The Big Picture (no spoilers)
Author Charles Soule had the nearly impossible task of creating a Star Wars story that sets the tone for a whole new era of Star Wars stories using virtually all-new characters while still injecting enough familiarity to Star Wars fans to maintain that feel of a Star Wars story. Not only did he deliver a gripping, fast-paced, story that somehow also manages to give readers insight into what this era is all about, but he set up what could turn into a saga of connecting stories that has plenty of room for growing what he has established.
The Book's Style (no spoilers)
I'm a nerd who's been reading Star Wars books for a long time. Many of the "Legends" books had a stale style with clunky and unnecessary wordiness/exposition, and a predictable cadence that I learned to expect. Not to say the older books weren't great, of course, but I remember a lot of authors would get in their own way sometimes that deterred from the experience. They were long reads when they didn't need to be.
Soule avoids these problems completely. Light of the Jedi was a pretty easy book to follow, but not for a lack of vivid, useful descriptions or complex, thoughtful plot points. He is succinct in the busier spots of the story that require clarity, which makes is easier to fully grasp and envision the imagery at play during various scenes (particularly the faster-paced scenes and a couple of big scenes with Jedi doing Jedi things). He wasn't clumsy with his words and doesn't take the reader down too many long-winded rabbit holes that deter his momentum. It was a simple, clean, and fun read. The stakes always felt high, and the situation perilous, when it needed to. For good measure, he even helps the reader with little recaps in his own way when switching to different characters' vantage points (this does not come across condescending in any way; it feels organic as the characters come to these realizations on their own). He even slips in a funny or sarcastic quip every once in a while to keep the readers alert.
He spends just enough time introducing the main characters and gives enough context to provide some depth and dimension (not in abundance, mind you). He perfectly captures the essence of Star Wars with subtle moments throughout, especially when the Jedi are involved. But he pieces together some pretty wildly daring, edge-of-your-seat thrills that simultaneously are befitting of the Star Wars universe while pushing forward the expectations of core Star Wars fans in exciting ways.
As far as themes in the story, Soule had some noble concepts. There were hints of anti-racism, and even an odd hint of unified nationalism. More than anything else, though, was the continual valuing of all life (no matter the race) in all corners of the galaxy, as well as inclusion and giving equal voice representation to make sure everyone has their needs met. Sounds great for a time of peace, of course, but it'll be interesting to see if this theme continues in future books as more conflict arises and more agendas are plotted.
If I had to nit-pick, I did notice a handful of times where Soule shoved in some awkward phrasing. Remember how poor the dialogue was in The Last Jedi when everyone kept regurgitating the whole "We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn down The First Order" crap? Those metaphors were so contrived and clunky. I cringed a couple of times like that when reading Light of the Jedi. He also overused the Republic's motto "We are all the Republic." Not exactly inspirational, memorable quotes, though it certainly doesn't bring down the overall quality of the writing.
The Story's Basics (story spoilers)
The story takes place 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. During the High Republic era, the Jedi are plentiful and prominent in the galaxy's consciousness (though this idea continues to misalign with the movies that insinuate the Jedi are practically unheard of, ancient and mostly long gone; 200 years isn't that long ago. Maybe something bad is about to happen to all of them in a future book?). During this time, peace reigns throughout the galaxy...
For now. A new threat known as the Nihil emerge in the Outer Rim. The Nihil are a well-crafted enemy group of marauders made up of many different races. To me, they felt like a cross between a biker gang and Predators (from Alien v. Predator series) who formed their own version of The Borg (sorry Star Wars fans, but a Star Trek analogy was the best I could come up with here). The Nihil have their own set of rules by which they operate, plunder, and distribute wealth. Their leader, Marchion Ro, however, is a higher class of villain. He's cunning, scheming, and mostly in it for himself. While he orchestrates the Nihil's attacks, he's also plotting for long-term opportunities (there's also a revenge factor that the book doesn't quite nail). The Republic's current Chancellor, Lina Soh, is stepping onto the Nihil's turf when she expands the Republic's reach in the galaxy via a giant facility called the Starlight Beacon, which will serve as a high-end hospital, market, space station, military station, and communication tower, among several other functions.
Soule sets the tone of the book with an incredible pace initially. Structurally, the book is divided into three parts: The Great Disaster, The Paths, and The Storm. Part 1 thrusts the reader into the beginnings of a terrible disaster that threatens billions, if not trillions, of lives in the Outer Rim sector of the galaxy. Unknown "Emergences" appear out of hyperspace on a collision course for the system Hetzal Prime and its two moons. These Emergences are of unknown origin or composition, but they are a looming threat. Immediately The Republic and the Jedi rush to help. While many great plans are executed in a short amount of time to seemingly stop the threat, one Jedi (Burryaga, a wookie Jedi!) senses another danger. One of these Emergences is discovered to contain a crate of Tibanna, a highly explosive liquid that would destroy the star and all surrounding systems in a matter of seconds if it collides with the star. It is here where Jedi Avar Kriss (I think she's the blonde Jedi on the cover of the book) pulls off the most incredible Jedi stunt I've ever read in a Star Wars book. We got some ideas about how Jedi can connect over great distances and physically affect environments where they are not present in The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, but this was something special and unique. Kriss leads an effort that connects hundreds of Jedi across the galaxy to help stop this crate from careening straight into the star. It's Soule's best work in the book, and a scene I want to see replicated on the big screen or silver screen in a future Star Wars project.
One scene that did not land quite as well for me, however, was the scene when a military leader is trying to create a giant array composed of more than 50,000 droids to sync up and triangulate all known Emergence trajectories, which, in turn, helps them discover where future Emergences will appear. It was a weird idea, which is fine, but wasn't executed all that well (including the timing; they needed to bring thousands of droids of varying functions to the Hetzal Prime system, but somehow it happens almost instantly, even though they are worried about how long it would take to arrange such an array).
Part 2, The Paths, slows down quite a bit as we learn about the aforementioned Nihil and see them in action. Slow isn't a bad thing. It's here when we get our first bits of political themes; the Chancellor, for example, has to shut down hyperspace lanes until they confirm the Emergences (and later, the Nihil) are not a threat to space travel, but doing so cuts off worlds from resources they need to survive.
It's also in Part 2 where we learn why the Paths are so important. The galaxy is far from being fully mapped out, and safe hyperspace travel is at a premium. But Marchoin Ro has access to secret paths that allow the Nihil to travel anywhere they want using much shorter distances that no one else knows about. Soule didn't shy away from the logistics of how these Paths work, and I fully embraced the almost-Trekkie nerd level of exposition (again, Soule kept it simple and easy to understand). This concept needs to appear in a movie or show in the future, too. I could see paths being a common theme and a high commodity in this series, should they turn this book into the launching point of a saga.
Part 3 was mostly battles and action. But Soule adds his own little twists and new ideas to the mix to make it feel unique and not just like every star battle I've read before. One maneuver in particular that was quite genius involved a rather disgusting trick the Nihil used to slow down a Republic's highly efficient fleet of battle ships (called Vectors in this book). Another great trick involved a ship flying backwards! A third trick involved a Jedi flying two ships at once using a flight mirroring trick (the Force was involved, as well).
The concluding chapter and epilogue of the book left a lot of storylines wide open for a sequel to address, so I'm already excited to read the next entry.
A Tour of Star Wars (heavy spoilers, especially regarding references/Easter eggs)
Okay, so now the good stuff. Though the time period is 200 years before anything we've ever seen in a movie (note that some video games take place 1,000 years before the movies), that doesn't mean we can't have any connections to what we know about.
The best one and the one everyone probably already knows even not having read the book is Yoda. I was excited to see a younger Yoda in action. I was supremely disappointed. The first mention of Yoda was anti-climactic. Bell Zettifar, a Jedi-in-training, was in an exercise involving the manipulation of artificial gravity, though he believed no one could use these skills when dealing with real gravity...except maybe Master Yoda. It was such a nonchalant, casual reference, almost like saying "Yes, Yoda is alive during this time period."
We get a couple of reference to some of Yoda's more famous lines from Empire Strikes Back. At one point, Avar Kriss, who coordinated the aforementioned stunt that connected all the Jedi, thought that Yoda would be proud of this moment when they are at work using nothing but the Force and "not this crude matter." Yoda only appears for a brief moment at the end of the book, and not in any significant way. We do find out that Yoda is training younglings on Coruscant, just as he will do 200 years later in the movies.
We also get brief mentions of Bacta, a new miracle drug that will revolutionize the medical industry. Bacta tanks, of course, are commonplace by the time the original trilogy roll around; Luke heals in the first one we see on-screen in Empire Strikes Back.
The obligatory references to parsecs certainly comes into play a couple of times to further ensure we know it's a measure of distance. We also get passing mentions of known planets such as Kashyyyk, Utapau, Dantooine, Felucia, Mandalore, and Alderaan "with its fancy people." We also get mentions of Kyber crystals and their many colors, of course. We even get hints of force abilities such as freezing laser blasts (we see Kylo Ren do this in The Force Awakens) and physically deflecting blasts with hands (like Vader does in Empire Strikes Back).
One of the deeper cuts involve the San Tekka clan. Lor San Tekka, of course, was the old man who helped Poe escape The First Order in the beginning of The Force Awakens. Apparently this clan knows a lot about hyperspace. They even describe hyperspace lanes as having their own planes of existence. There was a tease to more of the San Tekka clan's history, and a reveal at the end of the book feeds into this plot a little, so hopefully we hear more from this clan. As a side note: a lot of the nerdy talk involving hyperspace travel definitely made lightspeed skipping seem more plausible (Poe lightspeed skips in the beginning of Rise of Skywalker).
Random Notes (spoilers)
-The symbol of the Jedi at this time (the artwork of which can be seen on the book jacket) represents a living sunrise, which is a fun thought. There's also a lot of mention of the Force speaking to Jedi as though it was a song. The imagery for this was outstanding stuff.
-An older Jedi named Elzar was known as a Jedi tinkerer who never uses the Force the same way twice. I hope we get more of him; his story ended with him returning to Coruscant to purse a career in researching the Force.
-There was a great nod to Rogue One: During one scene, a Jedi was flying his ship past two huge statues of Jedi Knights with their lightsabers out in the ready position. We, of course, saw a giant statue of a Jedi buried in the ground in Rogue One, suggesting these statues come crumbling down rather soon.
-At one point, the Jedi Council meets to discuss its involvement with the Republic's efforts to stop the Nihil. One Jedi mentions they aren't a military force, but another Jedi points out they have been in wars in the past, including the Great Sith War. It was cool to get a nod to this event.