The Masks of Concern Is the Star Wars E-book for the Political Second

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 will be straightforward to prescribe an eerie sense of clairvoyance to a e book like his newest, The Mask of Fear, releasing in the meanwhile in time it does within the early months of the second Trump administration–regardless that nobody in its creation might’ve predicted the methods its examination of the early weeks of the Galactic Empire’s institution might map onto information tales and headlines we’re seeing each 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 previously few weeks coming, in probably the most particular of senses. It wouldn’t be truthful to Masks of Concern, the primary in a deliberate trilogy of novels throughout a trifecta of authors on account of launch inside the subsequent few years, to take action both. Really, Freed is solely doing what Star Wars has all the time achieved, 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 purpose of the sequence because the very begin, from Lucas’ intended parallels between the Insurgent Alliance’s guerrilla warfare and the Vietnam struggle–framing the Empire itself to American pursuits–to the methods the prequel trilogy examined a corrupted authorities usurped and remodeled, although struggle and different means, right into a fascistic surveillance state on the peak of the struggle on terror. It’s been a purpose past him, suffused into the very approach 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 solely be both truthful or truthful to check 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 acquired 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 truthful to say that Andor and Masks deal with the same thought from the attitude of two very completely 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 buildings of resistance we see fomenting beneath that grip are factions we’re not assembly of their most nascent types. They’re not fairly the organized resistance that might entrance a galactic civil struggle but, however they’ve been combating the Empire in some type or one other for a great lengthy whereas.

The Masks of Concern 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 fascinated by exploring two particular concepts: what it appears prefer to have an authoritarian regime immediately speed up into energy off of the again of populism, and what any sort of unified pushback to that energy seize can appear like at its most prototypical, as folks slowly however absolutely start to understand simply what they’re truly coping with.

There are of course components 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 trying to muzzle Palpatine’s government energy, Bail desperately looking for 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 Concern is, at its core, an intensely political e book.

What meaning is just not essentially that Masks of Concern trades scenes of covert motion for rigorous debate about coverage. However as an alternative that, no matter which pillar of the narrative we’re specializing in–or the handful of recent 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 Concern is deeply within the politics of individuals, of coalition constructing, of morals being reshaped or forged apart out of the perceived requirements of constructing a coherent motion.

All three pillars of Masks of Concern ultimately 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 practical sense that they’re all people with related, but wildly completely different objectives 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 most important views within the e book all signify completely different sides of the Insurrection as we are going to come to realize it. Mon nonetheless has religion in political techniques 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 infrequently by himself as being so blinded in exposing the reality about Order 66, that he may be silly sufficient to imagine simply cracking the case would put Palpatine away endlessly (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 up to date 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 direction of extremist motion being the one possible counterpoint to excessive authoritarianism, no matter price.

Masks of Concern is at its best possible when it’s about exploring these differing views, and coming to a degree the place they may be synthesized right into a coalition of resistance. Palpatine could also be a specter that lingers over the whole thing 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 an alternative both inside as these political opinions and beliefs take maintain, or about a lot smaller battles, acts that finally 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 can maybe resonate with audiences probably the most, particularly these anxious concerning the current state of the U.S.. Whereas the parallels could really feel notably pointed studying this within the right here and now, once more, Freed is just not 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 regardless 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 every other nation could also be at any interval in its future, grapples with the specter of authoritarians and oligarchs.

A lesser story could have merely gestured in 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, 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 outdoors 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 Concern is just not actually a e book that has a specific finish. Threads conclude, definitely, however each we the viewers and the story know that that is just the start of a motion a long time within the making. There isn’t a clear villain to be bested on this e book, however as an alternative 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 attraction, 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 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 complicated copy was supplied for evaluate.

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