Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Worldwide Publishing/Disney Lucasfilm Press for allowing me to read and review this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own. I have not been following the comics as closely as the novels. I don't think you absolutely need to read the comics to understand who is who and what's going on. I think the High Republic line of novels is such a fantastic way of keeping the Star Wars books alive especially when the original story has been written and watched so many times. Don't get me wrong I love Star Wars but I love learning about new characters, new lore, and new adventures. Midnight Horizon is a great continuation and builds on established characters and development on new ones. 4.5 stars

***Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Worldwide Publishing for providing a copy of the book. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.*** OMFG. This book was so good. I stayed up until 2:30 AM this morning because I could not put it down. It is hard to talk about this book without giving away spoilers because so much happens! So, I'll just start by saying something big to give you an idea of how much I adored this book. This is now my favorite of all The High Republic books! Not only that, this book has some of the best Star Wars scenes to ever grace the page. I read A LOT of Star Wars. So, for me to stay that is truly the highest praise I can think of. I was hooked from the opening scene. Older's style of describing action completely sucked me into the story, and the opening set the stage for all the awesome stuff to come. The world-building was excellent, and I loved the grittiness of Corellia and getting to see more of that world. Jedi in an all out bar brawl? Who knew that's exactly what I needed to read? lol. I will say, however, that it took me a while to get used to the writing of some of the main characters because the first two parts of the book utilized a more juvenile writing style. If you like Older's humor, you'll probably really like it, but if you don't, please hang in there because it faded more into the background as the book progressed. Personally, I didn't mind it and actually found some of the jokes quite funny, but the writing style for the first third of the book felt like it would have been more appropriate for a middle grade installment. I enjoyed each of the characters' journeys in this book. Reath struggled with finding his path, which is something I think most teenager's (and many adults) can easily relate to, and Ram had to figure out how to balance his extreme emotions. The characters from Older's comic book series also played a huge role here, and I enjoyed seeing Zeen grow up a lot while having to deal with her feelings about Lula and Krix. The new characters were enjoyable and had a found family feel to them, and Crash's character taught important lessons about the downfalls of isolating yourself from those you love and the privilege often associated with neutrality. I was quite surprised to see the adult characters get so much character development, as well. I loved getting to know Kantam better, and Cohmac made some big decisions here that left me feeling unsettled. There were so many great themes in this book, but the ones that resonated with me the most were attachment and emotional balance. All of the character's struggled with these topics as they fought for their lives and watched the horror at Starlight Beacon unfold from afar. Older used his words expertly to build scenes that had me right there alongside the characters as they tackled these things head ...

The product mostly looks great except for the back cover is a little damaged. I bought as a gift, so thats a little disappointing. I'm they will still enjoy reading it.