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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Pretty basic for a YA Star Wars book, I really enjoyed all the handmaiden’s perspectives and they felt like genuine teenage girls. The different perspectives felt a bit jumbled at the end, and I think the book wouldn’t have lost anything by taking out some of the other characters’ POVs (Anakin, Jar-Jar, Maul, Sidious). The different views of the events of the Phantom Menace were very cool though, I didn’t realize Padme was so early into her reign. Also great wlw inclusion with Sabe, Sache, and Yane.
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Perfect for any Star Wars fan. If you wanted to learn more about Padme without Anakin, this is perfect. it takes place before and during the Phantom Menace for timeline reference
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'd say this book was about Padme and her handmaidens as a whole rather than just about Padme. However getting to know the handmaidens and watching them interact was quite interesting.
The 3rd book in the SWCC.
I love Padme so very much. It was really cool to get to see the behind the scenes of her handmaidens, and the way that they dealt with Panaka. It did feel like the later half went by very quickly, but it's things that happen during the movie so it makes sense to expedite the process.
I love Padme so very much. It was really cool to get to see the behind the scenes of her handmaidens, and the way that they dealt with Panaka. It did feel like the later half went by very quickly, but it's things that happen during the movie so it makes sense to expedite the process.
Another stellar installment in the series by E.K. Johnston. This time we jump back in time to the beginning of Amidala's reign on Naboo. We meet her handmaidens and gain a little more insignt into their backstory, showing off their talents as individuals and how they come together to create a whole team.
Johnson expertly weaves a narrative that explores the various sides of strength and empowerment and how no part is too small or unimportant. We see how this group of young women come together to become the best versions of themselves and to help Queen Amidala create the foundations of a successful and prosperous rule.
Also, since I am always happy to find queer characters there are quite a few in this book, so you have that to look forward to as well.
If you enjoy found-family-narratives, a slew of bad-ass ladies, and a more nuanced look at sci-fi: read this book!
Johnson expertly weaves a narrative that explores the various sides of strength and empowerment and how no part is too small or unimportant. We see how this group of young women come together to become the best versions of themselves and to help Queen Amidala create the foundations of a successful and prosperous rule.
Also, since I am always happy to find queer characters there are quite a few in this book, so you have that to look forward to as well.
If you enjoy found-family-narratives, a slew of bad-ass ladies, and a more nuanced look at sci-fi: read this book!
**As per all of my reviews, I like to preface by saying that I listened to this book in audiobook format. This does indeed slightly skew my rating. I have found that audiobooks, give me a better "relationship" with the characters if done well, but also kills the book for me if narrated poorly. Also due to the nature of listening to the text, names and places may be spelled incorrectly here as I often do not have the physical volume in front of me.
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Alright, So it's been a year since the last book But the first book in this series features the reign of Padme but with a big focus on her handmaiden and sworn double, "Sabe`"
I always forget that "Amidala" isn't Padme's real surname, but it's Nabere...
I find it odd that this book came out as a follow up,...but is not a prequel to that first book...why not just release this book first? It seems now like you'll have to read this series in reverse. It is great though to see Padme win the vote in real time, and everyone's reaction. All of the characters from book one seem to be here, and we now see how they all met.
I do like the idea that Sabe was recognized by Palace security, in her striking resemblance to the queen, and that she always seemed to be '2nd' best at everything...
The Panaka family returns and this time we see Panaka in some pivotal lines of text that will lay the groundwork for later story development. Quarsh Panaka, decides to side with Papaltine and stand by him during his entry as Chancellor. His wife and nephew (...typho because you know...the other black guy's gotta be related xD) don't stick with him here. Well in this book we get some confirmation of this saying that Panaka enjoys it much more when the Senator is on planet, and how efficient he is.
So, some background is provided in the Queen selection process, though it feels like we've treaded this ground before...
The book has this lovely very mundane feel to it. The story is covering the idea's of how the girls are learning to gel together. I'm sure there's going to be some plot to kill the queen or something, or some sort of life threatening will be revealed, but I enjoy this idea that these girls are just trying to find out how to live together and be so close.
Interestingly as well, the relationship between Padme and Sabe seems to go much deeper. Padme doesn't merely think of her as a body guard, but so close must they be, that they need to almost be sisters....or more as it may be hinted. They sneak out to a club and Padme expresses jealousy of seeing Sabe dancing with another girl.
Panaka is hilarious here...he's taken to running around chasing after the queen trying to keep not just one, but 5 teenage girls in line. In his blind and utterly cute need to protect them, he installs blood sensing sensors in their rooms. ...The rooms of 5 puberty induced girls. Needless to say this backfires and he's left embarrassed for himself in a cute scene.
So...this is really weird..The back half of this book..is literally just it glossing over parts of TPM. With absolutely zero depth or extra insight. This baffles me as to why this written like this. It's just E.K Johnston retelling scenes. So, I'll say this, this book seems a tad pointless...?I love the idea of it being just about how Padme met with her handmaidens..but aside from the earlier group dynamic issues and her very deep relationship with Sabe...this book has no actual plot..
Yep...so I put the finishing touches on this book and...yea I believe the term 'empty calories' comes to mind. This book was pretty freaking hollow. And I don't mean that because there was no 'action' and explosions, but aside from showing the connection between Padme and Sabe..but I would argue we already had established prior to this book, this book gave us utterly nothing new. The back half of the book is just going through scenes of TPM, and every once in a while we get scenes of what happens when Padme and the movie team leave for Tattooine, but even this has absolutely no character moments, or anything Id' venture to say gives me a reason to care. The planet is under occupation, but what the hell? There's nothing that takes places that provides any sort of growth or reason for being told. If you would have told me that "While Padme, Obi and Qui Gon were on Tattooine, the planet of Naboo was under a harsh droid occupation". That's literally all that is told or shown. NONE of this matter, has any story, or narrative. Literally one of the lines in the book, completely randomly states. "Anakin really liked flying.". And then shifts scene. This book, is so much more disappointing in that it's such a pale pale comparison to the former book ,Queen's Shadow. That book had a purpose, it showed the connection of Sabe and Padme in between TPM and AOTC, and it gave us a lot of reasons and nods as to what was shown in the movie, and it connected the dots that were left open. This book...does nothing. It just rehashes it from a slightly different perspective, but never even divining into anything. It just tells you that Naboo sucked when Padme left., but let's just wait until she gets back and it'll be fixed.... just like in the movie.. That's the perspective you're getting here...
I'll wrap this up and say that this book clearly is not for me. (the purple cover and it being located in the YA section is also a tip off)
As a 32 year old man, I LOVE the idea that these books are catered towards giving young women, and teens/preteens something to latch on to...I really hope they continue it.....but it's just a bit too YA and a tad juvenile for me. Again I say this for ME. I want to make that clear that this isn't targeted towards my age demograph. And that's fine, But for me, I really liked Queen's Shadow, and that was also YA, but it didn't rub that in your face. It was still a good story, and it provided a reason for existing...This book, does not justify itself for being 'new content'.
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Alright, So it's been a year since the last book But the first book in this series features the reign of Padme but with a big focus on her handmaiden and sworn double, "Sabe`"
I always forget that "Amidala" isn't Padme's real surname, but it's Nabere...
I find it odd that this book came out as a follow up,...but is not a prequel to that first book...why not just release this book first? It seems now like you'll have to read this series in reverse. It is great though to see Padme win the vote in real time, and everyone's reaction. All of the characters from book one seem to be here, and we now see how they all met.
I do like the idea that Sabe was recognized by Palace security, in her striking resemblance to the queen, and that she always seemed to be '2nd' best at everything...
The Panaka family returns and this time we see Panaka in some pivotal lines of text that will lay the groundwork for later story development. Quarsh Panaka, decides to side with Papaltine and stand by him during his entry as Chancellor. His wife and nephew (...typho because you know...the other black guy's gotta be related xD) don't stick with him here. Well in this book we get some confirmation of this saying that Panaka enjoys it much more when the Senator is on planet, and how efficient he is.
So, some background is provided in the Queen selection process, though it feels like we've treaded this ground before...
The book has this lovely very mundane feel to it. The story is covering the idea's of how the girls are learning to gel together. I'm sure there's going to be some plot to kill the queen or something, or some sort of life threatening will be revealed, but I enjoy this idea that these girls are just trying to find out how to live together and be so close.
Interestingly as well, the relationship between Padme and Sabe seems to go much deeper. Padme doesn't merely think of her as a body guard, but so close must they be, that they need to almost be sisters....or more as it may be hinted. They sneak out to a club and Padme expresses jealousy of seeing Sabe dancing with another girl.
Panaka is hilarious here...he's taken to running around chasing after the queen trying to keep not just one, but 5 teenage girls in line. In his blind and utterly cute need to protect them, he installs blood sensing sensors in their rooms. ...The rooms of 5 puberty induced girls. Needless to say this backfires and he's left embarrassed for himself in a cute scene.
So...this is really weird..The back half of this book..is literally just it glossing over parts of TPM. With absolutely zero depth or extra insight. This baffles me as to why this written like this. It's just E.K Johnston retelling scenes. So, I'll say this, this book seems a tad pointless...?I love the idea of it being just about how Padme met with her handmaidens..but aside from the earlier group dynamic issues and her very deep relationship with Sabe...this book has no actual plot..
Yep...so I put the finishing touches on this book and...yea I believe the term 'empty calories' comes to mind. This book was pretty freaking hollow. And I don't mean that because there was no 'action' and explosions, but aside from showing the connection between Padme and Sabe..but I would argue we already had established prior to this book, this book gave us utterly nothing new. The back half of the book is just going through scenes of TPM, and every once in a while we get scenes of what happens when Padme and the movie team leave for Tattooine, but even this has absolutely no character moments, or anything Id' venture to say gives me a reason to care. The planet is under occupation, but what the hell? There's nothing that takes places that provides any sort of growth or reason for being told. If you would have told me that "While Padme, Obi and Qui Gon were on Tattooine, the planet of Naboo was under a harsh droid occupation". That's literally all that is told or shown. NONE of this matter, has any story, or narrative. Literally one of the lines in the book, completely randomly states. "Anakin really liked flying.". And then shifts scene. This book, is so much more disappointing in that it's such a pale pale comparison to the former book ,Queen's Shadow. That book had a purpose, it showed the connection of Sabe and Padme in between TPM and AOTC, and it gave us a lot of reasons and nods as to what was shown in the movie, and it connected the dots that were left open. This book...does nothing. It just rehashes it from a slightly different perspective, but never even divining into anything. It just tells you that Naboo sucked when Padme left., but let's just wait until she gets back and it'll be fixed.... just like in the movie.. That's the perspective you're getting here...
I'll wrap this up and say that this book clearly is not for me. (the purple cover and it being located in the YA section is also a tip off)
As a 32 year old man, I LOVE the idea that these books are catered towards giving young women, and teens/preteens something to latch on to...I really hope they continue it.....but it's just a bit too YA and a tad juvenile for me. Again I say this for ME. I want to make that clear that this isn't targeted towards my age demograph. And that's fine, But for me, I really liked Queen's Shadow, and that was also YA, but it didn't rub that in your face. It was still a good story, and it provided a reason for existing...This book, does not justify itself for being 'new content'.
Again, E.K Johnston makes me wish that the screenwriters hadn’t used Padmé to further Mannequin’s story, then summarily dumped her development like she was a piece of garbage. Here, Johnston shows how Padmé became Amidala, and how Captain Panaka found each girl (and double) for the new queen of Naboo, based on their skill set, attitude and intelligence, willingness to leave their old lives behind and how well they may work together as a team to protect Padmé. The last trait actually comes to bite him in the butt, much to his annoyance and his security officer wife’s humour.
The author shows us how the girls become a strong team, and how difficult a line Padmé has to walk between being their leader and being their friend. And it reminds me what an utter bore and weak-willed Mannequin/Vader was, and what a loss Padmé’s death was to the Star Wars universe.
The author shows us how the girls become a strong team, and how difficult a line Padmé has to walk between being their leader and being their friend. And it reminds me what an utter bore and weak-willed Mannequin/Vader was, and what a loss Padmé’s death was to the Star Wars universe.
Dear Disney, please hire E. K. Johnston to write a handmaiden TV show and please take all my money. Thanks.