Star Wars: The High Republic - Path of Deceit SPOILER-FREE Review

The High Republic Phase II begins with Path of Deceit. A spoiler-free review awaits you here.

You’re listening to Now This Is Lit, a podcast about Star Wars books, the people who make them, and the readers who can’t get enough of them! I’m your host Meg Dowell, I use she/her pronouns, and after MANY months of waiting, The High Republic has officially RETURNED! Path of Deceit by Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton is out today, which if you’ve been listening to this show the past few months, means it's time for a good old-fashioned spoiler-free review!

Let’s start with the question I know you’re already asking: Do I have to read everything else in the High Republic before I read this new book? Since this is Phase II of The High Republic publishing initiative, you would think it would almost be a requirement to read what came before. But this is Star Wars, which sometimes means release order can be deceiving – see what I did there?

Now, if you’re going through all of Phase I, you’ll want to for the most part read everything in release order if you want the full story. Yes, that means adult, YA and middle-grade novels, comics, audio dramas, hey, the manga are good too! You don’t HAVE  to read everything, but the point is, if you’re going to, that’s how you do it.

This advice is a little more complicated now with the launch of Phase II. So let’s look at it just as its own separate thing for a second. Phase II takes place about 150 years before Phase I, which means it’s – you guessed it – technically a prequel! Star Wars should try that sometime. Therefore, if you were to read Path of Deceit first, you would actually have no problem understanding the events, time period, or characters. It can and does stand on its own exceptionally well. That’s on purpose.

Like other Star Wars prequel stories, there are some things you might recognize and appreciate a little more if you’ve already read or at the very least understand the major plot points of Phase I. One of the biggest ones is a SPOILER that I won’t obviously reveal here, but I will say, even going in fresh, you’ll be fine. So let’s add Path of Deceit to the list of “perfect Star Wars books to start with.” If you haven’t listened to the episode where Madison and I talked about this more in-depth, go do that after this!

So let’s get into this book specifically, as much as we can without spoilers. As I said before, Path of Deceit – out today! – was written by Justina Ireland, High Republic veteran, and Tessa Gratton, a newcomer to the “everything hurts, nobody we love survives” writing team. The Luminous Five are now the Luminous way-more-than-five. It tells the story of a Padawan and his master who encounter – let’s call it a Force cult – on a new (to us) planet. The Path of the Open Hand believes the Force should not be used in the way, say, The Jedi use it. In fact, when Path member Marda witnesses Padawan Kev ‘using the Force,’ she accuses them of abusing it. To the Path, the Force should be ‘free.’ It should flow between all things, but not be disturbed. And I can’t wait for you to learn how this meeting between Force ‘advocates’ and Force ‘abusers’ turns out, because it’s – I have to stop talking about it or I’ll accidentally spoil it. And I’m reading off a script. This is not an easy secret to keep.

This is a very different time in Star Wars, where it’s not easy to communicate with each other from planet to planet across the universe. So you can’t necessarily just send a transmission to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant if, you know, something were to happen that might warrant sending important information to people who might need to know about it.

This is The High Republic. Nothing ever goes wrong, everyone is always safe, and you should immediately fall in love with every character, because nothing bad will ever happen to any of them Ever!

Path of Deceit just might be my favorite High Republic book across the series so far. It feels new, and fresh, and the concepts and characters are as captivating as they are mysterious. And the idea that there lives a group of people who don’t love what the Jedi do with the Force is … intriguing. Especially if you’re not new to The High Republic and have a clearer idea of what this type of conflict might lead to.

BUT, if you are in fact new to the series, you have nothing to worry about. The story feels very Star Wars at its heart, even if it takes place in a new place in time in a galaxy far, far away. The story will grab your attention from the start, and I’m not sorry to say it will end before you’ve had most of your questions answered. But that’s a good thing! Because the next book in the series isn’t too far away.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend you give this book a chance. It’s YA, that should never discourage you. It’s dark, but it’s fantastic. Give it a read, whether that’s in digital, physical or audio form. It’s worth your time.

Star Wars The High Republic: Path of Deceit is available NOW wherever books are sold.

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