– Minor Spoiler Review –
The High Republic’s Phase II – Quest of the Jedi begins! Written by Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton, The High Republic – Path of Deceit is the opening novel for Phase II of the initiative, set 150 years prior to Phase I’s beginning! Whether you’ve read every single piece of Phase I content or are just dipping your toes in now, Path of Deceit is an excellent, exciting, and memorable way to kick off Phase II, as its focus on characters and their choices, and what those choices will mean for the galaxy at large, set the stage and tone for what’s to come not just in this Phase, but the Phases beyond.
Editor’s Note: there are minor spoilers, but the biggest spoilers are hidden behind a button below, so you won’t scroll past any big reveals by accident!
When I say Path of Deceit sets the tone for Phase II of The High Republic, I’m speaking of its smaller focus and more character-focused journey. Phase I needed a BIG opening, which it got in Light of the Jedi, to get people excited about this era and to explore its various differences to what we already know, but Phase II doesn’t need it, even though we’re jumping 150 years more into the past, as we’ve been in this general era now for almost over a year thanks to Phase I’s three waves of storytelling. Expecting Path of Deceit to be larger, especially considering it’s a young adult novel, would be a mistake, though what makes it stronger and more interesting opening for this next part of the story than anything large and bombastic is that it’s smaller and more contained. A lot of Phase I seemed caught up in the big events only, with character work washed over or not as vital, a critique Chris and I leveled against the era in our big Phase I retrospective, but if Path of Deceit is anything to go by, Phase II looks to tackle that critique like a Wookiee tackling a womp rat, as Phase II already feels more focused, especially on characters and what their choices will mean for the future, and it continues in other content for the era after this as well (I’ve read a good portion of Convergence, the first adult novel of the era). Even if it feels so contained, largely spent on one single planet in PoD, there’s a lot to unpack in the novel, secrets and hints about what will come across all of Phase II’s two waves (rumored, not confirmed yet) and how this story will set up and reveal backstory for Phase I and Phase III.
In this even earlier time for the era, Jedi and the Republic explore the Outer Rim worlds, looking to bring their combined light and security to the galaxy. In Path of Deceit, steadfast and kind Jedi Knight and Master Zallah Macri, along with her excitable but well-meaning Padawan Kevmo Zink, are on the hunt for who has been stealing various Force-related artifacts across the Outer Rim, with their suspicions landing on a Force cult called the Path of the Open Hand, operating out of Dalna. On the outside, the Path seems to be a auspicious and peaceful group, with reclusive leader the Mother a supposed conduit for the Force, preaching of freeing the Force and living in harmony with it, calling those who use the Force abusers and warning such use creates a butterfly effect (though no evidence is submitted). No one is more devout than Marda Ro (a last name familiar to THR fans), an Evereni woman who yearns to spread the Path’s teachings but is stifled by the Mother, saying her place is teaching their Littles and heading outreach to the locals of Dalna. On the opposite end is Marda’s cousin, Yana, who remembers more of their dark childhood and what it means to be an Evereni in the galaxy, so she’s not as swayed by the Path and its Mother, sticking around for her girlfriend, the daughter of the group’s Herald (one step below the Mother). She has the honor of being one of the Mother’s Children however, whom most of the Path believes goes out in the galaxy to spread the word of the group before their new ship, the Gaze Electric (a ship which should ring a bell from Phase I), will take them across the galaxy, but their missions are more about liberation than proselytizing. When Marda and Kevmo find themselves helplessly attracted to one another, their closeness threatens both the Jedi and the Path, setting into place a series of events which lead to a finale leaving readers with much to talk about and lots of potential for the rest of the Phase.
I really enjoyed the way the book was structured, a pretty reliable rotation of POV characters, Kevmo, Marda, and Yana, and few with hyperspace prospector Sunshine Dobbs, which left me hanging on a character’s revelation in their chapter and/or left me eager to learn how a different character felt about certain events/their next step forward. Since the two authors alternate chapters, they both get a chance to write these characters due to the rotation, and while I’ve read Justina Ireland’s work before, I haven’t anything by Tessa Gratton yet, but I couldn’t quite tell the difference between them regardless, meaning it felt like they worked really well together and had some Force-related mind tricks going on to have these characters so similar no matter who was writing. Of the cast, my favorites were Marda and Yana, with Kevmo very close to a three-way tie. With Marda, there’s a serenity to her chapters that’s noticeable compared to the other characters’ POVs, with lots of descriptions of the world around her, from the dirt, the bugs, the flowers, to the little things people do, showing how calm, peaceful, and fervently devout she is without a need even for dialogue, as only someone so sold on a cult and its teachings would be at peace and blindly believing like she is. This is contrasted nicely with the other two main characters, Yana and Kevmo. With Yana’s sections, her jaded feelings on the Path and its leader pierce through the fog Marda’s POV gives us, while Kevmo’s excitable attitude and willingness to listen sort of lull us back into wondering how true Marda, the Path, and the Mother are about their ideas on the Force when faced against the Jedi’s philosophy. This structure allows us to side with one character and then begin to doubt them a little later, and vice versa, or setting up expectations for one character’s response only for it to have changed by the time we get to them, while each one does well to explore the Path of the Open Hand and what its goals will mean for the Jedi and the larger galaxy. Through Kevmo, we gain new information on the group as Marda fills him in while also gaining reassurances of the Jedi ways in the face of their teachings, with Yana we see the cult’s darker side of artifact acquisition yet are left grasping at its true goals, while Marda makes it look good on the outside. Path of Deceit contains only the beginning of the Path’s plans, but by the end it’ll be clear of what they have in store going forward, more so for readers of Phase I (prepare to have shivers down your spine again!) but new readers will be just as excited and intrigued on what will come next.
As mentioned earlier, sparks fly between Kevmo and Marda when they first meet, but their intrinsic natures mean they cannot match. Marda is so devoted to the Path, she has trouble reconciling Kevmo’s usage of the Force, while Kevmo not only can’t imagine not basking in and connecting with the Force like he does, attachments are always second to his connection with the Force. Taking those aspects of their beings away, the two are called to one another so strongly, both battle with their faiths as they battle with the feelings that continue to bubble up between them. The romance between these two is never overpowering and feels natural and important to Path of Deceit, as these two stars orbiting their own suns can’t help but be pulled into each other’s gravity and the consequences help push other parts of the story forward. As you can imagine, the Mother isn’t too excited about the Jedi being there, though she certainly puts on a good front, while Yana worries they’ll discover all the artifacts and the Order will come down on them before she can get out, and their competing goals are set into motion quicker than expected. Phase I dealt a lot with romance, even among Jedi, so this feels like an extension of the luminous team’s themes and mindset for testing the limits of the Jedi in different ways, including attachments when the Order isn’t as harsh on them. Overall, I enjoyed Kevmo and his excitable ways, as having a Jedi who so easily can lose himself in the Force he actually has to hold it back was unique, and reminded me of some over-excited coworkers I’ve dealt with over the years who mean so well and try so hard to help others. Marda’s kindness and openness to debate was refreshing, as having someone who wasn’t jaded or using people’s faithfulness, but actually believed in it helped make the cult’s propagation believable, though always left its communal practices and fervent message of freeing the Force leaving me with an uncomfortable feeling (a good thing!). Even more interesting about Marda’s demeanor is her being a Ro, a last name common with characters 150 years later in Phase I on the Nihil side of things like Marchion or Asgar, leaving us with an intriguing new wrinkle of how the family ends up becoming vehement enemies of the Jedi and Republic (though the basis for the Evereni and why the galaxy feels about them the way they do, referenced often in PoD, was revealed in the two-part Eye of the Storm comic, among other things that come to light in the book).
In the hidden spoiler section below, I’ll get into this a little more, but as I mentioned already, Path of Deceit already contains some big connections to Phase I, so readers who already finished the opening part of the era will be sitting up in their seats and shouting often, the implications endless and exciting. For new readers, these hints will likely be a mystery you’ll want to see uncovered, as the promise of PoD‘s events in the finale hold scary, exciting, and compelling options for where the rest of Phase II will likely go.
The gift of spoilers isn’t freely given as the Path would like
though you’ll get them if you click on the button below!
Here are a few other things:
- One character I wish we got to spend more time with was the Herald, the original leader of the Path before the Mother showed up with her Force visions only a few years before the start of this book. He really comes into play in the final part of the book and it’s clear we’ll be spending more time with these characters in Phase II, so I’ll get my wish, but his plans, as well as the Mother’s, are ones I’ll be eager to see explored.
- Chris also reviewed Path of Deceit, so check it out now!
- There was no big live-stream or as much build-up to Phase II as there was Phase I, and that could’ve been due to a variety of reasons or uncertainty with publishing releases, but it was still a little disappointing either way. Thankfully, a character video and a launch trailer arrived (and even aired in Time’s Square!) just before Path of Deceit‘s release, and this was such a good opening novel it’s easy to already be swept up in the hype of the era’s return.
- The next few items of content are The High Republic – Phase II comic by Marvel on October 12 and Quest for the Hidden City middle-aged book on November 1. Want the full list? Head to our High Republic page!
Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton’s The High Republic – Path of Deceit didn’t have to do as much heavy-lifting era-wise to kick off the next Phase of the initiative, so it could focus on a smaller story and its characters, eventually revealing a much larger set of repercussions in a memorable ending that ignites the fire of excitement for the era again.
+ Character focus (so the ending hits hard!)
+ Opening Phase II with a lot of potential
+ Marda and Yana’s paths within
+ Great place for new readers and plenty of fun for familiar readers
– Some Open Hand belief questions remain
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.