4.5★
"The right thing to do very often is an idea we invent, hm? To make ourselves feel better."

When I begun this book, I never would have thought that the lightheaded nature of a character like Ram would mix well with the darker, painful tone of Cohmac and Reath. But even if here we see a YA geared towards a slightly more juvenile approach than the previous two, Older is a master of Ram's own lesson: balance.

The comedic tone and modern speech were very jarring at the start, but definitely make the story more approachable to younger readers. While it's not my preference when consuming something like Star Wars, I quickly got used to it.

The story here is not about the plot or advancing the overall Nihil storyline, but about characters dealing with their paths, their emotions, and their choices in the face of catastrophe. Everyone is struggling, but none of them struggles the same way. It's beautiful and complex.

The Jedi duos work extremely well and create very interesting dynamics. Kantam's past mirrors Cohmac's doubts, and Reath's development inspires Ram's will. They learn with each other and are taught in return, and every step of the way is both funny and inspiring.

This book is, befitting it's genre, about carving your own path and learning that it isn't always what you expected it to be. While Crash's storyline definitely fits the theme, it just wasn't necessary to tell the story. It was interesting, but I just couldn't make myself care that much when I was already so invested in the characters we already knew.

Midnight Horizon might not have beat the first two adult novels out of my High Republic podium, but the story it tells is definitely my favorite.

"There was no such thing as not taking sides. It was sheer theater in peacetime and an absolute joke during war. Neutrality, the performance of it, was something powerful people demanded of everyone else so they could stay protected." ( )

The High Republic campaign finds itself in a rut, recycling the same story beats, same character arcs, over and over again, and this is on full display in this novel, which I found the least satisfying so far of all the THR novels. Adding to the morass is a convoluted plot; at all times I was not quite sure what was going on, on a scene-by-scene level, but I knew where the novel was headed and didn't really care. Compared to other Star Wars novels, Older structures his story in numerous bite-sized chapters which may have also contributed to my indifference and sense that the characters are not really breathing, just pieces to be moved and set up for the next THR installment, whenever that is. ( )

Still not a fan of Daniel José Older's take on Star Wars. MIDNIGHT HORIZON is full of plots that don't really seem to have much to do with the overreaching arc of the other High Republic books. There is an abundance of characters that are carryovers from his High Republic Adventures comic from IDW, so I feel if you haven't read that series, you're going to be confused about who these new characters are (I was - I've only read the first 6 or so issues, so didn't know who some of the characters even were in this book, which has not been an issue with the other High Republic books). While the book is YA, Older writes these characters in a far more juvenile fashion than they've been written by the other High Republic authors who have written the YA books. The shoehorned mention of the Halcyon (not necessarily Older's doing, but more Disney making sure the new hotel is name-dropped yet again in canon here).

The first 2/3 of the book is some convoluted story dealing with the Nihil possibly getting a foothold on Corelia, with Padawan's Ram Jomaram & Reath Silas getting wrapped up with a security detail on Corelia and something to do with Zeen portraying a pop star at a party to try to flush out the potential Corelian traitor - it all got overly complicated and none of it seemed to make sense to me, quite frankly. It wasn't until the other Jedi showed up and the Nihil make their actual appearance that things begin to happen in the book. Against the backdrop of what is happening at Starlight Beacon at the end of Fallen Star, events in the book finally begin to feel that they are going to have consequences to the main story line.

I hate to say it, but I feel like the biggest fan of Daniel José Older's writing is Older himself. He doesn't write other creator's characters well, and he overemphasizes his own characters. This is one of the few High Republic books that I feel could be skipped, and readers wouldn't necessarily feel like they've missed something in the grand scope of the story. ( )