Books Leia Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray

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Not as blind as he appeared in Legends.

 

You can read a digital book sample through the Apple device iBooks app and going to their store through that.

 

So...

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What is Leia's first love's name?

 

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Kier. I actually really liked his character and liked that Claudia Grey made a point of making him completely different than Han. Lesser authors would have just made him a Han clone to make it seem like Leia had a "type".

 

Whaaaaat?! I'm only a few minutes in the audiobook, must keep going.

 

What a fantastic novel. I knew Claudia Gray would not disappoint. This is the book Leia has deserved for years. Between this and Bloodline, I'd say Gray has to be the go-to author for any future Leia books.

Massive spoilers follow:

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The relationship between Leia, Breha, and Bail was wonderfully complicated. I love that Breha was the more aggressive and militant of the pair. She did mentor Evaan after all. Breha was fascinating. The revelation about her being a cyborg was really neat.

Great use of Panaka. I can only imagine what sort of things were going through his head. I'm torn on how to feel about his death: he likely was about to report to Palpatine what he discovered, but he could have changed his mind. Saw really messed up here. Not only did he kill what was likely the most moral Moff in the Empire and a potential ally for the Rebellion, he ruined any chance of actually helping the miners.

I was not expecting Amilyn Holdo to be the SW counterpart of Luna Lovegood, but I'm 100% here for that. Such a fantastic character. Although I thought it was rumored she would be something of an adversary to Leia in TLJ, I'm a bit confused since the two get along so well here and Amilyn probably joined the Rebellion not long after. I don't see what could ever come between the two after this...

 

Claudia Gray manages to recover another name from Legends:

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The Rivoche Ranges, from Eriadu, is a reference to Rivoche Tarkin, niece to Grand Moff Tarkin. She was a minor character created for the roleplaying game, which I suspect also was the basis for the name of Garoche Tarkin, Wilhuff's son in Darth Vader and the Last Command.

 

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Really cool to learn that Imperial Panaka has been recanonized. I was already hyped for this book but this has me even more hyped.

 

So,

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Saw Gerrera and the Partisans killed Panaka. Hence why we don't see him after the Prequel Era.

 

What I really want to know if the book will let me understand the binary language of moisture vaporators.

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Actually, I want to know if the book contradict the EU much and whether buying the book Claudia Gray get royalties or did Disney contract her for a specific amount and no matter how many copies get sold, Gray won't get more food on her table?

 

Well, I was right, this is a book that just demands to be read, even though you know it'll be a shame when it's over.

In the way it brings Alderaan to life, it renders the act of its destruction so much more vicious. Previously there was the Alderaan section of the Illustrated Star Wars Universe that KJA did years back, which used much McQuarrie art, but I don't think any story before has covered Alderaan in the way this did. It was superb and that last line of the book will emotionally wreck everyone who reads it.

The way the new material has woven in the Clone Wars and their impact remains one of my favourite aspects of it. It explains Bail's reluctance to invoke war even as he knows the necessity of it. The book set up some very hard moral decisions and it didn't flinch from following through on them.

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I don't think any story has shown us as much of Leia's adoptive mother Breha as this and what we get is excellent. The relationship between her and Bail is perfectly depicted.

The weaving of both Panaka, as a Moff, and his fate at the hands of the Partisans, was well done, as was the use of Star Wars's perpetual arse Tarkin.

This is such a smart, smart book. You're not going to read it because it's YA? Don't be dumb, ignore that and enjoy an excellent new addition.

 

I believe "Leia" will get a edit
https://twitter.com/germanjedi/status/903582759284854784

 

Curious for anyone who has played SWTOR if pieces of that alderaan culture/ planet come through


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That matches everything I've found, I can well believe the phrase would have been grabbed by Goebbels and co but I'd be inclined to view this as an honest oversight / error rather than anything more.

 

Claudia Gray already apologized for using that phrase. She said she didn't know that it was used in the Third Reich.

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And honestly, is this something to get upset over? I mean, there are unfortunate implications if someone knows that that is a Third Reich-related phrase, sure, but how many people even know that? I certainly didn't, until this controversy. And even for people who do know, do they honestly think that Leia is identifying with Nazism? This phrase is one that actually sounds good, so it's unfortunate that it has ties to Nazism, but surely no one actually thought Claudia Gray was implying Leia is a Nazi. I'm of two minds on this, because on the one hand since it wasn't intentional I don't think it should cause a fuss, but on the other hand I know in our political environment it's important to be very careful what is even implied in writing.

 

Obviously its an unfortunate coincidence, but editing it out in future editions? It just seems silly to me, like it's admitting that Nazis have a copyright on the arrangement of 3 little words. Like because 84 years ago some genocidal ***hats decided to call a tourist program "Strength through joy", we can't use those words regardless of context? Don't get me wrong, I understand why they're doing it, but it just seems like what TvTropes calls "Hitler Ate Sugar". "Hitler was bad. Hitler liked dogs. Therefore liking dogs is bad."

After all I don't see anyone petitioning that the throne room scene of ANH be removed for being too similar to Triumph of the Will.

 

A reader would have to do an awful lot of work and decide to twist the narrative to even make the link.

 

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Holdo being a Luna Lovegood-type of character, and her and Leia getting along so well, makes me wonder how she ends up apparently becoming antagonistic towards Leia in TLJ. Because Luna was many things, antagonistic wasn't one of them.