Simon William Cree

If you've read, or watched, queer teen angst stories, you'll know the thrust of Bloom - a charming, funny, dickhead teen is Going Through It emotionally, and finds himself across a coming-of-age year with the help of a broad shouldered, empathetic himbo boyfriend. The family have money troubles. Our protagonist - Ari - doesn't see eye-to-eye with his father, but they love each other really. The friends all sound like teens from the television.

None of which is to say Bloom isn't well-written (it is!), gorgeously illustrated (it is!) or not worth your time (it is!), but to say that it's firmly one of those queer stories - within the first ten or so pages I knew where this story would go, and how it would play out. That in itself can be a comfort, but often for me places a ceiling on what I'll get out of it.

Shadow of the Sith is one of the Star Wars canon novels I've most looked forward to getting into - with the difficult task as it does of smoothing the rough edges of set-up hinted at during The Rise of Skywalker. 

Luke Skywalker is haunted by visions of Exegol, the hidden world of the Sith; Lando Calrissian, wracked by the kidnapping of his daughter years prior, is on the trail of a young family hunted by agents of the Sith Eternal. Together, the old friends will come face to face with the vastness of a galaxy which can never be fully known, their place within it, and cross paths with a young girl who will grow up to carry the Jedi Master's legacy into the future.

Christopher acquits himself well with a big task, coralling the disparate pieces of plot from a mess of a film into a pacey thriller that explores Lando's grief and sense of emptiness when the war you were a hero of is over, and the the people who matter most are taken from you; and gives greater depth to Luke's state of mind, and the mistakes he will inevitably make, as the timeline barrels towards conflict with the First Order. While it can never quite iron out the issues with Abrams's ham fisted plot decisions, it's a really decent attempt that gives more flair and flavour to an as yet vague part of the canon.

Taking place between the second and third adult novels of the first phase of The High Republic, Trail of Shadows pairs Jedi Master Emerick Caphtor and Private Investigator Sian Holt as the Republic tasks them with unravelling the mystery of the weapon unleashed by the Nihil against the Jedi.

A well-paced noir with all the trappings - shady back-alley deals, smokey piano bars, and femme fatales - this is probably one of the strongest complete stories within The High Republic thus far. The relationship between the two PI's leans into the wider initiatives exploration of the differences between this more liberated Jedi Order and the conservative one of the prequel era, and firmly establishes the threat of The Nameless as this phase ends, and we move into the next.

The High Republic Phase I comes to an end as the comic arc brings us the the fall of Starlight Beacon from the perspective of Jedi Avar Kriss, Keeve Trennis, and the cast of Trail of Shadows and The High Republic Adventures. While it adds nothing wholely new to the ideas explored within The Fallen Star, where we see these events primarily take place, it has some neat sequences that are very much on theme with Avar realising too late how her own obsession with capturing Lorna Dee has driven her to distraction, and some noble sacrifice as Jedi put life and light of others before their own lives.

Unfortunately much of that is undercut by an underwhelming epilogue that fleshes out the motivations of villain Marchion Ro and sets the stage for further Phases, marring what could be a reasonably interesting plot of the dangers of personal animosity and revenge, whether justified or not, with a sweeping narrative that flies far too close to the fantasy trope of ‘race essentialism' for my tastes.

It's unfortunate that this book coincided (and partially caused) my long reading slump this summer and autumn, as I do genuinely think it's an interesting and worthwhile read, focussing on themes and ideas I'm generally interested in, particularly with the linking of poverty, political corruption, US interference and organised crime. For me, it's some of the stylistic choices that hamper it for me, in particular the reliance for portions of the character points of view on stream-of-consciousness. Catch me in my early 20s and I'd be all over it, but as I've matured I think that style of writing can be impactful in small sections, but when elongated over 20, 30 pages is ultimately detrimental to my interest in it.