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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 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 ( spoilers )

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.