Hogan Reviews

Phase 2 of the High Republic comes to what can only be described as an “epic” conclusion with Cataclysm, a book that against all odds has become one of my favourites in the series. I bemoaned that Phase 2 decided to go backwards into the past instead of continuing the Phase 1 storylines and characters, and while even at its end I don’t really see how it was necessary, given how much I enjoyed this book and the characters introduced across Phase 2 I’m happy it happened. Let’s take a closer look!

The books picks up right at the final moments of “The Battle of Jedha”, the keystone and mid-way point of Phase 2, as Eiram and E’ronoh’s heirs Phan-tu and Xiri see war breakout across the space between their two planets once again, brought on thanks to the actions of The Path of the Open Hand. Yoda and Chancellor Greylark talk to the still-shaken Creighton Sun and Aida Forte on Jedha and agree to the duo investigating the Path’s main compound on Dalna, but only if they’re accompanied by two Chancellery guards called Lu Sweet and Priv Ittik. Yaddle, accompanied by her young Padawan Cippa, overhears the transmission and due to a faulty connection mishears Yoda and thinks he wants her to also investigate Dalna, so off she also goes. Meanwhile after hearing what happened Gella Nattai decides to put her new goal of becoming a Jedi Wayseeker on hold and instead head to the prison facility on Pipyyr where her old ally / love interest-turned-traitorous Path member Axel Greylark is being held, hoping he might have some information. A Jeda Master called Orin Darhga decides to go with her. At the same time Jedi Master Char-Ryl-Roy and his Padawan Enya Keen head to Eiram and E’ronoh to try and keep the peace. So basically every character from the first book, Convergence, and the Battle of Jedha audio drama plus Yaddle and a few new ones are spurred into action!

The Path on the other hand are rather annoyed as The Herald’s actions during the Battle of Jedha went too far and put The Mother’s life in danger, so an ambitious member called Binnot is more than happy to prove himself in his up-coming mission: going with fellow Path member Goi to the moon between Eiram and E’ronoh and pretending to be crashed couriers that “didn’t know” they were also carrying a deadly amount of a poisonous sludge that would ruin the ecosystem of Eiram, thus making Eiram suspicious that E’ronoh were trying to wipe them out for good and ensure the “Forever War” remains just that. The Mother has with her one of the ”Nameless” creatures, one she calls the “Leveller”. These creatures and the fact they’re on the Gaze Electric are about the only real connection to Phase 1, but the Leveller and its kin are a key part! Binnot and Goi do their job and Roy and Enya join Xiri and Phan-tu in talking with them, the Jedi in particular assuming there was more to this than it seemed. After some interrogating and some trick questions Goi ends up revealing their affiliation with The Path, leading to Binnot burning Xiri with acid and stabbing Phan-tu on his way to escaping. Despite Chancellor Mollo’s uneasy feeling Xiri, Roy and Enya head to Dalna in order to speak with The Mother directly and try to come to a peaceful conclusion, the injured Phan-tu sneaking aboard to help as well…

Axel Greylark, with one of Gella’s lightsabres, front and centre. Makes sense given Gella was the cover-star last time!

On Pipyyr Gella and Orin try to get some info out of Axel but he’s weak due to the harsh atmosphere of the planet. He does manage to admit his guilt and does talk a bit about the structure of the Path but other than clearly caring for Gella he doesn’t give them much help. They ask for Axel to be moved but his mother and Chancellor denies the request, but her message doesn’t reach Pipyyr and instead a false message agreeing to a transfer is received instead. During the trip off Pipyyr their ship is attacked by Binnot and other Path members and Axel reluctantly goes with them, preferring to deal with the Path rather than go to another prison, though seeing Gella hurt in the process made him upset. I mean, not upset enough to change his ways but you know, he felt bad. In the resultant space chase Gella and Orin fake their deaths and sneakily follow Axel and Binnot back to, you guessed it, Dalna! This sets up the final third of the book where our entire cast of characters are all on the planet, just as The Mother planned as she soon unleashes a seemingly endless army of melee weapon-armed Path cultists and battle-ready robots against the Jedi and their allies, causing something of a war which I’ll get to in the spoilers.

Oddly for a Star Wars book technically full of fun concepts and sci-fi/fantasy action I really enjoy the two key relationships in this mini-arc. Phan-tu and Xiri are extremely believable and charming as a couple in the Romeo and Juliet position and Gella having feelings towards Axel only to be frequently betrayed, while Axel similarly has feelings for Gella but constantly takes the easy way out which means continuing to side with the anti-Jedi cult he fell into after his Dad’s death (and his mother being too busy with work) is great too. Throw in the fact I love pair of Creighton Sun and Aida Forte and there was a lot of worry when the war kicked off as to who would survive, especially given this is the end point of this era so it was all on the table…

Overall Thoughts:

The Great Leveller itself. Yikes, even with no Force powers I’m pretty sure you’d be scared to death…

Cataclysm is everything you want in a book. So long as you at least read Convergence and listened to / read The Battle of Jedha then you already like the characters and given it’s the final book in this period of Star Wars you feel real jeopardy for everyone. I love the set up of sending everyone to the one planet and how we know from the future that the event is known as the “Night of Sorrow” and, yeah, it didn’t disappoint. High stakes, great prose writing (for the record!) and just a fun time. Can’t recommend it enough, I think only Light of the Jedi gives it a run for its money in terms of High Republic media, and that’s high praise indeed! Now, let’s finally get to Phase 3 and see what happens next with the Phase 1 cast!

Before the war kicks off proper Creighton and Aida sneak into the Path HQ and end up feeling the effects of being near to the Leveller, while Yaddle struggles to keep Cippa out of danger due to her over-enthusiasm and strong connection to the force. Axel and Binnot meet with The Mother, who gives them their key role: contact Chancellor Greylark and have Axel plead with her to come to Dalna to help him, then kidnap (or if Axel was honest with himself, he’d know more than likely kill) one of the most powerful people in the Republic and manipulate events to put her son in a position of power. Axel sends the message but the Chancellor and Yoda, who was there at the time, agree it’s a trap but Kyong Greylark finally reaches boiling point and instead of continuing to ignore her son she decides to do what she can to save him, but refuses to put the galaxy in danger so officially steps down as Chancellor and heads to Dalna as simply Kyong Greylark, meaning if she can’t save her son she will still be useless to the Path. Yoda goes with her as he considers Kyong a friend and senses there is more to Dalna than they know.

Concept art of Yaddle… I mean, I need to break up the text somehow! Makes her end in the recently released Tales of the Jedi all the more sad, knowing how much she’d already gone through…

So this is where all-out war begins as Creighton, Aida, Yaddle, Cippa and their two aides have to make a mad dash to their craft and come across Roy, Enya, Xiri and Phan-tu, but while they do eventually make it to the sky they soon come crashing down and have to split off and hope the message they sent out while in the air got out. It did, but only to a couple of Jedi who happened to be in the area, who help a bit by bringing Dalna resident to help the fight. Gella is captured by the Path and has to see Orin die by the poisonous glove of Binnot but eventually escapes, while Axel is left to die on a muddy field after being sent out like any other generic Path cultist once his mother outsmarted them. Out of desperation Xiri and Phan-tu head off into space in the spaceship equivalent of an old banger to try and transmit a message pleading for help but the ship conks out mid-hyper space and leaves them floating in deep space. Lots more scenes of Jedi running out of steam as they have to face both Path members with blunt weapons alongside a second wave of battle droids and end up receiving wounds to arms or knocks to the back of the head, just things to wear them down physically and emotionally. It does a really great job of making things seem hopeless. The one that really got me was Creighton and Aida, who are on a random bridge and just receive some bad injuries from basic enemies as they just run out of stamina, Creighton even getting hit by a speeder randomly. They both laid on the floor reaching out to each other before things get black…

As these things tend to go though, hope does arrive. Xiri and Phan-tu’s message reach Yoda and Kyong, who then pass it on to now-solo Chancellor Mollo who shows he does have what it takes in negotiation as he arranges Eiram and E’ronoh to unite and send their armies to Dalna to help out. Yoda and Kyong arrive first and the latter teams up with Gella and the wounded Axel, who finally just wants to help Gella and his mother and make amends for what he’s done, if he survives the shrapnel wound in his chest anyway. Kyong is wounded in the process so as the backup forces arrive and she, Creighton and Aida are airlifted away Gella and Axel head towards Binnot, eventually confronting and killing him before getting caught as the Path caves fill up with the toxic goo from earlier in the story. It looks like Gella and Axel are going to be added to the casualty list (which by this point also includes Char-Ryl-Roy, who was turned to dust by a Nameless) but Yaddle and Yoda sense her and manage to move the rocks and cave… um, bits to free her and Axel. As the last of the Path is cleared up it felt exhausting to read, but only because you felt like you were there with them, wondering when the relentless horror would end.

Concept art of the two Chancellors! … Sorry, I used up the concept art of all the interesting characters in the previous two reviews…

We then got some wrap up, like Xiri and Phan-tu leading the actual treaty signing between their planets at long last; Axel accepting responsibility and willingly going back to prison to serve his sentence, hoping a still ill but safe Gella will come and visit him, his mother also promising to make up for lost time by visiting him daily now she doesn’t hold office; and a Jedi funeral scene for Char-Ryl-Roy, Orin and sadly Aida Forte, but not Creighton Sun, as he managed to survive, just. He takes Enya as a new Padawan in place of his old friend Roy. The book ends with Yoda and Creighton agreeing not to speak about the Nameless / Leveller creatures as the existence of a race of beings that can reduce Force-users to ash will only cause panic, something they don’t need when they don’t have enough information. They go as far as to not even put it in official records, which explains why they took everyone by surprise so much in Phase 1 / 150 years later. It also explains why Yoda was kept out of the main storyline until the very end, where he said they need to look to the past to help their current issue. I still don’ think this was necessary to jump back and see the creatures were once in the hands of another group of anti-Jedi enemies but as evidenced by how much I’ve waffled on, in the end I’m happy they did!

As for the Mother / the Path and how the Gaze Electric ended up with the Ro family? Not addressed, sadly. I assume it’s covered in the YA book that came out after this, so… Maybe I’ll get around to reading it, I do want to know, it’s just that it’s a long one, apparently!