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While we're all still talking about Star Wars, I read my First Official Star Wars Novel a few weeks ago - Claudia Gray's Bloodline, a political thriller about Leia that takes place a few years before The Force Awakens.
Leia's faction in the Senate is hardline forstates' planetary rights; the rival faction are Federalists Centrists who favor a strong executive branch. At the beginning of the book, Leia, who is considering retirement, teams up with a Bright Young Centrist for a Senate investigation into some shady smuggler activity that ends up being potentially More Sinister. They bicker, then bond! It's very cute! BUT ALAS, their hopes for bipartisan coalition are challenged by outside forces and, as one might imagine from the way intergalactic politics stand at the beginning of The Force Awakens, All Does Not End Well.
I was honestly impressed by how well Bloodline manages to ground itself as a political thriller - in which things like political gridlock and reputational damage and grandstanding without compromise are more serious challenges with more long-lasting impact than any individual blaster battle -- while also, you know, still fitting in a solid number of daring escapes and speeder chases and blaster battles.
I was also quite impressed that Claudia Gray managed to actually get me invested in Senator Casterfo, Leia's Centrist buddy, after introducing him as "snotty collector of Imperial Artifacts," a hobby which Leia, rightly, considers gross. And I liked the way that the book deals with political fallout from the Reveal of Leia's Real Parentage, and the fact that it's not her fault but she's also not been dealing with it, and there's nothing that can make it not weird and not a liability, because politics are awful.
Overall the book felt to me honestly a lot like a Clone Wars experience, moreso than a Star Wars film experience -- and as you know I've been enjoying the Clone Wars experience quite a bit. A solid introduction to Star Wars In Text.
Leia's faction in the Senate is hardline for
I was honestly impressed by how well Bloodline manages to ground itself as a political thriller - in which things like political gridlock and reputational damage and grandstanding without compromise are more serious challenges with more long-lasting impact than any individual blaster battle -- while also, you know, still fitting in a solid number of daring escapes and speeder chases and blaster battles.
I was also quite impressed that Claudia Gray managed to actually get me invested in Senator Casterfo, Leia's Centrist buddy, after introducing him as "snotty collector of Imperial Artifacts," a hobby which Leia, rightly, considers gross. And I liked the way that the book deals with political fallout from the Reveal of Leia's Real Parentage, and the fact that it's not her fault but she's also not been dealing with it, and there's nothing that can make it not weird and not a liability, because politics are awful.
Overall the book felt to me honestly a lot like a Clone Wars experience, moreso than a Star Wars film experience -- and as you know I've been enjoying the Clone Wars experience quite a bit. A solid introduction to Star Wars In Text.
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I was very serious about my Star Wars Extended Universe in middle school and have been actively sad that that continuity is now basically relegated to AU status. It's like Jaina and Jaden never existed! (Maybe that's for the best, but still). I also remember Mon Mothma and Leia having some side plots together that were really wonderful - there was a whole intrigue about the transfer of power, and Leia respected Mon Mothma so much! Mon Mothma was such a good mentor to her! (And served a super important role as a ceremonial head of state directly post-rebellion who was not, you know, Darth Vader's daughter. It gave them all some cooldown time that I'm guessing they didn't have in the rebooted EU).
I also have fond memories of a story in the original EU where Leia has to go undercover to rescue her kids, and considers crossdressing disguse, then looks in the mirror and goes "I've just been through two pregnancies back-to-back and I do NOT feel like binding my chest right now" so she gives herself a really cheap-looking dye job instead to throw people off her trail.