Review – ‘The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness’ Is a Sprawling and Intimate Beginning of the End
This will be hard to believe for anyone who’s followed my High Republic musings on this site. Heading into Phase III, there has been only one novel I haven’t been able to put down. One. Every other book I’ve gladly taken a break from or didn’t feel a gnawing need reverberate through my entire being to find out what happens next. I am pleased to say two books now fall under that distinction: Light of the Jedi and George Mann’s The Eye of Darkness.
While imperfect due to the trappings of the grander publishing initiative, Mann weaves so much into his kickoff novel for Phase III of the High Republic that it’s hard to know where to begin. To summarize this book as succinctly as possible, this is a cold war tale disguised as the closest thing we’ve gotten to the themes that drape projects like Andor and Rogue One. The core struggle is a battle between impending dread and the fight for hope. Who blinks first? How far are you willing to go, and what are you willing to lose? Those are the questions Mann makes compelling.
Of course, those going in with the foundation of the High Republic Phase I (and some specific things from Phase II) will feel most at home with this book. However, if you’re new to this era or haven’t the time or will to catch up, Mann does a surprisingly commendable job of getting everyone to speed. With a Star Wars background of mainly all-ages material, that dire need to spell everything out as if this is a kid’s book is very welcome. The Eye of Darkness is a novel shrouded in mystery, and Mann makes you feel right at home. At least, until he grabs you by the collar and entrenches you in this seemingly hopeless struggle the Jedi and Republic have found themselves in.
Lucasfilm has kept the lid tight on this book for good reason. I intend to honor that by keeping this review spoiler-free, outside of some foundational first act things, as your best bet is to go in as blind as possible when this book releases on November 14.
The Eye of Darkness picks up one year almost to the day after the fall of Starlight Beacon. The heinous act by the Nihil announced their presence to the galaxy, and to put a stamp on things, they put up the Stormwall. The stormseeds commissioned by Marchion Ro helped create an impenetrable barrier controlled by the Nihil’s Path hyperdrive systems. The only way through is to have a Path drive. Failure to abide by that is to risk having your ship torn apart by any number of Nihil contingencies, a complex riddle that the Jedi Order and the Republic haven’t been able to solve.
The Stormwall has effectively split the galaxy in two. There is the Occlusion Zone, also called “Nihil space,” and the known Republic. Unfortunately, Marchion Ro didn’t exactly give a warning when putting this thing up, trapping Republic citizens and worlds, along with Jedi unlucky enough to be patrolling the Outer Rim.
George Mann is excellent throughout The Eye of Darkness in getting to the deepest depths of his main point-of-view characters, shown prominently in Elzar Mann. The Jedi Master is forced to carry the torch left behind by the sacrifice of Stellan Gios. Plagued by the choices that led him ever so close to the dark side and guilt-ridden over pushing Avar away into the Occlusion Zone, where he can’t reach her, Elzar strives to be like Stellan. Unfortunately, he finds he has to be so much more, and coming to terms with that is the core of his arc. He is the emotional centerpiece in a novel full of them. Reckoning is a tricky mistress, and Elzar must if the Jedi are to survive.
The closest thing Elzar has to a friend is found in Chancellor Lina Soh, who is battling her own demons. A true leader owns up to their mistakes, even if they didn’t make them. She isn’t responsible for the fall of Starlight Beacon and often did everything she could to protect the Republic from the Nihil, but it was all for naught. Now, Soh is faced with several new challenges.
Everyone’s goal is to find a way past the Stormwall and give them a fighting chance, but for Soh and Elzar, it’s a mission that will provide them with a small measure of peace. The scenes in which they confide in each other hit hard as tensions rise within the ranks of the Republic.
And rise they do. One of my favorite things in High Republic books is the political machinations, which are loud and proud in The Eye of Darkness. Soh’s foil in this sphere is our “eye” into the Nihil ranks: Senator Ghirra Starros.
Things have changed for the marauders over the last year. Ghirra has convinced Marchion Ro that the Nihil needs reorganizing. Gone are the days of the Tempest Runners. Instead, below Ro in the pecking order are the three ministers. Ghirra serves as the Nihil’s Minister of Information. The second branch is headed by a neat Phase II original that I won’t be the one to reveal, but leave it to that phase’s busiest author to bring it all full circle. The third minister of the Nihil is a frightening new character. Baron Boolan, leader of the Children of the Storm and the Minister of Advancement, will be a problem. I’ll also leave that there for now because it’s time to talk about the cover guy.
Marchion Ro is the ultimate boogeyman in The Eye of Darkness. After The Fallen Star made him a mustache-twirly menace (which I loved), this is a return to the quiet, malicious force that got us here. While not omnipresent, you feel his threat everywhere. You never know what he will do or say at any given moment. The anarchist in me can’t help but wish he was the focal point of the novel, but that was not Mann’s vision.
Mann exposes another side to Marchion that I wasn’t expecting. He has gotten what he wants: power. But what does every warlord want? More power. But what if the route to that power is something you know deep down in your core might lead to your downfall? In the process of doing unspeakable things, Ro is dealing with the fallout of his own choices. The Nihil were never meant for this, but here he is with the galaxy in the palm of his hands. Ro is a lion being backed into a corner, which drives the novel’s core struggle — and opens the door to its problems.
The Eye of Darkness is a book with a lot on its plate but is driven by, as alluded to in my intro, dread and hope. It’s a cold war between two sides that want to act on a grander scale but can’t for various reasons. The motivations behind both sides are crystal clear, but you read this book knowing the rubber has to meet the road at some point.
As a consumer, you only have so much emotional investment to give. This book introduces so many plots, subplots, and tertiary plots that it’s hard to know what will be paid off in this book and what’s being teed up for another entry in the publishing initiative to finish. The Eye of Darkness constantly begs you to look for a glimmer of hope, and every time it’s either snuffed out or left unresolved, it makes you wish the end came a bit quicker so you can release the tension building up inside of you.
Somehow, the most emotionally charged High Republic novel is the one you wish you weren’t as emotionally invested in simply because it’s too much for one novel to bear the brunt of. Mann plotted an impressively intricate web, but when he knocked it down, some things got frustratingly left hanging. End of the day, I’d rather have a big swing than none.
Underneath everything we’ve talked about so far is what I would describe as the High Republic’s own Rogue One-adjacent crew building within the Occlusion Zone, led by Avar Kriss. It didn’t click with me at first, but as the novel progressed, it took on a life of its own. I want to shout out Belin, who is basically Greez from Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi games. Hopefully, you will fall in love with him as I eventually did.
The story of the Jedi within the Occlusion Zone is a beautiful marriage of what makes the High Republic so great. It bridges all corners of the initiative, and hopefully sets the stage for further amazing storytelling about the Jedi fighting for their lives the only way they know how: by saving others first.
The Eye of Darkness is everything you could ask for as the beginning of the end for this initiative. It’s a sprawling yet intimate tale about reckoning with your past and giving everything you have for the future you want. While the villains, led by Marchion Ro, could have been used a bit more effectively, it wasn’t necessary for this novel to resonate as it did. In an era about the Jedi’s “golden age,” seeing the Jedi at their lowest but fighting back against the darkness on the verge of engulfing the galaxy was a treat.
The fact that my final paragraph is the first mention of the Nameless, my favorite High Republic creation, should illustrate just how much this book has to offer. Big picture, The Eye of Darkness is the only way this phase could begin. It only gets bigger and badder from here.
RATING: 8/10
Star Wars: The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness by George Mann will be released on November 14, wherever books are sold, and is available for pre-order now. Special thank you to Random House Worlds for the advance copy used in this review.
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
