Books Leia Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray

Jello edit: Please use spoiler tags for character reveals like that.

 

You're not admin remember.

 

That's not what his post said before, I'm pretty sure Jello invoked mod privileges to edit it.

 

Okay.

 

So, we've learned a few things about the Alderaanian monarchy:

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• As in Legends, there ruling monarch can be male or female (it's not a female-only monarchy as some speculated);
• it's implied that Viceroy is the title held by the Prince Consort, whose role is to take charge of Alderaan's dealings with the galaxy at large;
• the heir to the crown is the eldest child of the ruling monarch, whether he/she is a biological child or an adopted one;
• after making his or her claim upon turning sixteen, the heir apparent must succeed in three self-imposed challenges to earn his or her right to the crown.

Things we still don't know:

• Are there ministers?
• is there a parliament of some sort?
• is Organa Bail's surname or that of Breha?
• Bail is "First Chairman", but what does that mean?
• the book mentions "lords", but who are they?

 

Ok finished it... it's a fantastic book and I loved all the references and clever use of previously established things from her own Bloodline novel. I'm still not sure what was the "young adult" part of the book, I loved absolutely every part of it.

One question came to mind though,

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Do you think that the Academy ball mentioned in the novel, is one different than the one mentioned in "Lost Stars"?

 

I'm not into Harry Potter either and the comparison I came up with in my head after reading this was Effie Trinket.

 

I get the impression Bail Organa is both the head of Parliament as well as Viceroy as well as Senator.

Which seems a bit front loaded but given Alderaan is peaceful, I don't think he probably has much to do planet-wise.

Between he and Breha, the Alderaan Royal Family have a lock on local power.

 

Well at some point Leia takes his place in the Senate. And it's within the next 2-3 years (since she's 16 in the book, but 19/20 in ANH).

 

Fantastic book. Man, but Claudia Gray makes this look easy.

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It's wonderful and agonizing to see how large Bail and Breha loom in Leia's life, how much she depends on and misses them even when they're practically right there. Her loss a few years down the road seems unimaginable. I think Gray did well to imagine a way for Leia to suspend her emotions and shock in a "crystalline" state, as this goes toward explaining why we didn't see her just falling apart in ANH.

A lingering question, perhaps trivial, but how does seniority work in the Imperial Senate? Because ch. 6 describes Winmey Lenz as senior senator of Chandrila, but then in ch. 15 Mon Mothma is also introduced as the senior senator from Chandrila. I assumed that, similar to the U.S. Senate, each world was represented by a junior and senior senator.

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I also think Tarkin's speech is an interesting contrast to Mon Mothma's statement on Leia's behalf after that dinner party he crashed. Mothma affirms Leia's involvement because of her youth: "They’re the ones who’ll do most of the fighting and most of the dying... We need the young with us." In some ways it's the same message--young people are the future and we need them on our side--but for Mothma it's more a moral imperative that they be involved in their own future, whereas Tarkin speaks of it in terms of patronage and culling out the best from an early age.

 

By the way, can we just talk about how much of a gut punch that last line is? HOW RUDE CLAUDIA GRAY.

 

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Claudia Gray confirmed at Dragon Con that Amilyn was deliberately coded as queer.

 

Sorry, double post.

 

???
So....

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maybe she (Holdo) made a pass at Leia? which was rebuffed.

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There goes my Luke/Holdo 'ship. It is now sunk.

 

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Wait... does that make her the first confirmed LGBT+ character who appears in the films? That's pretty awesome.

 

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That's the assumption! Here's hoping there's actually an allusion to it in the film (reference to a past/current wife) or something.

 

Bisexual people exist.

 

so do straight people.

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It would explain a little bit their falling out. I'm not saying it's going to be the main reason, maybe 10 percent?

 

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I seriously doubt that the first gay character they have in the films is going to have her friendship with Leia tested because she tried to hit on her.

 

Can anyone who's listened to the audiobook confirm how Amilyn is pronounced? I'd hate to get accustomed to my pronunciation from reading the book and then have the rug pulled out from under me in December.


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