"To acknowledge the darkness is to know the darkness. To know the darkness is to begin to control it."

I described Light of the Jedi as the synesthesia scene in Ratatouille, where ingredients fit together so perfectly it made you melt into a puddle. In that same line, The Fallen Star was like watching Revenge of the Sith: the trainwreck is obvious and the tragedy inevitable but you can't tore your eyes away and it makes your brain turn to mush. I loved it.

I'm a fan of sad narratives, of seeing the heroes beaten down. I think it makes it sweeter when they rise back up. Sometimes, you just have to consume catastrophies and messy things that don't work out at all. And all three main High Republic books did this masterfully, milking the dread and despair of a few hours into hundreds of pages.

It wasn't perfect, tho. I believe the book could vastly benefited of more pages, of being able to give characters (and the reader) the opportunity to process some events. I love the rush and the sense of running out of time, but some major plot points were barely felt because a page later there was another ano crumbling down on you.

But mostly, I was keenly aware that I had no idea what was going on on the other half of the story. I didn't want to read the comics, still don't know if I will, and some mentions or brief explanations to what was going on wouldn't be spoilery at all and should be standard. I don't want to begin consuming it all out of spite.

Even if the story doesn't have much chance to explore all the characters, they're the highlight for me and I love all of them. Contrary to the popular demand, I was craving the entire time for more Bell and Burryaga chapters; and although the next phase is giving us a prequel, I await anxiously to find out what's in the future for our surviving cast and how the Nihil will go on foward.

PS: I actually couldn't pick, so here's a SECOND quote:

"This is what hope is. It isn't pretending that nothing will go wrong if only we try hard enough. It's looking squarely at all the obstacles in the way—knowing the limits of our own power, and the possibility of failure—and moving ahead anyway."