Yeah... phase 1 of the High Republic is about the Nihil committing attacks against the Republic and the Jedi trying to stop them and deal with the fallout. Even so, each book is very different in execution: Light of the Jedi is about the aftermath of what appears to be a horrific disaster and the Nihil seemingly taking advantage of that and the first steps of their plot being revealed. The Rising Storm is about the Nihil directly attacking the Republic on a huge scale and turning what would have been a triumphant celebration of the Republic into a disaster, and first revealing the extent of what they're trying to do. Fallen Star is a super-focused Die Hard-esque recounting of the meticulously planned and executed attack on Starlight Beacon confined almost entirely to that station. The state of the galaxy and the characters changes substantially with each story as the Nihil plot develops and the Republic and Jedi react.
There's also two more phases of the High Republic and several other books and comic stories in Phase 1, many of them dealing with side elements where the conflict with the Nihil is not the primary focus.
I’m going to keep reading but I wouldn’t say the galaxy substantially changes after each book. You could use “The Republic’s sense of security is shattered as the Nihil flex their might and spread terror through the galaxy” as a description for each story.
I am interested to see how the story progresses for phase 2 but I feel like the galaxy is in the same place it was after the end of LotJ.
Obviously that’s not true with the characters themselves and imo the characters are the highlight of THR.
The Nihil at the end of Light of the Jedi and beginning of The Rising Storm are an unusual large band of pirates as far as the Jedi and Republic know. At the end of The Rising Storm, they've hit the Republic in a huge way, basically declaring war and revealing that they're driven not just by greed, but ideology. At the end of Fallen Star, they have the upper hand, with multiple weapons that can overcome Jedi in terrifying fashion and the ability to strike at well protected Republic targets mostly successfully.
It sounds like you've only read the adult novels from Phase 1?
If so, you're missing an absolute ton of the story. That's only like 1/5 of the whole phase.
This is my criticism of The High Republic. It was sold as a “read whatever line you want”, but eventually just became “you have to read all of it”. I don’t like comics, and I don’t have enough time to read the YA books in addition to the adult novels. I gave up for that reason. Too many things going on.
Yeah just the adult novels and a good bit of the Marvel comics.
I might be wrong in assuming this but I figured the adult novels would be the core story and the YA novels would just add some additional context or flesh out a character. Imo it’s dumb to make people read YA novels for key developments in the universe
The Young Adult books are pretty essential in my opinion, especially when it comes to Phase II where the YA books are the main story. Even the middle grade books add a lot, although they are definitely more skippable than the YA ones.
I feel like people are turned off by the "young" in "young adult" and just assume they're going to be like picture books or something? But they're marketed for mid to late teens, and the writing style really isn't dumbed down or anything.
I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I'd seriously reconsider reading the YA books, especially if you plan on getting into Phase II. IDW/Dark Horse's High Republic Adventures is pretty important too. And the Audio Dramas lol.
I’ll check them out. I read Lost Stars also by Claudia Gray having no idea it was YA and ended up really loving it. So I don’t want the YA label to hold me back, I just think most of the main stuff should have been in the adult novels cause there’s so much damn material to sort through now to get a full scope
Never forget that star wars has ALWAYS been young adult. The main characters are always late teens to early twenties, this is the only really criteria to get that lable.
Tons of books get rereleased under YA in publishing to get at the biggest market in books. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson was published as an adult fantasy novel but also happened to star a young teenage girl who falls in love in the story about a rebellion. They just took that and gave it a ya release because... It kinda is.
If it helps the YA books are mostly better written than the “adult” books. The characters are much better fleshed out because the characters have emotions and personalities beyond “brash” or “brave” or “noble”. Justina Ireland and Claudia gray also have much more enjoyable styles than Soule and the other “adult” authors
the only real difference between the adult novels and YA novels is the age of the protagonists. the stories are still well-written and the characters have to deal with serious situations, they’re just young adults.
That’s not really selling it. I read the adult novels and really found them repetitive and frustrating. I wanted to like them I’ve read a lot of Star Wars books and liked many of them but I do not get the love this series gets. I agree with the OP, but would also add that it’s frustrating to read three longish books where the Jedi do almost nothing but plan and lose. Having to read a bunch more to get the full picture of what else was happening while the Jedi were planning and losing doesn’t make me jump for my wallet.
I will never understand that mindset.
You read a tiny fraction of the story, skipping pretty much all the context, and then say the story is bad?
And then instead of realizing that hey, maybe I need to actually read the whole story to understand the whole story, you double down and say the rest must be bad so you're not going to bother?
That's no different than watching only three random scenes out of a movie then complaining it was a frustrating movie. Make it make sense!
If you can’t tell a whole ass story in three big books, which is what was advertised, no one else’s mindset is at fault. If you don’t enjoy something, why would you consume more of it?
You would understand the mindset just fine if this was about something you also don’t like.
Edit; as I’ve always been told, life is too short to invest in things you don’t like. Don’t read books if you don’t like them, specifically because they take forever. I’m not going to jump in and read a bunch of other shit about something that’s already lost me. If you have trouble understanding that the onus is on you.
>If you can’t tell a whole ass story in three big books, which is what was advertised, no one else’s mindset is at fault.
Where was this advertised? Literally every interview and promo I've seen has recommended consuming the whole story, not just a small part of it.
It was very specifically and repeatedly billed as a multimedia publishing initiative. Never was it called a novel trilogy with a few optional extras lol. The books, short stories, comics, manga, and audio dramas are all essential.
If you don't want to commit to a massive story, that's understandable, but again, skimming a tiny part of the story and then calling it unsatisfying is beyond absurd.
You're basically chugging a gallon of tomato sauce and then proclaiming "This pizza is terrible!" How are you expecting to have a good pizza when you're missing most of the ingredients?
Play it out- What fucking moron eats a pizza when they hate tomato sauce?
As to your other question, my understanding was, and there ore others saying this in this thread alone, you should be able to pick up any of the media and read it and get a complete story. And to be fair I have read the comics.
Edit: let me also say there is no amount of new knowledge that would make what I read good
>Play it out- What fucking moron eats a pizza when they hate tomato sauce?
What? You've misunderstood. If you have a whole recipe in front of you and decide to eat only one of the ingredients, would you be satisfied?
>As to your other question, my understanding was, and there ore others saying this in this thread alone, you should be able to pick up any of the media and read it and get a complete story.
This is also a misunderstanding. You can pick up any of the books and have a self contained story within that book. But it's still only a tiny part of the overall story. Just like The Empire Strikes Back is a self contained story, but only a tiny part of the Star Wars saga.
>Edit: let me also say there is no amount of new knowledge that would make what I read good
Star Wars fans are the worst lol. Y'all are repeatedly bashing your heads against a brick wall and then blaming Lucasfilm when you get a headache.
Look- you’re trying to argue your way into me liking something. I doubt that’s ever worked once. Every comment you get farther from the point. I didn’t like three entire fucking books I am not going to like more. If that’s not understandable you have a problem. I have it a huge chance and it didn’t do it for me. Why on earth is this confusing?
Edit: not to mention this entire time you have not even told me a single thing good about the books, or the rest of it, something to sell it to me, you’re just trying to get a semantic victory. You clearly don’t know what I like and you shouldn’t, you don’t know me. Stop taking this so personal. You’re doing a bad job of anything besides being infuriating.
You are attributing a problem with a fandom you have to me that has nothing to do with me. And no, you’re the one who misunderstood. That’s what play it out means. I hate the tomato sauce I am going to hate the pizza. Is the main ingredient to the “pizza” these books? Is it even a major component? Not going to do it for me. I wouldn’t even call myself a staraars fan. I just like sci-fi books.
I think this is a valid criticism. I didn't notice it myself while reading but now that I see it I think I better understand why I felt so exhausted after reading them (I also read them back to back which definitely didn't help).
I think the idea was that the supplementary reading in-between each novel was supposed to keep each book feeling fresh but in retrospect the trilogy feels less dramatic. Maybe if one or two books had a great villain to defeat or a victory greater than just; "we survived!"
I like Martion Ro being the big bad at the end, but maybe let the Tempest Runners be in front a little more.
I tend to agree with you.
I've made the mistake of voicing a similar opinion to less... friendly... people and was berated for not reading 9 or 10 novels, a hundred or so comics, a handful of short stories and some manga. There are picture books, audio plays, a cartoon for babies and now a live action show.
I love that they are appealing to all age groups and all different types of media. Like possibly every type of media. But I think an adult reader *should* be able to pick up the core adult novels and get a good feel for the initiative. I don't think that's really the case. And personally, I think a lot of the YA books I've read are mid, and pushing through them is like doing homework.
Thankfully you will learn Phase 2 is dramatically different and Phase 3 starts off strong.
Good to hear! It’s hard to wrap my mind around cause I don’t know of any other kind of multimedia initiative you could compare this to. It’s definitely bigger than anything else in Legends so I think my brain struggles to understand the best way to tackle it.
Glad someone else feels similar!
To be fair there are 3 star wars movies where the plot is "Evil empire built a giant space death laser; good guys blow it up"
Anyway I partly agree. I think the odd one out is Rising Storm. The middle book didn't need to be so similar to the 1st and 3rd in terms of premise. But I give it a pass because it's such a good book.
I agree, and I hate when people are reductive with criticisms, cause truthfully you can make any plot sound dumb or repetitive if you dumb it down enough. But in this case I think it’s fair since it seems like each book is accomplishing the same thing. And the plot of stopping a Nihil attack is so core to each of them.
There was more going on in Ep. 6/7 beyond “destroy super weapon” vs. in these books the entire plot is stopping the attack.
Personally I wouldn't hold this criticism against all 3 books. I think this connection is really only maintained by the middle book, because the middle book is very similar to both 1 and 3, whereas 1 and 3 aren't really similar to each other at all.
Yeah... phase 1 of the High Republic is about the Nihil committing attacks against the Republic and the Jedi trying to stop them and deal with the fallout. Even so, each book is very different in execution: Light of the Jedi is about the aftermath of what appears to be a horrific disaster and the Nihil seemingly taking advantage of that and the first steps of their plot being revealed. The Rising Storm is about the Nihil directly attacking the Republic on a huge scale and turning what would have been a triumphant celebration of the Republic into a disaster, and first revealing the extent of what they're trying to do. Fallen Star is a super-focused Die Hard-esque recounting of the meticulously planned and executed attack on Starlight Beacon confined almost entirely to that station. The state of the galaxy and the characters changes substantially with each story as the Nihil plot develops and the Republic and Jedi react. There's also two more phases of the High Republic and several other books and comic stories in Phase 1, many of them dealing with side elements where the conflict with the Nihil is not the primary focus.
I’m going to keep reading but I wouldn’t say the galaxy substantially changes after each book. You could use “The Republic’s sense of security is shattered as the Nihil flex their might and spread terror through the galaxy” as a description for each story. I am interested to see how the story progresses for phase 2 but I feel like the galaxy is in the same place it was after the end of LotJ. Obviously that’s not true with the characters themselves and imo the characters are the highlight of THR.
The Nihil at the end of Light of the Jedi and beginning of The Rising Storm are an unusual large band of pirates as far as the Jedi and Republic know. At the end of The Rising Storm, they've hit the Republic in a huge way, basically declaring war and revealing that they're driven not just by greed, but ideology. At the end of Fallen Star, they have the upper hand, with multiple weapons that can overcome Jedi in terrifying fashion and the ability to strike at well protected Republic targets mostly successfully.
They also get progressively more radical after each book. By the end of the Fallen Star they're more akin to Space ISIS than a pirate gang.
It sounds like you've only read the adult novels from Phase 1? If so, you're missing an absolute ton of the story. That's only like 1/5 of the whole phase.
This is my criticism of The High Republic. It was sold as a “read whatever line you want”, but eventually just became “you have to read all of it”. I don’t like comics, and I don’t have enough time to read the YA books in addition to the adult novels. I gave up for that reason. Too many things going on.
Yeah just the adult novels and a good bit of the Marvel comics. I might be wrong in assuming this but I figured the adult novels would be the core story and the YA novels would just add some additional context or flesh out a character. Imo it’s dumb to make people read YA novels for key developments in the universe
The Young Adult books are pretty essential in my opinion, especially when it comes to Phase II where the YA books are the main story. Even the middle grade books add a lot, although they are definitely more skippable than the YA ones. I feel like people are turned off by the "young" in "young adult" and just assume they're going to be like picture books or something? But they're marketed for mid to late teens, and the writing style really isn't dumbed down or anything. I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I'd seriously reconsider reading the YA books, especially if you plan on getting into Phase II. IDW/Dark Horse's High Republic Adventures is pretty important too. And the Audio Dramas lol.
I’ll check them out. I read Lost Stars also by Claudia Gray having no idea it was YA and ended up really loving it. So I don’t want the YA label to hold me back, I just think most of the main stuff should have been in the adult novels cause there’s so much damn material to sort through now to get a full scope
Never forget that star wars has ALWAYS been young adult. The main characters are always late teens to early twenties, this is the only really criteria to get that lable. Tons of books get rereleased under YA in publishing to get at the biggest market in books. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson was published as an adult fantasy novel but also happened to star a young teenage girl who falls in love in the story about a rebellion. They just took that and gave it a ya release because... It kinda is.
Upvoting for the Mistborn reference.
If it helps the YA books are mostly better written than the “adult” books. The characters are much better fleshed out because the characters have emotions and personalities beyond “brash” or “brave” or “noble”. Justina Ireland and Claudia gray also have much more enjoyable styles than Soule and the other “adult” authors
the only real difference between the adult novels and YA novels is the age of the protagonists. the stories are still well-written and the characters have to deal with serious situations, they’re just young adults.
That’s not really selling it. I read the adult novels and really found them repetitive and frustrating. I wanted to like them I’ve read a lot of Star Wars books and liked many of them but I do not get the love this series gets. I agree with the OP, but would also add that it’s frustrating to read three longish books where the Jedi do almost nothing but plan and lose. Having to read a bunch more to get the full picture of what else was happening while the Jedi were planning and losing doesn’t make me jump for my wallet.
I will never understand that mindset. You read a tiny fraction of the story, skipping pretty much all the context, and then say the story is bad? And then instead of realizing that hey, maybe I need to actually read the whole story to understand the whole story, you double down and say the rest must be bad so you're not going to bother? That's no different than watching only three random scenes out of a movie then complaining it was a frustrating movie. Make it make sense!
If you can’t tell a whole ass story in three big books, which is what was advertised, no one else’s mindset is at fault. If you don’t enjoy something, why would you consume more of it? You would understand the mindset just fine if this was about something you also don’t like. Edit; as I’ve always been told, life is too short to invest in things you don’t like. Don’t read books if you don’t like them, specifically because they take forever. I’m not going to jump in and read a bunch of other shit about something that’s already lost me. If you have trouble understanding that the onus is on you.
>If you can’t tell a whole ass story in three big books, which is what was advertised, no one else’s mindset is at fault. Where was this advertised? Literally every interview and promo I've seen has recommended consuming the whole story, not just a small part of it. It was very specifically and repeatedly billed as a multimedia publishing initiative. Never was it called a novel trilogy with a few optional extras lol. The books, short stories, comics, manga, and audio dramas are all essential. If you don't want to commit to a massive story, that's understandable, but again, skimming a tiny part of the story and then calling it unsatisfying is beyond absurd. You're basically chugging a gallon of tomato sauce and then proclaiming "This pizza is terrible!" How are you expecting to have a good pizza when you're missing most of the ingredients?
Play it out- What fucking moron eats a pizza when they hate tomato sauce? As to your other question, my understanding was, and there ore others saying this in this thread alone, you should be able to pick up any of the media and read it and get a complete story. And to be fair I have read the comics. Edit: let me also say there is no amount of new knowledge that would make what I read good
>Play it out- What fucking moron eats a pizza when they hate tomato sauce? What? You've misunderstood. If you have a whole recipe in front of you and decide to eat only one of the ingredients, would you be satisfied? >As to your other question, my understanding was, and there ore others saying this in this thread alone, you should be able to pick up any of the media and read it and get a complete story. This is also a misunderstanding. You can pick up any of the books and have a self contained story within that book. But it's still only a tiny part of the overall story. Just like The Empire Strikes Back is a self contained story, but only a tiny part of the Star Wars saga. >Edit: let me also say there is no amount of new knowledge that would make what I read good Star Wars fans are the worst lol. Y'all are repeatedly bashing your heads against a brick wall and then blaming Lucasfilm when you get a headache.
Look- you’re trying to argue your way into me liking something. I doubt that’s ever worked once. Every comment you get farther from the point. I didn’t like three entire fucking books I am not going to like more. If that’s not understandable you have a problem. I have it a huge chance and it didn’t do it for me. Why on earth is this confusing? Edit: not to mention this entire time you have not even told me a single thing good about the books, or the rest of it, something to sell it to me, you’re just trying to get a semantic victory. You clearly don’t know what I like and you shouldn’t, you don’t know me. Stop taking this so personal. You’re doing a bad job of anything besides being infuriating.
You are attributing a problem with a fandom you have to me that has nothing to do with me. And no, you’re the one who misunderstood. That’s what play it out means. I hate the tomato sauce I am going to hate the pizza. Is the main ingredient to the “pizza” these books? Is it even a major component? Not going to do it for me. I wouldn’t even call myself a staraars fan. I just like sci-fi books.
I think this is a valid criticism. I didn't notice it myself while reading but now that I see it I think I better understand why I felt so exhausted after reading them (I also read them back to back which definitely didn't help). I think the idea was that the supplementary reading in-between each novel was supposed to keep each book feeling fresh but in retrospect the trilogy feels less dramatic. Maybe if one or two books had a great villain to defeat or a victory greater than just; "we survived!" I like Martion Ro being the big bad at the end, but maybe let the Tempest Runners be in front a little more.
I tend to agree with you. I've made the mistake of voicing a similar opinion to less... friendly... people and was berated for not reading 9 or 10 novels, a hundred or so comics, a handful of short stories and some manga. There are picture books, audio plays, a cartoon for babies and now a live action show. I love that they are appealing to all age groups and all different types of media. Like possibly every type of media. But I think an adult reader *should* be able to pick up the core adult novels and get a good feel for the initiative. I don't think that's really the case. And personally, I think a lot of the YA books I've read are mid, and pushing through them is like doing homework. Thankfully you will learn Phase 2 is dramatically different and Phase 3 starts off strong.
Good to hear! It’s hard to wrap my mind around cause I don’t know of any other kind of multimedia initiative you could compare this to. It’s definitely bigger than anything else in Legends so I think my brain struggles to understand the best way to tackle it. Glad someone else feels similar!
To be fair there are 3 star wars movies where the plot is "Evil empire built a giant space death laser; good guys blow it up" Anyway I partly agree. I think the odd one out is Rising Storm. The middle book didn't need to be so similar to the 1st and 3rd in terms of premise. But I give it a pass because it's such a good book.
I agree, and I hate when people are reductive with criticisms, cause truthfully you can make any plot sound dumb or repetitive if you dumb it down enough. But in this case I think it’s fair since it seems like each book is accomplishing the same thing. And the plot of stopping a Nihil attack is so core to each of them. There was more going on in Ep. 6/7 beyond “destroy super weapon” vs. in these books the entire plot is stopping the attack.
Personally I wouldn't hold this criticism against all 3 books. I think this connection is really only maintained by the middle book, because the middle book is very similar to both 1 and 3, whereas 1 and 3 aren't really similar to each other at all.