Books Bloodline by Claudia Gray (book spoilers permitted)

The Vader parentage reveal, and the assassination at the end, is some of my favourite stuff in the book. (And Ransolm deciding to "simply kick his ass"). I will say, at first the Vader parentage reveal kind of simply feels like Senator Hoity-toity is simply being petulant but soon after that the drop that she's in cahoots with creating the First Order has it make even more sense because she's able to discredit a powerful senator and influential Rebel holdover.

 

It's all good. Terrific book. One of the best in the new-EU(now canon) in a long time.

Is she planning on writing more?

 

She wrote Lost Stars, which was also awesome.

 

Yes so I've heard. But they should get her to write more going forward too.

 

Oh I agree, she's my favorite EU author at this point. I'd love to see more.

 

Yep. Me too. They need to just ask her if she would like to write an entire multi-novel arc and then they can plan it out and have her write it over the next several years. One thing I've seen over the years with SW writers is they're not all created equal. if you get a good one, hold onto them.

I say they should make her a multi-novel deal.

 

I'm fine with a trilogy, especially from Grey, maybe something that can tie together Lost Stars and Bloodline. Maybe this hypothetical third book COULD be the wrap up one. Thane and Ciena break out Ransolm!! And they get a comedy sidekick just cuz!

 

A Leia Trilogy could be awesome.

I'd also like to see her write a Han Solo novel. She writes elder Han well.

 

Yes I thought her Han was excellent. I could picture Harrison saying her lines. In fact, Bloodlines was incredibly visual throughout.

 

It really was visual for how ephemeral her writing style is.


But yeah, Han is not an easy character to write. There's a very specific essence that the writer has to capture. I've seen too many authors flub on his dialogue and tendencies, so seeing Gray get him right was quite refreshing.

 

I just finished reading Bloodline.

I enjoyed the book. It was very good, not great.

I enjoyed the Han and Leia scenes, but they made up only 5% of the novel, unfortunately. When I read about their scenes, it sounded like they had more than they actually had in the book. I was disappointed by this.

I enjoyed how the book described Leia starting the resistance.

 

I honestly think that she'd be a good choice to describe the fall out from Ben's turn....either from Leia's POV or any of the other OT trio....or Ben himself. The downfall of the solo family is fascinating to me and I think Grey would be the one to knock it out of the park. Especially since she writes Leia so well.

I think she's open to working with the LFL publishing group again but she has her current YA commitments taking up a lot of her time (One trilogy wrapping up in November and another starting in the spring). I hope they figure out a way to hold on to her, she is the strongest contributor to the new canon so far.

 

I could see her writing the tale of Ben's turn from Luke's point of view. Perhaps as a squeal to Bloodline that starts out by running parallel to it.

Also agree that she is easily the best writer we have so far. I hope they can get her a multi-book contract.

 

This book simultaneously stands as a great enhancement of Force Awakens and a highlight of some of its issues. It really helps create some much-needed context for the New Republic, what it was, how it functioned and without even including Ben in the story proper gives you a fantastic set of reasons for why he'd go to the dark side in this kind of ineffectual political system. It also helps you care about Hosnian Prime when it goes tits up in the movie. It also highlights why just cutting out any politics out of Force Awakens was a big mistake that feels more like a poorly thought out reaction to everyone bitching about the PTs political scenes. This does it right, it makes the politics both interesting and quite easily understandable for basically anyone to read it.

I know I'm massively late on this one but I just finished it after a long break and I gotta say, its probably one of my favorite SW books period, not just from Disney.

 

I partially agree. Firstly, I agree on the context. We see what went wrong & it was plagued w/similar issues that plagued the Galactic Republic. We also get some of that in the Aftermath books but not as much. Bloodline really lays it out there though. I read it months ago so it isn't all fresh in my head so if I miss things I apologize. I don't agree however on leaving politics out of TFA. I think the overemphasis on that really ruined the PT & I'd much rather see these stories in supplemental material.

 

I poorly explained that part

I didn't need entire swaths of the movie devoted to politics but we really did need at least a couple of scenes to establish what's going on. We've got a New Republic but also a Resistance and something that looks like the Empire with the First Order but everyone considers it a tiny force at best but they've also got enough resources and man power to hollow out an entire planet and build a new Death Star inside of it. A wee bit of context might've helped the movie out some. It certainly would've let us know if Coruscant got blown up or not.

 

Oh I agree there. It was like the FO comes up and you're thinking who are these guys (who look pretty formidable)? It's only in Bloodline (so far) that we get more of a background but at the same time a lot of people won't read Bloodline just as a lot of people don't/didn't watch TCW/Rebels.

 

Yea, you almost have to be a super fan to get it all.

Kinda off topic but I was scrolling through my SW books on my Kindle and felt so sad when I saw Bloodline. RIP Princess Leia Organa.

 

Oh I'd say it's a requirement, I dare anyone to explain to me the political situation in TFA without reading any of the supplementary stuff or watching any YT videos explaining it and basing their explanation solely on the movie. It can't be done.

 

I still think Casterfo needs to get busted out of prison, clear his name, and get proof of Carise Sindian's guilt and go from there. Maybe get governorship of Riosa and side with the Resistance.

 

It's impossible. Unfortunately it was because JJ and Kasdan just tried to stuff as many OT rehashes in as possible.

Don't get me wrong, TFA was a fun piece of popcorn entertainment. But you literally can't think about it in a larger context without seeing all the holes pretty clearly IMO.

Possible spoilers:

Spoiler

Thankfully Rian Johnson has promised 8 will clear up this confusion (he confirmed politics will feature in the film).

 

Yeah. I hope us Canon fans (supplemental stuff) get more background. I believe the last Aftermath book will give us some info considering Rax goes to Jakku w/Hux. I do want to see more on Lady Carise maybe and her role in its creation. Is it a small part or does she have some greater reason to want this?

 

Everything about the First Order is petty and pathetic, which is why Carise fits perfectly.

She's rich, successful, has a fair amount of political power and popularity - she should want for nothing, instead she scorns all she already has as inadequate because she wants more. It's why she'd happily set fire to the entire galaxy if she thought she'd gain from it.

 

I confess, my assumption is, until stated otherwise, Carise was killed on Hosnian Prime.

Never understanding how unimportant she was to the people she devoted her life to.