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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting, I’m never really sure with Star Wars books if I’ll like them. Especially parts of the story I’m not too familiar with. I’ve always thought Padme was a bit mysterious in the movies, I’m glad this book gave insight into her handmaidens.
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
OK. in the continued conquest of all things StarWars and my desire to fill my commuting time with audio books, the Queen's Peril was my latest excursion. Now, the narration was fine, the book itself was awesome, the varied sound effects I could have done without. I was happy to get to know the handmaidens and their varied origins. Maybe if the sounds had just been some theme music here and there; perhaps a door slam... At times I found the underlying sounds distracting from the narration, either that or my car was breaking! I also found the interrogation chapter to be extremely disturbing. It was from that alone that caused some stars to be removed. I will of course read more, but maybe not the audio version.
Wieder ein sehr lesenswertes Buch aus dem Star Wars-Universum. Es war faszinierend, mehr aus Padmes Leben zu erfahren, ihre Hintergründe kennenzulernen. Auch das Leben als Königin lernt man hier aus einer anderen Sicht kennen als die Filme es zeigen.
Johnston schreibt einfach, aber eindringlich. Die Figuren werden lebendig, greifbar. Immer mal wieder erhält man Einblicke in ihre Gedanken und Gefühle. Die Welt von Star Wars wird so erneut vertieft, kommt einem näher.
Ich empfand grossen Respekt vor dieser jungen Gruppe von Mädchen, die sich in einer Welt der kriegsführenden Erwachsenen zu behaupten weiss. Auch hier werden Themen wie Freundschaft, Liebe und Loyalität behandelt. Doch wenn man es mit Amidala zu tun hat, wird alles noch ein wenig komplizierter als dass es sowieso schon ist.
Ein rundum gelungener Roman also, der dieses Universum um mehrere starke Frauenfiguren erweitert. Im Übrigen: Ist das Cover nicht ein wahrer Hingucker?
Johnston schreibt einfach, aber eindringlich. Die Figuren werden lebendig, greifbar. Immer mal wieder erhält man Einblicke in ihre Gedanken und Gefühle. Die Welt von Star Wars wird so erneut vertieft, kommt einem näher.
Ich empfand grossen Respekt vor dieser jungen Gruppe von Mädchen, die sich in einer Welt der kriegsführenden Erwachsenen zu behaupten weiss. Auch hier werden Themen wie Freundschaft, Liebe und Loyalität behandelt. Doch wenn man es mit Amidala zu tun hat, wird alles noch ein wenig komplizierter als dass es sowieso schon ist.
Ein rundum gelungener Roman also, der dieses Universum um mehrere starke Frauenfiguren erweitert. Im Übrigen: Ist das Cover nicht ein wahrer Hingucker?
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Let me preface this by saying that I really love Star Wars and I adore Padmé as a character. But I couldn't help but be disappointed by this book, primarily because, well, this is not really Padmé's book. It's a book of "this is what was happening to the characters you like and enjoy just prior to and during the events of TPM". And I came here to read about Padmé.
Here's the rundown of some of the biggest issues I had with this book:
- Padmé has no personality. I loved the handmaidens and their characterization in this, they're put in this book really well and I can tell the author put a lot of heart into developing them. But in doing so, the characterization of Padmé herself was lost. We don't learn of her motivations prior to the book that led her to run for office (only some words about how she felt she needed to return home), we don't learn of her platform except for what other characters say at us (sure, delegates from other planets said she ran on the platform of compassion, but could we have been shown that?), we learn nothing of what she likes to do outside of being the queen (which we find out for other handmaidens - Sabé's music, Yané's sewing, Eirtaé's engineering, etc., but I can't tell a single thing Padmé liked and was good at before she became queen).
- POV switches are plentiful to the point they become annoying and unnecessary. I don't mind POV switches usually, I like getting an outside perspective on the main character or just in general seeing through the eyes of someone who is not in the primary focus of the story. This book had plenty of good POV switches - reading Sabé's perspective was nice, and loath as I am to admit it, Palpatine's POV weren't all useless (the one about him choosing a statue absolutely was though), but it had so many just entirely pointless POVs that by the end I just wanted to tear my hair out. All of Maul's POVs were entirely useless and unnecessary, they told us nothing and they were so unremarkable I forgot he was in the book by the time they left for Coruscant. Obi-Wan's POV was perhaps a bit nicer to read but still entirely pointless. And even with some of the POVs that I enjoyed, it's hard not to keep in mind that all the time dedicated to those POVs is time taken away from Padmé and her arc
- Speaking of Padmé's arc, she doesn't have any! Any lessons she learned by the end weren't really set up by anything before we were dropped right into the middle of the message. I guess she learned that her handmaiden's and other subordinates feel disappointed when she keeps them at a distance when she's the Queen. But that's not really going anywhere, is it? On one hand I realize that this is due to this book starting at a point just before an ending that we've already witnessed (TPM), but still, this really ties into Padmé having zero personality, again. There were so many ways to go about this - say, Padmé was initially a lot more reserved about the idea of handmaidens and was cordial and professional with them but not really all that friendly. That would make her conflict with Sabé about being jealous and the revelation at the end that she can trust these girls and rely on them so much more potent. And it would make Padmé a lot more interesting - she's a teenage girl from a well-off family who just became the queen of her entire planet - it would make sense if she were a bit possessive and started losing touch with how people regularly are due to the strain of being the emotionless Queen. And it would make her flawed, but ultimately more likeable because at the end she would see both the value of her people and the value of the friendship of her handmaidens. There were so many ways to develop this.
- Some characters get a lot of development in one part of the book and are almost entirely absent in other parts. By this I mean mainly Rabé and Eirtaé. Rabé holds out for longer and gets more mentions towards the end of the books than Eirtaé, but ultimately both of them get a lot of development in the first arc of the book and then nothing until the end. And Saché and Yané who are less prominent at the beginning dominate the last quarter or so of the book. I just wish it was more balanced.
I have some other issues with this, like the "conflict" between Saché and Yané that comes out of nowhere and is not explained except for a few ambiguous lines and I suspect that and a lot more is dropped into this book with no preamble and no explanation because it's a reference to the other book, but since this one, in the chronology of the Star Wars universe, is the earlier of them, I read this first. And even as a prequel, I believe books need to be comprehensible on their own. This one relies so much on the knowledge of Star Wars in general and the other book in particular that I cannot give it a higher rating than 2-2.5 stars.
Here's the rundown of some of the biggest issues I had with this book:
- Padmé has no personality. I loved the handmaidens and their characterization in this, they're put in this book really well and I can tell the author put a lot of heart into developing them. But in doing so, the characterization of Padmé herself was lost. We don't learn of her motivations prior to the book that led her to run for office (only some words about how she felt she needed to return home), we don't learn of her platform except for what other characters say at us (sure, delegates from other planets said she ran on the platform of compassion, but could we have been shown that?), we learn nothing of what she likes to do outside of being the queen (which we find out for other handmaidens - Sabé's music, Yané's sewing, Eirtaé's engineering, etc., but I can't tell a single thing Padmé liked and was good at before she became queen).
- POV switches are plentiful to the point they become annoying and unnecessary. I don't mind POV switches usually, I like getting an outside perspective on the main character or just in general seeing through the eyes of someone who is not in the primary focus of the story. This book had plenty of good POV switches - reading Sabé's perspective was nice, and loath as I am to admit it, Palpatine's POV weren't all useless (the one about him choosing a statue absolutely was though), but it had so many just entirely pointless POVs that by the end I just wanted to tear my hair out. All of Maul's POVs were entirely useless and unnecessary, they told us nothing and they were so unremarkable I forgot he was in the book by the time they left for Coruscant. Obi-Wan's POV was perhaps a bit nicer to read but still entirely pointless. And even with some of the POVs that I enjoyed, it's hard not to keep in mind that all the time dedicated to those POVs is time taken away from Padmé and her arc
- Speaking of Padmé's arc, she doesn't have any! Any lessons she learned by the end weren't really set up by anything before we were dropped right into the middle of the message. I guess she learned that her handmaiden's and other subordinates feel disappointed when she keeps them at a distance when she's the Queen. But that's not really going anywhere, is it? On one hand I realize that this is due to this book starting at a point just before an ending that we've already witnessed (TPM), but still, this really ties into Padmé having zero personality, again. There were so many ways to go about this - say, Padmé was initially a lot more reserved about the idea of handmaidens and was cordial and professional with them but not really all that friendly. That would make her conflict with Sabé about being jealous and the revelation at the end that she can trust these girls and rely on them so much more potent. And it would make Padmé a lot more interesting - she's a teenage girl from a well-off family who just became the queen of her entire planet - it would make sense if she were a bit possessive and started losing touch with how people regularly are due to the strain of being the emotionless Queen. And it would make her flawed, but ultimately more likeable because at the end she would see both the value of her people and the value of the friendship of her handmaidens. There were so many ways to develop this.
- Some characters get a lot of development in one part of the book and are almost entirely absent in other parts. By this I mean mainly Rabé and Eirtaé. Rabé holds out for longer and gets more mentions towards the end of the books than Eirtaé, but ultimately both of them get a lot of development in the first arc of the book and then nothing until the end. And Saché and Yané who are less prominent at the beginning dominate the last quarter or so of the book. I just wish it was more balanced.
I have some other issues with this, like the "conflict" between Saché and Yané that comes out of nowhere and is not explained except for a few ambiguous lines and I suspect that and a lot more is dropped into this book with no preamble and no explanation because it's a reference to the other book, but since this one, in the chronology of the Star Wars universe, is the earlier of them, I read this first. And even as a prequel, I believe books need to be comprehensible on their own. This one relies so much on the knowledge of Star Wars in general and the other book in particular that I cannot give it a higher rating than 2-2.5 stars.
** just because people liked the book doesn't mean it's not a real review. Just the same that we don't call you review fake just because you didn't like it. My enjoyment of this books isn't fake because you thought the phantom menace portions were "disjointed" it just means I like something you don't. Get the over yourself lol**
I literally love everything about padme and I'm upset she died. Each time I read more-- I get more upset. I get upset for anakin, and for the children that will never know them.
I literally love everything about padme and I'm upset she died. Each time I read more-- I get more upset. I get upset for anakin, and for the children that will never know them.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
padme girlies this is the perfect book we needed a movie just about her and the handmaidens