Now we're getting somewhere!

Compared to the busy exposition that the Light of the Jedi was, The Rising Storm has real stakes, strong characters and powerful emotions. More dialogue and telling the story through the characters' actions, like in a Star Wars movie. Still a bit busy with perhaps too many characters, and some parts of the story were a bit too gruesome for a Star Wars story, buy hey... we got introduced to proto-Kenobi (Stellan Gios), so I'm happy!!

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Chaos!

There's a LOT going on in this book - there's a lot of interpersonal drama, a lot of politics, and when the action gets going, whew, it's on a COLOSSAL scale.

The length might be one of the drawbacks of this entry in the High Republic series, if I'm nitpicking; there's so many things all going on at once that it can be a bit of a test of how much information you can carry all at once through audio alone, and as such there are times when it feels like a little more brutality in the editing wouldn't have hurt.

Marc Thompson's performances are always so full of energy, passion, and commitment, and there's no exception to that here - I do feel like when he applies an Irish accent to characters, which he has done occasionally in other SW audiobooks, it comes off as hammy and cartoonist. The man is a genius, but I always feel my heart sink a bit when the Irish comes out.

A great book, I feel very strongly that Cavan Scott is much better at novels than he is comics. Wonderful production as usual, and Marc Thompson yet again giving every inch of himself to the performance.

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If you like Star Wars, you’ll love this!

Brilliant story and great follow up from The Light of The Jedi. I really enjoyed how the plot unfolded and how they developed existing characters plus introduced new ones. Quite dark in places which I thought was good and added more interest and saves the story from being one dimensional. Very well read as always making you feel immersed in the story.

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marc is amazing as allways perfect

perfect marc its amazing as allways he really bring life to the story and the figures in it

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A worthy sequel, but with scattered focus.

As much as I am enjoying this era, there are a *LOT* of characters and places to keep track of. This is less of a problem here than it was in Light of the Jedi, but I still found myself having to try to remember who characters were, and there relationships to each other. This isn't helped by the fact that the story does tend to jump about a bit in the beginning. This becomes less of a factor once characters converge and the main conflict of the story takes place.

This is definitely a worthy followup to it's predecessors, though it does feel like we're still very much in the "set-up" phase of the overarching story. There's fun to be had here, Good characters and fun interactions aplenty, but the actual plot may leave you wanting.

A highlight character for this one, for me, is Elzar Mann, whose internal struggles and the results of them are an interesting high-point for me, and worth the credit for this book alone in my humble opinion.

Not that there isn't more enjoyment to be had, it's a nice look at the way the republic used to see the Jedi, and their working relationship with the senate, as well as the people, and how the Nihil have disrupted that.

The presentation is excellent as usual, full of the usual bells and whistles of sound effects and music backing up Marc Thompson, who, I'm sure could do this in his sleep at this point. The good old faithful Star Wars audiobook experience I've come to expect at this point, no complaints there.

All in all, this is a pretty good book. It does still feel like it's moving pieces around so other stories can take place, but it manages to keep the experience engaging and the characters interesting. I ended this listen looking forward to seeing where things go.

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stunning

I cannot believe how well written and thought out this book was, i got through all 76 chapters in around a week, i was on the edge of my seat through it all. heartbreaking ending, while setting up so much to come, this is one of the best additions to star wars yet.

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Great start to the high republic

I found that it was very good no flat spots full of detail and the depth of the story and the characters is amazing

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Cav knows what he did.

The story is incredible with the highest emotional highs and the lowest emotional lows. Listening to this novel was an experience that I don't think could ever be replicated. However, I struggled to understand Marc Thompson at times either through thick accents or voice modulation, often both. I really struggled to understand what OrbaLin was saying and I'd struggle with the Nihil too.

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One of the best Star Wars stories written

Absolutely fantastic. Up there with the best of the legends stuff. Absolutely fantastic. Rea in-depth character. Fantastic plot. Loads of action and combat. Fantastic book. Genuinely one of the best Star Wars stories.

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A good follow up to light of the Jedi

I prefer this book over light of the Jedi, as this is a big improvement in terms of excitement and tension. I’m starting to care a bit more about these characters, Elzar Mann being a highlight.
Like a lot of other people have been saying, this book goes hard in the middle of it and everything is in chaos. I genuinely enjoyed most of it but felt it could have had more casualties, that’s why I liked the Hetzal crisis in the last book, you felt the impact and I was interested.
All in all it was a decent audiobook, definitely the most tension I’ve seen in a Star Wars book in ages.

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