New ‘The High Republic: Escape from Valo’ Excerpt Sets the Stage for Phase 3’s First Middle Grade Novel
Escape from Valo is mere days away, marking the next chapter of Phase 3 of the High Republic publishing initiative. Padawan Ram Jomaram headlines as he teams with three Jedi younglings hoping to get out from under Nihil territory. Escape from Valo will be released on January 30 and is co-written by Daniel José Older and Alyssa Wong. It is the first middle grade novel of this phase.
StarWars.com has a new excerpt taking us back to Lonisa City Zoo, a location we saw in The Rising Storm and Ram’s side adventure in Race to Crashpoint Tower during the attack at the Republic Fair. The excerpt also introduces us to the three younglings: Tep Tep, Kildo, and Gavi. The authors also opened up about the book and provided some further insight, which you can find after the excerpt below.
The Lonisa City Zoo was in ruins. It had been partially destroyed two years earlier in the first Nihil attack, and now it was all rubble, twisted metal gates and fences, and ripped-up brick paths. Greenery sprawled over the wreckage, thick woody vines heavy with leaves and blossoms, different species twining together and creating new ones. Creatures roamed the zoo, no longer confined to their overgrown habitats.
Ram had sought refuge in there during the attack on the Republic Fair, alongside Lula Talisola, who was gone, too, for all Ram knew — lost amid the shattered, sunken debris of Starlight Beacon.
So much loss.
“Come on,” Tep Tep squeaked, excited to show off where they’d been living.
Ram shook off the never-ending sense of sorrow as best he could. He found a smile, and it was genuine. How could he not smile at the enthusiasm of these young Jedi? He followed them through a gap in a high fence and into an abandoned exhibit, watching nervously for the creature that was supposed to be living there. “You’re sure the acklay isn’t coming back?” he asked.
A low rattle above him made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Ram froze. The unmistakable clack-clack of pointed deadly legs grew louder. Hot fetid breath washed over him. . . .
And then Tep Tep raced past him, arms extended. “Blueblossom!” she cried, hugging the giant six-legged reptilian creature behind Ram. The acklay made a horrible hissing, clacking noise, baring its needlelike teeth. Oh Light, it was purring.
Tep Tep petted it affectionately on its green-scaled snout. It bumped its face happily against her hand, basking in the attention. “Ram, this is Blueblossom. Don’t be scared, he’s a sweetheart. He’s so pretty, don’t you think?”
“Very pretty,” Ram agreed faintly. The acklay bared its teeth at Ram, its three predatory eyes tracking his every movement.
Tep Tep rubbed the acklay’s cheeks. It chittered. “Blueblossom, where are your friends?”
“There are more?” Ram asked in horror. Sure enough, he heard more clack-clacking all around him.
Tep Tep nodded brightly. “In the wild, they live in packs. It would be cruel to keep only one.” She held out her hand, and four more acklays appeared out of the night, their bladed legs stabbing down with each step. They shoved their massive heads into Tep Tep’s palm, snarling and fighting to get the best position. She giggled. “That one’s Dewflower, that’s Posypetal, this is Moonbloom, and the biggest is Puffball. She’s the pack alpha.”
“Breathe,” Kildo advised. He shrugged, bright orange eyes glinting in the dark. “That’s Tep Tep’s thing—animals love her as much as she loves them. When we first set up in the zoo, Tep Tep used her Force gifts to tend to the injured animals here. She was able to calm them down and soothe their pain. Now they prowl around the area and protect us from the Nihil. They’re not going to hurt you while she’s around.”
Read the whole excerpt on StarWars.com. In a separate piece for the site, Older and Wong sat down for a one-on-one about everything they have going on. When the conversation got to Escape from Valo, the authors talked about what these characters will be going through in their fight against the darkness.
Wong: In Escape from Valo we have characters who are struggling with how big their emotions are. We get to see people make really difficult choices in impossible situations. It makes me really happy that we get to do that in a middle-grade because I think a lot of kids are going through that. Whether or not adults want to acknowledge that, I think that there are a lot of kids who are really struggling. It’s nice to be able to see that reflected in the stuff that you read.
Older: Right. Have you read Hans Christian Anderson? Fairytales are dark and that is a lot of where middle grade comes from. Because kids do go through horrible experiences and it’s not fair to deprive the kids who have been through that of literature that speaks to them in order to protect the ones who haven’t. The heart of so much children’s literature is having fun, telling a good, fun adventure story and also doing it in a way that speaks to all the different truths that kids are living, including the really hard ones and not trying to shield them from it or pretend like everything is awesome. I think we, as writers, owe it to them not to BS them, not to lie to them. Something I was excited about going in is knowing the edge that you bring, the darkness that you bring to the story. I bring it, too. And that we [would] be able to find balance within that, which we did.
Wong: The discovery is my favorite part of writing. My creative process requires an element of chaos. When we were talking about what this book was going to be, we broke story together and our original idea was like Star Wars, kind of The Goonies, but with the worst kids in their Jedi class, basically. I think you took the first crack at the outline and you broke it down chapter by chapter.
Specifically regarding Ram, Older said:
We’ve seen him go from this super awkward kid out in the world to someone who’s forced into really taking on a leadership role. And particularly in this book, we see him have to come into his own in terms of how he’s dealing with the world: fighting the Nihil, but also helping these kids get by. Ram does it with his whole heart.
You can read their whole conversation on StarWars.com before Escape from Valo‘s release on January 30. The novel is available for pre-order now. Stay tuned for our review coming soon.
In addition to Escape from Valo, Older and Wong have high-profile comics this month. Older’s The High Republic Adventures #2 hit shelves this week, and the grand finale of Wong’s Doctor Aphra run is just around the corner. Issue #40 drops on January 31. You can read our review for issue #39 here.
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.
