Race to Crashpoint Tower by Daniel José Older is the second middle grade novel in Star War’s High Republic Series. I was blown away by the first book in this series and how the stories are about children but are still taken seriously in the Star Wars Universe. This novel is way more connected to the High Republic’s other novels especially The Rising Storm. Reader might feel disappointed because the heroes that we spent time with time with in the first middle grade novel A Test of Courage are barely in this novel, we instead get new heroes that have not existed previously in the High Republic. Of the new young Padawans Ram is might favorite which his force powers able to connect to machines than they do people. The story is really action packed character development takes a backseat. This novel tell the story with two perspectives Rams and Lula and Zeen’s which were introduced in High Republic Adventures comics ( which I haven’t read). This novel is good but I feel it relies heavily on having read The Rising Storm. It’s is almost an echo story we take a disaster and then we focus on one part of it but we still want to include everything that happened in the other novel.

The Plot: Ram a padawan who toils in repair shop Crashpoint Peak has noticed a group messing with the communications Tower on Valo. This is on the Eve of a galaxy- wide fair that is working a Republic peace talk as well. Ram discovers it is the Nihil a dangerous group that killed a lot of Jedi mere months ago blowing up a starship as the Jedi plan to patrol the outer rim. The Nihil fire upon him as he tries to go about fixing it, he retreats and must tell the bigger Jedi, but they are concerned with pulling off the big event. He deals with a security guard that looks him up while sending a message out. Lula and Zeen are on a mission investigating a Nihil attack and learn of a bigger one that they can’t pinpoint then they see Ram message and must help him since now Valo is radio silent as all the towers have been taken. Can Lula and Zeen get with Ram to stop this Attack or get help to Valo.

What I Liked: Ram’s force power of connecting with machines was cool and I liked how it helped in aiding him and I liked how he struggled in the Jedi Powers we know like mind control. The mind control scene where the security wouldn’t say exactly what was asked and the moving of the hand got called out for being unnecessary. There was a big moment in The Rising Storm where a zoo is breached and all the creatures are released, which we got a couple more creatures to see. The action is pretty non stop.

What I Disliked: Is how connected this story is to The Rising Storm, I don’t think the reader would be able to figure out the whole plot without reading The Rising Storm first. There’s barely any character development which is a shame because that is what I enjoyed some much from A Test of Courage the first middle grade book. Zeen’s reasons for not being a Jedi didn’t make much sense, maybe it is explained more in The High Republic Adventures comics.

Recommendations: This is a fun book, but ultimately I felt readers can not enjoy with out having read The Rising Storm. I can not recommend it with out having read that book. Then you have a laugh or two and go as fun as that story was it wasn’t necessary, to the larger story and didn’t add anything to the characters. I rated Race to Crashpoint Tower by Daniel José Older 3 out of 5 stars.