Phase III of the High Republic finally arrived with “The Eye of Darkness”, reuniting us with the cast of the original Phase of the era after a series of prequel books that, to be fair, I did enjoy a lot more than I thought I would. Still though, I was waiting to reunite with these characters and see what’s happening with the Nihil and Marchion Ro and I’m happy to report that for a book whose objective it was to set the scene for the big finale it did it very well indeed. Let’s take a look!

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!

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!