, and there was so much of it he hadn’t seen."

I'm also reading the comic books and in them Master Sskeer only has one arm but in here he has both. It'll be interesting to see how and when he receives this injury.

TAMRA wrote: "I'm also reading the comic books and in them Master Sskeer only has one arm but in here he has both. It'll be interesting to see how and when he receives this injury."

You'll find out. ;)

TAMRA, are the High Republic comicbooks any good? Do you enjoy them?

Oh, look, a Wookie Jedi! Last time we had one of those was Lowbacca in Legends.

Zuzana wrote: "TAMRA wrote: "I'm also reading the comic books and in them Master Sskeer only has one arm but in here he has both. It'll be interesting to see how and when he receives this injury."

You'll find ou..."

You're right, I did find out and it was horrible and tragic (even though it'll grow back.)

Yes the comics are pretty good. I'm enjoying them anyway. It centers around Sskeer and his padawan. I recommend checking it out.

TAMRA wrote: "Yes the comics are pretty good. I'm enjoying them anyway. It centers around Sskeer and his padawan. I recommend checking it out."
..."

Thanks for the rec. I'll wait till they release them as a collection. I don't read comicbooks regularly but I enjoy to check out a good series now and then.

BTW I quite enjoyed Dark Horse's Clone Wars run.

I have to share a passage that made me smile:

"Avar was all quiet confidence and utter competence, and Elzar looked like someone out of a holodrama, with his olive skin and dark, wavy hair—just a beautiful man."

I love how Soule just oh so nonchalantly flips the cliche of describing a man by what he can do and a woman by how she looks. So what we learn is that Avar is competent and Elzar is beautiful. :D

Last day of the group read.

How did you like Light of the Jedi? Are you excited for the upcoming High Republic books?

Which characters do you want to know more about?

Zuzana wrote: "Last day of the group read.

How did you like Light of the Jedi? Are you excited for the upcoming High Republic books?

Which characters do you want to know more about?"

Overall I like it as the pacing was steady and the conflict that kept unfolding was interesting. It was tedious to keep up with so many characters, but hopefully in the next book we get to see more of Avar Kriss, Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm.

I loved Light of the Jedi. I've spent all my time in the prequel/rebel/rebellion era with books and shows lately (except the Mandalorian, of course), and this new era is so different and refreshing. The villains are so terrifying! In Tarkin there was a bit about marauders/pirates that were really hard to catch and ruthless, which piqued my interest because they're so different from the usual Empire business of being ruthless, so I especially enjoyed the parts about the Nihil.

Can't wait for the rest of the books to come out! So excited for more of this adventure. I haven't read the comics yet, I'm waiting for Marvel's trade paperback of the first few comics to come out in August and I'll start on them then.

Although I read both Light of the Jedi and Into the Dark so fast I feel like I should re-read them before the next batch comes out!

I wonder if they plan to make a movie/show in this era.

Kim wrote: "I wonder if they plan to make a movie/show in this era."

This is supposed to a multi-platform project. So I guess we might get a TV show or a PC/console game out of it as well.

I'm pretty sure that Bell and Loden are set up to appear in the sequel.

Bell is on the cover of The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott.



And I'm looking forward to learn more about Avar and Elzar. Have you noticed the hints at their previous relationship? Whether it was platonic or something more remains to be seen.