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A review by grayola
Bloodline by Claudia Gray
4.0
Intergalactic brandy? Really, Star Wars?
I didn't expect such a nuanced portrait of two party politics to reside inside a Star Wars spin-off novel. Sure, Star Wars has always existed with political context, but this is about the death of a system from the perspective of someone who's committed her entire life to it. Leia is at the end of her political career and exhausted by the stagnation at the beginning of this book. Though it may echo the fall of the Old Republic, the end of this story is far more relevant to today's political crisis in America than it is an extension of what came before it.
However, be weary, Han Solo fans! Claudia Gray doesn't really know how to write his dialogue and every line seems more and more unnatural the more he's included. Not to mention, he is eventually reduced to a plot device. I do believe she also mishandled a key emotional climax between Leia and a character far better suited for any romantic tension that exists in the book.
In the end, this is the kind of character-driven, allegorical genre story-telling that the Star Wars films—The Force Awakens, Rogue One—in this new era have to get right if they want to live up to the stories that gave birth to them. And of course, any story where Leia takes center stage is worth reading.
I didn't expect such a nuanced portrait of two party politics to reside inside a Star Wars spin-off novel. Sure, Star Wars has always existed with political context, but this is about the death of a system from the perspective of someone who's committed her entire life to it. Leia is at the end of her political career and exhausted by the stagnation at the beginning of this book. Though it may echo the fall of the Old Republic, the end of this story is far more relevant to today's political crisis in America than it is an extension of what came before it.
However, be weary, Han Solo fans! Claudia Gray doesn't really know how to write his dialogue and every line seems more and more unnatural the more he's included. Not to mention, he is eventually reduced to a plot device. I do believe she also mishandled a key emotional climax between Leia and a character far better suited for any romantic tension that exists in the book.
In the end, this is the kind of character-driven, allegorical genre story-telling that the Star Wars films—The Force Awakens, Rogue One—in this new era have to get right if they want to live up to the stories that gave birth to them. And of course, any story where Leia takes center stage is worth reading.