– Mild Spoiler Review –
After 20 years, Steven Barnes returns to Star Wars with the novel Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss, a mesmerizingly detailed character study which puts the titular character through a unique and engaging situation only he seems suited to solve.
Set shortly after the events of The Phantom Menace, Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss begins with the Jedi Master receiving a post-humous message from Qui-Gon Jinn, asking him to follow through on Jinn’s promise to protect the Outer Rim world of Metagos. When Mace Windu arrives, he finds himself in the middle of a complicated situation, where two criminal factions have a chokehold on the planet, where class and wealth separate the local population, while a group called the Sa’ad navigates both factions as they protect and harness a native species’ silk making capabilities, the planet’s main export. It’s quickly apparent the situation on the planet is densely complicated, and Steven Barnes’ expressive and heavy world-building makes it an engaging mystery to unfurl as readers are pulled in as deeply as Mace is to the world’s secrets. As compelling as the overall story ends up being, the opening portion of The Glass Abyss can drag, with Barnes’ attention to detail working against it initially, but once it picks up steam and it’s clear the devil’s in the details to what’s really going on, it all feels worth it in the end. In the days and weeks since I finished the novel, the planet, its people, and the struggles there have stuck with me in large part to Barnes’ near exhaustive exploration of each facet, with a prose which mesmerizes as much as its subject matter does. In some recent novels, including High Republic ones, the stories often are too busy planet-hopping to really give each one a sense of place, so the intense focus on Metagos here, much like John Jackson Miller did with Kwenn in The Living Force (which Mace also stars in!), makes the planet a character of its own, aiding readers to feel as connected as Mace becomes to its struggles in his journey to save its people. The struggles which Metagos and its people face break out into an all-out battle for the soul of the planet, but the fighting and rousing speeches to each side’s troops play out too long, with the fighting becoming exhaustive to read as I’m sure such conflicts actually do, while the speeches get too repetitive, they all start sounding the same. However, the overall finale of The Glass Abyss, and some of the intriguing events with the planet and Mace’s and its people’s efforts, more than make up for it. Because of Barnes’ descriptive tendencies, any combat is often visceral, bloody, and detailed, often hammering the point home too much, but it does paint a tough picture for all combatants involved, while it makes for some late in the book reveals about an unseen menace all the more terrifying, in a good way. As for Mace himself, which I’ll go over more in a moment, this novel is a character study for the ages, as it ends up going in some surprising directions (raising eyebrows in the most interesting of ways) and explores his unique relationship to the Jedi Order. Other characters might not reach the same heights because of the intense focus on Mace, but most of the direct supporting cast gets their due (even a droid character!), while The Glass Abyss’ most prominent antagonist, Chulok, felt like they needed just a smidge more focus to make them credible as a larger threat to the galaxy, unless the point was they shouldn’t actually feel capable of such expansion. In the end, Barnes’ fantastic prose is a double-edged sword, but one side is much much sharper, the details and depth he plumbs from his meticulous examinations, than the other, pacing and lack of exploration of other characters.
For Mace Windu specifically, I know the standard bearer for exploring the character has long been Matthew Stover’s Shatterpoint, the literal ability from the title getting a sly reference here, so Glass Abyss had a lot to live up to/prove in some ways. I can comfortably say, out of the two, I felt like Glass Abyss was the more intriguing and multi-faceted character study overall, but both are worth a read for fans of the Jedi Master. I appreciated most how the novel doesn’t necessarily worry about pushing Mace to or from the dark side, but rather it explores his connection to the Force, the Order, and its tenants through aspects like his Vaapad fighting style, his penchant for violence, his past, his connections to others, and even what being in the Order going forward should and could mean for him. Some of the deepest explorations come from his time with the Sa’ad, a group of people who live in connection with the planet and protect and nurture a native species which produce their silk export, and their leader, KinShan Nightbird, a woman who knows the situation with the dueling crime lords will spell doom for their planet if someone doesn’t intervene. KinShan and Mace develop a deep, in unexpected ways, and interesting friendship, as Mace attempts to solve the problems facing her people/the planet, while also coming to learn her people’s ways, which is spurred on from his increasing lack of sleep and slipping connection to the Force and KinShan believes their ways hold his remedies. His time with the Sa’ad, learning their ways, and the Hillian silk worms they nurture were my favorite parts/aspects of the novel, as his exploration of their teachings leads us to some surprising glimpses into his past and his psyche. While undercover for this mission, Mace goes by the name Solver, which is a fitting but ironic name as he certainly arrives on Metagos with the intention of solving what ails the people and the planet, but he also has to solve himself and what he wants from the Force and the Order going forward, especially his warrior-like ways and the effective strength of his acts of violence. Barnes’ willingness to dive so deeply into the character, in such an arresting and memorable way, is to our benefit, as the simple question about his place in the Jedi Order and what he comes to understand about himself by Glass Abyss’ end, while a foregone conclusion considering its place in the timeline, helps crystalize the character for what we know is still to come for him.
It’s not just KinShan which Mace interacts with, as he gains allies and enemies on all sides, with many locals left wondering, and hoping, he’ll be able to help. I loved the idea of having Maya-12, one of a triplet of holo-droids at a local watering hole, be such an important part of the story, and it helps Barnes gives the character just as much heart as the others, with some expressive and interesting POV moments which I hope can be matched with more droid characters in the future. The bartender, Vin-Vin, is a weary man who tries to balance a precarious peace, but slowly feels emboldened by the Solver’s, aka Mace’s, presence, and while he reads like your stereotypical bartender, he gets to break out of his shell towards the end. It’s through Vin-Vin and Maya-12, of all characters, we get a sense for the population’s awakening thanks to Mace’s actions, which allows Barnes to make a great point about complacency and taking the first step into owning one’s actions which lead to it, and then taking the next step and doing something about it, no matter who initially lit the fire which now burns beneath you.
On the opposite of Maya and Vin-Vin are the two opposing syndicate factions, Sybil and Chulok’s group, which maintain a fragile peace to maintain the status quo. The Syblins resemble a beehive to some degree, with the hundreds of children from their Queen Sybil assigned numbers, not names, and their ubiquitous presence is a strong deterrent to others. Chulok and their gang live in a palace high above the city, protecting the wealthy and reminding everyone else who rules, as it’s the blood, sweat, and lives of the ancestors of the Abyss’ citizens who built what looms over them now. Of the two groups, Mace spends much more considerable time with Chulok, who is actually two beings, Chu and Lok, connected due to a unique feature of Chu’s species, and therefore is the more memorable and interesting antagonist. As mentioned earlier, I never quite felt like Chulok was worth their galactic aspirations, unlike Zilastra from The Living Force, but the deadly conjoined pair are a fascinating character locally for Mace to match wits and skills with, and the relationship Mace builds with them does make it a personal and intense situation overall, especially once Mace’s Jedi identity is revealed. How Mace plays both off against each other to pursue the freedom of the locals, and the later the schemes they play with and against one another as the peace between them reaches a breaking point, keeps readers guessing how it’ll all end up, even if the ending seems certain.
The planet Metagos really is a character of its own thanks to Barnes’ prose. The attention to detail and the many layers of its geology described offers an intriguing sense of history for the planet itself, to the point its geographical features have a historical throughline and it logically all makes sense how it has formed and developed over time like it has. Often times I’m sort of half imagining planets as described in a book, only maybe the immediate thing a character’s talking about at that time, unless we’ve seen them in comics, games, or TV shows/movies, but in The Glass Abyss it felt like Barnes was creating a map inside my head of Metagos with how the many characters describe it. Sometimes this was distracting, but it helped ground me in the story more than some other novels try, as it was sort of like a mental VR while reading. Metagos’ ultimate secrets are fascinating, especially how it relates to Mace’s nightly torments, the mysterious “Depth Dwellers” everyone is frightened by but never see thanks to massive ancient gates keeping them at bay, and how the events here seem to fit into the planet’s detailed cycle of destruction and awakening. I’d have read more science books in school had they been as interestingly detailed as this gets about the inner workings of nearly every aspect of the planet and underground city/levels Mace navigates.
Here are a few other things:
- Earlier this year, we were treated to even more Mace Windu goodness in a comic miniseries from Marvel, written by Marc Bernardin with art by Georges Jeanty. It’s a solid, fun 4-issue mini well worth picking up if you’re a fan of the character, new or old, and it ends with an exciting tease there might be more to come. As of this review publishing, Marvel hasn’t announced its plans for 2025 and beyond, but late October hosts NYCC and a Publishing Panel so we can only hope we might find out then if there’s more Mace on the menu!
- Speaking of NYCC, there’s a special edition of this book with a stellar alternative cover, little Mace pin, and it’s signed by the author!
- I found it a little surprising and intriguing Mace mentions his Legends Master, T’ra Saa, several times throughout The Glass Abyss, but never once does he mention his Master Cyslin Myr from the canon Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu comic. I reached out for clarification and essentially was told, while T’ra Saa is mentioned, the book doesn’t intend to have a preference over one teacher or another in Mace’s life. It would seem the point is: like all Jedi, Mace had many different teachers in his life, and we of course shouldn’t get too hung up on it.
- It’s pretty limited in the novel, but there’s something exciting about reading The High Republic references in more material; there’s a Jedi Vector at one point!
- Speaking about limited, it’s definitely even more apparent when a novel lacks LGBTQIA+ representation after reading so many The High Republic stories which champion it, and there’s little to be found in The Glass Abyss. Chulok is initially spoken about with “they” pronouns, but that’s just when talking about the two male individuals which make up the whole, so it gave me hope before letting me down. More representation doesn’t automatically make a book better, that’s not the point, but when we’ve made so much progress, it’s becoming more and more surprising when a book is lacking.
- Update 10/2: There’s a brief interview with Steven Barnes, alongside the first excerpt (audio included) from an early part of the novel and a cool new poster, over at the official site!
Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss by Steven Barnes mesmerizes time and time again with its prose, intense focus on character exploration, and the depths it plumbs for the planet and those who inhabit it, leaving us with a book which should turn anyone into a fan of Mace.
+ Depth of character exploration for Mace Windu
+ Mesmerizing amount of details which hold the key to the story
+ The planet as a character unto itself
+ KinShan and her people
– Sometimes the explanations can be overwhelming
– Finale chugs along with long battles/big repetitive speeches
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, 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.
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The Cestus Deception (Legends Novel)