Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back for my review of the first book in the Reign of the Empire trilogy, The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed, which takes place in the early days of the Galactic Empire following the events of Revenge of the Sith. Let's get into it!
I haven't been really keeping up with Star Wars novels much since the new canon books started coming out all the way back in 2014. Mostly because I had so much going on in my life beginning in 2014 and also because I didn't have the space for more books as I had a lot of them spread out over two bookcases at the time. Plus I wasn't interested in many of them as I felt that anything that wasn't connected to Rebels or The Force Awakens would be retreading what the novels had been doing since 1991. And even when I did finally get Aftermath and read it in 2015, I still wasn't convinced that there really seemed to be a plan for the novels since film and television looked like the places where Star Wars was really going to shine. But, when I saw the cover for The Mask of Fear and saw that Mon Mothma was going to be the main focus of the book, I knew I had to pick the book up, even if I didn't get it on Day 1.
I haven't read a lot of Alexander Freed's work outside of the short stories he wrote for Star Wars Insider in 2014 and 2016, but you've heard me talk about Alphabet Squadron, which he wrote, so when I heard he was writing the first book in this new novel trilogy, I knew I'd have a good time with it. I was right because I really enjoyed this book.
In my review of season 1 of Andor I noted how thrilled I was that Mon Mothma was getting more of a focus in books and TV shows, and once again, this book did a fantastic job of focusing on her. I also appreciate how connected this book is to season 1 of Andor, as Mon's husband, Perrin, is included in the novel. He's not a major character in the book, nor is he a major character in Andor, but the book shows us where their relationship was in the period after Revenge of the Sith and I find that fascinating.
Bail Organa is so different in this book than I've seen him in the movies and TV shows he's appeared in. Here, his only goal is to restore the Jedi's good name and reveal Palpatine for the evil, tyrannic, Sith Lord that he is. But, as he discovers, even if he succeeded in presenting his evidence to the Senate, nobody would care because they were already angry with the Jedi for allowing the Clone Wars to happen in the first place, AND Palpatine ended the war just as he promised. So it didn't matter whether the Jedi were innocent of the crimes that Palpatine accused them of, or that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, the people didn't want to return to war and Palpatine was the Emperor. And not just the rich people of the Core Worlds felt this way either. People from the Inner Rim, the Outer Rim Territories, the Expansion Region and Mid-Rim Territories felt that way because they'd all been affected by the Clone Wars and they were horrified by it. Bail also had to realize that exposing the Emperor wasn't going to bring the Jedi back, and it wasn't going to bring Yoda and Obi-Wan out of their self-imposed exile on Dagobah and Tatooine respectively.
I also find it interesting that Queen Breha is the ruler of Alderaan, while Bail is her husband and the senator from Alderaan. Past Star Wars material, including the movies, TV shows, and Legends novels (the few he appears in) has always painted it as Bail was the senator AND the Viceroy of Alderaan. Which made no sense to me because how can you lead your world, but also spend all your time on Coruscant, dealing with other galactic politicians? So, I'm glad that this book cleared that up once and for all for me.
Saw Gerrera isn't in the book a whole lot this time around, but he is in it a little bit, probably a bit more than he's in season 1 of Andor, but he's connected to Soujen's story. Soujen is a former Separatist soldier who was physically augmented to be a weapon to be turned against the Republic during the Clone Wars. Chemish and Haki are somewhat interesting, but they both got lost in the shuffle once Bail and Mon's stories started to intertwine again near the end of the book.
I could probably go on and on about this book, but I'll end this review here. It's a great companion to Andor and I'm glad I got to read it while watching season 1 of the show. The other two books in the trilogy will be out in the next couple of years, with book 2 being written by Rebecca Roanhorse, who I'm not familiar with as she's a more recent Star Wars author, who has only written one Star Wars novel and a short story prior to the next book in this trilogy. The book is coming out in the spring of 2026. Book 3 is being written by Fran Wilde, who is a brand new Star Wars author, who has only had a short story published in the 2023 anthology book, A Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. And the third book isn't coming out until 2027. So we'll see how the next two books turn out.
That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon over on my other blog, Josh's Geek Cave on Wednesday with a fun post over there about my favourite albums that I own on CD. Then I'll be back here with my review of Andor season 2 on Thursday. May the Force be with you.
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