“Quest for Planet X” by Tessa Gratton is the second middle-grade novel for “The High Republic” phase two. It starts a bit earlier but intersects with parts of “Cataclysm”, the adult novel by Lydia Kang.
While in Batuu, Padawan Rooper Nitani is coaxed by her friend, apprentice hyperspace prospector Dass Leffbruk to join a hyperspace route competition. Using a cutting-edge starship owned by Sky, a pilot member of the notorious Graf family.
Avoiding Sky’s brother and true owner of the ship, they encounter Fel Ix, a Kessarine who is a member of the Path of the Open Hand, who is taken along for the ride. They start backtracking the route to the mysterious Planet X, a source of untold riches (and possibly the origin planet of the Nameless creatures). Eventually, they will have to take a decision, continue their search or go to help Rooper’s Master, Jedi Silandra Cho.
While the decision is appropriate, it leaves the novel in an unfinished plot state and ends up being just mostly irrelevant to the High Republic phase 2 plot.
The novel is good, but as of the moment, not needed to understand or move in the overall arch.
Korpilandia 