I have not been the biggest fan of The High Republic Phase 2 as I slowly navigate through all the stories across mediums. The main comic has been lacking, the High Republic Adventures pales compared to Phase One, and the comic miniseries are not much better.

The novels have also been a mixed bag, with the first Middle-Grade, Quest for the Hidden City, being my least favorite novel out of the entire High Republic. So it is with a pleasant surprise that Quest for Planet X is in the top tier of the initiative thus far.

Taking a cue from A Test of Courage and Justina Ireland, Tessa Gratton focuses more on the young characters who separate themselves from their adult counterparts for their own adventure.

The Story

It’s a great space race! Rooper, currently on Batuu, is anxious as news has broken out across the galaxy of the events on Jedha, and she is worried about her master, Shilandra Sho. She has to put that aside as she senses she needs to help her friend, Dass Leffbruk. The young Pathfinder, who she met on Gloam stranded with his father, recruits the Padawan to join him and Sky Graf on a race sponsored by the Grafs and San Tekkas to find new hyperspace routes. 

Secretly, Dass and Sky are using the race to find Planet X, the mysterious planet and home of the terrifying Leveler. Dass wants to finish what he and his father started and recover their ship, having been left on Gloam for dead by Sunshine Dobbs. Sky has a unique compass that they believe can be enhanced by a Force-user, and they hope Rooper is the answer. 

Dobbs is working for the Path of the Open Hand, with members also seeking the planet to gather more Levelers. Worlds collide when Path members, led by Fel Ix (whom we met in Path of Deceit), board Sky’s ship, the Brightbird. Things don’t go how anyone wants, as everyone has to work together and learn together.

The best decision was to have most of the novel on Sky’s ship. By enclosing these characters in a smaller space, the conflict is not battling some beast on a strange planet or even other ships. It is challenging each other’s beliefs. 

We don’t jump from POVs on different planets but within the characters on the Brightbird, which makes this 288-page book (close to Quest for the Hidden City) flow much smoother. 

Also, I think it is a nice touch to have these novels take the namesake of the Phase “Quest of the Jedi.” Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi was the only direct play on the first Phase, with other novels using wordplay from “dark.” It’s small but an excellent marker for young readers of where they are in the timeline.

The Characters

Just like Shilandra Sho was served the most in The Battle of Jedha by being alone, Sho’s Padawan Rooper is elevated to actual lead here. As Dass says, she comes across more like a Jedi Knight than a Padawan, similar to Phase One’s Vernestra Rwoh.

I wish I could say that Dass is better here, but unfortunately, the Lucasfilm writing team doesn’t know what to do with him. The quest is supposed to be his journey to find his own path to becoming a pathfinder, and part of that plan is to get his ship back and claim ownership of the route coordinates to Planet X. However, Dass needs rescuing most of the time and spends the rest being helplessly naive. Then he is easily swayed to fall into Rooper’s camp when the group decides whether to try and find Planet X or go to Dalna. Outside of being the only one who has been to Planet X, the character never elevates past the background. 

Dass gets completely usurped by newcomer Sky, who steals the ship from their brother, Helis. Sky claims they want to find Planet X to stand out among the Graf family, who pride themselves on ambition. But there is more going on with them as we learn their father went missing while searching for the planet. 

The Graf family has mostly been one-note through The High Republic, finding new ways to be antagonistic. Here it is more complicated, with Sky acknowledging the faults of their family while still loving her family members (including mourning Tilson Graf from The Battle of Jedha). That we finally get a more complex portrait of this family in a Middle-Grade novel is welcoming, and it is not just through Sky but through their memories of their father, who is never named. Even Helis, a minor antagonist, gets a touching moment with Sky near the end.

Speaking of antagonists, that is also complicated. You could say that Fel Ix is the main villain, but that would push it. The truth is, The Quest for Planet X does not have an antagonist, just conflict. Everyone has an agenda but manages to come together for a greater cause. Fel Ix is not just another Path member that spews talking points; he listens to Rooper’s point of view. Of course, it helps that he knew Kevmo and that the late Padawan saved the life of his hatchlings, so he has that perspective. Unlike Marda Ro, Fel Ix recognizes that there are holes in the Mother’s claims. Ultimately, one could see how The Path becomes the more self-centered Nihil without characters like Fel Ix.

And the adults’ presence is still felt throughout the novel, even in their absence, particularly Shilandra and Sky’s dad.

Rooper says that Shilandra is the closest thing to a mother figure that she has and, while she learns to be decisive when it counts, still leans heavily on her master’s advice.

Meanwhile, Sky recalls how their father was the only person who listened to them. Sky is a non-binary character, and through their memories, we learn just how much of a support system their dad was to them. 

Canon Contributions

Supraluminite. It’s fun to say, but it is also an exciting contraption introduced in Battlefront II with Luke Skywalker’s compass and reappears during the Sequel Trilogy. Sky describes it as an essence that could be enhanced with Rooper using the Force. The High Republic is now the earliest instance where supraluminites are discussed, and it could factor in Phase Three with Vernestra, who occasionally has visions in hyperspace. 

We get more background on Planet X, including through the earliest story involving a prospector named Xirys Patri, who barely escaped the planet with a handful of riches and healed of his life-threatening injuries. Mentioning the name of the first record of the planet seems important, and Patri’s name might resurface in Phase Three as well.

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Quest for Planet X improves upon Rooper Nitani just in time to say goodbye. She will appear in the upcoming short story anthology novel Star Wars The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life, but this is a great endpoint for her arc.