MPJ

I've always wondered what genre exactly "Star Wars" belongs to? I guess it is safe to say that the entire franchise is one giant space fantasy or space opera if you will, genuinely influenced by human history and religiosity wrapped into a futuristic world of (science) fiction. I sincerely admire George Lucas when he began the story fifty years ago, especially how he imagined a spiritual background without the need for the existence of religion we are all familiar with and without presence of actual deities. The main premise simply described as the Force gives to those sensitive to this spiritual energy extraordinary abilities, such as telekinesis, access to the minds of the living beings, potentiality of healing and what is especially interesting to me, the power of seeing things before they happen.


Even though the visions and predicting the future seem to be the most fantastic feature of the Force, it is perhaps the only fiction understandable by the real science. The physics behind it is not too complicated - the microscopic world is made of zillion of tiny particles or energy quants that are always in foreseeable motion and for one extraordinary computational device, and the Force is definitely one, predicting the future is merely nothing more that calculating the outcome of their collisions. The Jedi deflecting the blaster bolts with their lightsabers is only foreseeing the near future and the location of energy particles running toward them.

Anyhow, the Force portrayed in 'Star Wars' as a metaphysical and ubiquitous power created by life itself is the most fascinating quality of the franchise and is definitely the main motive for me to eagerly wait for new movies, tv shows and in today's blog story, the book series with the Force stronger than ever and described in greater details than ever before.


The books are of course "The High Republic" recently published with high expectations and power to boost 'the galaxy far, far away' into another trilogy of potential movies and shows. The set is staged 200 years before that 'a long time ago' in the recognizable opening crawl and within the golden age of the Galactic Republic with most active Jedi and the period of expansion and exploration in the Outer Rim Territories.

In the nutshell, with the planets in Colonies, Core Worlds and Mid Rim overpopulated or in constant danger coming from galactic gangsters like the Hutts, there was a migration of citizens toward the dangerous Outer Rim territories overseen by the Republic and protected by the Jedi. Just like in the Earth history of the trans-Atlantic migrations, the new and unexplored territories were not without numerous dangers in a face of piracy and unpredictable natural hazards. Traveling long distances within the hyperspace paths added another level of unease and all these combined provided the plot for the start of the new amazing adventures.


All three books in the phase 1 series, "Light of the Jedi", "The Rising Storm" and "The Fallen Star" gave us fair amount of understanding of what was going on in those times of peace with the dominance and expansion of the Galactic Republic. They also gave us the glimpse to all the dangers within and the Nihil, a group of marauders who were based in the Outer Rim Territories, who caused havoc throughout the galaxy without hesitation to come into conflict with the Jedi themselves. But the story is only at the beginning and I will be eagerly waiting for the next adventures.

Without getting into any details or spoilers, I will only conclude that novels definitely belong to those page-turners filled with amazing and believable action we are used to, all with new characters we will grow to love. With a lot of characters this new Star Wars era from the history of the far away galaxy is going to need decades of various media to cover and choosing books this time seems to be the right decision to me.

Books:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BVJXJDS?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks

Refs:
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/High_Republic_Era