Maybe the best entry in Star Wars young adult novels we have seen so far! Midnight Horizon is highly recommended!

For me, MIDNIGHT HORIZON took some time to really get going, but once it gets going, it won't let you go until the very last page. Older's character work for his protagonists is impeccable and the plentiful queer representation is uplifted by how well he handles characters like Kantam Sy. I struggled with the character of Crash, and even more so her crew, but in the interactions with Ram and Reath, she also grew on me to an extent. If you've been reading Older's High Republic Adventures comics, or just generally want a heartfelt story towards the end of SWTHR Phase I, this is the book for you.

My favorite so far out of the YA books for this series. I loved getting more insight on Reath and his character growth!

This was another fantastic entry in phase one of THR. I appreciate that the YA novels don't shy away from topics like grief and trauma. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book(s)!

I had a tough time putting this book down. We see a small group of Jedi arrive on a galactic core planet to investigate. When they arrive there things at first seem to be going okay. They make a few new friends and try to help find if a rumor they heard could be true. Once the Nihil make their presence known, it looks like another staggering defeat might be heading their way. Yet as this story comes to a close something totally unexpected ends up happening.

Review (in French) can be read here: https://www.starwars-universe.com/actu-18870-critique-de-midnight-horizon-de-daniel-jose-older.html

This is a spoiler free review.

Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon is a very good High Republic book that is very dark and has many twists and turns. There are also some very emotional scenes as we see the end of Phase 1 of the Star Wars The High Republic series as another chaotic event in the High Republic era is about to begin…

Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon is very entertaining but also gut wrenching at times. There are some magical scenes in this tale where you see the Force can make anything possible in a galaxy far far away. The Force can even help old friends appear again when they are needed most. Some of my favorite Force users and Padawans are back in this novel including Reath Silas, Ram Jomaram, Zeen Mrala, and Lula Talisola. Each of these characters has grown so much from their adventures during the High Republic novels and comics. I really like how many of the story lines from other High Republic novels and the Star Wars The High Republic comics intersect in this novel. We get to see how much these characters truly care for each other when the Nihil strike again in their biggest coordinated attack since the Great Disaster.

Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon shows us what Corellia is like during the High Republic era. We even get to attend an elaborate fancy event or two and get to see how corrupt Coreillia is. Crash is a new character in this book and she runs a security company on Corellia. She befriends Reath, Ram, and Zeen. All three of them get involved in Crash’s detailed schemes to try and find out what happened to two of her security guards who mysteriously disappear during a job. The young Jedi try to help Crash and they uncover a much bigger plot that is happening on Corellia and elsewhere.

Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon also features another character from the Star Wars films who lives on Corellia. We get to see this character as she helps Crash put all the pieces together. Crash finally figures out what’s happening on Corellia and the fate of her missing security guards. Crash and the Jedi also uncover a much bigger plot that is occurring off world during the very emotional final act of this great story.

Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon shows us the Nihil are still very dangerous. They again cause great harm to the galaxy and at great cost to our heroes and their friends. There are so many questions left unanswered at the end of this novel. One positive is we get to see the magic of the Force in full swing when an old friend makes a brief cameo at the end of the book. I think every Star Wars fan will enjoy the end of Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon between tears and cheers.

After reading Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon I can’t wait for Phase 2 of the High Republic novels and comics to begin later this year. There are so many plots that were left open at the end of this novel and so many possibilities…

Trust in the Force.

Stay Awesome and keep reading


Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

Creative Team:

Written by Daniel Jose Older

In true Daniel José Older fashion, Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizons is action-packed with a lot of nuanced emotions set throughout. It is important to mention that this is the 3rd book in an interconnected series, and part of a large overarching arc focused on the High Republic, a time of the Jedi, set a few hundred years before The Phantom Menace. Due to that, I think it is important that you have read the first two books (Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray and Star Wars The High Republic: Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland) before diving into this one. Luckily, all three authors do a great job of both connecting each story and setting them apart. Midnight Horizons is where things are getting very serious.

This is a page-turner, with great pacing, pushing you through the story with high stakes surrounding all of the characters, both familiar and new. Set on Corellia, which many Star Wars fans will be familiar with, the Nihil, this time period's Jedi enemy, have made an appearance hitting a Core world, which doesn't sit well with anyone in the Republic. Jedi Masters and Padawans are dispatched to deal with this threat.

Those Padawans are who really shine in Older's story. While the Jedi Masters are very reminiscent of what fans are familiar with, having to pursue more diplomatic, old-fashioned avenues of protection and investigation, the Padawans are free to diverge from this path and delve into subterfuge. The reason I enjoy the YA series set during this time is because of these Padawans. Not yet completely beholden to the Jedi way quite yet. As such we get some surprising insight and hole-poking into the way things are/should be that make for an interesting story.

I loved the newest character introduced, Crash. I think she really added an interesting outside perspective, especially from a non-Jedi point-of-view who is trying to figure out who really is benefiting from the Nihil presence on Corellia. The main protagonists are Reath and Ram, my two favorite Padawans. These two have popped up in the previous books, so this story really helps their character arc come full-circle, especially Reath.

This is a solid conclusion to Phase I (yep, there are Phases here with The High Republic series) of the YA books, and drop some really interesting plot points for set-up in the next Phase, and the rest of the overall series. Daniel José Older can write a Star Wars book any day, and it will be such a fun read, just as Star Wars The High Republic: Midnight Horizons was highly enjoyable.

Midnight Horizon marks the ending , at least at the level of novels, of Phase I of the High Republic.

Older delivers a novel that is not perfect in terms of rhythm and writing, but capable of deepening and enriching its protagonists, staging very well-managed couple dynamics, ranging from friendship, to working together to love.

Love that, in this novel as never before, is truly queer: the novel is an excellent example of how to bring forward LGBTQ + characters in a masterly way, without falling into tokenism or specks.

As a last positive aspect, it is impossible not to point out a certain variety of the setting, which leads us to see again known planets as Corellia, and themes and situations a little different from the usual. Overall, Midnight Horizon has its strength in characters and emotions conveyed, in a particular and unusual setting, but Older's writing curbs the overall enthusiasm a bit.

The High Republic: Midnight Horizon takes place after the events of the Republic Fair and the Drengrir and continues the story with some of the Jedi from the books. This book is heavy on Corellia which is a great setting since it has so many different locales, an underworld and most importantly, the site of massive ship building. As a side bonus also, there are some slight nods to Solo.

The book delves a lot into the Jedi order and the balance of feelings that each Jedi faces, including how to deal with love and attachment, and their commitment to the order. It also nicely deals with all kinds of relationships in a gender neutral way.

The last half of the book picks up dramatically with so much action and adventure, I could not put it down. Including one of the best gasp inducing moments that I have ever read.

Midnight Horizon was an interesting experiment for me. While I've read almost all of the High Republic initiative thus far, I've only occasionally picked up Daniel José Older's High Republic Adventures comic, meaning that I only had a passing familiarity with a big chunk of this novel's characters and backstory. The era has been marketed heavily as not featuring one linear story where you have to read every single piece to understand what's going on, and this was the closest I've been able to come to testing that theory.

In that I think Midnight Horizon achieved varying degrees of success. I found Master Kantam Sy to integrate perfectly into the larger story as well as Reath and Cohmac's ongoing arcs from the earlier young adult novels, and Ram Jomaram, with whom I was mostly familiar from Older's previous Race to Crashpoint Tower, made a fun foil for the older, more serious Reath. That said, though, there were times early on where both the tone and the narrative threads of the comic tended to overwhelm what the book was otherwise trying to do on its own terms.

The romantic arc of Lula and Zeen, and their pursuit of Krix, was mostly integrated well in that I could follow what was happening and what their history had been, but compared to the way the comic ended it felt more like a half-formed subplot than something integral to the novel's own story--I like Zeen a lot but I think it would have made more sense to either reduce her role to more of a cameo, or to involve Lula more, such that they could have a fully-formed arc that isn't just a retreat and slight extension of material from the comic.

Sabata Krill, ostensibly the novel's main antagonist, also felt underdeveloped without whatever information the comic had provided for her; for someone able to keep an entire temple worth of Jedi occupied for several days and command untold hundreds of Nihil I would have liked to see much more of her perspective and understand her place in the Nihil better, even if it meant sacrificing some of the surprise of the ending. Where did all these guys come from? Is Sabata their Tempest Runner? The book gives us no idea at all.

By way of contrast, I think this is why Kantam worked so well here: their history as depicted in the novel seems to be pretty much all new material, and it felt much more complete and substantive--and relevant, despite being mostly told in flashbacks.

In terms of the tone, I can usually roll with the lighter, more kid-friendly way that Older tends to write his young cast (it worked great in Crashpoint Tower) but at times it seemed to conflict with the characters he didn't create. Once or twice it felt like he would simply pay lip service to Reath's earlier, more serious characterization before writing him like just another one of his kids, while Cohmac (who is almost impossible to write lightheartedly) seems to go through a big internal struggle mostly "off-camera" before making a pretty major decision at the book's end.

In spite of these fairly minor criticisms I mostly enjoyed the book, and particularly appreciated the large scale of the climax, something I've felt the young adult High Republic books have been lacking. One thing Older did consistently well both here and in Crashpoint Tower was to tell an isolated story that still turned out to be very important to what was going on in the accompanying adult novel--while the books may not all stand perfectly on their own, if you do read all of them you'll definitely be rewarded much more often than not.

Star Wars is so famous that when I got approved for this book, I was over the moon. Unfortunately, since I didn't know the basics about said world, I felt lost. Initially I didn't have the same emotional attachment or the awareness of certain characters' importance as fans of this world would have had.
But I quickly realised that inspite of feeling confused I did enjoy the writing, the plot and the mystery. It sparked an interest, a curiosity I previously lacked for Star Wars. I wish I had gone into this book with a bit of background on Star Wars so I might have enjoyed it more than I did.
I highly recommend this to Star Wars fans and even to people who have no clue about Star Wars. My only suggestion to the latter group is to familiarise themselves with the world before diving into this book!

I was extremely excited for this book just on the cover alone. This is by far the HARDEST book cover ever. And the name was cool too!

It lived up to some of my expectations but not all. I was struggling through the first half when it wasn’t on the Jedi. I just didn’t seem to care all that much about Crash but I grew to like her in the end.

But the third act is AMAZING. Very just epic and trailblazing! It almost felt like the end of Avengers Endgame to me personally. The way I was visualizing it in my head was beautiful. Hell the third act alone saved the book for me. Probably one of the best third acts in the HR books.

I loved all the Jedi in this story and Zeen kept me interested just for her love for Lula. Reath and Ram were the standouts. Reath acting a lil bit out of character but wasn’t dramatic and was highly rewarded in the end.

What an action packed, amazing read! The Star Wars High Republic books have swiftly become some of my faves and Daniel José Older is why. He crafts such great Star Wars books that are engaging, fun, and utterly action packed. Daniel has an obvious love for the lore that it just bleeds onto the page, making the book even better. This one was fun but I don’t think it’s my favorite from the High Republic books. Overall though, a must read for all Star Wars fans!

Daniel Jose Older did a fantastic job bringing his characters from the High Republic comics to the page in Midnight Horizon. The characters come alive on the page and are full of fun quips and playful banter between them. Their struggles and trials are dealt with in a way that continues to give the story progressive motion as opposed to stalling shoe gazing that happens in a few of the previous Out of the Shadows. I loved this book and it was a fitting conclusion to the first phase of the High Republic.

Midnight Horizon is one of the best books to come out of the High Republic initiative thus far. Daniel José Older has always had a knack for crafting highly relatable characters with an emotional depth that's not typically seen in most Star Wars novel, and that's totally on display in his first young-adult installment of this era. This book doesn't shy away from the complexities surrounding the idea of the Jedi Order, such as balancing one's own attachment to the outside world and what it means to *be* a Jedi, as well as moments of self-discovery that define what it means to be human. Daniel not only lets these characters shine but allows Midnight Horizon to serve as the culmination of all of his work throughout the High Republic: key storylines from his previous works across comics and the middle-grade genre weave together beautifully to form a sort-of niche pocket universe that he's created. It's able to stand on its own in many ways, as Daniel adds plenty of context for those who haven't experienced every leg of the year-long journey, and feels like it could be accessible for any Star Wars fan who wants a taste of the best this publishing initiative can offer. Midnight Horizon is ultimately a book about growing up in a world that is on fire and discovering how we navigate that with the help of our friends. It inspires hope even in the worst of times and shows us that there is always a path forward even when it's not a clear one. For more of my thoughts on Midnight Horizon, you can listen to our latest podcast discussion over at the Friends of the Force podcast.

This story is one that took me a bit to get into, but then I couldn’t put it down! There are quite a few characters to learn and familiarize yourself with, and some of the casual/trendy language is probably more geared towards a YA reader. However, I really enjoyed this one, especially from Part 3 onwards. Characters are dealing with their own internal struggles as they feel torn between personal attachments and following the Jedi code. I’ve read several Star Wars books before, but none with these characters, and it was a great addition to the Star Wars universe.

Midnight Horizon, by Daniel Jose Older, continues the tale of several Star Wars characters that many fans (myself included) have come to cherish. For those enjoying The High Republic run of novels, you're not going to want to miss this one.

Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy are heading towards Corellia to investigate strange disappearances being reported. Accompanying the Jedi are the padawans Reath Silas and Rom Jomaram, and a surprise guest – Crash.

Once again, what should have been a relatively simple mission for the Jedi to handle has become a complex web. One that has the Nihil lurking in the center. The political stake has never been higher, and time is running out.

"The wind touches us. We experience it," Kantam said, finishing the teaching. "It is real. But it passes. So, too, do our feelings."

It's official: I'm adding Daniel Jose Older to my list of favorite Star Wars authors. Admittedly, that list is longer than I would have expected, but I'm happy to say that every book I've read by Daniel Jose Older has been a brilliant addition to the world.

Midnight Horizon is another fast-paced read that bounces between several perspectives, giving readers the full breadth of the situation. I've grown fond of most of these characters (Ram especially – sorry, not sorry) over the last couple of books. Crush is the only new perspective, and I quickly found her one of my favorites.

My one regret about this series is that there isn't a movie or TV show based on these events (yet – a girl can hope!). I would give anything to see it all play out on the screen. I would also love to see my favorite characters cast. On that note, any fancastings I should know about?

Midnight Horizon is the last novel in Phase 1 of The High Republic. I do not know if this means we'll be saying goodbye to these characters forever (my poor heart if that is the case) or if we'll see them at a later date. Personally, I know which option I'm rooting for.

This book/series is amazing! Although this isn't my favorite book in the series I loved how action packed it was! It took me a while to read because I had to get caught up with the other books but if u r a star wars fan and haven't read the high republic series u should its really good espcially the audiobooks! Four out of five stars!(:

Daniel Jose Older proves again that he is a master of his craft. This novel serves as the conclusion not only to the YA Phase 1 High Republic titles, but also to the story of many characters featured in his Adventures comic line. Daniel has such a way of weaving in not only moments of levity, but real emotions that are not only valuable to our characters, but to readers of any age. Yes, this is a great Star Wars story, but it is also a book about learning how to come of age in a world that is crumbling around you. It is a story of learning what you fight for and how to make decisions. It is a story about loving yourself and others.

This is a true conclusion to Phase 1 of The High Republic, and a really wonderful journey from start to finish. I highly recommend this story (and all of Older's THR work)!