The Path of the Open Hand finds itself at a decisive moment after the Battle of Jedha. But cousins Marda and Yana Ro cannot decide where they fit in the future of the Path, and their choices and relationship may alter the course of the future…forever. Join us as I review The High Republic: Path of Vengeance!
I don’t think there’s any denying there was quite a bit of pressure mounting on Cavan Scott’s Path of Vengeance. For one thing, the book was touted as the finale of Phase II of The High Republic. It was also the culmination of two large gambles: going back in time for The High Republic (when the first Phase ended with so many cliffhangers and loose story threads) and ending the Phase with a young adult novel. For a lot of readers, there was another dimension the book had to live up to: bringing some hype back to The High Republic as a whole. For me, personally, I’ve been less than impressed with Phase II of THR, even after I spent so much time absolutely devouring and loving Phase I. As more of Phase II’s stories didn’t resonate with me, and in fact seemed to accelerate critiques I had of Phase I, my hopes for the Phase were dying quickly. Thankfully, despite the mounting pressure, I am happy to say that Path of Vengeance, aside from some Phase II shaped hiccoughs, was a really good book.
First of all, this book knew exactly which pair to focus on: Yana and Marda Ro, the ancestors of the famed and destructive Marchion Ro. The novel opens with the end of the Battle of Jedha, literally revisiting some moments from both George Mann’s The Battle of Jedha and Cavan’s own The High Republic – Phase II comic, and the two cousins are on opposite paths related to, well, the Path of the Open Hand. After the events of Path of Deceit, Marda is all-in on the Path, acting as its guide; Yana, on the other hand, is trying to find her way out. Focusing on both the family dynamic, and the dynamic of characters who would have opposing thoughts on a cult, made for a dynamic through-line in the novel, bringing two great characters to the forefront and pushing both to their absolute limits. This created a stronger novel, as it cements both Marda and Yana as extremely memorable characters, especially in a Phase with so many that probably don’t have quite as much staying power.
The book also gives center stage to Matthea Cathley, Jedi Knight from the aforementioned comic series. She shares some of her stage time with Oliviah Zeveron, also from the series. While I didn’t connect with Matty in the comic, I find her a much more compelling young adult protagonist in the novel. Her talkative and brash nature felt more at home in a book (ostensibly) written for teens than it did in the adult comic. Oliviah is also an interesting character, and is part of the book’s (and Phase’s) big reveals, but I felt like she again took second stage to Matty. Matty goes through an interesting Jedi’s journey, learning about herself as a Jedi and how to navigate complex and scary circumstances. Between the Ros and Matty, PoV came out strong with its cast and focus on the characters.
The plotting of the novel was a bit varied at times. There were definitely some scenes and scenarios where I found myself far less interested than others. A well-plotted novel is one where I am happy to turn the page and find, well, anyone as the headliner of the next chapter. That wasn’t true of my experience throughout the book, and I felt myself losing interest in a few stories. Thankfully, these were few and far between, and mostly in the middle. I do also want to comment on what felt like the first hundred pages acting as both an exposition and recap of the Phase as a whole. In some ways, that was appreciated: THR authors and marketing always claim that you can get by with only reading whatever you’d like from the Phase, something that didn’t ring as true for me. But this book makes sure if you picked this up first, you’d have a fairly good idea of what’s going on…at the cost of delaying the core story a little bit longer. It’s a mostly fair trade, but as a whole, the book’s plotting can be uneven.
Some may be curious about both its connection to the rest of Phase II and its place in the entire story of THR. The book intersects with a lot of the other novels, with Cataclysm and Quest for Planet X most directly, and with The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror, The Battle of Jedha, and The High Republic – Phase II as its sequel. If I’ve critiqued other books for being hijacked by the overall story before, PoV deserves that criticism and more. As the book builds to the Battle of Jedha, quite a few new Jedi appear in “the middle” of the novel to make their appearance at the battle. While they do interact with our main cast, I felt like they were too late to add to the book and brought me out of the narrative as now I had quite a few new characters to memorize and meet and learn to like. In a lot of ways, though, it could stand alone. You kind of know something is going on with the surface battle, but you wouldn’t know it was Yoda and Yaddle and Creighton Sun. If anything, this is the main book, and Cataclysm’s part of the battle is the addition. (Which is really felt like it was in the first read through of the novel.)
As an addition to the whole narrative of THR, I felt like it answered a few interesting questions, but refused to answer some of the ones I personally found most pressing. I, of course, am not going to spoil what it answers or not, which proves hard to write a review about. But I will say that this may be the most mixed part of the book, whether you had strong expectations for answers or were willing to go with the flow. Some may find it answered all of the questions they had, and some may feel like it didn’t even sufficiently answer its own questions. Some reveals in the novel come way too late in the novel to really inform the characters in the story, which also means these reveals came way too late in the Phase as a whole, sadly. Had this book tackled some of the twists earlier, I feel like a lot more character work would have been done and it would’ve bolstered the entire story of THR Phase II.
As a whole, Path of Vengeance is mostly a really enjoyable novel. It does miss some of Cavan’s charm and weirdness, but it makes up for it in some of his strongest character work. The plotting is uneven, but I felt driven to continue reading anyway, pushing through some bumpiness. If you were only going to read one novel from THR Phase II, make it this one: you’ll have a good time, and you’ll find a lot to enjoy and learn.
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