The Starbird Files

In the week four task of the Inner Jedi guided journal, we are asked to write about our 5 favorite Jedi and the qualities we admire about them. So I decided to add my journal entry here for everyone to read, I wouldn’t say these are necessarily my favorite Jedi, but the five I connect to the most and find qualities I most aspire to. 1.Obi-Wan Kenobi For me Obi-Wan is one of the most steadfast of the Jedi, he cares deeply about those around him but sticks to his principles. He has lost mo much, his mentor, his love, his brother and his Jedi family. Yet he remains true to himself and the order. 2. Qui-Gon Jinn The most philosophical of the Jedi and in touch with the nature of the force. “It matters which side we choose. Even if there will never be more light than darkness. I don’t turn towards the light because it means someday I’ll win some sort of cosmic game. I turn towards it because it is the light. ” “You’ve made mistakes, Qui-Gon. You’ve touched the darkness.” “Yes, I have. No dou...

  The Queen’s Bloom - Zoraida Córdova   Everyone’s favorite Phase II character (except mine), Axel Greylark is the focus of the first story of the anthology, and he is at university causing trouble and skiving off work using his status (there’s a surprise!). Despite this, he takes time to make friends with the lower paid staff and even helps a janitor with money - do I like Axel now? When a swish party is attacked by a gang of thieves Axel has a telling first meeting with a pivotal person a character in his life. The most interesting part of the story for me was meeting Axel’s father Lexxir who was clearly a very good influence on his son, and shows just how much his death would affect Axel in the future. 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑 /5 A Closed Fist Has No Claws - Tessa Gratton The second story sees Marda Ro traveling the galaxy, looking for more Evereni, all the while gathering followers and feeding the occasional Jedi to the Leveler. She finds Evereni twins on the planet Siquay, and a possib...

  Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott REVIEW   *Spoiler Heavy* The final book of Phase II, although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the second part of Project Luminous, going into Path of Vengeance I did feel that it had a lot of heavy lifting to do to show why this detour 150 years in the past was needed. But if anyone could pull it off it’s Cavan Scott. While the comics and books of phase I were interlinked and part of one story, this phase has taken this to a whole new level with books overlapping, seeing the same events from different angles and perspectives. Path of Vengeance takes place during the Battle of Jedha through Cataclysm, bringing together characters from Path of Deceit and the High Republic comics, as well as references to the middle grade books. If you were wondering where Marda was in Cataclysm, the answer was right here. Clinging desperately to her beliefs despite all evidence to the contrary, she is the most devoted earnest follower of the Path, which leads her to ta...

Anticipation for me was high, not because I was expecting a lot of announcements (I wasn’t), but because I’ve been to two Celebrations before and had a great time but it was just me & my wife, Debra. This time around I was going to know a bunch of people because of Star Wars Sessions as well as folks from Instagram. On Thursday I went to the ExCel, probably too early to meet Sessions people. But it was fun to hang around and soak up the atmosphere, there were some cosplayers, people going in to collect their badges. Met up with my friend Jimmy from Kansas, then Matt & Luke from SWS, Luke aka One Quarter Portion aka the King of Wales, and others before we headed to Seven Dials Market to meet more people and eat. It was a fun appetizer to the weekend to come. The Session crew at Seven Dials Market Day One I arrived at about 9am and joined the queue for admission at 10am, I pulled out my copy of Cataclysm and immediately someone started talking to me about the High Republic. This ...

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...