– Spoiler Free Review –
Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker are married! How does a former Queen turned Senator deal with such intense life changes – especially when they come at the onset of a brand new war? Read my review of Queen’s Hope!
One of the inevitable victims of COVID delays, Queen’s Hope, the final young adult novel in the “Queen” trilogy finally hits store shelves. The first two books tackled somewhat unexplored times in the canon: first, Queen’s Shadow covered the years between Naboo and Geonosis as the young Padmé Amidala transitioned from Queen of Naboo into the Senator of Naboo. Second, Queen’s Peril went back in time, covering Padmé’s ascension to the throne into the invasion of Naboo. I thought that both of these timelines opened up new avenues for stories of untold parts of Padmé’s life, giving us a chance to take a unique look into her character. Unfortunately, neither of the books landed with me very well.
At first glance, you’d think that Queen’s Hope had too much going against it. For one, as I said before, the first two books were in somewhat unique and new spots in the timeline. This novel takes place in the incredibly explored Clone War. Second, the first two novels did not work too well for me, so I was worried that the third would not land very well, either. Thankfully, neither of these turned into problems like I had anxiously expected them to. Instead, the book left me with contradictory feelings on a lot of aspects, but ended up as a mostly enjoyable read.
Let’s see if we can work through these contradictions.
First, everything that I was worried about not working with regards to the timeline didn’t come to pass. Instead, the timeline worked in bringing out some new elements of the story. Taking place in the literal opening days of the Clone War, we see Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala wondering what life looks like now as a married couple. Having a few days, the two think that they will be able to spend some romantic time together. Instead, they are pulled straight into a rescue mission, and later into their respective battle grounds dealing with the War. This thankfully gives us a few pages to see what these two look like as lovers instead of fighters. Bringing in Anakin should have been a great chance to see a new angle on Padmé, and for the most part, we do see her differently. She is the only one who can handle the brash young man, and the only one whom he listens to when she gently suggests ways that he can change.
Second, though, I’m not sure the timing of the story was used to its fullest extent. I do wish looking into the early days of their relationship had gone a little farther, though. While I enjoyed the chance to see what these two look like on a mission together, especially rescuing people that don’t share their ideologies, this was ground that has been covered a lot. Quite a few episodes of The Clone Wars introduce adventures for the couple, on or off the battlefield, and this book mostly adds to the number rather than introducing new elements or new twists to their dynamic. The adventures almost feel like they were put in by necessity rather than desire, leaving them feeling a bit emptier and like they were taking away from the real meat of the story: their relationship. Key events of Attack of the Clones are left unremarked on, or only faintly discussed, but are quickly dismissed as the book moves on.
Third, I felt like the plot was tighter as a whole, even though it didn’t spend as much time as maybe I would have liked to on certain events or characters. The past two books simply had too many characters for me to keep up with and invest in fully, whereas this book trims that down to about two major stories and a few places where we check in with other characters. I felt like this helped me invest more in the characters whom we focused on (Padmé, Anakin, and Sabé), but it did come at the expense of other characters. Some were given a few pages, but these pages felt more like a cursory check-in rather than conclusions to the stories developed in the first two books. Maybe the rest of the handmaidens could have been pulled more fully into the main plot, giving them more space to grow rather than working from the sideline. The handmaidens felt like they were part and parcel the heart of the first two books (“We are brave, your highness” taking on whole new layers and dimensions of meaning after the books!), so their exclusion from the majority of the plot felt like an unwelcome change in the final stretch. The book is extremely short: I felt like the page count could have been increased without hampering much of the plotting of the book if it meant bringing in a few more people.
Fourth, I found that the interludes (both explicit and implicit) were a bit distracting from the tighter plot, and felt those pages could have served the main story better. As in the previous books, we do have interludes that bounce us around time and space to look at different women in the galaxy. Since these are short, I felt like they were good reads and I liked seeing the focus on one character in general. I do wish it was used to more immediate use in the main plot of the story simply because of how nice it was. (I wish I could say more – this is worth reading in the book.) The previous book skipped around to too many people and too many perspectives. There are also some elements in the main plot that felt like they could have been expanded on in the interludes but were not. Instead, characters and events are introduced in the main plot in a way that feels like an interlude, under serving some really interesting people and characters.
Fifth, for as much as the plot had been tightened, but still felt a bit under served at times, I was surprised to read a book that felt like….set up for a full trilogy. Without giving away main elements of the plot, I finished the book feeling like this was the first of a Clone Wars era Padmé trilogy, not the finale of a Padmé trilogy. So many stories and character elements were introduced toward the end that were actually pretty interesting and engaging, only to be cut short in the short page count. This makes me wonder if we’ll see more Padmé YA novels as time goes on, or if these stories were introduced to be picked up in other mediums?
In the end, Johnston’s third installment in the Padmé trilogy offers a nice look into the early married life of Anakin and Padmé, tightening the plot (at the expense of some characters), but leaving too much on the table without much hope to see some of the plot threads followed up on.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor!
DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book, through NetGalley, from the publisher at no charge in order to provide an early review. However, this did not affect the overall review content. All opinions are my own.
ALSO BY E.K. JOHNSTON:
Queen’s Peril (Novel) | Queen’s Shadow (Novel) | Ahsoka (Novel) | “By Whatever Sun” – From a Certain Point of View (Novel)
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