Into the Void is the story of Je'daii ranger Lanoree Brock, who is sent on a mission from her masters on Tython (which you may recognise as the Jedi starting planet in Star Wars the Old Republic video game) to save their star system. It's not really an origin story of the Jedi, as the Je'daii have already existed for thousands of years. How they began isn't really explained terribly well, although some of it is hinted at. It was interesting to see the earlier Force users, but I would have been far more interested to see the actual origin of the Jedi, how they figured out they could use the Force, establishing the first order and techniques. Instead, it's sort of hinted at, but never really explained. Perhaps the Je'daii don't even know. I feel like there was such potential to show much more of the history of the Jedi - even at this point in the timeline, there's still 10,000 years of it - that was wasted.

Instead of the entire galaxy to explore, it's limited to a single star system. I sympathised with Lanoree's brother, who's meant to be the antagonist, more than I did with her and the Je'daii. He just wanted to see the rest of the galaxy, see where they'd come from, see what else was out there. Her brother felt trapped in the star system, just as the reader does. What was so bad about that? We're told that the 'stargate' will destroy everything, but we're just informed of this with no proof other than the Je'daii masters' word that it it so.

There are all of these questions that both Lanoree and I wanted answers to, but the book doesn't actually ever answer them. It was hard to see why this device was really a problem when it was just based on the word of the Je'daii masters, who had no qualms about withholding information. Especially since the rest of the Star Wars timeline takes place with the rest of the galaxy involved. This book seemed just as isolated from the Star Wars story as Tython is from the rest of the galaxy. It's an action-packed story and an enjoyable read, but just didn't really feel like Star Wars to me.

It was interesting that the Je'daii valued balance between light and dark more than anything else, allowing 'good' characters to use 'dark' powers with no repercussions so long as they didn't go too far. The later Jedi have deviated from that philosophy quite a bit - but the Jedi are also meant to serve the galaxy and protect peace and justice. The Je'daii seem much more self-serving. Dal didn't fit into what they wanted him to and he felt his only option was to run off and escape because there was no way for him to fit in. He wanted answers and the Je'daii weren't willing to give them. Lanoree is evidence of this - she does what she's told and while she asks the pertinent questions, she doesn't really bother about getting them answered. She just blindly follows what the masters tell her, even when it becomes obvious they've not told her everything. The Je'daii aren't terribly accepting of exploration and knowledge seeking that isn't guided by them. Lanoree was 'good' because she was willing to stay within their teachings, but Dal was 'bad' because he wanted something more.