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xknight95 's review for:
Queen's Peril
by E.K. Johnston
Thank you NetGalley for an eARC
I loved E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka novel so I went into this book with fairly high expectations. Unfortunately Queen’s Peril failed to hit the mark for me.
So this novel focuses on Padme and her handmaidens and takes place before and during Star Wars Episode One. It gives us more of a backstory to Padme and how she was elected Queen and how all of her handmaidens were chosen. I enjoyed this aspect and thought it was really neat to discover how Naboo politics work and how and why some of the things that transpire in Episode One come to pass.
The characters were great, especially in the first half of the book. I loved learning about all Padme’s handmaidens and how they recruited different experts so they could teach Padme and each other valuable skills. It was really neat to see them work and conspire together to create the perfect persona of “Queen Amidala” so that they could swap out Padme if they ever felt the risk was particularly high.
So when the story focused on Padme and the handmaidens, I really enjoyed the story. I started to lose interest when the POV started jumping to a bunch of characters who I did not feel like needed a POV. I do not want to name all of the characters as they may be spoilers, but if you have seen Episode One you would know them from the movie. Some of the perspectives just felt very unneeded and were so small and miniscule I failed to see the value in adding them. It took away from the focus on Padme and the creation of the Queen’s persona that I had grown to really enjoy reading about.
Another factor I did not particularly enjoy, is that I feel that if you have not seen Episode One (and this relates to the many POV’s) you would not be able to keep up with the story or know why we were reading a seemingly random character’s perspective. I prefer when a story can be read as a stand alone from its respected source material. In the authors previous work: Ahsoka, you can read it without having seen Star Wars: The Clone Wars (though I do not recommend it). With Queen’s Peril I would almost say having seen Episode One is a necessity. Sometimes we would just briefly mention an exchange that happened in the movie and if you had only read this book you may be confused. As a movie companion that is fine I suppose but I just prefer as a personal preference to have books from a movie franchise to be able to stand on its own a bit better.
All in all, I did like the book. It was intriguing to learn more about Padme and Naboo. It is not my favourite Star Wars novel but I do still think it is worth a read for a Star Wars fan, especially if you enjoy the prequels. If you have not seen Star Wars… maybe watch the movies first or at least Episode One.
I loved E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka novel so I went into this book with fairly high expectations. Unfortunately Queen’s Peril failed to hit the mark for me.
So this novel focuses on Padme and her handmaidens and takes place before and during Star Wars Episode One. It gives us more of a backstory to Padme and how she was elected Queen and how all of her handmaidens were chosen. I enjoyed this aspect and thought it was really neat to discover how Naboo politics work and how and why some of the things that transpire in Episode One come to pass.
The characters were great, especially in the first half of the book. I loved learning about all Padme’s handmaidens and how they recruited different experts so they could teach Padme and each other valuable skills. It was really neat to see them work and conspire together to create the perfect persona of “Queen Amidala” so that they could swap out Padme if they ever felt the risk was particularly high.
So when the story focused on Padme and the handmaidens, I really enjoyed the story. I started to lose interest when the POV started jumping to a bunch of characters who I did not feel like needed a POV. I do not want to name all of the characters as they may be spoilers, but if you have seen Episode One you would know them from the movie. Some of the perspectives just felt very unneeded and were so small and miniscule I failed to see the value in adding them. It took away from the focus on Padme and the creation of the Queen’s persona that I had grown to really enjoy reading about.
Another factor I did not particularly enjoy, is that I feel that if you have not seen Episode One (and this relates to the many POV’s) you would not be able to keep up with the story or know why we were reading a seemingly random character’s perspective. I prefer when a story can be read as a stand alone from its respected source material. In the authors previous work: Ahsoka, you can read it without having seen Star Wars: The Clone Wars (though I do not recommend it). With Queen’s Peril I would almost say having seen Episode One is a necessity. Sometimes we would just briefly mention an exchange that happened in the movie and if you had only read this book you may be confused. As a movie companion that is fine I suppose but I just prefer as a personal preference to have books from a movie franchise to be able to stand on its own a bit better.
All in all, I did like the book. It was intriguing to learn more about Padme and Naboo. It is not my favourite Star Wars novel but I do still think it is worth a read for a Star Wars fan, especially if you enjoy the prequels. If you have not seen Star Wars… maybe watch the movies first or at least Episode One.