Kicking off the shorter Phase 2 of the High Republic era (well, in terms of the things I have time to read, it actually kicked off with a YA book…) is Convergence, and boy it… really doesn’t do much. I mean, I enjoyed it, two warring planets see a Romeo and Juliet scenario happen with their heirs, all while the Jedi are caught in the middle, but it felt like a fun episode in the middle of a TV series that doesn’t connect the wider series narrative. With only one more wave of stories to come in this shorter phase I can kind of see where it might be going, but I’m currently not convinced that we needed to jump back in time a few hundred years for this much content… Well, anyway, let’s take a bit of a closer look!
Honestly I pretty much covered most of the actual plot in the opening paragraph! Two planets, Eiram (of “Starlight Beacon’s crash landing” future fame…) and E’ronoh are constantly at war and so some Jedi are sent to try and negotiate peace. The key characters here are Jedi Knight Gella Nattai, who is a fun somewhat sarcastic and more grounded character than your typical Jedi, and Jedi Master Creighton Sun, who … well, is your typical Jedi, calm, constantly speaking in old parables about the Force helping and guiding etc, though he has a bit of Obi-Wan deadpan humour about him. There are two others, Jedi Master Char-Ryl-Roy and his Padawan Enya Keen but they do far less during the story other than provide someone for Sun and Gella to bounce off in conversation from time to time. Their ship, the Hyperion, ends up emergency landing on the moon in between the two planets as they break out of hyperspace during a battle and during this skirmish the heir to E’ronoh’s throne Xiri A’lbaran’s starfighter is shot down and crashes on Eiram.
Some official artwork of Creighton Sun… Not much to SAY about it, but it’s a book, there are only so many images I can use to break the text up!
This is where we meet Phan-tu Zenn, the heir to the Eiram throne, as he jumps into his planet’s vast ocean to save her from her crashed ship, much to her confusion. They hit it off, eventually, and so when the negotiations between their two families takes a turn for the worst due to an attempted assassination they purpose that they join together in marriage and join the two planets together that way. Both sides agree and soon Phan-tu heads out for a long tour of E’ronoh alongside Xiri, Gella Nattai and Axel Greylark, the son of one of the Republic Chancellors who there to help with the political side of things, much to his chagrin. He hates Jedi with a passion but as they spend a good half of the book travelling across the deserty planet he and Gella end up bonding…
This is it, beyond a spoilery look at their wedding that takes place at the end of the book, which I’ll get to down below. We have a few cut-aways to a shadowy organisation called “The Path of the Open Hand” which sees the Jedi’s manipulation of the Force as evil and believe it damages the natural flow of things, which is a fun idea. They’re ran by Elecia Zeveron, though she is only ever referred to as “Mother”, and Machiron Ro’s grandmother (I think?) Marda Ro is among its members, with the Gaze Electric among their craft. So, it’s not hard to see how it’s going to connect back to the “current” High Republic era for Phase 3…
Overall Thoughts:
The official cover, complete with nice artwork of Gella Nattai. Not only does she duel wield lightsabres but she duel wields PURPLE lightsabres. Take that Windu!
Convergence is by no means a bad read, I enjoyed it, but given it was supposed to be something of a “big event” in a shorter Phase 2 it felt slight. Honestly it sounds like Audio Drama “The Battle of Jedha” is a more important part of the story, so look out for that in the next few weeks. Hopefully the second book, Cataclysm, will make this half of a more satisfying whole, rather than just a decent read.
Not much to say, beyond the reveal that Axel Greylark is a member of the Path of the Open Hand and he actively tries to sabotage Xiri and Phan-Tu’s Wedding on Eiram, shutting off the barrier that held the tides at bay. He is confronted by Gella and the two have something akin to a fight before protecting each other from falling rubble. As Creighton Sun and other Jedi try to hold back the elements and a rioting crowd the happy couple manage to actually tie and knot and then help with the disaster effort themselves (Eiram can’t catch a break in these books!)
Axel Greylark also appears front and centre (or off to the left if I’m being honest) of the next book, so his story clearly isn’t done!
In the end Axel is taken off to prison and starts talking to himself about seeing Gella everywhere and wishing to “feed his chaos” while Gella decides to become a free-roaming Jedi Wayseeker, taking a break from the politics and such. I’m sure they’ll meet again in Cataclysm…
Hogan Reviews 