Book Information
Title: Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizons
Authors(s): Daniel José Older
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Edition: Hardcover, eBook; 496 pgs
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Purchase: Amazon - Kindle - B&N - BAM! - iBooks - Kobo - TBD - Bookshop.org
Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publisher as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Please note the purchase links above are affiliate links.
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Edition: Hardcover, eBook; 496 pgs
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Purchase: Amazon - Kindle - B&N - BAM! - iBooks - Kobo - TBD - Bookshop.org
Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publisher as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Please note the purchase links above are affiliate links.
Tour Schedule
Week One
2/1/2022 - Mythical Books - Excerpt/IG Post
2/2/2022 - Daily Waffle - Excerpt
2/3/2022 - Living in a Bookworld - Excerpt
2/4/2022 - Sadie's Spotlight - Excerpt/IG Post
2/5/2022 - Writer of Wrongs - Excerpt
Week Two
2/6/2022 - YABooksCentral - Excerpt
2/7/2022 - #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog - Excerpt
2/8/2022 - Rajiv's Reviews - Review/IG Post
2/9/2022 - Lifestyle of Me - Review
2/10/2022 - @lexijava - Review/IG Post
2/11/2022 - Wishful Endings -Review/IG Post
2/12/2022 - Kait Plus Books - Review/IG Post
Week Three
2/13/2022 - Nerdophiles - Review
2/14/2022 - Eli to the nth - Review/IG Post
2/15/2022 - The Desert Bibliophile - Review/IG Post
2/16/2022 - Dr Roha Tahir - Review/IG Post
2/17/2022 - A Bookish Dream - Review/IG Post
2/18/2022 - @coffeesipsandreads - Review/IG Post
2/19/2022 - BookHounds YA - Review
Week Four
2/20/2022 - Karen Dee's Book Reviews - IG Spotlight
2/21/2022 - Two Chicks on Books - Excerpt
2/22/2022 - @jypsylynn - Review/IG Post
2/23/2022 - @thebookishfoxwitch - Review/IG Post
2/24/2022 - The Momma Spot - Review/IG Post
2/25/2022 - Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog - Review/IG Post
2/26/2022 - @drewsim12 - Review/IG Post
Week Five
2/27/2022 - Two Points of Interest - Review
2/28/2022 - onemused - IG Spotlight
The Summary
Centuries before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in the era of the glorious High Republic, the Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy!
After a series of staggering losses, the Republic seems to finally have the villainous Nihil marauders on the run, and it looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Until word comes of a suspected Nihil attack on the industrial cosmopolitan world of Corellia, right in the Galactic Core.
Sent to investigate are Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy, along with Padawans Reath Silas and Ram Jomaram, all fighting their own private battles after months of unrelenting danger. On Corellia, Reath and Ram encounter a brazen young security specialist named Crash, whose friend was one of the victims of the Nihil attack, and they team up with her to infiltrate Corellia’s elite while the Masters pursue more diplomatic avenues. But going undercover with Crash is more dangerous than anyone expected, even as Ram pulls in his friend Zeen to help with an elaborate ruse involving a galactic pop star.
But what they uncover on Corellia turns out to be just one part of a greater plan, one that could lead the Jedi to their most stunning defeat yet….
My Review
In true Daniel José Older fashion, Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizons is action-packed with a lot of nuanced emotions set throughout. It is important to mention that this is the 3rd book in an interconnected series, and part of a large overarching arc focused on the High Republic, a time of the Jedi, set a few hundred years before The Phantom Menace. Due to that, I think it is important that you have read the first two books (Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray and Star Wars The High Republic: Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland) before diving into this one. Luckily, all three authors do a great job of both connecting each story and setting them apart. Midnight Horizons is where things are getting very serious.
This is a page-turner, with great pacing, pushing you through the story with high stakes surrounding all of the characters, both familiar and new. Set on Corellia, which many Star Wars fans will be familiar with, the Nihil, this time period's Jedi enemy, have made an appearance hitting a Core world, which doesn't sit well with anyone in the Republic. Jedi Masters and Padawans are dispatched to deal with this threat.
Those Padawans are who really shine in Older's story. While the Jedi Masters are very reminiscent of what fans are familiar with, having to pursue more diplomatic, old-fashioned avenues of protection and investigation, the Padawans are free to diverge from this path and delve into subterfuge. The reason I enjoy the YA series set during this time is because of these Padawans. Not yet completely beholden to the Jedi way quite yet. As such we get some surprising insight and hole-poking into the way things are/should be that make for an interesting story.
I loved the newest character introduced, Crash. I think she really added an interesting outside perspective, especially from a non-Jedi point-of-view who is trying to figure out who really is benefiting from the Nihil presence on Corellia. The main protagonists are Reath and Ram, my two favorite Padawans. These two have popped up in the previous books, so this story really helps their character arc come full-circle, especially Reath.
This is a solid conclusion to Phase I (yep, there are Phases here with The High Republic series) of the YA books, and drop some really interesting plot points for set-up in the next Phase, and the rest of the overall series. Daniel José Older can write a Star Wars book any day, and it will be such a fun read, just as Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizons was highly enjoyable.
Final Rating
Excerpt
Chapter 6
Zeen Mrala and Lula Talisola sat across from each other in meditation position, like they had so many times before.
Zeen wasn’t sure when they’d stopped sitting side by side during these sessions and started sitting face to face. She just knew that it felt more intimate this way, more right.
As always, an infinite skyscape seemed to open up between them, like the whole wild galaxy came to life in their connected minds, from its giant spinning planets to the tiniest drops of dew on each trembling leaf.
“Do you feel me?” Lula asked, and Zeen knew she was smiling. They both were.
“Always,” she said. It was true. Even those rare times when they were far away from each other—like during the Republic Fair, when all hell was breaking loose and thousands of people cried out in fear and pain—Lula’s presence still felt like a beacon amid the chaos. It wasn’t that Zeen knew exactly where her friend was, just that she could feel her, her warmth, and it had calmed her, guided her through the carnage until their physical bodies actually found each other.
But Zeen felt something else, too—it had been growing inside her for months, and she had no idea what to do with it, even what to name it.
Fear maybe. Or perhaps love.
Whatever it was, she was pretty sure it was about to explode. She was about to explode.
Lula had been put in charge of the task force. For a Padawan, that was an incredible honor. It meant she’d probably be knighted soon. She didn’t look happy about it, though. Lula was the most ambitious person Zeen had ever met, but it didn’t seem to come from ego—she wasn’t trying to get ahead of everyone else; she just loved learning, loved challenging herself, loved the thrill of forward motion. Zeen knew Lula had been trying to slow down, let each step of the journey be what it had to be, but this kind of honor would’ve lit her up a few weeks ago.
In the briefing room, she just looked sad. And Zeen’s own first thought had been a selfish one: Lula would be knighted, and then what? What room would there be for a random girl from nowhere in the life of a Jedi Knight? The Jedi weren’t supposed to form attachments; they didn’t marry and settle down. They had more important things to do.
Zeen hated the bitter tone in her own thoughts; she should’ve been happy for her best friend in that moment. And what did it mean that Lula didn’t seem happy, either? Only that Zeen was trouble, pure trouble, in her favorite person’s life. A distraction.
That was when Zeen had decided to go to Corellia with Ram and Master Sy. She would get away for a bit, and maybe things would make sense when she got back.
She had instantly regretted the decision, but it was too late.
“Leaving will be good,” Lula said a few minutes later, when they’d both opened their eyes. This was what they did, almost every day: They sat. They let the universe reveal its shimmering secrets around them through meditation, and then they spoke, quietly, gently, being as true as they knew how to be, about whatever was going on that day.
“I’m not sure,” Zeen admitted. “I’m . . .” Was it fear she still felt? Not exactly. Just a discomfort. Uncertainty. But then . . . maybe that wasn’t hers. “Are you?”
“I . . .” Lula didn’t usually come up at a loss for words, but now she trailed off. “I don’t want our hunt for Krix to become who you are.”
Zeen flinched a little. She knew her friend was voicing a very real danger. Still, it hurt. “What will you be when we catch him?”
“I . . .”
“Where will you go?”
“I figured I’d stay here,” Zeen said, because the truth was, After Krix didn’t seem like a real thing, and it wouldn’t until he was caught. She hadn’t given it much thought because it was possible they wouldn’t catch him for years, and it was possible they’d catch him the next day. What point was there in planning when so much was uncertain?
Lula smiled in that way she had that made her look like a little kid. “That would be amazing.”
Zeen returned the smile, but the sadness and uncertainty remained, and she still didn’t know if it belonged to her or to Lula. “I don’t know what it will be like, when the chase is over,” Zeen admitted. “I don’t know who I’ll be.”
“We can find out together,” Lula said. “The galaxy’s changing as fast as we are. I’ve been”—her face darkened— “trying to figure out who I’ll be, too.”
“You got put in charge of a task force, Lula. That’s practically unheard of for a Padawan. What’s wrong?”
An alert dinged over the speaker system, then Ram’s voice came through, breathy with nervousness and restrained giggles. “Um, Zeen Mrala we’re about to leave for Corellia without yo—”
Reath cut him off. “No, we’re not! Don’t listen to him, Zeen. He’s still practicing his jokes. But we are packing up the shuttle, so hurry up, please!”
Lula and Zeen rolled their eyes at each other, and then simultaneously got serious again.
Zeen didn’t want to go anywhere where Lula’s face wasn’t going to be across from her, ready with a thoughtful answer or calm silence. But Zeen was also desperate to get as far away from all this confusion and turmoil as possible.
“I don’t know,” Lula said. “To answer your question. It’s been on me the past few weeks. You’ve seen it. I still don’t have an answer.” She met Zeen’s eyes with that determined gaze, the one that meant victory was imminent. “But I will figure it out, I promise.”
Zeen smiled. She believed her. What else could she do?
Lula smiled too, and it looked real. “Now let’s get you sent off to Corellia.”
About the Author
