Monday, January 22, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray





  Leia, Princess of Alderaan is one of the most unique products of the new Star Wars canon - it's a Star Wars novel that covers a topic that was never touched by the old Expanded Universe (aka Legends).  As far as I can tell, this is the first book that ever told a tale of Leia's life prior to A New Hope (the old canon had Han Solo prequels for example, but not anything of the sort involving Leia).  So for once, it's a Star Wars book that doesn't need to justify its existence to older fans, as it covers entirely new ground.

  It's also fairly enjoyable as a story - this is a Young Adult story featuring a 16 year old Princess Leia, as she takes her first steps toward actively opposing the Empire.  It even introduces the teenage version of one of The Last Jedi's new characters (Admiral Holdo), and she kind of steals the show.   It's not perfect obviously - as I'll detail below, it suffers from the typical problem of prequels to a well known work - but it takes a hole in the existing canon and fills it quite admirably.

More after the Jump:


---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
At age 16, Princess Leia is frustrated.  She's a member of the apprentice legislature of the Empire and about to undergo the ceremony that will start her to the path of being fully invested as the heir to Alderaan, but she feels that for the past year her parents have been distancing themselves from her and meanwhile, she can't help but notice the evils being purported by the Empire.  But when she tries to do extra good on a humanitarian mission without her parents' knowledge, she discovers there is a reason for that: her parents are actively involved in the opening stages of the Rebellion and have been trying to shield her from Palpatine's wrath if they were caught.

Meanwhile, Leia is trying to learn about legislating with the apprentice legislature, where she establishes a few friends - namely another Alderaanian boy named Kier and the incredibly quirky girl Holdo.  As she starts to fall in love with Kier, and tries to wonder if she can trust him or the other young future legislators, she starts to wonder: is it right to oppose the Empire through violent measures?  And how far can she or should she go to try to resist - especially if her actions and those of her parents run the risk of dooming all of Alderaan, including those people who have no idea of their actions?
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Leia is basically a fully formed character in the original Star Wars Trilogy,  a passionate determined woman dedicated to fighting the Empire at all costs and in doing good for the galaxy.  Even in the new trilogy, all of her development with regards to her relationship with Han and Ben is already complete by the time 7 and 8 begin.

By contrast, this book begins with a young Leia, one who has been instilled with strong values of right and wrong from her parents, but who is not yet sure of what is the right thing to do and how far to go.  And while the book ends 3* years prior to ANH, it basically tells the story of the experiences a young adult Leia goes through that makes her the determinator we see in the movies.  And it's an incredibly well done story in doing so - Leia's doubts and convictions are very believable, and how the events unfold in changing those feelings just makes so much sense.  This is not yet the Leia of the movies, but she's a wonderful character in this book who works really well. 

*It feels like it ends even before that, but the Star Wars timeline between the prequels and original trilogy is ridiculously compressed*

The two other minor characters who get significant screentime are also excellent.  Young Holdo, a long way from The Last Jedi here, is a wonderful utterly eccentric character who steals the show in pretty much any scene she happens to be in.  I doubt it'll come, but I would LOVE a book dedicated to following Holdo's career as a leader in the Rebellion and the Resistance.  Love interest Kier also is a pretty interesting character, showing another side of the debate about whether Leia and her family, as the leaders of Alderaan, are doing the right thing (an issue that will ring strongly with the reader due to the reader's knowledge of what will eventually happen to Alderaan).

The book suffers a little bit from the usual issues with prequels - obviously Leia and Holdo are going to survive this book and it's obvious from the start that SOMETHING is going to happen to love interest Kier (a friend on twitter, Merrin, jokingly suggested that it was possible that Leia and Kier had a friendly break-up, which is a fate that is too conventional for any reader to actually believe is going to happen).  There's also a set-up scene where a prequel character, now working for Palpatine, recognizes Leia's resemblance to her mother...and the resolution is really anticlimactic.

Still, this is a fine work that covers new ground for a Star Wars book and it does so excellently.  My favorite new-canon Star Wars novel for sure.  It's also a very kid-friendly book if you're looking for that
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