– Spoiler Review –
Lydia Kang makes her The High Republic debut with the second adult novel and beginning of the end for Phase II, Cataclysm. Picking up after the disastrous events of The Battle of Jedha, the Forever War reignited between Eiram and E’ronoh, Cataclysm sees the Jedi and Republic searching for answers, leading them to a confrontation with the mysterious Path of the Open Hand cult. And what does the disgraced son of one of the Chancellors have to do with it? Many of Phase II’s threads collide in this packed yet eventful novel, where humor, heart, well-written characters, and a dazzling display of this era’s interesting aspects intertwine with a memorable final act.
While I’ve enjoyed some of the bigger, adult learning books of Phase II so far, Cataclysm builds on their foundations to make itself one of the best of the Phase, as Lydia Kang skillfully pulls on characters and lingering story threads and whips them together into something emotional and operatic. Knowledge of previous books, especially Convergence and Path of Deceit, will enhance your reading experience, adding to the emotional weight of Cataclysm’s journey to confrontation, though new readers wouldn’t feel terribly left out as Kang provides enough background information everyone’s largely on the same page once the book really gets cooking. There’s a big cast here, as the main characters across the aforementioned titles, as well as The Battle of Jedha, continue on, while Kang still manages to fit in new or familiar characters to great effect as well. I never once felt like any one character was being ignored over the other per se, but there were a few times I wished we got more from one character or another, if only because of how well Kang writes them and less to do with the amount of pages they have. And while Cataclysm is only the start of the final wave of content for Phase II: Quest of the Jedi, there’s a ringing finality to its many parts, as major events permeating the era come to a close, while certain choices and background for how things progress to Phase I’s story begin to take shape. In fact, the knowledge this Phase is almost over, while not feeling as strong of a Phase as the first overall, adds some bittersweetness to Cataclysm’s quality and story, as things are just really getting good and attachment is finally forming to these characters and yet it’s all about to end, so while it’s too late, it’s still appreciated.
At this point in the Phase II timeline, the signing of the peace treaty between Eiram and E’ronoh, central planets to this Phase’s storyline, has failed due to a variety of reasons, though mostly through machinations by the Path of the Open Hand. By the beginning of Cataclysm, this isn’t widely known due to the meager communications infrastructure already in place and being built by joint Republic and Jedi teams throughout the Outer Rim, the Pathfinders. As the news trickles in across the galaxy about the peace treaty failure, and the Path of the Open Hand wastes no time in further stirring the controversy, while the Jedi, the Republic, and the hopeful prince and princess from the two planets struggle to understand to find a way to bring the renewed fighting to a definitive close. The cult’s plans and the communication issues rampart in this era lead to confrontations that crescendo into the novel’s final act, a pulse-pounding battle hinted at in Phase I which lives up to expectations due to the many players involved and Kang’s ability to jump between them and keep the big battle moving forward.
First introduced in Convergence, Xiri A’lbaran of Eiram and Phan-tu Zenn of E’ronoh are still early in their marriage and thus have multiple layers to contend with in their attempts to bond their two planets and stop any further fighting. On a personal level, understanding how to treat one another and how to make this into more than just a marriage of convenience, to truly express their feelings for one another, is a big thread throughout Cataclysm and one I appreciated because it felt like a natural progression from where Convergence ended, as their union wasn’t going to solve all their personal problems immediately. How they come together is cathartic both for them and for readers in Cataclysm, and really endured me to them as characters by its end. Beyond their personal hurdles, they must convince the entrenched minds of their planets’ ruling bodies after the peace treaty news trickles in and the Path of the Open Hand’s trickery with bioweapons exacerbates the news’ impact. While the overall outcome is a hard-won resolution which feels earned due to said fight, something I’ll get into later, it felt a little too neat a bow on everything that’s transpired across the novels/audio drama, though with this being a shorter Phase it was unavoidable.
Another memorable pair from Convergence are Jedi Knight Gella Nattai and Axel Greylark, the son of one of the era’s Chancellors, Kyong Greylark, and they play a prominent and engaging role in Cataclysm as well, if not better than the first novel. For Gella, she’s still pulled towards Axel despite his actions on Eiram, where he destroyed deadly toxins yet left the planet vulnerable, struggling to make terms with how everyone else thinks she should feel about him against how she actually feels about him. She’s paired with Jedi Master Orin Darhga (one of my favorite new characters), or more like he senses she’s in need and tags along with her, terrible jokes in tow, and the two form a jovial bond as he sticks with her through thick and thin to help her with her emotions and place in the Force, which fluctuates as Axel floats in and out of her life again. I really enjoyed Gella’s journey throughout Cataclysm and she continues to be one I hope we’ll get more stories with her in the future, though I’m not sure the Phase as the space for them at this point. As for Axel, there’s certainly been a difference of opinion on the character since his debut and Cataclysm might not seem to rock the boat of anyone’s opinion at the beginning, and even though I was a fan from the start, I believe how his story progresses here should turn everyone into a believer. The introduction of Binnot Ullo, Axel’s friend within the Path of the Open Hand whose aspirations in the novel spark conflict for Axel and the Path itself, felt a little too late in Axel’s story, but their interactions force Axel’s internal battle, as he knows how he feels about and around Gella, while Binnot, and even the Path’s leader the Mother, offer him what he’s always wanted to feel…so which does he want more and how do his choices affect the larger conflict? The answer was as interesting as I hoped and as I imagined his internal battle could be from Convergence, which is why I think detractors and fans alike will find his arc in Cataclysm far more satisfying. Together, Axel and Gella are the two characters I enjoyed the most throughout the novel, though there were some others who came close.
Most of the cast from other recent adult novels feature prominent as well, with Yaddle (!!), Kyong, Enya Keen, Creighton Sun, Aida Forte, and second Chanceller Mollo making memorable splashes mainly for how Lydia Kang manages to give them fitting arcs within all the other characters and the big arching plot. For Yaddle, fans won’t be disappointed in the slightest, since her brief appearance in Phase I was both enticing but left them wanting more, as her unique situation with a young Force prodigy and involvement with the novel’s larger story delivers on her potential. She juggles these responsibilities with pose and grace…and humility, of course and if she’s not in Phase III more I might have to riot. Also, there’s a scene between her and Yoda, using the Force together, where the descriptions are hauntingly beautiful and are among a lot of prose which has stuck with me long after finishing Cataclysm. Jedi Master Creighton and Jedi Knight Aida, the stars of the audiodrama The Battle of Jedha, go on their own emotional journey as they try to stop the fallout from the peace talks failing getting even worse, and having listened to/read TBoJ only strengthens Kang’s characterizations of them and raised the stakes of their involvement in the final battle. Enya Keen was a fun side character in Convergence but in Cataclysm she rises far higher, especially when she makes a big choice about giving her kyber away in hopes of opening a dialogue with the Path, the resulting fallout a fascinating dissection of what it takes or means to be a Jedi, while her obsession with rebuilding a droid she found leads to some fun places. Lastly, Kyong Greylark’s arc, and how it revolves around Axel and coming to terms with her own choices which led to his current state, was a surprise highlight of the novel, as she was one I was both happy how much we had with her but suddenly I wanted more, especially knowing the rest of the Phase is likely focused elsewhere as it comes to a close in May. In fact, I feel like Kyong’s tale links to a common refrain from fans about the High Republic overall, as we’d like to spend more time in the era than just push the plot forward, and while it makes sense each Phase would be more focused, one can only hope writers can return to the era and give us more of these characters in the future.
After getting my hands on the script book for The Battle of Jedha audio drama, the combination of audio and extra descriptions helped elevate the titular battle more in my eyes, but it still felt lacking for all the build up to it. In contrast, Cataclysm’s Battle of Dalna, teased towards the end of Phase I’s content, feels like a proper battle from the start, to the point it far out dwarfs the one on Jedha in scope, stakes intensity, and emotional connection. Kang’s writing, as I mentioned earlier, allows her to jump between characters and keep things coherent, and while it might go on too long, it paints such a vivid and devastating picture, especially with a few deaths (I shed a tear or twelve!), it’s one of the most memorable and truly epic feeling battles in High Republic writings since the Attack on Valo in Phase I’s The Rising Storm. A lot of how things are allowed to escalate to such conditions stem from the era’s burgeoning communications network spearheaded by the Pathfinder teams. While other entries in Phase II have included ways the communication system, and lack thereof, could help and hinder efforts by the Republic and Jedi, like where Jedha’s communication was interrupted due to storms in TBoJ or lack of working communication puts innocent lives at risk in Quest for the Hidden City, this is the first time all era I really felt how much it could affect this Phase’s story. Eiram and E’ronoh purposefully cut themselves off by destroying the newly installed communication buoys, meaning there’s a heavier reliance on the EX droids, little probe-droid looking things that ferry messages across the galaxy. Bad actors prove both the EX droid and buoys have their shortcomings, either spreading misinformation or disseminating information only they want to get out (topically minded but Cataclysm doesn’t dig into it too much), and it was an interesting way, linked specifically to this part of the era’s differences, to heighten the stakes and make it easier for the Path of the Open Hand to get away with their nefarious plans. It certainly made me wish more of Phase II used the establishing communication systems to its advantage, but I can also see it becoming rote too quickly if every story hinged on it being important. Regardless, Cataclysm, alongside Quest for the Hidden City and Path of Deceit, really saturates itself with Phase II’s eccentricities and is better off for it.
The only thing I hold against Cataclysm besides a few little comments I’ve littered throughout the review is the continued distance we’ve been kept from learning more about the Path of the Open Hand. We see more of their machinations in the novel, but not enough to make it clear how most of its members were willing to go along with the less pacifist approach, while a whole new subsection of the group develops off-page during the big battle and there’s not a lot of details how/why it happens. The Mother is nebulous, as always, but at this point in the Phase it feels less mysterious and more like we’re purposefully stalling, with the full reveal one fans have mostly put together likely coming at the end of the Phase and it might feel too little too late to care for her side of the story. At this point in Phase I, I felt like we had a little better handle on Marchion Ro, while the Mother remains too aloof that it strains credibility she took over this group and brought it to this point. There’s something interesting I talk about in the spoiler section below in regards to her, but the lack of more definitive Mother details certainly holds back Cataclysm’s big battle as it’s not always clear how or why this cult would be so willing to go to such extremes, while there’s not a lot of tension if escalations can be avoided because they are so clearly antagonistic to start.
Some people think it’s cataclysmic to read spoilers…
…so take the risk, if you dare, of some spoilers freely given!
Here are a few other things:
- When Cataclysm releases April 4, it really is the beginning of the end for Phase II. It should all wrap up in May/June, between the remaining novels and comic issues, while Phase III returns in November. We keep our High Republic page and its release calendar updated as much as possible, so you’ll see there’s other content on its way outside of the traditional Phase content, like Young Jedi Adventures on April 26!
- Orin reminded me of an Irish/Scottish uncle and he was a blessing to have around for this novel.
- This isn’t the first Star Wars content from Lydia Kang, as she first made her debut with From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back with “Right-Hand Man,” a story which just hinted at the level of prose she could bring to the table.
The High Republic – Cataclysm by Lydia Kang is Phase II’s best entry yet, and while it builds off the bones off what’s come before, not having read everything beforehand isn’t complete necessary to enjoy the excellent character journeys and riveting continuation/intriguing finality to many parts of the era’s story.
+ Excellent usage of large cast
+ Riveting finale from multiple POVs
+ Wrapping up threads, setting up Phase I
+ Centers itself in the differences of this Phase
– Doesn’t give the Path and the villains as much room to grow/be explored
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.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.