After the events of Convergence, the war between the planets of Eiram and E’ronoh looks to finally be over. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the ecumenical enclave of Jedha is chosen as a neutral site to host the peace treaty signing during the newly instituted holiday, the Festival of Balance. Yet all is not what it seems, as theological terrorists and corporate criminals conspire to see war renewed for their own nefarious purposes. Master Creighton Sun, Jedi Knight Aida Forte and Jedi Knight Silandra Sho work to unravel the mysteries engulfing the holy city and find a way to protect peace.
The Battle of Jedha is George Mann’s second work for The High Republic‘s second phase and this time his story is presented in the audio drama format. This format has distinct advantages as well as disadvantages. At its best, it is able to bring characters and the story to life with music, sound effects and voices for each character. On the downside, Mann’s story is big, which means there are a lot of factions, characters and story elements to keep track of, which can be difficult in the audio drama format. The High Republic phase two is full of characters and places that readers are only vaguely familiar with at this point which makes this story feel like it might have been better suited to an adult novel.
It was a good choice for Mann to bring back Silandra Sho, who was previously introduced in his novel, Quest for the Hidden City, as well as Creighton Sun who was briefly in Convergence. It allows more character work to be done with these two, making it a welcome change from much of The High Republic, which loves to create new characters instead of reuse them. Sadly Gella, who was the breakout star of Convergence is barely in the story, which is a shame. The High Republic has suffered under the weight of too many characters for much of its existence so when one like Gella, who worked so well is sidelined, it is frustrating.
The Battle of Jedha is the final story in Wave One of Phase Two. It has brought together many of the story elements from the previous books together and leaves the Jedi actively investigating The Path of the Open Hand. Readers are still left trying to figure out exactly why this series has jumped back another 150 years. Hopefully the second wave of stories will help legitimize this decision by creating some important connections with the previous phase of The High Republic. The Battle of Jedha is a good story, even if it does not provide as many answers fans might desire. It is rated 3 and a half out of 5 stars.
This review was completed with a review copy of The Battle of Jedha from Random House Audio.
Author: Matt Rushing
Matthew Rushing is the host of Trek.fm‘s The 602 Club and co-host of TheNerdParty.com‘s AggressiveNegotiations: A Star Wars Podcast. He can be found on Twitter @mattrushing02.