Venture Into the Darkness of Space in Claudia Gray's Latest Star Wars Novel

Into the Dark continues the introduction to the High Republic for another age-group, and shows the great disaster through the eyes of another set of new characters. Besides the threat of the Nihil that was introduced in Light of the Jedi, a new foe, known as the Drengir, is established and the slight information we learn about them is insightful. The presence of the Drengir in Into the Dark isn’t what I was expecting based on the promotion; however, I feel like now that the Drengir are in the picture, we have an idea of what we’re working with for the main antagonists of this era. In a way, the happenings in Into the Dark related to the Drengir could explain the ending of The High Republic 1 *pure speculation*, and if that’s the case, it would make their presence in this book more purposeful as well as form another connection to the comics. In general I found the first half of the book monotonous; however, the last half really drew me in and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. In addition to the monotony in the first half, there were some brief dialogue exchanges, and even phrases, that I felt were out of place for the Star Wars universe as well as for the characters involved in those interactions. As for the characters, we follow along with a decent size group - the scope is roughly the same as in A Test of Courage - and it felt comfortable changing perspectives between the characters throughout. Besides the main character, Reath Silas, the other character mostly followed is Jedi Knight Orla Jareni who ended up being my favorite out of the new characters introduced. Another notable detail is Claudia was able to reference the Amaxine Warriors, who were first introduced in her novel Bloodline, and I thought that was a cool touch. Overall, I feel like Into the Dark does a good job at propelling the audience into the next wave of releases as we leave the introductory period and begin to expand. All three books so far have provided ample opportunities for various expansions to branch from these introductions to continue the overall story in an interesting way, and I’m looking forward to unraveling the darkness that lies ahead. I have a feeling, and hope, that we’ve only skimmed the surface.

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