The Masks of Concern Is the Star Wars Ebook for th...

Alexander Freed has written a number of the most compelling books of Star Wars‘ fashionable period, however I don’t suppose that makes him psychic. It could be simple to prescribe an eerie sense of clairvoyance to a e book like his newest, The Mask of Fear, releasing in the mean time in time it does within the early months of the second Trump administration–despite the fact that nobody in its creation may’ve predicted the methods its examination of the early weeks of the Galactic Empire’s institution may map onto information tales and headlines we’re seeing day-after-day.

However it wouldn’t precisely be truthful–I’m positive Freed, like many people, didn’t see half the issues we’ve heard about up to now few weeks coming, in essentially the most particular of senses. It wouldn’t be honest to Masks of Concern, the primary in a deliberate trilogy of novels throughout a trifecta of authors attributable to launch throughout the subsequent few years, to take action both. In reality, Freed is just doing what Star Wars has at all times carried out, mapping a cycle in politics that speaks to, and displays in myriad methods, the American empire in numerous states of decline.

This has been a aim of the sequence for the reason that very begin, from Lucas’ intended parallels between the Insurgent Alliance’s guerrilla warfare and the Vietnam battle–framing the Empire itself to American pursuits–to the methods the prequel trilogy examined a corrupted authorities usurped and reworked, although battle and different means, right into a fascistic surveillance state on the top of the battle on terror. It’s been a aim past him, suffused into the very manner Star Wars is now, with up to date tales like Ahsoka, Andor, and The Mandalorian which have all mirrored in some small methods on the recurrent political nature of its world, and the way that may relate to America’s personal alternation between liberal and conservative powers.

In some methods, it could additionally not totally be both honest or truthful to match Masks of Concern to the Star Wars textual content it has been most in comparison with because it was first introduced, the aforementioned Andor. Sure, it definitely focuses on characters that obtained a highlight in that glorious sequence (within the type of Mon Mothma and Noticed Gerrera, who, alongside Bail Organa, are the three main pillars Masks builds itself round), and positively evokes the equally darker and grounded tone of a political thriller.

However it could be extra honest to say that Andor and Masks deal with an identical thought from the angle of two very totally different contexts. Andor begins its story simply 5 years earlier than the occasions of Rogue One and A New Hope: the Empire is effectively established because the de facto ruling energy of the galaxy, its grip tightened, and the constructions of resistance we see fomenting beneath that grip are factions we aren’t assembly of their most nascent types. They’re not fairly the organized resistance that will entrance a galactic civil battle but, however they’ve been combating the Empire in some kind or one other for an excellent lengthy whereas.

The Masks of Concern sits at nearly the precise reverse finish of that chronological spectrum. Set simply weeks after the top of Revenge of the Sith, the Empire itself nonetheless barely greater than a reputation and sweeping array of government motion from Palpatine, the e book is considering exploring two particular concepts: what it seems to be prefer to have an authoritarian regime instantly speed up into energy off of the again of populism, and what any type of unified pushback to that energy seize can appear to be at its most prototypical, as folks slowly however absolutely start to understand simply what they’re really coping with.

There are of course parts of espionage and subterfuge interwoven all through the three main arcs of the e book–Mon Mothma rallying political assist within the now-Imperial Senate for a invoice making an attempt to muzzle Palpatine’s government energy, Bail desperately searching for to show the reality concerning the destruction of the Jedi Order, and Noticed encountering a former Separatist sleeper agent reckoning together with his place in newfound resistance to the previous Republic. However Masks of Concern is, at its core, an intensely political e book.

What which means just isn’t essentially that Masks of Concern trades scenes of covert motion for rigorous debate about coverage. However as a substitute that, no matter which pillar of the narrative we’re specializing in–or the handful of latest characters that get woven via these storylines to supply their very own insights and views into this fascinating interval of Star Wars‘ timeline–Masks of Concern is deeply within the politics of individuals, of coalition constructing, of morals being reshaped or solid apart out of the perceived requirements of constructing a coherent motion.

All three pillars of Masks of Concern ultimately intersect, however despite the fact that we all know that sooner or later Bail, Mon, and Noticed will all ostensibly be in alliance with one another for a time, what defines them most on this e book is the very lifelike sense that they’re all people with comparable, but wildly totally different targets and beliefs. But Freed establishes a maturity in his writing and characterisation that isn’t afraid to mine these divides, and push away or pull collectively these characters, in surprising methods.

These predominant views within the e book all signify totally different aspects of the Riot as we’ll come to comprehend it. Mon nonetheless has religion in political methods and actions no matter both their corruption within the waning days of the Republic or Palpatine’s usurpation of them. Bail is seen by others and sometimes by himself as being so blinded in exposing the reality about Order 66, that he is perhaps silly sufficient to imagine simply cracking the case would put Palpatine away without end (Freed by no means pushes Bail fairly far sufficient right into a direct parallel to how some folks seen Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference within the 2016 U.S. presidential election, however there’s definitely echoes of that there, simply as there are echoes to up to date U.S. politics all through the e book). Noticed, whereas arguably the least-explored of the trio on this explicit a part of the trilogy, is already effectively into the method of his radicalization in the direction of extremist motion being the one possible counterpoint to excessive authoritarianism, no matter value.

Masks of Concern is at its highest when it’s about exploring these differing views, and coming to a degree the place they is perhaps synthesized right into a coalition of resistance. Palpatine could also be a specter that lingers over everything of the e book, however he’s not a gift, cackling villain for a bunch of heroes to face and defeat. The battle is as a substitute both inner as these political opinions and beliefs take maintain, or about a lot smaller battles, acts that in the end come all the way down to the easy alternative of whether or not or to not adjust to a regime that has come rumbling into the corridors of energy, tearing up established precedent alongside the best way.

It’s that latter feeling that may maybe resonate with audiences essentially the most, particularly these anxious concerning the current state of the U.S.. Whereas the parallels might really feel notably pointed studying this within the right here and now, once more, Freed just isn’t writing from some extent of precognition–and neither is his writing unsubtle sufficient the place circumstances would demand that Mon Mothma proverbially turned to the reader and mentioned “vote blue irrespective of who” to hammer some extent residence. The Masks of Concern is as a lot about America in 2025 as it’s concerning the nation because it was in 2016, because it was in 2001, because it was within the ’80s and ’70s–because it, or some other nation could also be at any interval in its future, grapples with the specter of authoritarians and oligarchs.

A lesser story might have merely gestured in the direction of the present state of the world, performed the proverbial “so that is how liberty dies” clip from Revenge of the Sith, and left it there, however Masks of Concern is much smarter than that. What Freed is exploring on this e book, via the framework of Star Wars‘ personal established historical past and political infrastructures, is concepts which have resonated all through the franchise from the very starting. In doing so via a matured lens–via characters that, whereas we all know their eventual fates, are largely nonetheless early sufficient of their journeys to these fates they are often explored in fascinating depth–Freed weaves a narrative that’s gripping past its parallels to the world outdoors our home windows, however one that’s nonetheless deeply enriched by them.

Most curiously and most fittingly for this e book then, each as the primary in a trilogy and for its broader perspective of Star Wars‘ battle in opposition to fascism, Masks of Concern just isn’t actually a e book that has a selected finish. Threads conclude, definitely, however each we the viewers and the story know that that is only the start of a motion many years within the making. There is no such thing as a clear villain to be bested on this e book, however as a substitute an acknowledgement to be accepted: that resistance takes time, it takes constructing alliances, it takes the braveness to face for what you actually imagine in in a world swept up within the harmful allures of populist, authoritarian attraction, and that none of it’s simple.

Star Wars does, after all, sometimes permit itself the luxurious fantasy of a singular and open evil to face down and defeat, and there’s pleasure in that. However The Masks of Concern relishes in a world that, within the current second, lacks that–and for all its darkish shadows, it finds a substantial amount of gentle in reckoning that the combat should be fought anyway.

Star Wars: Reign of the Empire – The Masks of Concern hits cabinets February 25. A sophisticated copy was offered for overview.

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