The Starbird Files

  The Living Force by John Jackson Miller FULL SPOILER Review Set a year before The Phantom Menace, John Jackson Miller’s story sees Qui-Gon Jinn challenge the Jedi Council to reconnect with the living force - the people. So the Council travels to Kwenn, a planet once saved by the Jedi in the era of the High Republic during one of Chancellor Soh’s great works. The planet has fallen on hard times as the hyperspace route that brought it wealth falls out of use, and the Jedi close many Temple outposts in the sector. As the Council travels to Kwenn we get to spend time with every one, and it’s great to get to know the lesser known members a little better, Yarael Poof is hilarious and Even Piell is a lad. We learn what duties the each Master has - Yaddle being in charge of law suits from Jedi actions is pretty funny. While we spend time with each member of the Council, it does feel like Depa Billaba is the main protagonist which made me very happy. She is undercover in a pirate organiza...

Phase II of the High Republic is here and with it comes hype, expectations, a new time period and new authors. I do have worries about this new phase, not the new authors but leaving behind the characters and time period we are used to, and the fact it feels like it’s been a while since Phase I finished, would I still be into the project as much? My other worry was because of the delayed UK release of Path of Deceit and Convergence being my first review copy from Del Rey, I received both books on the same day so I decided to read Convergence first in order to get this review out promptly. How would that effect my reading experience? Phase II is set 150 years BEFORE the events of Phase I, and the story is set on the twin planets, E’ronoh and Eiram who have been at war for decades and focuses on a ceasefire hanging by a thread on the the proposed marriage of Xiri and Phan-tu the children of the respective ruling families. The Jedi, Republic officials, Xiri and Phan-tu must win over the p...

If like me you weren’t really paying attention to NYCC there was a lot of Star Wars publishing news to catch up on, so I went hunting for all the news and collected it here for you too! Let’s begin with High Republic News There were cover reveals for wave 2 of the Phase II Cataclysm by Lydia Kang (Adult Novel, April 2023 Del Rey) Quest for Planet X by Tessa Gratton (Young Reader, April 2023 Disney Lucasfilm) Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott (YA, May 2023 Disney Lucasfilm) There was a new book announced, a YA Anthology announced for July 2023, featuring stories connecting to all three phases, written by all the HR authors - Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Lydia Kang, George Mann, Daniel José Older, Cavan Scott and Charles Soule. There was another new book announced, The Edge of Balance: Precedent the first manga revealed for Phase II by Daniel José Older & Tomio Ogata (Viz Media May 2023). Burryaga will return in children’s book ‘Yoda & the youngli...

Shadow of the Sith is one of the most anticipated Star Wars books of recent years, with a lot of pressure put upon it by many to explain events in the sequel trilogy. So did it live up to expectations? For me it does, not that I expected it to explain everything - we have plenty of time to explore and fill in the intervening years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Let’s not forget that it took    9 years for us to learn why the Clones turned on the Jedi so easily (season 6 of the Clone Wars in 2014). There are two main threads to the story, Lando trying to save Rey’s family from Ochi of Bestoon and Luke’s discovery of a mysterious dark side user. The book is littered with connections to all parts of Star Wars canon, the Acolytes of Beyond first mentioned in the Aftermath trilogy play an important part, Luke goes to Tython which we saw in the Mandalorian, a young Enric Pryde (TROS) makes an appearance as does Shriv Suurgav who first appeared in Battlefront II. T...

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 wi...

Ronin: A Visions Novel by Emma Mieko Candon (Del Rey) Ronin: A Visions novel comes on the heels of the first anime Star Wars series and takes place in the world of The Duel. Star Wars, as we know has a rich influence of japanese culture including the influence of Akira Kurosawa on George Lucas. I thoroughly enjoyed the Visions series and enjoy what little I have experienced of Japanese culture so I was excited to read this novel by Emma Mieko Candon which promised to be a different kind of Star Wars book. And boy is it different! The story kicks off with the events portrayed in The Duel, adding some internal flavor tho the characters we met there. A big mystery is quickly established with the voice that the Ronin hears, and Candon is superb at drip feeding us hints and clues whilst maintaining the air of mystery throughout, in fact we never learn the Ronin’s real name. With such an air of ambiguity coupled with the fact that Visions is not canon, it is easy to accept a kind of timeless...

  Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales Announced On 3rd August the Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales special was announced, coming to Disney+ on 1st October in time for the Halloween season. The description on Star Wars dot com - here - outlines the plot as Poe & BB-8 being forced to land on Mustafar, where they meet a Hutt turning Vader’s Castle into a Sith themed hotel. The premise sounds hilarious and I really enjoyed the Lego Holiday Special that came out last year, Lego always delivers fun Star Wars. Galactic Starcruiser Prices & Trailer Revealed   A new trailer and prices and sample itinerary for the Galactic Starcruiser hotel at Walt DisneyWorld, Florida were released on 4th August to much outcry from the internet over the expense. Whilst the prices are steep, they are about what I was expecting, and to be honest not that much more than some of the more expensive hotels on property. Whilst I don’t expect to ever be able to afford to go, if I could I would go in a sho...