The High Republic: Temptation of the Force Review

spoilers ahead!!

"The reunited Jedi prepare to strike back against the ruthless Nihil in this thrilling sequel to Star Wars: The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness"

Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton is the second adult novel in the High Republic phase III, and wow does it deliver! The book follows Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann as they battle the Nihil occupation together while finally acknowledging the feelings they've had for each other for their whole lives. Alongside Jedi Knights Bell Zettifar, Burryaga, and Vernestra Rwoh (of live action fame), the Jedi break through the occlusion zone and liberate the planet of Naboo. Using the technologies created by Avon Starros and Xylan Graf, will our heroes be able to keep Naboo free, or will their attempts to liberate the galaxy be doomed....

Overall I enjoyed reading this book, though it felt a little disconnected at times. This is a problem I've noticed throughout all the phase III books where the books are just compilations of small events happening without a central event tying everything together. Whereas in Phase I and II we got books centered on the Battle of Jedha, or the Republic Fair on Valo, phase III gives us books about characters bouncing from planet to planet with an unclear or uninteresting goal. I first noticed this in The Eye of Darkness, but Defy the Storm also continued this trend. Temptation of the Force was a little better, but just when I thought we were settling into the main event (the liberaton of Naboo), said event was over in just a few chapters. I would've loved to see the book spend a lot more time on Naboo, even if it was at the expense of other plot points.

A plot point that I really DID enjoy, however, was the continuation of Porter Engle's centuries-long battle with General Viess. This was one of my favorite parts of The Eye of Darkness, and Gratton did an amazing job of weaving plot points from the phase II comic miniseries The Blade into their shared narrative. I especially loved the callback to Barash Silvain, who (despite Wookieepedia stating otherwise), I think we may see again. Porter moving away from Jedi teaching to finally defeat Viess was really interesting, as it shows the slippery slope of trying to match the power of the dark side while remaining a warrior of the light. I am very excited to see where Porter ends up from here!

The marketing of this book relied heavily on the relationship between Avar and Elzar, and, yeah, that was definitely a big part of the book. Since Stellan died in The Fallen Star their relationship has really intensified, and especially since Avar arrived back in Republic Space. While the two are working through their feelings for each other, Elzar is offered a spot on the Jedi High Council, which I thought was a good storytelling choice. Making him figuratively choose between the Jedi and Avar was interesting, and it was even more interesting to me that he turned down the spot. I didn't really think that this part of the story was going to interest me since I've only really been passively interested in this romantic pairing, but seeing Avar being confidently in love with Elzar was really nice. I think I just like seeing characters in love, but when they kissed (and did a little more) I may or may not have gasped in joy.

The next line in my notes just says "zettifurry," so let's talk about that! Bell and Burry were both amazing in this book, especially seeing their friendship (or a little more ?!) evolve. I thought that Gratton did a great job exploring how the Nihil occupation has affected them both, and having read Bell's story in Tales of Light and Life and seeing how both he and Burry never gave up hope in the face of danger helped with being able to more fully understand where they both are at mentally in this book. Burry's extreme empathy comes back in a very important way, which was a neat callback to Light of the Jedi, in which he was the first Jedi able to sense the people being sent toward Hetzal's sun. Being able to connect with the mysterious blight was really sick; really everything about Burry's story made me excited. When Burryaga was able to identify that the blight was "homesick," I one again gasped, but this time in excitement and intrigue. Maybe we're returning to Planet X, which would be sweet.

Speaking of the blight, Marchion Ro's main journey throughout the book is studying the blight, its causes, its effects, and how possibly he could use it to his advantage. One of my criticisms with The Eye of Darkness was that there wasn't enough Marchion for my taste. Well this book certainly improves upon that, demonstrating that Ro can still be a formidable and interesting villain. All of his experiments kept me on the edge of my seat, and the final words of the book cemented that we're going to never-before-seen places in the next few books. I also really enjoyed Marchion's (brief) interaction with Vernestra, the latter of whom I would've liked to see more of throughout the rest of the book. I'm still loving Marchion's visions of Marda Ro, who is one of my favorite star wars characters period.

Overall this book was an enjoyable read, but it did take a while to get my interest. As mentioned before, I would really prefer phase III to take a note from phases I and II and focus more on specific events, but I still had a good time reading. Gratton did a great job tying into both previous phases; I especially liked the reappearance of the Drengir and their connection to the blight. Despite this, I think that the sheer amount of loose ends, characters, and plot events that have to be tied up or mentioned in each phase III book now is making the stories a little monotonous to read. Like I didn't even get to mention Cair San Tekka, who is a huge part of this book (and who I, unfortunately, don't care that much about), Ghirra Starros, or Lina Soh. Temptation of the Force was a fun read, if not a little tedious at times. Tessa Gratton is a great author — Path of Deceit is one of my favorite star wars books — but I just couldn't get too into this story. I would recommend this to anyone who likes the High Republic as a whole, but especially anyone who liked Out of the Shadows or Defy the Storm. 7.5/10, pretty alright!