shelbydm's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture and Injury/injury detail
megb64's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
tense
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? No
4.25
rroselia's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 / 5 stars
I got through Queen's Peril more easily than Queen's Shadow, and I'm not sure if that's just because this book was shorter or if it was a better read. I read this book in one sitting, and it was an enjoyable read all around, but like Queen's Shadow, it was just a bit lacking overall. If anything, this book feels more like a love letter to the Phantom Menace and the prequels as a whole with all of its different POVs. This book does its job as that and not much more, and while I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, I was disappointed with what this book could have done.
There isn't much plot here or real conflict, rather this whole story reads like a bunch of random scenes strung together that eventually lead up to the events of the Phantom Menace. This was perhaps the biggest shortcoming of the story—a large chunk of this book simply brushes over the Phantom Menace without offering much more. I wish that this book had been a bit more accurate to the title. I wanted to see every side of Padme's story as she began her term as queen. There was very little of this.
However, I'll give this book credit where it's due. I did enjoy seeing the relationship between all of Padme's handmaidens and especially Padme and Sabe. I enjoyed many aspects of this book simply because they were about Padme, one of my most loved characters of all time. I was a bit disappointed with Padme's portrayal, as this novel did very little with her character. I wish we got to see her struggles and more of how she had to adapt to become queen outside of some breathing exercises from Sabe. It would've been nice to see more from her family. Hell, it would've just been nice to see more of Padme.
The more I keep writing about this book the more I realize that it's objectively very mediocre. I can't rate anything about one of my favorite characters from my favorite media of all time any lower than strictly average, so I'll give it that. I'm hoping Queen's Hope is as good as its cover is pretty.
I got through Queen's Peril more easily than Queen's Shadow, and I'm not sure if that's just because this book was shorter or if it was a better read. I read this book in one sitting, and it was an enjoyable read all around, but like Queen's Shadow, it was just a bit lacking overall. If anything, this book feels more like a love letter to the Phantom Menace and the prequels as a whole with all of its different POVs. This book does its job as that and not much more, and while I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, I was disappointed with what this book could have done.
There isn't much plot here or real conflict, rather this whole story reads like a bunch of random scenes strung together that eventually lead up to the events of the Phantom Menace. This was perhaps the biggest shortcoming of the story—a large chunk of this book simply brushes over the Phantom Menace without offering much more. I wish that this book had been a bit more accurate to the title. I wanted to see every side of Padme's story as she began her term as queen. There was very little of this.
However, I'll give this book credit where it's due. I did enjoy seeing the relationship between all of Padme's handmaidens and especially Padme and Sabe. I enjoyed many aspects of this book simply because they were about Padme, one of my most loved characters of all time. I was a bit disappointed with Padme's portrayal, as this novel did very little with her character. I wish we got to see her struggles and more of how she had to adapt to become queen outside of some breathing exercises from Sabe. It would've been nice to see more from her family. Hell, it would've just been nice to see more of Padme.
The more I keep writing about this book the more I realize that it's objectively very mediocre. I can't rate anything about one of my favorite characters from my favorite media of all time any lower than strictly average, so I'll give it that. I'm hoping Queen's Hope is as good as its cover is pretty.
sennowa's review against another edition
2.0
Let me preface this by saying that I really love Star Wars and I adore Padmé as a character. But I couldn't help but be disappointed by this book, primarily because, well, this is not really Padmé's book. It's a book of "this is what was happening to the characters you like and enjoy just prior to and during the events of TPM". And I came here to read about Padmé.
Here's the rundown of some of the biggest issues I had with this book:
- Padmé has no personality. I loved the handmaidens and their characterization in this, they're put in this book really well and I can tell the author put a lot of heart into developing them. But in doing so, the characterization of Padmé herself was lost. We don't learn of her motivations prior to the book that led her to run for office (only some words about how she felt she needed to return home), we don't learn of her platform except for what other characters say at us (sure, delegates from other planets said she ran on the platform of compassion, but could we have been shown that?), we learn nothing of what she likes to do outside of being the queen (which we find out for other handmaidens - Sabé's music, Yané's sewing, Eirtaé's engineering, etc., but I can't tell a single thing Padmé liked and was good at before she became queen).
- POV switches are plentiful to the point they become annoying and unnecessary. I don't mind POV switches usually, I like getting an outside perspective on the main character or just in general seeing through the eyes of someone who is not in the primary focus of the story. This book had plenty of good POV switches - reading Sabé's perspective was nice, and loath as I am to admit it, Palpatine's POV weren't all useless (the one about him choosing a statue absolutely was though), but it had so many just entirely pointless POVs that by the end I just wanted to tear my hair out. All of Maul's POVs were entirely useless and unnecessary, they told us nothing and they were so unremarkable I forgot he was in the book by the time they left for Coruscant. Obi-Wan's POV was perhaps a bit nicer to read but still entirely pointless. And even with some of the POVs that I enjoyed, it's hard not to keep in mind that all the time dedicated to those POVs is time taken away from Padmé and her arc
- Speaking of Padmé's arc, she doesn't have any! Any lessons she learned by the end weren't really set up by anything before we were dropped right into the middle of the message. I guess she learned that her handmaiden's and other subordinates feel disappointed when she keeps them at a distance when she's the Queen. But that's not really going anywhere, is it? On one hand I realize that this is due to this book starting at a point just before an ending that we've already witnessed (TPM), but still, this really ties into Padmé having zero personality, again. There were so many ways to go about this - say, Padmé was initially a lot more reserved about the idea of handmaidens and was cordial and professional with them but not really all that friendly. That would make her conflict with Sabé about being jealous and the revelation at the end that she can trust these girls and rely on them so much more potent. And it would make Padmé a lot more interesting - she's a teenage girl from a well-off family who just became the queen of her entire planet - it would make sense if she were a bit possessive and started losing touch with how people regularly are due to the strain of being the emotionless Queen. And it would make her flawed, but ultimately more likeable because at the end she would see both the value of her people and the value of the friendship of her handmaidens. There were so many ways to develop this.
- Some characters get a lot of development in one part of the book and are almost entirely absent in other parts. By this I mean mainly Rabé and Eirtaé. Rabé holds out for longer and gets more mentions towards the end of the books than Eirtaé, but ultimately both of them get a lot of development in the first arc of the book and then nothing until the end. And Saché and Yané who are less prominent at the beginning dominate the last quarter or so of the book. I just wish it was more balanced.
I have some other issues with this, like the "conflict" between Saché and Yané that comes out of nowhere and is not explained except for a few ambiguous lines and I suspect that and a lot more is dropped into this book with no preamble and no explanation because it's a reference to the other book, but since this one, in the chronology of the Star Wars universe, is the earlier of them, I read this first. And even as a prequel, I believe books need to be comprehensible on their own. This one relies so much on the knowledge of Star Wars in general and the other book in particular that I cannot give it a higher rating than 2-2.5 stars.
Here's the rundown of some of the biggest issues I had with this book:
- Padmé has no personality. I loved the handmaidens and their characterization in this, they're put in this book really well and I can tell the author put a lot of heart into developing them. But in doing so, the characterization of Padmé herself was lost. We don't learn of her motivations prior to the book that led her to run for office (only some words about how she felt she needed to return home), we don't learn of her platform except for what other characters say at us (sure, delegates from other planets said she ran on the platform of compassion, but could we have been shown that?), we learn nothing of what she likes to do outside of being the queen (which we find out for other handmaidens - Sabé's music, Yané's sewing, Eirtaé's engineering, etc., but I can't tell a single thing Padmé liked and was good at before she became queen).
- POV switches are plentiful to the point they become annoying and unnecessary. I don't mind POV switches usually, I like getting an outside perspective on the main character or just in general seeing through the eyes of someone who is not in the primary focus of the story. This book had plenty of good POV switches - reading Sabé's perspective was nice, and loath as I am to admit it, Palpatine's POV weren't all useless (the one about him choosing a statue absolutely was though), but it had so many just entirely pointless POVs that by the end I just wanted to tear my hair out. All of Maul's POVs were entirely useless and unnecessary, they told us nothing and they were so unremarkable I forgot he was in the book by the time they left for Coruscant. Obi-Wan's POV was perhaps a bit nicer to read but still entirely pointless. And even with some of the POVs that I enjoyed, it's hard not to keep in mind that all the time dedicated to those POVs is time taken away from Padmé and her arc
- Speaking of Padmé's arc, she doesn't have any! Any lessons she learned by the end weren't really set up by anything before we were dropped right into the middle of the message. I guess she learned that her handmaiden's and other subordinates feel disappointed when she keeps them at a distance when she's the Queen. But that's not really going anywhere, is it? On one hand I realize that this is due to this book starting at a point just before an ending that we've already witnessed (TPM), but still, this really ties into Padmé having zero personality, again. There were so many ways to go about this - say, Padmé was initially a lot more reserved about the idea of handmaidens and was cordial and professional with them but not really all that friendly. That would make her conflict with Sabé about being jealous and the revelation at the end that she can trust these girls and rely on them so much more potent. And it would make Padmé a lot more interesting - she's a teenage girl from a well-off family who just became the queen of her entire planet - it would make sense if she were a bit possessive and started losing touch with how people regularly are due to the strain of being the emotionless Queen. And it would make her flawed, but ultimately more likeable because at the end she would see both the value of her people and the value of the friendship of her handmaidens. There were so many ways to develop this.
- Some characters get a lot of development in one part of the book and are almost entirely absent in other parts. By this I mean mainly Rabé and Eirtaé. Rabé holds out for longer and gets more mentions towards the end of the books than Eirtaé, but ultimately both of them get a lot of development in the first arc of the book and then nothing until the end. And Saché and Yané who are less prominent at the beginning dominate the last quarter or so of the book. I just wish it was more balanced.
I have some other issues with this, like the "conflict" between Saché and Yané that comes out of nowhere and is not explained except for a few ambiguous lines and I suspect that and a lot more is dropped into this book with no preamble and no explanation because it's a reference to the other book, but since this one, in the chronology of the Star Wars universe, is the earlier of them, I read this first. And even as a prequel, I believe books need to be comprehensible on their own. This one relies so much on the knowledge of Star Wars in general and the other book in particular that I cannot give it a higher rating than 2-2.5 stars.
gracec454's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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? It's complicated
4.75
losingcats's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
beckks's review against another edition
5.0
5/5
I have been waiting for a book like this since I first watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Padmé is my favourite Star Wars character and I thoroughly enjoyed getting some of her backstory and seeing her interactions with her handmaidens. I like how some scenes from the movie were introduced and also expanded upon.
If you are a fan of Padmé or Star Wars in general, I think you would really enjoy this book.
I have been waiting for a book like this since I first watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Padmé is my favourite Star Wars character and I thoroughly enjoyed getting some of her backstory and seeing her interactions with her handmaidens. I like how some scenes from the movie were introduced and also expanded upon.
If you are a fan of Padmé or Star Wars in general, I think you would really enjoy this book.
samanthaig's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I was incredibly disappointed by the last third of this book. It had so much potential but felt like a montage more than anything. Really wish there had been more interaction and depth to Padme and the Handmaidens at the end when the beginning started strong!
freiguy86's review against another edition
3.0
I I enjoyed this book quite a bit until the final act. It was interesting seeing the lead up to The Phantom Menace through the Queen and her handmaiden's eyes. Unfortunately it fell apart when it started to line up with the film. It jumped around quite a bit, assuming you've seen the movie, and so it stumbles as its own story. I enjoyed the interpersonal relationships of Amidala and her handmaiden's; blossoming queer romance, teen girls being awesome, and even menstrual cycles in star wars! It was very humanizing. If only it could've kept it up til the end. It's a cute read.
izzy_r's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
padmé + sabé 🫶🫶