Tales of Light and Life Is The High Republic Fan's Ultimate Comfort Food

A spoiler-free review of Star Wars The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life.

It’s another new Star Wars book day – and this time, we’re celebrating a short story anthology set in the era of The High Republic. The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life is out now – and this spoiler-free review should tell you everything you need to know before picking up a copy for yourself.

Up until now, The High Republic has only published short stories in Star Wars Insider issues and the bound collections of those stories Titan has since released or will soon release again. The rest of the era’s stories have been told in adult, young adult, and middle-grade novels, comics, audio dramas, and manga. Tales of Light and Life is the era’s first original short story anthology, and hopefully it will not be its last.

This book features nine short stories from ALL NINE Luminous authors – that’s the original five (Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel Jose Older, Cavan Scott, and Charles Soule) plus newcomers Tessa Gratton, Lydia Kang, Zoraida Cordova, and George Mann. These stories take place at different points throughout the High Republic timeline, from before Phase II to after the fall of Starlight Beacon. In some instances, directly after the end of Phase I. One story in particular takes place directly before the start of Phase III.

These stories are told from the points of view of different fan-favorite High Republic characters, including Axel Graylark, Marda Ro, Rooper Nitani, Ram Jomeram, Affie Hollow, Vernestra Rwoh, and Bell Zettifar, as well as new characters like Jedi Padawan Amadeo Azzazzo.

While not essential reading for High Republic fans, the book does serve as a comforting bridge between phases, including teasing what’s coming next in Phase III. You don’t need to read this book before Phase III starts to understand what’s going to happen in the first book of the phase, in other words.

What this book does do to prepare you for what’s coming, however, is reintroduce you to the characters, places, and politics of the era. We haven’t gotten new High Republic stories since June, and that’s a long time, especially if, like me, you didn’t have the luxury of rereading any High Republic before this collection came out – and won’t have time to do so before the first book of Phase III releases in November. There are a lot of characters in this era. This book allows you to spend some time with them, for the most part in much less intense, emotionally draining moments. You really feel like you get to know these central characters a little better, without the pressure of having to leap chapter to chapter in a book with stakes so high you might have to take a break halfway through to recover and breathe.

I breezed through this anthology in a little over a day, and that’s because its stories are neat, compartmentalized bite-size vignettes that pack a punch but don’t overwhelm the senses. They’re borderline addicting – once you finish one, you can’t help but tear open the next to see what’s inside. 

Of course, if you have a favorite author or character, you don’t have to read the book cover to cover from beginning to end – you can skip around; the stories are independent of one another in context and plot. The beautiful thing about a book is that, once it’s in your hands, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as you’re nice to the people who made it. I read these stories in order because it’s how I prefer to read a book, but you don’t have to. I’m neither here to judge your reading preferences nor to tell you how a book is best enjoyed.

Tales of Light and Life, in addition to being a delight to read, is a fascinating look at Star Wars writers both returning to characters they’ve previously written and testing out new points of view they haven’t had the chance to exercise yet. Yet you can feel the love each author has for these characters and the overarching era on every page. Something I have always admired about The High Republic and its writers is that their passion for every story they write burns through to your soul. You can feel it as you flip through the chapters. These writers pass around characters and plotlines with the kind of trust reserved for healthy, nurtured families or lifelong friends. It is a phenomenon we have not seen in a Star Wars series for years – strictly due to the nature of the publishing schedule – and clearly it is something the powers that be won’t be able to resist attempting to replicate in future ongoing projects. Because it works. Because everyone, including the creators themselves, can’t get enough of it.

If you love The High Republic, you will love this book. If you have never experienced a High Republic story and this book is your entrance into a new wondrous world, you will love it too. It is for everyone, for Star Wars fans of all ages and interests. It is beautiful, it is heartwarming, at some points it is heartbreaking.

But that is, after all, the definition of a Star Wars story – something, or a collection of many somethings, that makes you feel and question and hope and want better for you, for your world, for the universe.

Star Wars The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life is available now wherever you get your Star Wars books.