Reath Silas is on a mission – find the origin of the Nameless in order to save the Jedi and end the Nihil. No small order, huh? With the help(?) of friends and acquaintances like Azlin Rell, Amadeo Azzazzo, and Cohmac Vitus, will Reath find the solutions the galaxy need? Or will the Nihil win? Read my review of The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless now!
Unfortunately, (or maybe even sort of fortunately, as I may be led to argue sometime soon on this website), the publishing initiative for The High Republic is coming to an end. With the release of George Mann’s Tears of the Nameless, Phase III Wave 2 (a title I’m not sure anyone still applies from Phase I) hits the middle point. Now, we only have one more adult, young adult, audiobook, and middle grade reader remaining! Mann’s Tears of the Nameless functions in similar ways to other Star Wars middle chapters: the book brings its characters through the ringer, pushing each to grow much further than they have before. But it also pushes the full narrative of The High Republic toward its climax, setting the stage for a great final wave of books and novels. As we approach the finish line, I believe the final round has been set up for great success.
The strongest part of the novel is the character work, focusing mostly on Reath Silas. Without going into much detail that isn’t widely available, Reath grows in two aspects: his leadership on solving the problem of the Nameless and his relationships with other Jedi. As one of the most studious Jedi in the Order, he is tasked with solving the problem of the Nameless, using science to try and figure out how they work, hoping to save the lives of many Jedi. This pushes the newly Knighted Jedi into a role much bigger than any single Jedi can take, especially a young man like himself. This book also investigates his relationships with other Jedi (and former Jedi), like Cohmac Vitus, Amadeo Azzazzo, and Azlin Rell (among a few others). Each of these characters opens up new ways to talk about Reath, like his strained relationship with a Master who walked out on him and the Order; a man so consumed by fear he fell to the dark side; and even someone as simple as a friend. By spending so much of the book focusing on a single character, this novel feels stronger all around. This gives the book a great emotional core, and reason to keep turning the page.
That’s not to say other characters don’t grow. We learn a lot about Cohmac Vitus, Azlin, and Amadeo, and each character is given a few moments in which we really dig deep into what makes them tick, or moments that will come to define the rest of their lives forever. These characters may not get as much page time, but I came away with a newfound appreciation for each of them. Amadeo is set up as a fairly strong protagonist for a future series, but I’m not sure where that would come in, as the initiative is coming to an end. Amadeo’s friendship with Reath, and another new connection made during the novel, would set up some interesting future stories for both the Jedi and the Republic/Republic Defense Fleet. While I’m personally excited for the series to come to a complete end, I feel like this book sets up a strong baseline for future stories post Trials of the Jedi.
As a novel, this book works well. There’s some solid plotting, where the book moves along at a good enough clip it is hard to put down. I will say there are times where I was anxious to get back to certain stories and felt like it took a little bit to get back to them, but I think your mileage is going to vary on that specific detail. One thing I appreciated is that the A, B, and C-plots were all given a chance to breathe and gain some momentum, and not always at the same time. Sometimes, I get exhausted when every plotline is firing on all cylinders at once, like in The Rising Storm or in Cataclysm. I personally felt overwhelmed with those books at some points, but this one kept a good balance of darker moments and levity. (This is noted specifically by Mann in his acknowledgements – please read these as an interesting new angle on him as an author and on the book!)
This book takes a lot of advantage of George Mann’s interests. In both Star Wars and Doctor Who, Mann is interested in the myths and the fables of the galaxy. By using Reath and Cohmac, characters created by Claudia Gray, as his own stand-in characters to investigate the goings of the galaxy, especially related to those old legends. This gives the book a much more grand feeling and narrative, making it feel more mythic and more connected to some other stories. These are the types of novels that will make sure THR doesn’t feel like an island, but a living and breathing part of SW history.
I did notice something personally while reading this book I thought I would share in this review even though it’s not 100% connected with this book. In the climax, some characters battle some Nameless. (This doesn’t feel like a spoiler since the whole era has really moved to these creatures.) While I was interested to see how it would affect the characters, I’m started to feel a little fatigued with these fights, as they are starting to feel very similar. I would like to see the next Wave of this Phase move into different types of climactic battles, including space fights and battles with regular Nihil again. While I’ve found the Nameless to be mostly compelling, even if I didn’t really vibe with the description of Force-eaters at first, but I’ve felt like we’ve moved almost too much to focus on them. I would have liked the Jedi Hunter, Sicarus, to have had a bit more of a commanding presence as the big villain of the novel. But I admit: this is a “well, dude, you do read every piece of this” thing, so again, your mileage may vary. I’m starting to feel the lack of Marchion Ro in the Phase as a whole, too. I found the discoveries made in the book to be interesting, as they seemed very evident to me as the readers, but ground-breaking to the characters. This is probably because I assume the characters are omniscient and know that they are in Phase III, Wave 2, so it’s not a totally fair critique. Reath makes some groundbreaking discoveries in the first part of the book that we learned from the crawl, something he doesn’t have any experience with.
This next note is very hard to make without spoilers, so I’ll try my best: this book is hard, right at release, to fit into the timeline. Certain events in The High Republic – Phase III from Marvel aren’t acknowledged, and other events in Beware the Nameless are acknowledged well past the point where I was confused (not too much, but a little). This book also came out a little too late, after the first issue of The High Republic Adventures: Echoes of Fear, so I find the meta-textual side of the releases interesting. But none of this will probably affect most people’s enjoyment of the novel.
Aside from some overall, big-picture The High Republic stuff, I really, really enjoyed The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless. I’m likely to keep this in at least my top 5 list of THR projects. Go and read this.
Chris is Mynock Manor’s Sous Chef. You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.