Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: BLOODLINE (spoilers)

"Today is the end of the Republic. The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder. At this very moment in a system far from here, the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance. This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand will bring an end to the Senate, to their cherished fleet. All remaining systems will bow to the First Order and will remember this as the last day of the Republic!"
-General Hux, The Force Awakens

I love the First Order as baddies as this speech implies a rather interesting new galactic status quo. Who are the First Order? What do they want? Where did they come from? Who is the Resistance? What do they do? Where did they come from? How do both of these relate to the New Republic. A lot of this can be inferred but we really don't have a context for it all and I was hoping the new Star Wars Expanded Universe would fill it in.

It hasn't until now.

I was a big fan of Claudia Gray's Lost Stars (reviewed here) so was excited about this book. I felt she had an excellent ability to get inside character's heads and was interested in her take on Princess Leia. Honestly, I think this is probably the best Princess Leia book ever done. Leia has long been the most overlooked member of the Big Three and with the exception of her recent comic book series as well as Star Wars: Razor, she doesn't get much in the way of attention.

The premise is it's been twenty-years since the fall of the Galactic Empire. Unlike in the Legends universe, the Empire is nothing more than a story told to scare children now. While Leia and other politicians are venerated for their wartime service, they are considered increasingly irrelevant to the public at large. Worse, the New Republic which Leia fought so hard to preserve has become a gridlocked mess where the two sides of the political debate refuse to compromise on any subject.

Our plucky heroine has been worn down by fighting this uphill battle and wants to retire to be with her husband. Han is, I kid you not, an announcer for space races now. Leia is drawn back into the political arena, though, by the revelation of a massive criminal syndicate threatening the galaxy. Teaming up with an idealistic but naive Empire-loving Senator, a source of considerable disagreement to say the least, Leia discovers the syndicate is part of a grander conspiracy to create a new government that will revive the Empire in practice if not name. This also ends up to the revelation of Leia's greatest secret: her biological father's identity.

Bloodlines provides a lot of necessary context to The Force Awakens. We find out the First Order has been a conspiracy within the Republic for some time as well as the seeds which are laid for a complex relationship between it and the rest of the galaxy. We also find out how Leia has gone from being one of the most respected people in the galaxy to a virtual pariah leading another ragtag resistance.

Claudia Gray creates a complex political situation which is familiar enough to be understood by American readers. We've all been troubled by political gridlock in the past as well as a knowledge of two separate political parties at each other's throats. The addition of a secret Imperial conspiracy within one of them prepaing an "evil plan" to take over reminded me more of Captain America: The Winter Soldier than anything resemblilng RL politics.

Those looking for insight into Supreme Leader Snoke, Ben Solo, or Luke will be disappointed as none of them make an appearance in this book. The biggest revelation is Ben Solo is still a Jedi Knight trainee six years before the events of The Force Awakens and isn't aware of his grandfather's identity. Given the Vader-worshiping idealism of Kylo Ren, it seems likely the discovery of this plays a big role in his fall to the Dark Side.

I like the set up for the First Order with the Centralists' politicians. While they're clearly the "bad" guys, Claudia Gray shows many of them are simply frustrated with the way the galaxy is run. They're catspaws for the First Order conspiracy which will eventually be created from the New Republic (rather than a pre-existing Imperial State).. This makes them more akin to the Prequel's Separatists than the Legends Imperial Remnant.

Claudia Gray has an excellent grasp of characters with all of her supporting cast being likable and interesting. The stand-out character, however, is Senator Casterfo who is an extremely nuanced personality. A labor camp survivor, he has a personal hatred for Darth Vader but believes the Empire is superior to the Republic in terms of government functionality. He is enamored of the TIE fighters, stormtroopers, and beauty of the Empire while missing the darker undercurrents within. The fact he's otherwise a nice guy and a political idealist makes him an interesting set of contradictions.

I'm also a big fan of Lady Carise who is a great character. A political gadfly and idealist, she's much more into the Empire's values than Senator Casterfo. These are just part of her identity, though, and not the whole of her belief system. Indeed, she's just as loyal to the principle of Core World nobility as she is the Centralist cause so this provides her a curious loyalty to Princess Leia.

Not all of this fits together. According to this book, the earliest the First Order, as a government rather than a secret conspiracy at least, could come into existence is five years before the events of The Force Awakens. This doesn't fit with Finn's background of being raised from birth or the fanatical hatred the group holds for the New Republic. Still, as a secessionist movement, it certainly is more threatening than a hold-out remnant with outdated equipment.

Fans who want a shoot-em up, bang-bang adventure may be disappointed by a more cerebral take on the franchise. On the other hand, this is a great deal less boring than the Prequels politics as well as a good deal better-written. Those who enjoy political thrillers, conspiracy, and spy fiction (like me) will find this quite entertaining.

10/10

 

I guess I'm going to be the third 10/10 in a row.

What a book. I'm sure there's nothing much I can say that hasn't already been said here, but this is the best Leia story I've read, the best Star Wars politics story I've read, and it had the right amount of backstory hinting. I liked their introduction to the First Order and the Resistance, and despite being left with questions, it gave the right amount of information to begin good speculating. It's up there competing for best New EU novel.

 

I'll throw my rating into the ring, and also not break the chain because it's a 10/10 from me as well.

It was different than what I expected, but it was an amazing read. Easily the best of the new canon, and one of the best Star Wars books out there. The story was compelling, the new characters populating the new Star Wars universe were wonderfully fleshed out (Casterfo in particular was a stellar addition to the canon), and it gave some much desired background info to begin filling in the blanks in the 30 year gap between RotJ and TFA. I loved every second of the book, and look forward to reading more from Gray.

 

My rating is also 10/10, because the book is just great.

I is a great political thriller which manages to finally clear some of the fog surrounding TFA away. The portrayal of Leia was great and the new characters were really complex personalities, which I definetely like, Gray is very good at crafting characters. The only two minor things that bugged me were that the identity of the Chancellor and the planet Leia represented in the Senate weren't mentioned. Both of these things wpuld be intresting to know and omitting them just seemed strange. But the rest of the book was so great, that I can't in good faith give a 9.

 

As I've just written, at length, about the book over in the main thread, this will be rather more concise:

• This book should not have worked.
• It certainly shouldn't have been a massive success.
• It should not have increased my interest in this era and reduced the edge of TFA.

Yet it did all of that magnificently and far more.

It also did something else that I've wanted from SW material for years but so rarely got - it drew on all the films, not just OT or just PT or even just ST, but all seven films were tapped and then combined in a new fusion.

For these and other reasons talked of elsewhere:

10

 

We have to get her to stop doing her original works.

 

I'm gonna go ahead and give it a 5, and only for making a great characterization of Leia. My main gripes are this is now official canon, 6 years before TFA. Han went from Rebellion General to NASCAR driver, who's totally okay not coming to be with Leia after she nearly loses her life in an assassination attempt, but miraculously shows up just when he's needed to rescue her, only to leave again because she feels too ball and chainy at the moment. I understand you can't get too dry with the politics, but Aftermath did a good job of showing you the foundations for how the First Order was going to come to rise. The politics just aren't believable in Bloodline, especially since you would assume some folks in the government would have been around and learned from the mistakes of the collapse of the Old Republic.

The basic flaw is the book doesn't establish how these government bodies work (For instance it feels like any Senator can speak whenever they want to on the floor of the Senate, yet during the crucial reveal of her investigation's findings for some reason a Quorum is now needed before Leia can speak, yet it's arbitrary and not entirely clear who sets the rules, sure it's a small nitpick, but I want to be show why the New Republic is failing, and this book does a lot more telling me it's corrupt and I'm supposed to take it at face value). For instance take Leia pondering becoming First Senator and how she would have made some administrative rule changes. Is that the sole thing preventing this government from being effective, draconian debate rules?

Ransolm getting betrayed, again, on the one hand the entire Senate readily believes Leia's Vader's daughter thanks to Bail Organa's ridiculous plan to reveal the truth to her, yet are easily duped even though they had the evidence of Ransolm and the Amaxine leader, but IDK Photoshop? I mean that's pretty much how that whole thing breaks down. Stop and think again for a second that the man who witnessed the slaughter of the Jedi, the power and scope of the Sith, who secretly forms the seeds of the rebellion takes the most important piece of information he has and doesn't store it in R2, some other droid etc., but rather in a music box, voice recorded, to play after a song about Alderaan's non-existent moon, and then send it to a backwater planet into the hands of some governor that we're just told he trusted. That's by far the dumbest sequence of events I could have ever possibly read.

Everyone turning their back on Leia is NOT believable. Sure for some it may be a hard pill to swallow but they've established that a lot of the folks in government weren't around for the bulk of the GCW, so Leia's connection to Vader shouldn't be that damning, especially considering how they've known her in the context of Rebellion fighter and New Republic Senator. There's nothing in her career to suggest she was going to pull a daddy. Not to mention that Vader outweighs Padme's parentage for some reason? Doesn't make sense. If they were abandoning her, in the real world imagine the a presidential candidate dropping out of a race for a huge scandal, and then the next candidate from their party making their announcement for the presidency while hugging the previous one. Yeah, that's why it's dumb in the book too. You're told that the Populists wanted to show Leia some support, except if the vast majority of the Senate turned on Leia the last thing you would do is have her associated with your party that quickly. Just another example of the politics etc, doing whatever needs to happen to move the story forward.

All in all I liked the way Leia was handled but the entire story was flimsy to me, so personally I give it a 5 out of 10, I know a lot of folks loved this book, but it just wasn't for me.

 

10/10.

 

9/10.

It hit a lot of key notes for me.

First and foremost, it gave us a glimpse of what life was like between ROTJ and TFA. This is something I felt was lacking in the lead up to TFA.

I liked how they used Ransolm as the Centrist darling but at the same time someone who just simply made sense. I also liked how overall the Centrists appeared to be quite interested in bringing about the First Order as a whole. It sort of makes sense now why they refused to compromise with the Populists.

The thing that made me not give it a 10 is because I wanted more. I don't think the short length really did the book justice and it almost seemed rushed regarding the Ransolm resolution at the end.

Stellar job from Claudia Gray. She is 2 for 2. I sure hope she is signed on long term!

 

Can I say 12 out of 10? Seriously a definite 10/10, it has to be one the best SW books I've read. The characterizations are spot on, and the politics are fascinating and not boring as they can sometimes be. The ending is bittersweet, no spoilers but it will make even the strong smell onions. It has great romantic moments, action and a lot of backstory to explain events in TFA. A definite read for fans.

I agree with the review that it needs more, but what I did get I loved. I would have loved more and hope we get more.. Are you listening PTB?

 

Just realized once Ep. VIII and IX drop we may likely get a Ben/Luke novel which will be fun in its own right.

I wonder how much Leia and Han hiding certain things from Ben will be the reason we see what we do in TFA.

 

I'm gonna give it a solid 9/10.

My love and admiration for this book grew upon my second reading. That, tied with the recent comments from TOS and Pablo Hidalgo that Rian Johnson collaborated on the plot AND that Claudia Gray basically took some loosely fleshed out concepts from the TFA development phase and turned them into a fully fleshed, exciting, well written, and stellar novel made me love it.

Gray excels at nuanced writing. Things are simply black & white, nor are characters one dimensional. I'd add the same about organizations. Take how Gray wrote and portrayed the New Republic. She masterfully wrote the New Republic, showing it to be both an incredibly successful government AND one that was at risk to lose so much of the successes that it's citizens fought and died to achieve. The New Republic's political parties are written in a similar manner. It isn't as simple as one party being right and the other being wrong. The Populists and Centrists each have incredibly valid points about what the New Republic needs to succeed and the tragedy is that (at this point in galactic history) neither group is willing to find a middle ground. Mark me too, we haven't see the last of these plotlines and I am confident that Episode VIII will delve into the deeper.

Another area that Gray did a knock out job is tying OT and ST elements together seamlessly. She also mined the existing canon well to name drop a lot of things that make the whole NEU feel that much more unified and cohesive. You see this in the worlds and species she uses as members of the New Republic. ST species like Ottegans are used alongside old standbys including Mon Calamarians, Ithorians, and Sullustans. Name drops to Bothans and Gungans make EU and PT fans smile, ditto little things like naming a troop transport after Carlist Rieekan. The list of worlds mentioned is impressive. Nearly any major galactic world, from Coruscant to Mon Cala, Kuat to Orinda, all have little name drops or references. Again, this ties sources together and reminds older EU fans of logical things from the old canon.

Claudia knocked this novel out of the park. If Episode VIII does end up being a more political movie, I would hope that the good people at LFL make the smart call and hire Gray to write the novelization and an official tie in.

--Adm. Nick

 

You cannae break the laws of mathematics!

 

We WRITE THE LAWS!

 

Why do you hate Star Wars so much?

 

Seconded! Let's make it happen. I hear Lucasfilm responds well to billboards.

 

It's a very good book. 8 out of 10

 

Tossing in my 2 bits, as after nearly 14 years on the boards, and one who has been by and large 'not a fan' of the books, *cough*, this is one for even my fellow 'EU Detractors'.

Leia is (for the first time, even in the film novelizations) is given depth and breadth and is a whole person. Indeed, all of the players are well rounded and I found myself twisted, turned, and utterly engrossed throughout. An honest and solid 10.

 

SO true. She is given real depth for the first time ever and not just window dressing.

 

9/10. Best adult book of the new canon so far.