The Masks of Worry is the Star Wars E-book for the Political Second

Alexander Freed has written among the most compelling books of Star Wars‘ fashionable period, however I don’t suppose that makes him psychic. It will be straightforward 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–regardless 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 every single day.

However it wouldn’t precisely be truthful–I’m certain Freed, like many people, didn’t see half the issues we’ve heard about prior to now few weeks coming, in probably the most particular of senses. It wouldn’t be truthful to Masks of Worry, the primary in a deliberate trilogy of novels throughout a trifecta of authors because of launch throughout the subsequent few years, to take action both. Truly, Freed is just doing what Star Wars has at all times achieved, mapping a cycle in politics that speaks to, and displays in myriad methods, the American empire in varied states of decline.

This has been a objective of the collection 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 remodeled, although battle and different means, right into a fascistic surveillance state on the peak of the battle on terror. It’s been a objective past him, suffused into the very means Star Wars is now, with modern 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 solely be both truthful or truthful to match Masks of Worry 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 acquired a highlight in that glorious collection (within the type of Mon Mothma and Noticed Gerrera, who, alongside Bail Organa, are the three major pillars Masks builds itself round), and positively evokes the equally darker and grounded tone of a political thriller.

However it could be extra truthful to say that Andor and Masks deal with an analogous thought from the attitude 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 nicely 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’re not assembly of their most nascent kinds. They’re not fairly the organized resistance that may entrance a galactic civil battle but, however they’ve been preventing the Empire in some type or one other for a superb lengthy whereas.

The Masks of Worry sits at nearly the precise reverse finish of that chronological spectrum. Set simply weeks after the tip 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 appears prefer to have an authoritarian regime out of the blue speed up into energy off of the again of populism, and what any type of unified pushback to that energy seize can seem like at its most prototypical, as folks slowly however certainly start to understand simply what they’re truly coping with.

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

What meaning isn’t essentially that Masks of Worry 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 by these storylines to supply their very own insights and views into this fascinating interval of Star Wars‘ timeline–Masks of Worry is deeply within the politics of individuals, of coalition constructing, of morals being reshaped or solid apart out of the perceived requirements of creating a coherent motion.

All three pillars of Masks of Worry finally intersect, however regardless 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 life like 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 sudden methods.

These principal views within the e-book all signify totally different sides of the Rise up as we’ll come to comprehend it. Mon nonetheless has religion in political programs 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 likely to be silly sufficient to imagine simply cracking the case would put Palpatine away eternally (Freed by no means pushes Bail fairly far sufficient right into a direct parallel to how some folks considered 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 modern U.S. politics all through the e-book). Noticed, whereas arguably the least-explored of the trio on this specific a part of the trilogy, is already nicely into the method of his radicalization in the direction of extremist motion being the one possible counterpoint to excessive authoritarianism, no matter price.

Masks of Worry is at its easiest when it’s about exploring these differing views, and coming to some extent the place they is likely to be synthesized right into a coalition of resistance. Palpatine could also be a specter that lingers over everything of the e-book, however he isn’t a gift, cackling villain for a gaggle of heroes to face and defeat. The battle is as a substitute both inside as these political beliefs and beliefs take maintain, or about a lot smaller battles, acts that in the end come all the way down to the straightforward 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 way in which.

It’s that latter feeling that may maybe resonate with audiences probably the most, particularly these anxious concerning the current state of the U.S.. Whereas the parallels might really feel significantly pointed studying this within the right here and now, once more, Freed isn’t writing from a degree 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 regardless of who” to hammer a degree dwelling. The Masks of Worry 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 another 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 Worry is way smarter than that. What Freed is exploring on this e-book, by 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 by a matured lens–by 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 exterior our home windows, however one that’s nonetheless deeply enriched by them.

Most apparently and most fittingly for this e-book then, each as the primary in a trilogy and for its broader perspective of Star Wars‘ battle towards fascism, Masks of Worry isn’t actually a e-book that has a specific 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 really imagine in in a world swept up within the harmful allures of populist, authoritarian enchantment, and that none of it’s straightforward.

Star Wars does, in fact, 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 Worry relishes in a world that, within the current second, lacks that–and for all its darkish shadows, it finds an excessive amount of mild in reckoning that the struggle have to be fought anyway.

Star Wars: Reign of the Empire – The Masks of Worry hits cabinets February 25. A complicated copy was offered for assessment.

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