Five Quick Points About The High Republic: The Fallen Star

Some mild spoilers for The HighRepublic: The Fallen Star will be discussed in this piece.

I’ve had some time to process the amazing heartbreak that was Star Wars The High Republic: The Fallen Star. Claudia Gray gets Star Wars on a level that not a lot of people can. She’s so good at balancing character beats with plot narratives, making every single book a memorable ride. While it broke my heart, The Fallen Star is easily one of my favorites of this era.

My fellow Geeky Waffle, Arezou, reviewed the novel already, offering up many points that I agree with. But I wanted to make a few of my own, some positive and some critical. While I love this era, nothing is perfect and there is plenty to discuss about The Fallen Star.

Let’s get into it!

1. The Vessel Crew needs a spin-off of some kind

If you left The Fallen Star not loving the Vessel crew, I don’t know what to tell you.

This was their book. I’ve said before that Leox Gyasi is one of my favorite characters of this era. Everything that man does is perfect in every way. I liked Affie okay in Into the Dark, but she really got so many stellar moments this time around. I loved watching her step up into a leadership role. And Geode shined in multiple places, being both a comic relief and a badass.

They were the MVP’s of this story to me. The Vessel crew was the support the Jedi needed, showing that normal people can be just as formidable and brave as the magic space wizards. Again and again, Leox, Affie, and Geode were involved in every major moment in some way. They saved lives with nothing more than their wit and ingenuity. It really captured the Star Wars theme that while Jedi represent hope, an everyday person can make that hope happen.

I need so much more of the Vessel crew. I’d love an animated miniseries of their adventures, even if it was short form like Forces of Destiny. As long as Dan Bittner returns to voice Leox. Sorry, Marc Thompson! I adore you, especially your Thrawn novels. But Dan Bittner is more my personal preference this time around. Probably because Bittner’s take was the first time I heard Leox, so it stuck in my brain.

Speaking of the audiobooks… 

2. The audiobooks discrepancies

Something I was well aware of when it comes to audiobooks is characters are going to sound different when different voice actors are reading these stories. That’s totally understandable and to be expected.

What I have a big problem with is when accents are changing and nowhere near consistent. I’ve been able to let go of some of them like Avar wavering from American to British from book to book. But when it comes to The Fallen Star, I cannot stand how drastically different Orla Jareni’s accent is.

The week leading up to The Fallen Star, I had been listening to Into the Dark on audiobook for fun, so her voice was very fresh in my mind. Orla has a pretty straightforward American-sounding accent in Into the Dark. Then when I got to The Fallen Star, she has this thick, Eastern European accent that’s one step away from Frau Farbissina in Austin Powers. It’s almost comically over the top.

It was so jarring how drastically different it was that I could not listen to Orla chapters on audiobook. I already have difficulty processing audio, being a visual person. The lack of consistency with her accent from book to book truly did throw me off and ripped me out of the enjoyment of the story.

It makes me wonder what’s happening with so many accents changing. Dan Bittner at least tries to match Marc Thompson’s Marchion Ro. Even Keylor Leigh in Out of the Shadows tries to match Bittner’s Cohmac even though it’s way, way out of her vocal range, but there is an effort to get Cohmac’s gravitas and timbre.

Why did this not happen the other way around in The Fallen Star? I get that Marc Thompson is like the Star Wars audiobook guy, and I adore him in Light of the Jedi and The Rising Storm. He gave life to Eli Vanto in the Thrawn novels, something I will always thank him for. But his Orla made me wonder what’s happening behind the scenes. Is there no voice director or overhead to make sure these accents are consistent from book to book? Are the audiobooks really so much of an afterthought that no one cares if they’re at least similar? Where is the attention to these details?

Again, as someone who struggles to process audio, I have to ask for more consistency when it comes to accents. In an era where none of these characters are currently on-screen, audiobooks are a defining part of them. It needs to stay the same as much as possible.

3. I wish we were on Starlight more

I know we’ve been technically on Starlight Beacon since the beginning. It’s been in the Marvel comics, the Adventures run, and shown in the books. But I just don’t feel like I know the station that well. Maybe if we had more focus on the different areas in the novels or got more maps or cutaway features in the comics.

Thinking about this from the point of view of someone who only read the adult novels, they have had barely any time on the station. It’s such a major set piece that doesn’t get much time in these three big books. Despite what the authors have said about how everything is important (more on that in a second), there are going to be fans who don’t read every single piece of media. Heck, I’m one of them. I still have Tempest Runner, Trail of Shadows, and The Monster of Temple Peak waiting for me to tackle because there is only so much time in a day.

While it makes sense that Starlight Beacon goes down and it’s a fantastic tragic finale, I don’t know how big of an impact that is to other fans. I wish we got some more time on the station personally. I would have loved to see more artwork, maps, and such to really showcase every part of the station. Maybe we can get an art book breaking down various rooms! But I am a sucker for cutaway maps personally. It would be cool if we got to see more of it, letting the set piece almost thrive as a character of its own.

And while we’re on the subject of fans reading only certain books…

4. The Kingdom Hearts problem

I’m not going to delve into this point too much, since I’ve already talked at length about The High Republic’s Kingdom Hearts problem. But basically, I take issue with how The High Republic is being presented. When we’re told that everything is important, that leads to issues as many fans are not going to read everything. The constant medium hopping is difficult to keep up with leading to holes in the narrative.

I really wondered how The Fallen Star would work for people who hadn’t read more than the adult line of books. Would the Vessel crew work as well without their backstory? Would Orla’s narrative be as poignant? Would they even know who Nan or Chancey Yarrow are? Avar’s been pretty much missing in action in the books since Light of the Jedi, most of her story in the Marvel comics run.

As I have read most of The High Republic, I had no problem with The Fallen Star. But I do share the same sentiment as others wondering how this novel will work for those who are behind or simply don’t want to read everything.

5. I wish this book was the last thing to be released of Phase I

I want to preface this point by saying there are still comics, Edge of Balance vol 2, and Midnight Horizon still to come. I don’t know what happens in any of those except what we’ve seen in previews. This point could become null and void after they’re released.

Now that that’s out of the way…

I wish that The Fallen Star was the last thing to drop in Phase I. It’s such a statement piece. It commands being the final word of this phase of storytelling. Phase I is still going to be lingering through February. It feels strange there’s a handful of comics, a manga, a novel, and a middle-grade book left if you’re like me waiting for Mission to Disaster to drop a physical copy. The Fallen Star was such a huge bang, and I wonder if the rest can match it.

It also made me wonder about some of the writing choices in The Fallen Star. The book was very careful not to mention any comic book characters. There were passages about Avar, Maru, and “the other Jedi.” It’s clearly hiding the identities of those other characters. At the time of writing this, we know that Sskeer and Keeve are with Avar and Maru. We’ve had previews of Qort and Torban Buck with Emerick and Sian on what looks to be Starlight Beacon. It feels like trying to avoid possibly spoiling these stories dictated how The Fallen Star was written.

It makes me wonder if The Fallen Star came out last, then would those “other Jedi” characters be named? Would they be shown in the novel? Would it be one last moment of catharsis for every one lost in the tragedy?

That’s just my opinion. Again, I don’t know what’s to come. Perhaps Midnight Horizon and Edge of Balance are going to be showstoppers to tie up the end of Phase I. It’s just The Fallen Star truly feels like a season finale of a television show. I wish it was the last thing to drop in Phase I to be the final word.

What were your thoughts of The High Republic: The Fallen Star? Sound off in the comments below!