The Masks of Worry Is the Star Wars Guide for the Political Second

Alexander Freed has written among the most compelling books of Star Wars‘ trendy 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 by 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 previously few weeks coming, in essentially the most particular of senses. It wouldn’t be honest to Masks of Worry, the primary in a deliberate trilogy of novels throughout a trifecta of authors resulting from launch inside the subsequent few years, to take action both. In reality, Freed is solely doing what Star Wars has at all times completed, 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 for the reason that 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 reworked, although struggle and different means, right into a fascistic surveillance state on the top of the struggle on terror. It’s been a purpose past him, suffused into the very manner 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 will additionally not solely be both honest or truthful to check 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 obtained a highlight in that glorious sequence (within the type of Mon Mothma and Noticed Gerrera, who, alongside Bail Organa, are the three major pillars Masks builds itself round), and definitely evokes the equally darker and grounded tone of a political thriller.

However it will be extra honest to say that Andor and Masks sort out an analogous 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 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’re not assembly of their most nascent varieties. They’re not fairly the organized resistance that will entrance a galactic civil struggle but, however they’ve been preventing the Empire in some type or one other for lengthy whereas.

The Masks of Worry sits at virtually 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 involved in 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 sort of unified pushback to that energy seize can appear like at its most prototypical, as individuals slowly however absolutely start to grasp simply what they’re really 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 making an attempt to muzzle Palpatine’s government energy, Bail desperately in search of to show the reality in regards to 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 Worry is, at its core, an intensely political e-book.

What which means shouldn’t be essentially that Masks of Worry 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 via 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 ultimately intersect, however despite the fact that we all know that in some unspecified time in the future 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 sensible sense that they’re all people with comparable, but wildly completely 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 essential views within the e-book all signify completely different aspects of the Rise up 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 infrequently by himself as being so blinded in exposing the reality about Order 66, that he is likely to be silly sufficient to consider 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 individuals 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 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 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 Worry is at its highest 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 the whole thing of the e-book, however he’s not a gift, cackling villain for a gaggle of heroes to face and defeat. The battle is as an alternative 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 selection 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 essentially the most, particularly these anxious in regards to the current state of the U.S.. Whereas the parallels could really feel significantly pointed studying this within the right here and now, once more, Freed shouldn’t be 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 stated “vote blue irrespective of who” to hammer a degree house. The Masks of Worry is as a lot about America in 2025 as it’s in regards to 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 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 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 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 in opposition to fascism, Masks of Worry shouldn’t be 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 any 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 actually consider 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, often enable 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 combat have to be fought anyway.

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

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot you could learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.