Queen's Shadow [part 2/4]

[colls]

Welcome to our second of four check-in and discussion posts for our Book of the Month.

This month’s book is Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston
The halfway mark on my eBook just as Chapter 14 begins. Spoilers up to that point in the post and comments below.

Queen’s Shadow: Part 2 of 4

1. How does the imagery from the book (ie. Naboo wardrobe, Senate chamber, etc.) compare with the imagery you might expect from the movies and/or animated series?

2. What are your thoughts on Sabé and Tonra? Was their mission to Tatooine a narrative distraction to have them arrive later than the others or will it come up again later?

3. The impact holonets/media has gotten some more traction as the story goes along. Do you think any of the named Senators are influencing them? (ie. Organa, Mon Mothma, Farr)

4. How are you liking the book so far? Any other thoughts? Predictions?



FYI - There's no need to answer all (or any) of the questions above - they're just talking points to get us started. Informal chatter is more than welcome! In-person book clubs often veer off topic, it's okay if we do as well. :)
All I ask is that you try to avoid spoilers for things past the first half of the book.

Comments

[colls]

That's a great point - that the author is highlighting how skilled and competent the team is, but also how naive.

Palpatine is always involved, that's my default. It's not that I'm a fan of him being the 'big bad' over basically 3 generations of the galaxy (I'm not) but it seems that TPTB are in love with the idea he's behind everything.

The balance between a royal court and political drama I think is spot on, and intentional. Especially considering it's a transition from one to the other.
I remember reading an article about the governmental setup for the prequels and the opinion that Lucas really didn't have any idea how governments worked - which made the whole Republic-to-Empire story kind of messy from the political stand point. I'll try to dig up some of those links for next week's post.

[brokenmnemonic]

How many books are there in this particular series? I find that I have less patience than I used to where very young characters win through situations constantly because of their talent/destiny/training. On the other hand, a story where people have potential but have to go through the process of aging and learning from defeats and surprises and grow into that strong blend of talent, competence and experience is one of my favourite things.

It would be rather nice if it turned out that Palpatine isn't actually behind everything... but, like a slick politician, is actually really good at taking credit for things and making people think that he arranged things, to enhance his reputation...

I'd always assumed that Lucas was going for deliberate ancient Rome parallels, what with an emperor/a senate/a republic/an empire, but maybe he liked the sound of it and didn't think much about it ;)

[colls]

It's not really a series, per se. There is another book published after this one by the same author called Queen's Peril. A quick goodreads scan shows that it is set before the events of this one (which is weird, but it's Star Wars and I'm convinced they're incapable of rolling anything out in chronological order).

Lucas might've been going for Roman parallels, but I don't think he got to the level of detail where it would actually make sense. I'm not sure anyone in 1977 thought it would be particularly popular.