Star Wars: The High Republic: Tempest Breaker by Cavan Scott is an audio drama that is crucial to The High Republic's endgame. The story begins with the former Nihil Tempest Runner, Lourna Dee, being interviewed by a journalist, Rhil Dairo.
The audio drama alternates between the interview and showing the events Lourna is describing, in which she teams up with her former enemies, Jedi Masters Avar Kriss and Keeve Trennis, to stop the blight that has devastated the galaxy. In exchange, the Republic will pardon Lourna for her past crimes and grant her freedom.
The Phase I audio drama, Tempest Runner, was a smaller story that was primarily focused on Lourna, revealing her tragic backstory and who she wants to be moving forward. While Lourna is still the protagonist of Tempest Breaker, it is a much larger and more consequential story where a potential cure for the blight hangs in the balance.
One of the best parts of listening to an audio drama is that it has a full cast, sound effects, and music with excellent production quality that brings the story to life. The entire cast is fantastic, with Jessica Almasy and Marc Thompson being the standouts for me. Almasy makes Lourna intimidating, sarcastic, and likable while also bringing a vulnerability to her when necessary.
Thompson has narrated many Star Wars novels and previously voiced Marchion Ro and Sskeer in Tempest Runner. He continues his soft-spoken, chilling performance as Marchion and the guttural, hissing oration necessary for Sskeer. In Tempest Breaker, he also voices the Ithorian scientist and the Nihil Minister of Advancement, Baron Boolan.
Lourna has the story's best character arc as she is constantly torn between self-preservation, getting her vengeance against Marchion, and doing the right thing. Her friendship with Keeve is surprisingly touching and builds off their dynamic in the comics. When Lourna does cross paths with Marchion, they share two of the most tense, unforgettable, and rewarding scenes yet in the entire High Republic publishing initiative.
While Lourna and Marchion are wild cards, so is Boolan, who gets his best development yet in Tempest Breaker. Even though he brutally experiments on Sskeer against the Trandoshan's will, Boolan is convinced that he has a kinship with him. This relationship, and connecting back to Boolan's childhood with the Path of the Open Hand in Phase II, reveals the Ithorian's true motivations.
There is a lot going on with the blight, Marchion, Boolan, and the Jedi, but Lourna remains the heart of the story, and by the end, she finally figures out who she wants to be. In the beginning, alternating between the interview and her mission to stop the blight can feel jarring, but this is no longer an issue once the story spends less time with the interview. Once the full story of Lourna's mission is told, the interview works better as a narrative framing device.
For those who only read The High Republic's adult novels, I genuinely believe that skipping Tempest Breaker would be a mistake given the key developments that occur in the audio drama. It is a compelling story on its own while also setting the stage for the publishing initiative's final stories coming in 2025.