Cavan Scott’s “Tempest Runner” is the first High Republic novel that I didn’t find pathetically mediocre, which says a lot, considering it isn’t even a novel.

“Tempest Runner” is actually a script for an audio play, one that is intended to have music, sound effects, and (I assume) different actors playing the different roles. Like most plays, audio or otherwise, much of the action and the plot comes from dialogue, and this is very dialogue-heavy. In a novel, this may not work as well, but as a script, it works very well and helps to build momentum for the story. Indeed, the story is very fast-paced, and the format fits the story.

There are several things that Scott does in this script that are improvements over the last several novels. Narratively, Scott’s story lacks the trademark Star Wars linear story-telling format. Nothing necessarily wrong with that style, but Scott’s nonlinear, non-chronological approach gives the reader more of a challenge, in a good way. Time-jumps, in my opinion, are always better for a story because it makes the reader pay more attention.

It is also somewhat of a more mature approach to storytelling. Star Wars has always harkened to a more old-fashioned, traditional linear form of storytelling, much like the classic Saturday afternoon serials that were the inspiration for George Lucas when he created Star Wars in the late-70s. That style also has a certain appeal, one that modern audiences (especially adults who have, like me, grown up with Star Wars) may find childish. (And please don’t take that the wrong way. I don’t mean that in a negative sense. “Childish”, in this sense, is simply meant to imply that it is targeted to children---or, perhaps more abstractly, the child within, which, in a sense, Star Wars always has been.)

Another improvement is that, unlike the previous novels (and, by the way, “Tempest Runner” is chronologically set between the events of “The Rising Storm” and “The Fallen Star”), the focus is on one character rather than an ensemble of characters. This allows Scott to develop at least one character more fully. It’s a shame that Scott devotes the story to one of the villains, but, for the first time at least, we are given more backstory and humanization of a character than we have seen in any of the previous books.

The story follows Lorna Dee, one of the three Tempest Runners of the Nihil. Within the hierarchy of the Nihil, she is the highest-ranking officer just under the leader, Marchion Ro, whose title is “The Eye”. (Ranks and titles are all storm-related.)

The Jedi are on the hunt for her because they mistakenly believe that she is the Eye. It is unfortunate for her but very fortunate for Ro, who schemes quietly in relative safety.

Also on the hunt for her is another former Tempest Runner, Pan Eyta, who was betrayed by Dee and thought dead. He is, unfortunately, not dead. He is very angry and bent on revenge.

Eventually captured by the Jedi, Dee still manages to keep her real identity a secret, but her situation makes her realize that even she doesn’t know who she is. We get glimpses at the various events in her life that have shaped her into the killer that she is, but can she be redeemed? Does she even want to be redeemed?

Amidst an exciting manhunt, prison escape, and showdown, (and, yes, “Tempest Runner” is exactly what it sounds like: a space western) Scott’s story is also an insightful examination of the birth and evolution of a terrorist. ( )

My beef with the High Republic "campaign" is it is densely populated with uninteresting characters, and Cavan Scott valiantly tries to flesh one of them out here (to be frank I found the flashbacks to her past somewhat irritating and kept wanting to be brought back to the present). The excellent voice actors bring her and others to life, so it is not a total drag. The titular character is mercurial and her nature shifts abruptly, with her attitude change in the last chapter being particularly puzzling and contrived. While supposedly plumbing the depths of the character's past, it ignores revelations about her past associations in Out of the Shadows. ( )