When temptation rises, who will succumb? The entire galaxy is faced with individual choices when the Nihil Stormwall hides even darker and more dangerous secrets than initially thought. Read Chris’s review of Temptation of the Force and see how the next chapter in The High Republic reads!
The Nihil’s plan to conquer the galaxy (or, at least, part of it) and deal a decisive blow to the Jedi is coming to a climax. With the installation of the dangerous Stormwall, their control of the Force-defying creatures called the Nameless, and the spreading blight across the galaxy, the Jedi are in a really hard place. But sometimes, it’s really hard to care about all of that when you’ve got something like the smoldering storm of a relationship between Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann, huh? Temptation of the Force is a novel jam-packed with stories, some that may attract some readers more than other stories, but one that has to carry a great burden of lots of stories and lots of expectations. And thankfully, I believe this novel can carry that burden fairly well. It may not be as load-bearing as some may like, but the plot of the whole Phase feels like it is pushed forward fairly strongly and all of our characters go through a great period of growth.
That last comment leads me into one of the best parts of this novel: every character in this novel is “tempted” by something. Now, using the word “temptation” suggests every character is given a choice to do evil or to do good, but I don’t think that’s entirely the best read of the novel’s choice of the word temptation. Instead, you could simply read it as: every character is given a choice in this novel, one where any decision they make would irrevocably change them and their growth trajectory. Despite having a lot of POVs in this novel (which I will return to), I really do think almost every character in this novel has a distinct moment in which they are “tempted” to make a choice, and this choice becomes central for almost all of them. Some of the choices are bigger than others, of course: “should I kill this character?” “what should I do about the love boiling inside of me?” “should I listen to her and make the right choice?” etc. but all leave a mark. This, I feel, is one of the most important things a THR novel can do: take the characters we’ve come to love over a long period of time and show they still have the capacity for growth. As Tessa Gratton changes our characters, showing they have a full grasp of the people we care about, the stakes (both personal and galactic) are so much greater for the galaxy.
I mentioned there are a lot of POV chapters in this book. I think they can be narrowed down to only a few: Elzar/Avar; Bell/Burryaga; Porter Engle; Marchion Ro. As I’ve spoken with others who have read it, they have felt like there were up to six or seven more POVs. This may be true in the most technical sense, but as I read it, it felt like these were the four major stories. Each one is fairly engaging, even as they move at different speeds. (One moves at lightspeed while another, in my opinion, crawls.) Almost every POV is one where I’d want to spend more time in, but at the same time, would not have complained to move to the next. One POV, the Engle story, was too repetitive for me (for reasons I don’t want to get into due to spoilers), and it was the only one where I felt like I was ready to move on. The ending to this POV was especially unsatisfying to me, but I really do think your mileage will vary.
But I would be remiss to not mention the reason we’re all here: Elzar and Avar. These two, and their relationship, has been, more or less, the emotional core of the initiative. Readers, let me tell you: there’s a lot to look forward to. (I can already imagine all of the tweets and the roller coaster we can all look forward to when this hits a wide release.) I would say no matter what you expect or think, you’ll most likely be surprised. One thing that surprised me was that I was engaged with it. Readers of this site know I don’t always connect well with romance stories, but as these two are brought together again and again, I was surprised how engaged I still remained. This, I think, is due both to the strength of Gratton’s writing and how much I liked the characters.
As Phase III of The High Republic continues on, the stakes grow higher and higher – both for the characters and the readers. When I initially sat down to write this review, one thing I noted was how hard it was for me to review this book on its own merits, and how easily I was holding this book up against the standards of the real world. “How does this book function as a sort-of penultimate book in this initiative?” “How does this book hold up as the middle book of the trilogy?” And sure, I do think these are interesting questions, but I think a sprawling initiative like this one makes this question even harder to answer. That being said, I think I can comment on that just a bit. As a middle chapter of Phase III, I think this novel succeeds for the most part. I almost think I would have liked one or two of the stories to have wrapped up here and not be left for another novel, but I can see every part of this novel (the Drengir, the blight, Marchion and the Nihil, Elzar and Avar) were left for a grand finale in Charles Soule’s upcoming Trials of the Jedi. As a middle chapter, I’m left anxiously waiting the finale of the Phase, even though I really don’t think I want this story to end!
This also leads me to one more comment about this novel. Other than the Porter Engle storyline, I feel like this is one of the THR novels that was the easiest to read on its own. I can’t think of many (any?) places outside of his story I really felt like I was missing a key part of the context. I would be surprised if we didn’t read anything else from this novel from the point of view of another story teller, but thankfully, it didn’t feel incomplete.
Temptation provides a strong middle chapter to the final Phase of THR. I wouldn’t read it on its own, as it feels like a book waiting for a completion, but it pushes all of our characters forward into the endgame and definitely left me wanting more.
UPDATE from the Editor, Ryan on 6/11/24: In the build-up to release, Lucasfilm Publishing Creative Director Michael Siglain released new concept art! One was from Ario Anindito (The High Republic comic series from Marvel) of Cair San Tekka, which is a colorized version of earlier Cair art released, though the initial released image was an outdated version with incorrect skin tone but the right one was released shortly after. The rest are from artist Diogo Saito, who does a great job with some cool, more action-focused poses: Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann (whose own skin tone was been questionable represented of late but is done more than right here), Burryaga, Bell Zettifar & Ember, and Yoda. Check them all out below:
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.
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book 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.