The Fallen Star Review [SPOILERS!]
The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray (Del Rey)
The third adult novel of Project Luminous comes with considerable expectations given the success of the era so far and that it closes out the first phase of this huge publishing initiative. Then add in that it’s written by Claudia Gray, probably the most lauded Star Wars author of recent years, and that the promotional materials have been showing us that Starlight Beacon was going to be destroyed for months, leading many of us to wonder just what are they hiding if they’re showing us this! It would be difficult for any book to live up to all this, would The Fallen Star succeed?
One of Claudia Gray’s great strengths are the relationships between her characters, like Ciena and Thane in Lost Stars or Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in Master and Apprentice. Happily this trend continues, building some great bonds and fascinating friendships between Stellan and Elzar, Orla and Stellan, Bell and Burryaga. In The Rising Storm I hadn’t really found a connection with Stellan or Elzar, I found Stellan too clinical and Elzar too selfish, but here all that changed for me, I especially loved Elzar’s struggle and commitment to come to terms with his actions on Valo as well as his love and care for his friends. Both characters were changed in my mind by their relationship with Orla Jareni, Orla acting as Elzar’s mentor, and challenging Stellan’s relationship with the Order by making him question who he would be without the force. There are fascinating interactions between these three, but by far my favorite is the friendship between Bell Zettifar and Burryaga. I’ve loved Burryaga since Light of the Jedi but he’s always been more of a secondary character, in The Fallen Star he is afforded a much greater role, and his friendship with Bell so pure and wholesome - everyone needs a friend like Burry.
After a spate of attacks by the Nihil on remote planets, Starlight Beacon is receiving refugees and stricken ships, this together with Avar Kriss having taken a force of Jedi to hunt down Lourna Dee (still the assumed leader of the Nihil), means that the Jedi remaining are stretched thin. This is the moment Marchion Ro uses to attack the outpost (Marchion always has plans on plans), sending a small, and fervent team to sabotage the Jedi’s pride and joy. They disable not only the communications but the internal transport lifts and escape pods, this is a clever trick by Gray in my opinion as it limits the action to a small group of characters in a relatively small section of a massive location, which creates a sense of claustrophobia and helplessness. The tension is ratcheted up further by the ticking clock of when the incapacitated space station will enter the atmosphere of Eiram and crash, and the presence of several of the ‘Leveler’ creatures we initially encountered in The Rising Storm adds a deep sense of dread and foreboding.
Gray creates a deep sense of frustration with the Jedi as they repeatedly send Jedi after Jedi to investigate what is creating the husks, I wanted to scream at them to send a non-force user instead. But the Jedi are heroes, they are trained that when there is danger they should place themselves before it, so of course they keep going to try to discover what it is. However they have never encountered something like ‘The Leveler’ threat that targets them specifically so when Elzar steps up and recognizes that non-force users must seal off the level it makes me want to hug him. The presence of the Vessel’s crew and their side story with Koley Linn (is it weird I hate him more than Marchion Ro and the Nihil?) adds a much needed ordinary person perspective, as well as some levity - Geode continues to be hilarious.
The ending is suitably brutal, in the slow death of Starlight the final moments arrive suddenly, with Elzar who has worked so hard throughout succumbing to his anger and killing Chancey Yarrow, dooming the station finally to crash on Eiram, it’s a heartbreaking moment especially as he comes to his senses and realizes what he has done. Stellan completes his arc, as stripped of the force he steers Starlight away from the city and into the sea, saving countless lives, proving to himself that even without the Jedi he would still be same person, trying to help others. People will compare Elzar to Anakin but I feel so much more for Elzar and his struggle, as unlike Anakin he recognizes his own flaws, Claudia Gray has made both of these characters more human and relatable to me.
I have few criticisms of this book but my main bugbear was that Avar Kriss was barely in the book, I was kind of expecting this to be the first time we really got all three of the constellation together in a book, and now we never will. But I would hazard to guess that we will get what she was up to during The Fallen Star in the main High Republic comic. All three of the High Republic adults books have focused on a different disaster, the Hyperspace Disaster, the Valo Republic Fair, and now Starlight Beacon. There are times in THR books where almost too much time is spent building up to these big events, tension and building dread has a limited lifespan and can become frustrating.
So what about those expectations? The Fallen Star met and exceeded my expectations in some ways, subverted and went in different directions in others. I honestly expected more deaths of big characters than we got, but every one was emotional and impactful, Burryaga? Really Claudia!? The building back up and then fall of Elzar hit particularly hard, and I wait with baited breath to find out whether he confides in Avar. This book is an easy 5 Star for me and probably my favorite High Republic book so far.
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕 /5
Jonny O
If you liked this Review then please check out;
Light of the Jedi The Rising Storm Ronin: A Visions Novel
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