Audiobook Review: 'Tempest Breaker'

Star Wars

Dec 13

The High Republic’s last major entry in Wave 2 of Phase 3 has arrived in the form of the audio drama Tempest Breaker. Both a pseudo-sequel to 2022’s audio drama Tempest Runner and a more direct follow-up with 2023’s The High Republic comic run from Marvel, all three works are by the author Cavan Scott.

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Here, Scott has weaved together a fantastic entry in the initiative that sets the stage for the approaching end-game next year, as well as closely examining several key characters of this era and continuing their stories.

Tempest Breaker has a story that is difficult to discuss while avoiding major spoilers, but we have done our best. The audio drama is set at least a month after recent stories like Tears of the Nameless and Beware the Nameless, and features an interview between Lourna Dee and Rhil Dairo, who fans will recall was the reporter featured in The Rising Storm and Eye of Darkness.

Rhil is looking to learn about Lourna’s past but also her recent history, due to changes to her life since her team-up with Keeve Trennis and others, a story told in The High Republic (2023) as mentioned earlier. The audio drama covers these events and adds more details from Lourna’s perspective but continues into a new mission that sees Lourna partnering with familiar characters, including a notable addition that strongly tests her changing nature.

As expected, Lourna is the star of this story as the focus of the interview though we do get other POVs spaced across the story. Lourna has been on a long journey in The High Republic, starting as one of the major villains in Light of the Jedi, who continued to play a villain role in the rest of Phase 1.

Tempest Runner, though, showed some of her hidden depth with her tragic past and offered her a chance at redemption. However, she turned away from that path in dramatic fashion due to self-doubt and unresolved issues. In Phase 3, her reluctant ally role continues, and we get to see a lot of self-reflection and external analysis of just who Lourna is and what makes her tick.

There is soul-searching in several of the other characters as well. For such a tense series of action-heavy events, with much at stake, both villains and heroes take the time to stop and ruminate on their goals and themselves.

Some of these figures even come to surprising conclusions that change their dynamics and relationships with other characters, creating an interesting contrast to what existed before while also laying bare character truths that are important to get so close to the end of The High Republic initiative.

This story is also, as mentioned, a work created by Cavan Scott, and this reviewer would claim a crowning achievement. Much like the comic work of Charles Soule, which references itself and has built a fantastic roster of unique characters, Cavan Scott has built an entire world around the characters of Lourna Dee and Keeve Trennis that adds a great deal to Tempest Breaker’s narrative.

Scott also adds to that world thanks to his inclusion of characters and details from Phase 2, drawn from the presence of Tey Sirrek in the story. Tempest Breaker is ultimately one big love letter to Scott’s past work, across all three Phases, but also sets up the final chapter of all of this content for Phase 3.

Overall, Tempest Breaker is an excellent examination of several characters created by The High Republic that ushers them into new stages of their development while setting the stage for the finale of the initiative.

While there are some issues with a few characters and some points of lore, it would be difficult to explain them without spoiling the audio drama. However, they are small issues that do not keep Tempest Breaker back from its greatness. We look forward to Fear of the Jedi next year as the finale to Scott’s part of The High Republic!