Star Wars: Queen’s Hope
A peace-loving senator faces a time of war in another thrilling Padmé Amidala adventure from the author of the New York Times best-sellers Queen’s Peril and Queen’s Shadow!
Padmé is adjusting to being a wartime senator during the Clone Wars. Her secret husband, Anakin Skwyalker, is off fighting the war, and excels at being a wartime Jedi. In contrast, when Padmé gets the opportunity to see the casualties on the war-torn front lines, she is horrified. The stakes have never been higher for the galaxy, or for the newly-married couple.
Meanwhile, with Padmé on a secret mission, her handmaiden Sabé steps into the role of Senator Amidala, something no handmaiden has done for an extended period of time. While in the Senate, Sabé is equally horrified by the machinations that happen there. She comes face to face with a gut-wrenching decision as she realizes that she cannot fight a war this way, not even for Padmé.
And Chancellor Palpatine hovers over it all, manipulating the players to his own ends…
Author: E. K. Johnston
Release Date: 5th April 2022
Page Count: 352 pages
ISBN: 9781368075930
The third and final book in E.K Johnston’s Queen trilogy is, after quite a sizable delay, finally here and fans of the first two books will not be disappointed. Set mostly just after the events of Attack of the Clones this book tells the story of Padmè, a now more settled and established galactic senator, as she comes to terms with being a pacifist in the face of a burgeoning war and her secret marriage to Anakin Skywalker. Meanwhile former handmaiden Sabè is back on Tatooine, clandestinely trying to undermine the oppressive slave trade by integrating herself in the local community and building trust with the anti-slavery factions.
In the acknowledgements for Queen’s Shadow Johnston conveys her excitement that this story is finally being told and that she is the one to write it. The story I feel she is referring to isn’t a story of Sith Lords and Jedi Knights nor one of bounty hunters and crime lords. It’s the story of who Padmè is and how she went from being the girl queen that unseated a Galactic Chancellor to the senator that acts as one of the few beacons of hope during a time of war. It’s all about character and Queen’s Hope is the well earned culmination of the previous two books stellar character development. Padmè always deserved better than what she got from the movies. Her character was thin at best, a caricature of a love interest in Anakin’s story. Her characterisation was inconsistent – a fierce protector of life marries a man shortly after he massacres an entire village of mostly innocents – and while The Clone Wars tried to broaden her character and fill in the gaps these books truly succeed in making Padmè a real and compelling character.
Queen’s Hope is ultimately about growing up and accepting that change is a part of life. Sabè’s role in this story is to highlight exactly that. For over ten years she has been Padmè’s hands and her role as liberator, originally given to her by her queen years before, has made her value direct action and filled her life with so much direct light (two sun’s worth in fact!) that she’s finding it increasingly difficult to be someone else’s shadow. The liberator has become the liberated. This is the central throughline of the narrative and it builds to a satisfying and heart-breaking emotional climax that couldn’t have been achieved without the previous two books. As a trilogy it works. As a standalone book it acts as its biggest negative.
As stated previously the character work is excellent but the actual driving plot is incredibly weak. Whereas Peril took pleasure in the story of young girls building something strong and meaningful, whilst ultimately still being young teenage girls and everything that comes with that, and Shadow gave an insight into Padmè’s transition to Senator and the murky world of Coruscanti politics, the narrative here serves merely to put people where they need to be for the character beats to hit. It’s a criticism that was unfairly levelled at Johnston’s “Ahsoka” but I’d argue that book was underrated in it’s depiction of Imperial domestic oppression. Here unfortunately it’s true and there’s a section of this book, where Padmè and Typho go undercover on a ship captained by Wookiees, that really slowed things down and detracted from the point of the story. Luckily the parallel Sabè story at that point was one of the strongest parts of the book or I would have struggled to make it through.
Anakin is used sparingly and effectively. Johnston has wonderfully captured his voice and the scenes between the two newly weds feel like an epilogue to Attack of the Clones in the best way. The Anakin we have here is definitely that of the movies and not the Anakin of The Clone Wars. You can picture Hayden Christensen and hear his particular drawl. Prequel fans and Anakin and Padmè shippers will be in absolute heaven with this book.
Negatives aside it’s nice to spend time with these characters and and the book works best when it feels like a slice of life. A look behind the curtain on these galaxy shaping characters in-between the tentpole events that define them.
- Hardcover Book
- Johnston, E.K. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 288 Pages - 04/05/2022 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)
