I feellll conflicted.

How much weight should I give to the fact that my hour on wookiepedia answered so few of my questions? Like -- how much context am I missing, how much is important, and should I be able to read this book without reading the comics? I think yes, right. This is the only novel written in this era (Dawn of the Jedi), and whether or not there were others planned...all beyond me. This is it, though there are events that clearly were covered in the expansive comics that are touched on in the novel (the Despot Wars, namely, though this part I thought made enough sense -- deadly conflict between the Je'daii and Rival Gangs (and this is a question for another time, but literally 100% of the economics of star wars is run by gangsters, and not even like someone's idealistic idea of Gangsters (businessmen they don't like) but like actual honest to God crime lords), that don't seem to have enough context for me to grasp, and things that are important, like, uh, well, the whole CRUX of the conflict. And this is Star Wars. I take a lot on faith. Except one of things I take on faith is that it's possible to travel through star systems in hyperspace, so telling me, suddenly, that it was possible (somehow?) in the past, since all these alien species that we know the home worlds of (including a SITH, who live at the other end of the Galaxy from a lot of these other species -- also, can someone confirm whether or not the Sith Species have been totally retconned or not?) but not only is it NOT possible for the people of Tython, but it's actively dangerous, not just because Dalien might consume the system in a black hole if he tries. Sorry, I'm following so far (Force Users - probably, took the Tho Yor (???) into the system and now we're all kinda stuck here), but LIKE DALIEN, I'm both confused and concern about the way that no one, especially the Je'daii, have no interest in leaving Tython at all. Like, you aren't going to come to this novel as your first star wars experience, but I am in desperate need of some context!!

Beyond that, this is fun, dynamic, well paced and well written. Loranee is bristly and a little unlikable but she works well as the MC here because of it, not in spite of it. She desperately wants to get her brother back but she also is deeply and instinctively committed to the Force, which puts her into deep conflict with her brother, who wants everything she thinks she doesn't. As Star Wars is, fundamentally, an exercise in "what does this tell me about Anakin Skywalker?" to me, this tells me A LOT about Anakin Skywalker, namely: Anakin doesn't just resent the Jedi at times but the Force itself; Gee I Sure Hope No One Tries To Create Life for Themselves and Accidentally Impregnates A Random Woman On Tatooine; But in the final moments, I get the sense that Loranee more than Dalien is our Anakin character (this is a potentially unfair reading but idc; star wars is about Him); she is defending an obviously corrupt order at the expense of someone she loves deeply and even kills him; she does it in anger. She doesn't lose herself in her anger and I see a future for her to understand the complexities of what is happening on Tython in a way that Anakin barely manages to understand his own position after 25 years of Absolute Misery. Maybe love of family IS the greatest force in the galaxy. Someone should make a movie about that even.