(no subject)

[skygiants]

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 for states' 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.

Comments

[luzula]

Huh, this sounds interesting and like something that might be up my alley!

Also, I've never actually read any Star Wars tie-in novels. Are there other good ones you can recommend? I mean, I'm sure a lot of them are bad, so one wouldn't want to wade in unwarned.

[skygiants]

I wish I could, but this is literally the first one I've read myself! I'm sure other people will be able to help in comments. For myself, in addition to this one, I seem to recall having heard good things about the Thrawn(?) trilogy from the original extended universe, the Rogue One Baze and Chirrut novel, and a recent short story collection called (I think) From a Different Point of View.

[rachelindeed]

Seconding the first Thrawn books by Timothy Zahn - "Heir to the Empire," "Dark Force Rising," and "The Last Command." It's been decades since I read Star Wars novels, so I'm sadly out of date for anything more recent. But those three I read with great love in middle school and I have a feeling they will hold up well :)

[sapote]

MARA! JADE!

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.

[musesfool]

Claudia Gray also wrote a teenage Leia coming-of-age novel called Leia, Princess of Alderaan, which I'd recommend highly.

The Baze/Chirrut book is Guardian of the Whills by Greg Rucka, and it's also very good, and, if you know who Ahsoka Tano is, and you've finished watching The Clone Wars (or don't mind being spoiled for it), E.K. Johnston's Ahsoka is definitely worth reading.

I thought Bloodline was excellent, though I still have a hard time reconciling the timeline with TFA.

[sdelmonte]

Rucka wrote a Star Wars novel...why doesn't anyone tell me these things?

[musesfool]

It's middle-grade, so maybe that's why? He also wrote the MG pre-TFA book Before the Awakening (with art by Phil Noto!), a Han and Chewie book (also with Phil Noto art), and the post-RotJ comic that introduces Poe's parents: Shattered Empire.

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! : )

[musesfool]

You're welcome! The books are hit-or-miss for me, but I hope you find something you enjoy!

[varadia]

Bloodlines as said here is very good, the teenage Leia book is also good. I like New Dawn, myself, but I love Star Wars Rebels, particularly Kanan and Hera, so that helps.

The Thrawn novel was really good with some interesting POV stuff, but again Thrawn is appearing in the Rebels cartoon, so YMMV. Most of the rest I did not find worth it, but I have not read Phasma yet, either, so that one could be good!

In the extended universe, stick with Timothy Zahn's books and anything in the X-wing series. Most of the rest is seriously scattershot, but if you get into the EU/Legends chronology and find yourself liking it, there's a lot there to hop around in.

[luzula]

Thanks for the input! : )