Star Wars: The High Republic, Vol. 1: There Is No Fear by Cavan Scott is a lot of fun and high stakes adventure. This graphic novel makes up for one of my complaints in most books in the High Republic little to no action. This book is filled with action and light saber duels. This graphic novel is a page turner and over way too fast. This novel features for the most part characters that were referred to only briefly in Light of the Jedi, Into the Dark, The Gathering Storm, and Out of the Past (the two adult and two young adult High Republic novels). One of my favorite characters from Light of the Jedi, Avar Kriss, who has been in the background of all the other books, finally gets back into action in this book and it was great. The heart of this book is Keeve and Sskeer and their padawan / master relationship. The villains are the same as in the books mainly The Nihil and The Drengir. The stories are connected as we mainly follow Keeve’s rise from Padawan to Jedi Master. The dialogue could have been better as it dips into a fair share of cliches and at times corny, while the inner monologue is really good. Cavan Scott wrote my favorite novel so far out of the Star Wars: High Republic series with The Gathering Storm and I would put There is No Fear right behind it.

The Plot: Keeve is a young Padawan to master Sskeer, she is on her final test when something unexpected happens, should she complete the test or fail it to help others? She decided to help others, and discovers something that get her promoted to Jedi Master, and working at the Starlight Beacon responding to distress calls on the Outer Rim. When Keeve, her master, and two Jedi force twins investigate missing villagers, to find one member of the search party missing as well.

What I Liked: Avar Kriss getting to do stuff in this book, and not just a background character. I like the aspect of the padawan/master relationship and what was explored we have seen the typical student goes to the dark side, this was anew fresh Idea I really enjoyed. The force twins Terec and Ceret, who are so bonded can feel every aspect of the other’s force. The action was great a lot of back and forth, good v. good, good v. bad, bad and good v. really bad, it was a lot of fun. I liked a character repeating the mantra “I am one the the Force and the Force is with me” when in great trouble and reaching out with the force. I loved the inner monologue and how it bridged the past to the present, it reminded me a lot of how Scott Snyder did it in Batman Court of the Owls.

What I Disliked: The dialogue is bad in some spot where I would roll my eyes and cringe. There is one jump cut scene where the villains surprise the Jedi and it jump cuts to them caught, I wanted to see some fight not just give up, all the Jedi still had their light sabers.

Recommendation: This Star Wars: High Republic is a fun action packed adventure with some real heart. I recommend you check it out, the only book I would you reading would be Light of the Jedi first, everything else get recapped. I rated Star Wars: The High Republic, Vol. 1: There Is No Fear 4 out of 5 stars.