Reviews

Well, I understand Padmé's personality better and why she fell in love with Anakin despite a supposedly intelligent person but not in the way the author intended, lol. Padmé shares all of Anakin's worst traits: she's arrogant, a hypocrite, an adrenaline junkie, and is so clearly a child with a not-yet-finished-developing brain. Maybe stop putting children into adult roles, Naboo.

Arrogant. I think a lot of this comes from the author's own bias. She clearly loves Padmé and in an effort to make her be the epitome of all things wonderful, she ends up making Padmé very disdainful of anyone not from Naboo. She's constantly thinking rude thoughts about how useless all her colleagues are (including Organa and Mon Mothma) and then wondering why no one likes her. No one is as talented as the Naboo, for example, other pilots just can't even land gracefully.

Hypocrite. Hoo boy, Padmé goes on and on about how everyone in the Senate is there because of who they know/money but the Naboo always do things only on merit. And then a couple sentences later talking about how she only got into the junior legislative league cause her father knows senators. She herself became a senator by being appointed by the chancellor and new queen. Half her staff is related to each other. It's ok for Padmé to play the game and essentially bribe other senators with trade deals to get her motion passed but anyone else doing it is corrupt and her intentions are the only noble ones. I see how she can brush aside genocide for Anakin.

Adrenaline junkie. She flat out admits she only really does the decoy thing anymore because it gives her a cheap thrill. The possibility of death for Sabé and damage to her own reputation just add to the excitement. Which leads into her not having a fully developed brain yet. Padmé just makes so many dumb decisions.

Why do her and Sabé have to switch places so Padme can spy on Mon Mothma? Why couldn't one of her handmaidens do it so she doesn't get caught immediately, like she does by Organa? There is no legitimate reason.

She messes with her security staff instead of including them on her dumb plans. These traits do explain why Padmé is always sticking her nose where it doesn't belong during the Clone Wars and making everything 100 times worse than it was.

This book also relies on you having seen Clone Wars and read both canon and Legends books to explain some things away. I had to look up Quarsh Panaka afterwards to see what he had done beyond the first movie to see why the author went so hard in portraying him as a villain. And even then, he becomes an imperial Moff but doesn't seem to do evil things like Tarkin did, so it still feels unjustified. Same with the whole Mina Bonteri thing, you have to have seen Clone Wars to understand the subtext.

Breaking with canon a bit. Padmé dated Clovis in the past in Clone Wars, she didn't hate him from the get-go like she does here. Again, I think this is the author's own bias coming into play. And at the end, Nute Gunray taking a bounty out on Padmé doens't happen until right before Attack of the Clones which is 6 years after this book.

Finally, there was not enough of Sabé in this book to justify either the title or the epilogue. This wasn't necessarily a badly written book in terms of prose but it does come out to be a bit hollow of anything meaningful. There really wasn't any action, just politics.

agnewjacob120's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

guillaumevp's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

alysreadsss's review

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Um. I forgot how much I loved Padmé, oh my God. Padmé deserves everything, and I love her dearly. I liked that we saw her actual family in this. This makes me extremely excited to continue with this trilogy, and then ending left me with more questions. Like, I wonder where the second one will pick up at since the epilogue in this one was after ROTS. The fact that everyone thinks Obi-Wan is dead after Padmé’s funeral actually pains me. I’m also very excited to know more about Padmé’s sister. Very excited, actually. Overall, I give it 4.5/5 stars, I probably won’t read it again, but I’m definitely continuing the series.

amberfinnegan's review

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I’ve been wanting to pick up a book about Padmé for a while now. She’s one of my least favorite characters and I’ve been wanting to see if it’s mainly due to the writing of her character in the prequels. This was a great book and is helping. I’ll definitely read the other two in this series and hopefully will gain a better appreciation for her character.

moth_dance's review

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4.0

The perfect touch of nostalgia.

Entering Padme Amidala's world has long been my childhood dream. When they cut us off from EU book lore, I was sure they'd never revisit her life... but thankfully they have, and it was everything I wanted.

I do wish there were illustrations included for Amidala's new costumes and the handmaidens who are introduced so wonderfully in words.

The Star Wars family is lucky to have E.K. Johnston on their pages. A highly skilled writer, blending the beauty and thrill of fan fiction with existing material.

And the only reasons why I'm hesitant to start reading the sequel/prequel are the changes in tone with various POVs and a Phantom Menace rehash...

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