New The High Republic: The Rising Storm excerpt hints at more tragedy to come

For all the readers who have been tuned into Star Wars’ The High Republic series, you know the debut novel, Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, left on quite the cliffhanger. Luckily, the continuation of this story is right around the corner. And even better, Star Wars has just shared another excerpt from the sequel in this series!

Titled The High Republic: The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott, the newest excerpt that StarWars.com shared recently picks up on one of the more interesting cliffhangers from Light of the Jedi. 

(Spoiler warning if you haven’t read Light of the Jedi.) 

In the novel, things seem to be going pretty well for the galaxy following the Legacy Run disaster. Chancellor Lina Soh felt confident in the major battle won against the Nihil. And because of that, the opening dedication ceremony for Starlight Beacon went on without a hitch.

Of course, unbeknownst to her, the Nihil were not done yet. Evil leader Marchion Ro still lurks in the shadows, plotting his next move to strike against the Jedi and the Republic. And in the novel, it seems like the only person to pick up on that is Jedi Elzar Mann. The Jedi had an apocalyptic-like vision of chaos, death and disaster to come to many Jedi. But what that means, we’ve yet to find out.

Elzar Mann searches for answers in The Rising Storm

This is where the latest excerpt from StarWars.com picks up. The section is focused on Elzar Mann as he contemplates the vision that he had on that fateful night.

In the vision, he notes that he sees people both dying “one by one” as they’re swept into some kind of cloud. (This seems to be the Force’s way of hinting to him that it’s the Nihil.) And among those he mentions seeing is Jedi Avar Kriss. If Avar were to die, that would be quite astounding seeing as she had such a major role in the first book. She was able to orchestrate all the Jedi coming together in the Legacy Run, and continued to be on the case as the Jedi and Republic worked together to solve the mystery of the Run’s deadly emergences out of hyperspace.

Now, Avar is the marshal of the Starlight Beacon, which means she has an even bigger role to play. Not only that, but we also see some will-they-won’t-they tension between her and Elzar, which totally shakes up his vision even more.

Though, The High Republic so far had no problem going Game of Thrones on some major characters in the first novel. Death was quite prevalent, with no intentions of characters being revived. So we could see some pretty heavy developments happening in The Rising Storm if it follows on the same path.

One thing to note, in the excerpt, Elzar goes to a moon on Tython for answers from the Force, and realizes he must travel to Valo for more answers. As Wookieepedia notes, it’s a planet that the Nihil attack, leaving many dead. With that in mind, this certainly paints the picture of the Nihil having the upper hand. But hopefully when it’s all said and done, the Republic and the Jedi will emerge victoriously.

The High Republic: The Rising Storm is out on June 29 wherever books are sold.