Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage

Justina Ireland

Jan 2021 · Sold by Disney Electronic Content

About this ebook

Long before the Clone Wars, the Empire, or the First Order, the Jedi lit the way for the galaxy in a golden age known as the High Republic!Vernestra Rwoh is a new Jedi Knight at age sixteen, but her first real assignment feels an awful lot like babysitting. She's been charged with supervising twelve-year old aspiring inventor Avon Starros on a cruiser headed to the dedication of a wondrous new space station called Starlight Beacon.But soon into their journey, bombs go off aboard the cruiser. While the adult Jedi try to save the ship, Vernestra, Avon, Avon's droid J-6, a Jedi Padawan, and an ambassador's son make it to an escape shuttle, but communications are out and supplies are low. They decide to land on a nearby moon, which offers shelter but not much more. And unbeknownst to them, danger lurks in the forest....Rich internal third-person dialogue reveals dollops of inner turmoil for each character at key moments as well as providing some much-needed world-building to make this a winning choice. A great read for Star Wars fans young and old." -- Kirkus Reviews

Ratings and reviews

A delightful first peak into the High Republic Era. Everything old is new again, or yet to come--hyperspace travel is risky, stars aren't well charted, and it makes space travel an adventure again! In this middle grade tale, Ireland deftly balances four points of view: a new jedi knight, a empath padawan, a budding scientist, and a farm boy looking for purpose. I'm impressed how often we are placed in the POV of a character not always taking the main action in a chapter, but by a companion who learns through observation. Can't wait to keep following Vernestra's story!

A vast improvement over Light of the Jedi. While meant for younger readers and with a far humbler plot, A Test of Courage is a great story on its own merits as much as it is an excellent young reader SW story. Where Light was a half-baked mess of ideas, A Test of Courage is a prime example of Star Wars Expanded fiction at its best. It's enough to make one nostalgic for the good old days of Timothy Zahn, Karen Traviss, and Troy Denning. There is an odd fixation about the spiritual implications of a specific weapon, an implication that comes out of nowhere from either EU timeline, but the rest of the book is so solid it's easy to overlook. It's also a remarkably breezy read. I read the majority of the book in one sitting. Ireland knows her prose and it shows. I heartily recommend this, and hope the rest of the High Republic is more like this.

A solid young reader book. The book's largest shortcoming is that it's kind of short, but it uses it's time well and doesn't waste any space on meandering descriptions that add nothing to the plot or characters. The plot is pretty straight forward, but the characters are very well developed over the course of the story.