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A review by loganmendivil
Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston
4.0
Queen's Shadow isn't like a lot of Star Wars books as you would expect. Typically, going into a book you expect at the very least some blaster fights and epic space battles and possibly some Jedi swinging their lightsabers around. This was not it.. granted their was a brief space battle towards the end that included a Jedi joining the fight. No lightsaber. And when I say brief I mean brief.
I don't mean any of this as a complaint as this author went and viewed this era from a different perspective- Padame and occasionally her hand maiden's perspectives. This story takes place between the first and second of the prequel movies and details her transition from Queen of Naboo to senator and how it effected those around her. This story isn't about action but about the politics and the games that surround it (which actually mirror a lot from our real world). It was very interesting and I feel it is awesome to have a look at her struggles and victories as she established herself as a part of the senate. We also see how she creates some of the alliances that will later become pivotal in the ongoing story during the Skywalker era.
The only quibble that I find that I have about the book is that they seemed to had gave up and threw away Sabe's quest to fight against slavery on Tatooine and attempt to locate Shmi Skywalker. I understand that she can't "solve" slavery on Tatooine nor find anything about Shmi as that will contradict with the movies that it all branches on but I feel they nonetheless missed an awesome story line there. I personally wouldn't mind if they picked it up in another novel but I don't expect that to ever happen. The abrupt end of that story is the only reason I didn't give this a five star.
In spite of what I said above, the story was very well written and I feel that the author captured the personalities of the characters splendidly. I also listened to it on audiobook and the voice actress was awesome and kept me interested. This book may not be for everyone if they are looking for a specific "flavor" of Star Wars but if you can set your typical expectations aside, this is an excellent book and gives a great insight during a period that was greatly overlooked.
I don't mean any of this as a complaint as this author went and viewed this era from a different perspective- Padame and occasionally her hand maiden's perspectives. This story takes place between the first and second of the prequel movies and details her transition from Queen of Naboo to senator and how it effected those around her. This story isn't about action but about the politics and the games that surround it (which actually mirror a lot from our real world). It was very interesting and I feel it is awesome to have a look at her struggles and victories as she established herself as a part of the senate. We also see how she creates some of the alliances that will later become pivotal in the ongoing story during the Skywalker era.
The only quibble that I find that I have about the book is that they seemed to had gave up and threw away Sabe's quest to fight against slavery on Tatooine and attempt to locate Shmi Skywalker. I understand that she can't "solve" slavery on Tatooine nor find anything about Shmi as that will contradict with the movies that it all branches on but I feel they nonetheless missed an awesome story line there. I personally wouldn't mind if they picked it up in another novel but I don't expect that to ever happen. The abrupt end of that story is the only reason I didn't give this a five star.
In spite of what I said above, the story was very well written and I feel that the author captured the personalities of the characters splendidly. I also listened to it on audiobook and the voice actress was awesome and kept me interested. This book may not be for everyone if they are looking for a specific "flavor" of Star Wars but if you can set your typical expectations aside, this is an excellent book and gives a great insight during a period that was greatly overlooked.