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pushingdessy 's review for:
Queen's Peril
by E.K. Johnston
I loved Queen's Shadow, and it got my hopes really high for the rest of the trilogy... which is why I'm disappointed and frustrated with Queen's Peril.
Queen's Shadow is the first book of this series that focuses on Padmé and her Handmaidens, and it's set some years after The Phantom Menace, but before Attack of the Clones. In Queen's Peril, we go back in time to the months leading up to TPM and through the movie. Then, Queen's Hope takes us to Revenge of the Sith. This random order bothers me, but it bothers me even more because Queen's Peril actually feels like a first novel, and a very amateur one at that.
While Queen's Shadow does a great job of making it about Padmé and the Handmaidens, only occasionally giving us a peek into other character POVs, Queen's Peril is all over the place. It felt less like a Padmé novel and more like a TPM missing moments collection. We have Yoda's POV, Shmi's POV, Palpatine's POV but also Darth Sidious's POV, and even... Jar Jar Binks' POV. And they're not even related to Padmé. Why did nobody remind the author this was supposed to be a novel about Padmé? I mean, the book has separate one-line sections about Anakin, such as I'm honestly baffled that nobody was like "Hey... this doesn't belong here."
The book also felt like a wasted opportunity to show us so many other things. Queen's Shadow hints at the intensive training the potential Handmaidens and Padmé went through, which I was looking forward to seeing here - and then we didn't. Queen's Shadow tells us about the rift that the decisions taken right after the Battle of Naboo caused in the close relationship Padmé and Quarsh Panaka had - and then it didn't actually take the time to build that relationship. Queen's Shadow shows Padmé grieving Qui-Gon Jinn - and then we don't have even one scene of them together in the book. We fly through TPM, stopping at the most irrelevant moments instead of looking at it through Padmé's eyes. There's a lot of telling and very little showing.
I was also constantly shaken at the contradiction of these teenage girls being so gifted they can be in government positions as high as ruling an entire planet... but they're still human teenagers who are seen by adults as children. I know the root of the problem lies with George Lucas making Padmé 14 in TPM, but I think it would have made more sense to either: a) have Naboo humans mature faster than Earth humans, so that they're young adults instead of teenagers at 14, or b) have the Handmaidens be older women, so that the Queen isn't surrounded exclusively by other children and older men trying to dictate what she does while she's socially isolated from the rest of the world at a critical developmental age. Having Padmé play Panaka and then put him in his place didn't make me go "oh look at her, so badass" but rather "she's literally a child", a thought that came up several times while reading.
All in all, I was surprised in a bad way by this book. I expected a lot more from E.K. Johnston, but while I'd still recommend Queen's Shadow, Queen's Peril isn't an unmissable read. I'm still looking forward to reading Queen's Hope, and wish it manages to recapture the quality of the first book.
ETA: Forgot to add, the ending felt completely random and disconnected from the story - but that's true for most of the book.
Queen's Shadow is the first book of this series that focuses on Padmé and her Handmaidens, and it's set some years after The Phantom Menace, but before Attack of the Clones. In Queen's Peril, we go back in time to the months leading up to TPM and through the movie. Then, Queen's Hope takes us to Revenge of the Sith. This random order bothers me, but it bothers me even more because Queen's Peril actually feels like a first novel, and a very amateur one at that.
While Queen's Shadow does a great job of making it about Padmé and the Handmaidens, only occasionally giving us a peek into other character POVs, Queen's Peril is all over the place. It felt less like a Padmé novel and more like a TPM missing moments collection. We have Yoda's POV, Shmi's POV, Palpatine's POV but also Darth Sidious's POV, and even... Jar Jar Binks' POV. And they're not even related to Padmé. Why did nobody remind the author this was supposed to be a novel about Padmé? I mean, the book has separate one-line sections about Anakin, such as
Spoiler
"Anakin Skywalker liked flying."The book also felt like a wasted opportunity to show us so many other things. Queen's Shadow hints at the intensive training the potential Handmaidens and Padmé went through, which I was looking forward to seeing here - and then we didn't. Queen's Shadow tells us about the rift that the decisions taken right after the Battle of Naboo caused in the close relationship Padmé and Quarsh Panaka had - and then it didn't actually take the time to build that relationship. Queen's Shadow shows Padmé grieving Qui-Gon Jinn - and then we don't have even one scene of them together in the book. We fly through TPM, stopping at the most irrelevant moments instead of looking at it through Padmé's eyes. There's a lot of telling and very little showing.
I was also constantly shaken at the contradiction of these teenage girls being so gifted they can be in government positions as high as ruling an entire planet... but they're still human teenagers who are seen by adults as children. I know the root of the problem lies with George Lucas making Padmé 14 in TPM, but I think it would have made more sense to either: a) have Naboo humans mature faster than Earth humans, so that they're young adults instead of teenagers at 14, or b) have the Handmaidens be older women, so that the Queen isn't surrounded exclusively by other children and older men trying to dictate what she does while she's socially isolated from the rest of the world at a critical developmental age. Having Padmé play Panaka and then put him in his place didn't make me go "oh look at her, so badass" but rather "she's literally a child", a thought that came up several times while reading.
All in all, I was surprised in a bad way by this book. I expected a lot more from E.K. Johnston, but while I'd still recommend Queen's Shadow, Queen's Peril isn't an unmissable read. I'm still looking forward to reading Queen's Hope, and wish it manages to recapture the quality of the first book.
ETA: Forgot to add, the ending felt completely random and disconnected from the story - but that's true for most of the book.