Geode supremacy. That is all.

Another fun Star Wars book. This one was shorter and smaller in focus than the last one, with fewer characters, which I appreciated. It made it easier to keep track of the plot and to connect with the characters. Geode in particular was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing the growth and learning each of the main characters experienced and that it was a lot less depressing than the previous High Republic book (perhaps because of its intended YA audience).

Claudia's character work is always spectacular. I mean Geode. She gets you to care about a rock. Into the Dark has some of my new favorite characters in it. The plot is great too, a smaller look at what happened to people during the Great Disaster. My only real gripe was the parts set 25 years earlier. Those were a slug to get through and didn't add much to the story. But they weren't bad enough to ruin the experience as there were still things in them I liked.
Overall, Light of the Jedi had a stronger plot, but Into the Dark won the character work battle. I left this book loving everyone, even the villains.
Because the new villain in this book is terrifying and gives the Nihil a run for their money.

Great book! Best Star Wars book I’ve read in a long time. Great adventure with interesting characters.

Once again, I'm not very impress with Claudia Gray's writing. I think she had an interesting plot going in the beginning of the book, but the original story felt over by 50%, so it ended up feeling like a duology mashed together. Pacing aside, the characters' dialog (in all of her books that've read) comes across like she's trying to hard to be funny and very much like a "hello fellow kids" attempting and sounding "hip and modern", if that makes sense. Like I don't think people really speak like how Claudia writes them.

With that being said, I do think Orla Jareni and Cohmac Vitus were interesting characters, and I would be interesting in following stories by other authors about these characters. I also think the Drengir are an awesome addition to the Star Wars universe, and they were the main reason I decided to pick this up, even knowing how much I don't get along with Gray's writing.

In the hands of another author, I think this could have been a stellar book. I know many people love Claudia Gray's books, both Star Wars and otherwise, but I just can't get into her. I wish Disney would allow more authors to write books because Claudia has done so much for the new canon and, not to beat a dead horse, I just can't be bothered to pick them up knowing she's the author. I would LOVE to see what N. K. Jemisin could do with an adult High Republic book (if she'd be interested in writing one), but I would even settle for more books by Charles Soule and Rae Carson (both of whom I enjoy their Non-SW material more, but still like when they write in the universe).

Overall, if you don't have the issues I do with Claudia Gray, then I would say you might like this book. But I definitely would not recommend this as somebody's first entry into the High Republic.

7/10. Good mystery plot that slowly builds up future antagonists. The highlights are the characters, Reath, Affie, Cohmac, Orla, Leox, and Dez, most of whom have interesting backgrounds and good chemistry. The antagonists,

Spoiler

the Drengir and Nan

, are also very intriguing. Looking forward to seeing them all again!