Review: 'The High Republic: Defy the Storm'
Author duo Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland are back with another action-packed young adult High Republic novel.
Review: The High Republic: Defy the Storm
The unstoppable author duo that is Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland is back for another action-packed, character-focused High Republic entry.
This one, Defy the Storm, is the first young adult book in The High Republic Phase 3 and catches up with key characters from Phase 1 books like Out of the Shadows and Mission to Disaster.
I had high expectations for this novel after Gratton and Ireland’s incredible Phase 2 entry Path of Deceit. While I had a great time with Defy the Storm, it didn’t meet those expectations. Instead, it delivered enjoyable and enlightening character studies that I didn’t know I needed.
For a young adult novel, Defy the Storm has a fairly large cast, with the main characters being the cover stars — Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh, teenage genius Avon Starros (Sunvale now), and frontier deputy Jordanna Sparkburn. We’ve met all of them before, but a lot has happened to them in the last year. As such, the book spends quite a bit of time catching up with major plot points of The High Republic through their eyes.
For the the past year since the fall of Starlight Beacon and the rise of the Stormwall, Vernestra has all but cut herself off from the Jedi Order. The loss of her master Stellan Gios and the assumed loss of her Padawan Imri Cantaros have shaken her to her core. She’s lost, so she takes a sabbatical to find herself and her place in the Force again.
Avon has been trapped on the other side of the Stormwall within the heart of the Nihil’s — including her mother’s — power and influence. The young scientist has been forced to grow up and learn to defend herself quickly thanks to her mother’s status as a traitor to the Republic. Avon is hurt, angry, and betrayed — a bitter combination that breeds ideas of violent revenge.
Jordanna, on the other hand, has had a nice year with her girlfriend Sylvestri Yarrow — daughter of the late Chancey Yarrow. Jordanna and Sylvestri have been working with Maz Kanata to take smuggling jobs to help anyone in need around the galaxy. But as a member of the San Tekka family and a former deputy in the Outer Rim, Jordanna can’t help but think about members of her family and her people who are trapped in the Occlusion Zone.
All three young women have important reasons for trying to find a way to traverse the Stormwall, and the novel charts how their paths and goals converge into a nail-biting mission deep into dangerous enemy territory.
While Vernestra seeks information about her lost Padawan and Jordanna wants to reach and help her family, Avon is out for revenge — against her mother and the Nihil scientist who stole and weaponized her research.
To keep this review spoiler-free, that’s all I’ll say about the plot and story beats.
Because of the book’s multi-POV nature and setup, Defy the Storm can at times feel disjointed. The young adult novels typically excel at presenting a solid plotline that connects all the characters and moves their stories forward. Even if they start separately, the characters usually still come together at some point.
In Defy the Storm, the characters are together at certain points, but their goals and stories remain fairly separate for much of the novel. What brings them together is their need to get across the Stormwall, but once they do, they go their separate ways to accomplish their missions before getting back together to go home.
On the plus side, these characters all know each other and have history together — for better or worse, especially where Xylan Graf is concerned. It’s nice seeing them catch up.
While the disjointedness is my main gripe with Defy the Storm, the novel allows more time to be spent in the heads of our main characters. Gratton and Ireland have created beautifully intimate character studies of Vernestra, Jordanna, and Avon in such a relatable way you can’t help but empathize with even their worst decisions.
Jordanna and girlfriend Sylvestri were okay characters in Out of the Shadows, but I have a newfound appreciation for the culture and history of the frontier and the San Tekka family thanks to this book.
It was also incredible to see Avon’s character journey. She’s so young and has already seen and experienced so much trauma. She goes to a dark place in Defy the Storm but never forgets how to bring herself back into the light.
Then there’s Vernestra — the youngest Jedi Knight in years and one of the most personally relatable characters (for me) in Star Wars. Through her story, we get poignant perspectives and commentary on the Jedi’s efforts to fight the Nihil as well as the Order’s evolving dogma and purpose in the galaxy.
Through their stories, there are still big and ominous teases as to where Phase 3 of The High Republic is going next. With the events of The Eye of Darkness, the Jedi are steps closer to reaching those trapped in Nihil space. But with what’s hinted at in Defy the Storm, the Jedi probably won’t like what other horrors they find in the Occlusion Zone.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland is available now from Disney Books.
Thank you to Disney Books for providing a review copy of Defy the Storm.
Phase 3 book reviews
The Eye of Darkness by George Man
Escape From Valo by Daniel Jose Older and Alyssa Wong
