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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
To be honest, the reason that I picked this up was to fullfill a reading challenge category for "based on a movie or TV series," but I enjoyed this a surprising amount. I'm a Star Wars fan, but I'm not super crazy knowledgeable like many people, so I'm sure that I missed some winking references, but I enjoyed this exploration of Leia's life be for Star Wars the movie.
Let's be honest; Leia's character was underdeveloped/underutilized in the original trilogy in which the things that people remember most about her are her bikini slave outfit, awkward kiss with her brother, and Han Solo taking her love for granted. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, and Leia is General Leia, many more people finally started to wonder at her character's emotional fortitude, intelligence, and tactical/political shrewdness. Like many others, I was saddened by Carrie Fisher's death, in part because we'll likely never see the powerhouse character that she would've played in Episode IX. This books gives a little bit of a peek into who and what shaped Leia Organa into the leader who she becomes, one who is strong in the Force, but learned skills less flashy, but no less (and maybe more) useful than fighting with light sabers.
Let's be honest; Leia's character was underdeveloped/underutilized in the original trilogy in which the things that people remember most about her are her bikini slave outfit, awkward kiss with her brother, and Han Solo taking her love for granted. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, and Leia is General Leia, many more people finally started to wonder at her character's emotional fortitude, intelligence, and tactical/political shrewdness. Like many others, I was saddened by Carrie Fisher's death, in part because we'll likely never see the powerhouse character that she would've played in Episode IX. This books gives a little bit of a peek into who and what shaped Leia Organa into the leader who she becomes, one who is strong in the Force, but learned skills less flashy, but no less (and maybe more) useful than fighting with light sabers.
adventurous
emotional
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:
Complicated
SO BEAUTIFUL
BREATHTAKIIING
RIGHT IN MY PRINCESS HEART
T.T
BREATHTAKIIING
RIGHT IN MY PRINCESS HEART
T.T
adventurous
sad
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An absolutely amazing character study on Leia, Breha and Bail and the planet Alderaan itself. Be warned that this book will leave you emotional and extremely angry at the empire for destroying Alderaan.
Leia was perfectly characterised and set up to become the strong Princess she is in A New Hope. From her point of view we get to see what she thought of the empire and the struggles she generally faced coping during such a difficult time in her life after her Day Of Demand. Gray just gets Leia and understands how to write her in such a poetic way.
Speaking of characters I am so glad we get even more development from Leia's parents Bail and Breha and that's absolutely amazing as not even the prequel era gave them both the development we deserved to see. Gray gets both characters and makes sure to show us why we should care about their relationship with Leia and their eventual deaths. Sure we get to see Bail in other media but Breha barely gets any focus so I'm glad she was put to good use in this book.
I also like how this book gets me to like things from The Last Jedi I hated such as the character of Amilyn Holdo and the planet Crait and gets me to like them and appreciate their importance to the Star Wars universe. It once again proves to me female characters shouldn't be written without a women's voice at the writers table. Amilyn next to Leias parents was definitely one of my favourite side characters in this book.
Alderaan another thing underused in other Star Wars media was written beautiful and described so well it made me ache when thinking back to what happens to it in A New Hope. Alderaan feels like a character in his own write and Gray brings to life the landscape of the planet and the culture and royal traditions of the planet so well. Learning about Leia's day of demand left me feeling extremely emotional.
Overall and absolutely incredible book that developed characters and parts of the Star Wars universe that haven't been explored much extremely well. Highly recommend this book to any Star Wars fan especially if Leia Organa is your favourite character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, War
This is really a 3.5-3.75 rating. Dear Goodreads, let me use half-star ratings please and thanks.
Gray nails Leia's character perfectly, just like in Bloodline. This time, since it takes place between Episodes III and IV, she's obviously learning about politics and the rebellion, as opposed to leading it. The book serves as a great tablesetter for how she ended up as the most important person in the rebellion.
This book was trending toward a solid 4* for the first 80%. Then Gray kicks in the hyperdrive, and I zoomed through the last 20% in less than 12 parsecs. I was wondering what the climax was going to be at that point, and then bam the stakes ratchet way up and lead to a great ending.
The last line alone would've been enough to go up to a 5*. Since this takes place before A New Hope, everyone knows what happens to her "next" (though there is a small gap between the end of this book and the end of Rogue One). So the last line isn't really a spoiler, and it hits all the feels:
"My parents. My friends. My world. These are the things the empire can never take away."
This book was trending toward a solid 4* for the first 80%. Then Gray kicks in the hyperdrive, and I zoomed through the last 20% in less than 12 parsecs. I was wondering what the climax was going to be at that point, and then bam the stakes ratchet way up and lead to a great ending.
The last line alone would've been enough to go up to a 5*. Since this takes place before A New Hope, everyone knows what happens to her "next" (though there is a small gap between the end of this book and the end of Rogue One). So the last line isn't really a spoiler, and it hits all the feels:
"My parents. My friends. My world. These are the things the empire can never take away."
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
Boken som levererar det “vi alla” har längtat efter: en riktigt bra Star Wars-roman. Boken fokuserar på en ung prinsessa Leia och hennes uppväxt på planeten Alderaan. Istället för att försöka berätta en helt ny och överdådig historia, tar Gray oss med på en resa för att utforska Leia som en ung kvinna och hennes relationer till de människor som omger henne.
Det som imponerar på mig med denna bok är hur Gray lyckas fånga Leias röst och personlighet så perfekt. Vi får se sidor av Leia som prinsessan, krigaren, förhandlaren och den envisa ungdomen som inte alltid gör som hon blir tillsagd. Det är precis så som vi älskar henne i filmerna, Gray lyckas bevisa att hon verkligen förstår karaktären.
Gray ger också mer utrymme åt andra karaktärer som
vanligtvis inte får lika mycket uppmärksamhet, som Leias adoptivföräldrar Bail och Breha Organa. Det är så härligt att se dessa karaktärer få mer lore och få möjlighet att utforska deras relationer.
Ett måste för alla Star Wars-fans. Det är en rolig, spännande och känslosam resa genom en av våra favoritkaraktärers liv.
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love the way Claudia Gray writes Leia. Also, all the references, subtle ones, to Padme are wonderful.
Lots of irony in the book though, knowing what happens after.
Lots of irony in the book though, knowing what happens after.