The second phase of The High Republic comes to a close in Path of Vengeance by Cavan Scott. Cataclysm has already given us the story of the Battle of Dalna from the perspective of the Jedi. Path of Vengeance goes back to fill in the story from the perspective of the Path of the Open Hand, through the eyes of Marda and Yana Ro who were first introduced to readers in Path of Deceit.
Path of Vengeance does finally answer a lot of questions still lingering in this second phase, specifically about The Mother and her motivations for starting the Path of the Open Hand. The book also does a nice job of showing the ways in which cult leaders like this hold sway over people, yet care nothing for the people that follow them.
One issue with the book is a formatting issue. Both Marda and Yana have parts of their subconscious, represented by people close to them that have died, “talking” to them throughout the story. Frustratingly this is not demarcated well through something like italics, which would help greatly. It can be confusing in many scenes, since this is not done, leaving the reader to think they missed something about who is actually “in” the scene they are reading.
The main problem with the book is that it is just not that engaging. The two best books in this second phase have been Convergence and Cataclysm, with the rest being somewhere between decent to poor. After reading Path of Vengeance I’m convinced that this phase should have been three adult novels which would have followed much the same story while at the same time creating a tighter story-telling focus. Path of Vengeance does at least give us a good idea how this phase connects to the first and third phases which is nice, therefore is rated 2.5 out of 5 stars.
