ayoung720's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
melsage1823's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
A fantastic tense political thriller that actually makes Star Wars politics interesting.
This is the third Claudia Gray book I have picked up and I have to say her writing is an absolute delight. She definitely has to be one of my favourite Star Wars authors, she gets Leia and who she is as a character.
I had a really good time with this. My only negative is Han and Leia's relationship. Disney cannon has ruined them and have also completely misunderstood the couples dynamic. Can't fault Gray for this as the books a prequel to the Force Awakens but its still highly frustrating. Han would not ever chose racing over his wife. There relationship feels like what would have happened if we all stayed in lockdown forever. The holocalls did not work for me at all. I would have rather that been how she communicated with Luke and Ben as its in character but for Han it isn't. Bloodline wants to treat Han/Leia like Obitine (Obi Wan X Satine) when they are the furthest thing from that. Leia is a person of duty but she would never be content to put the senate over her husband. My hope is that The Princess And The Scoundrel can do their relationship justice as in this book it just doesn't work.
Apart from that I absolutely adored this book. Gray has created a galaxy in tense political turmoil showing how The First Order managed to rise to power and how Leia lost all power despite her heroics defeating the empire. My first praise has to be the world building. Bloodline is able to put the final pieces together about the failures of The New Republic and how it managed to fall so far. Without giving away spoilers it reminded of the shocking twists featured in Captain America The Winter Soldier. Everything feels wrapped up like a neat boat. Even better is the fact that through The Populists and Centrists being metaphors for the state of politics today it feels freshly relatable and not yawn worthy. Like Filoni, Gray has made me care about the galatic politics which is an absolute miracle.
Secondly, I loved all of the cast of characters including Leia herself. Every character was well developed and fleshed out as well as being more complex as the story progessed. I found my self going from hating to respecting to despising to sympathising with Ranslom Casterfo in the matter of pages. You at first think he's very evil but Gray manages to show us and Leia that things are not as black and white as they seem. Leia had great character development too, we get to see how she went from Senator to General and her coming to terms with the political state of the galaxy. We also get to understand her relationship with Bail and Anakin. They're present can be felt throughout the whole book. Greer, Joph and Korr were amazing characters too and had amazing dynamics with Leia as members of her staff. Through them you could definitely see the seeds of the resistance. Greers story especially once you get to know her more is definitely a tear breaker. As a disabled person I could really relate to her struggles. I hope people with chronic illnesses can relate to her too. Didn't expect it but Gray handled that rep extremely well. Expect to fall in love with every character. Even the horrible characters like Lady Carise are super interesting.
Again I have to complement Gray for the way she visualises the different planets for the reader. Like she did with Aldderan, I began to care for Hosnian Prime with the way it was described and developed as a setting itself. Through spending a lot of time on Hosnian Prime through the good and bad it makes the reader able to care about what happened to the planet in The Force Awakens. It also shows why we should and shouldn't feel bad about its fate. Its not just Hosnian though, I loved exploring Greers homeworld and Bastha too. Unlike the sequels I actually managed to care for the planets we visited.
Overall a thrilling prequel that developed the character of Leia and the sequels themselves a lot. Highly recommend if your a Leia fan or enjoy high stake political thrillers.
This is the third Claudia Gray book I have picked up and I have to say her writing is an absolute delight. She definitely has to be one of my favourite Star Wars authors, she gets Leia and who she is as a character.
I had a really good time with this. My only negative is Han and Leia's relationship. Disney cannon has ruined them and have also completely misunderstood the couples dynamic. Can't fault Gray for this as the books a prequel to the Force Awakens but its still highly frustrating. Han would not ever chose racing over his wife. There relationship feels like what would have happened if we all stayed in lockdown forever. The holocalls did not work for me at all. I would have rather that been how she communicated with Luke and Ben as its in character but for Han it isn't. Bloodline wants to treat Han/Leia like Obitine (Obi Wan X Satine) when they are the furthest thing from that. Leia is a person of duty but she would never be content to put the senate over her husband. My hope is that The Princess And The Scoundrel can do their relationship justice as in this book it just doesn't work.
Apart from that I absolutely adored this book. Gray has created a galaxy in tense political turmoil showing how The First Order managed to rise to power and how Leia lost all power despite her heroics defeating the empire. My first praise has to be the world building. Bloodline is able to put the final pieces together about the failures of The New Republic and how it managed to fall so far. Without giving away spoilers it reminded of the shocking twists featured in Captain America The Winter Soldier. Everything feels wrapped up like a neat boat. Even better is the fact that through The Populists and Centrists being metaphors for the state of politics today it feels freshly relatable and not yawn worthy. Like Filoni, Gray has made me care about the galatic politics which is an absolute miracle.
Secondly, I loved all of the cast of characters including Leia herself. Every character was well developed and fleshed out as well as being more complex as the story progessed. I found my self going from hating to respecting to despising to sympathising with Ranslom Casterfo in the matter of pages. You at first think he's very evil but Gray manages to show us and Leia that things are not as black and white as they seem. Leia had great character development too, we get to see how she went from Senator to General and her coming to terms with the political state of the galaxy. We also get to understand her relationship with Bail and Anakin. They're present can be felt throughout the whole book. Greer, Joph and Korr were amazing characters too and had amazing dynamics with Leia as members of her staff. Through them you could definitely see the seeds of the resistance. Greers story especially once you get to know her more is definitely a tear breaker. As a disabled person I could really relate to her struggles. I hope people with chronic illnesses can relate to her too. Didn't expect it but Gray handled that rep extremely well. Expect to fall in love with every character. Even the horrible characters like Lady Carise are super interesting.
Again I have to complement Gray for the way she visualises the different planets for the reader. Like she did with Aldderan, I began to care for Hosnian Prime with the way it was described and developed as a setting itself. Through spending a lot of time on Hosnian Prime through the good and bad it makes the reader able to care about what happened to the planet in The Force Awakens. It also shows why we should and shouldn't feel bad about its fate. Its not just Hosnian though, I loved exploring Greers homeworld and Bastha too. Unlike the sequels I actually managed to care for the planets we visited.
Overall a thrilling prequel that developed the character of Leia and the sequels themselves a lot. Highly recommend if your a Leia fan or enjoy high stake political thrillers.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Self harm, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Outing
Minor: Toxic friendship, Slavery, Alcohol, Death of parent, Vomit, and Panic attacks/disorders
Spoiler
The Outing is not in a queer sense it's more that the knowledge that Leia is Darth Vaders daughter is outed brutally.jaigeyes_6's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
jndutc's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
siobhan15's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
2.5
laperfettaxx's review
4.0
Very good book. Filled in a lot of gaps. Good plot line, and well written.
kayblecar's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
- This book probably hit differently reading it after shows like Andor and Mandalorian have looked at the politics of the rebellion and post-Empire. In comparison to those, Leia's musings on the way that politics is different from working in the Rebellion felt like her complaining about "kids these days" rather than a thoughtful examination.
- There was a lot of what seemed like the political equivalent of technobabble, where characters are discussing a political motion but the details aren't really important to the plot. The words didn't feel technical enough (to me) to obscure the meaning, which was frustrating considering how much the political plot points drove the story.
- The reveal (I had been "spoiled" for ) happened most of the way through the book, which felt like odd pacing to me.
Spoiler
Leia being "outed" as the daughter of Vader
niloc21's review against another edition
4.0
Ransolm Casterfo character was really interesting and really stole the show at times.
preciouslittleingenue's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
For what it was, this was really good. I have an overall problem with the TFA/sequel canon particularly regarding how it leaves Han/Leia, so I do not appreciate the constant reminders that Han would rather be judging a stupid race while his wife is suffering indescribably and like, you know, needs him. Because the Han *I* know would think of absolutely nothing BUT how badly she needed him and being there for her.
But other than that, Claudia Gray delivers, as always. She did the bets she could given the way TFA set up Leia and Han for complete and abject failure. The way things went down with Ben not knowing about Vader and then finding out like THAT actually makes all of THAT make a lot more sense. Like...I'd be mad too. And probably develop mommy and daddy issues. But, another novel or at least a SHRED of something canon that shows Leia and Han being the devoted, loving parents they were before he was old enough to be sent away to Luke to be a Jedi would've made me feel better about the fact that she really barely talks about him other than in relation to him finding out about Vader. Pretty sure she even says she doesn't call him enough or something. Don't like it :(
This book also makes it painfully clear to see how easy it was for The First Order to rise. What an absolutely incompetent collection of morons on that senate. They just set themselves up for failure. It was really fascinating to see it all happen. My only "complaint" is that it would have been nice to see that all being part of the films at least a LITTLE bit. Because the vast majority just watch the movies and see our heroes sidelined, having failed to keep everything on the up and up after they won the last Star War. This makes it so abundantly obvious that it isn't their fault. This aspect of things what what was sorely lacking in the sequels.
Anyways, here's my wee list of moments I liked most:
“Did you spend the entire rebellion in the company of smugglers and low lifes?" hehehehehe yes she did and she liked it very much thank u sir
"Maybe this was what it felt like to be in the womb. I wasn't alone there, though. Luke was with me. Where's Luke?" THIS MADE ME SO SOFTTTTTTT UGH MY SPACE TWINS THAT'S ANOTHER THING NOT ENOUGH LUKE/SPACE TWIN FEELS IN THIS ONE!!!! WHY ARE THEY SO DISTANT IT BREAKS MY HEART
But other than that, Claudia Gray delivers, as always. She did the bets she could given the way TFA set up Leia and Han for complete and abject failure. The way things went down with Ben not knowing about Vader and then finding out like THAT actually makes all of THAT make a lot more sense. Like...I'd be mad too. And probably develop mommy and daddy issues. But, another novel or at least a SHRED of something canon that shows Leia and Han being the devoted, loving parents they were before he was old enough to be sent away to Luke to be a Jedi would've made me feel better about the fact that she really barely talks about him other than in relation to him finding out about Vader. Pretty sure she even says she doesn't call him enough or something. Don't like it :(
This book also makes it painfully clear to see how easy it was for The First Order to rise. What an absolutely incompetent collection of morons on that senate. They just set themselves up for failure. It was really fascinating to see it all happen. My only "complaint" is that it would have been nice to see that all being part of the films at least a LITTLE bit. Because the vast majority just watch the movies and see our heroes sidelined, having failed to keep everything on the up and up after they won the last Star War. This makes it so abundantly obvious that it isn't their fault. This aspect of things what what was sorely lacking in the sequels.
Anyways, here's my wee list of moments I liked most:
“Did you spend the entire rebellion in the company of smugglers and low lifes?" hehehehehe yes she did and she liked it very much thank u sir
"Maybe this was what it felt like to be in the womb. I wasn't alone there, though. Luke was with me. Where's Luke?" THIS MADE ME SO SOFTTTTTTT UGH MY SPACE TWINS THAT'S ANOTHER THING NOT ENOUGH LUKE/SPACE TWIN FEELS IN THIS ONE!!!! WHY ARE THEY SO DISTANT IT BREAKS MY HEART