Just two weeks ago I put together a post rounding up the excerpts (and the opening crawl!) for upcoming Phase 1 Wave II novels The Rising Storm and Race to Crashpoint Tower (both out June 29) and now there are even more available, the latest offering new and revealing glimpses at the Nihil and several new characters. And while I just got an amazing The High Republic fan-made shirt, it seems Lucasfilm finally got behind merchandising the era, as t-shirts and more have appeared on Amazon, like the Drengir after your wallet. All that and more below!
The first excerpt we’ll cover is a fun one from Daniel José Older’s novel, Race to Crashpoint Tower, out June 29. The initial excerpt gave us some time with Ram Jomaram, a new Jedi character whose skills focus on mechanical repairs, while this one features Lula Talisola and Zeen Mrala, the main characters of Older’s IDW comic series, The High Republic Adventures. A lot of these details come from the current story arc, like Zeen’s connection to the Elders of the Path, the Elder who took Zeen’s friend Krix with him when the Nihil rescued him, and the unfolding drama between Zeen and Krix as the two friends grow further apart. Older seems to be making it easy for readers who might not have checked out the comics to be caught up on their story, though for the full emotional tale one might need to, and really one should, check out the comic! Beyond the fun crossover of story and characters, a great new moment for Star Wars representation quietly was added: Lula’s Master Kantam Sy is non-binary! They were in some issues of THRA, but this wasn’t made clear until the excerpt here, and while they aren’t the first, that falls to Ceret and Terec, this is the first human non-binary Jedi, which is a nice change of pace as it’s usually aliens or non-humans who are such an identity and that can come with some less than favorable connotations. Older is a champion of diversity and he always makes it so effortless and seamless.
The next excerpt is from Cavan Scott’s The Rising Storm and it’s a doozy, revealing some intriguing new stuff about Nihil leader Marchion Ro…though in a way it doesn’t reveal much since most of what they say doesn’t quite make sense…yet! That’s one of the reasons this excerpt is so exciting, as it not only looks like Scott will carry on the story of the mysterious Ro, a character I’m eager to learn more and more about after that rather stunning finale in Light of the Jedi, but it seems to promise some answers to a few unknowns we’ve had since the opening novel. The Rising Storm is out June 29.
As I mentioned earlier, I just got some really fantastic THR merchandise on Etsy from GeekyGirlExperience, but now there’s some competition out there from Lucasfilm themselves on Amazon. Publicity Manager for Disney Publishing Lyssa Hurvitz stumbled upon and shared a list of The High Republic shirts and sweaters now available on Amazon. I’m liking the look of the Jedi Eyes one, Badge Outline, and Beware the Drengir. Check them out and get yours ahead of the next set of books!
The last two items: there’s a great little reading list DIY bookmark the official site put together, while we have another The High Republic Show sometime later this month, so check back at the Manor as we’ll have all the details from it when it drops!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.