Books Queen's Peril (New Padmé book by EK Johnston)

My copy is shipping from Germany, for some reason. (Maybe that's the warehouse they are in?) Last tracking update from yesterday had it still in that country.

 

I started reading this book. The beginning is absolutely hilarious.

Panaka [epic badass voice]: I'm putting together a team.

*interviews a bunch of teenage girls to find super prodigies with special skills to take on Naboo's looming security and political crises*

*team assembles; handmaiden meeting with Padme takes place on Day 1 without Panaka, drafting detailed rules of future security measures*

Panaka [Day 2]: The teenagers are rebelling.

 

I am reading the ebook and live in germany but it says not yet in stock.. what the...???

Panaka wanted Teen Avengers but all he got was Naboo girls playing Sailor Moon and dressup barbies.

No wonder he put Nick Gillard in handmaiden costume to spy on them for him!

Far right, yub that is him:



And I will never forgive the author for ignoring all other canon handmaidens from TPM alone etc.

 

Thank you

Spoiler

Oh that is interesting, I guess we will get more of Maul, since he is a bigger player now than he was.

That would be interesting Valorum doesn't get much focus.

So Padame ran and won an election at 14? Interesting. Do we see anything of that or how she feels about it?

Also they dropped Veruna, not totally shocking, though interesting, that they changed it, was she evil or corrupt?

 

There are no other canon handmaidens in TPM. The handmaidens played by other actors were only in pickup shots filmed after principal photography was over and are meant to represent the handmaidens that are in the other shots in the same scene. I think one or two of them might have been considered separate characters in Legends but that’s not the case in canon.


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My copy has made it to the UK. Tracker still says tomorrow for delivery.
@ColeFardreamer - the book has gone in and out of stock on Amazon UK. Right now it says 'Available to ship in 1-2 days'. (This is the English language hardcover edition).

 

There are plenty of other handmaidens. Explaining it away with pickup shots using different actors is one possibility but that does not explain all cases of handmaidens. There have to be more canonically. Aside the plenty unnamed handmaiden extras from TPM there are the named Legensd EU additions but those are not related to any onscreen appearance. Still numbers do not add up for the movie only ones even if using the pickup shot explanation.

 

Just started, got the audio book, voiced by Padame from TCW.

Spoiler

So 14 years old isn't odd for someone to rule their planet? I wonder how this came to be, since most societies tend to associate age with wisdom.

 

Was it ever explained how the one handmaiden from Thrawn Alliances fit into everything?

 

At least here Johnston sticks to the Darth Plagueis novel. And there James Luceno lets Palpatine say: Naboo has seen even younger queens.

 

The book mentions that Naboo has a common theme of child prodigies and this seems not just a thing with their queens but child talents in general, be it in arts, theater, music, etc. Must be a damn nice gene pool. Imagine 10 year old Palpatine as a master schemer already!!!

Guess what for Hapans is the beauty gene is for the Naboo otherwise genetic talents.

Even canon disagrees and contradicts itself there indeed good catch. Thx

Makes one wonder, when? Those we know from before Padmé were not younger. Must have been before Veruna.



But yes in general the trend of fiction and the gffa putting children in jobs and positions ahead of real world timing is interesting and strange. I know it is a fiction thing to star kids in adult roles. But that aside, a advanced society drastically shortening childhood and education needs some inuniverse explanation. One is the genepool that more kids than in real life are genius prodigies that learn faster, forget less and are willing to contribute responsibly. Another is that a lot of repetition and knowledge can be taken out of the education system if you rely on droids and databanks with quick access to do it all for you, though therein lies a risk I'd not want to take if you are forced to rely on yourself and own knowledge and skills f.e. it could end catastrophic.

The question thus should not be what can be condensed and left out of education but rather what needs to be learned when. They never really leave education even if starting adult life early and probably spend a lot of time still learning but are more selective early on about what to learn which for us on earth starts much later to get selective and specialised.

Still Moff Panakas trend of using children as bodyguards.. well more like bodyshields shows his Imperial ways early. Naboo is so rotten to the core with its underlying Imperial themes no artsy cover can keep that unnoticed.

 

Unless the two extras seen at the end (one called Fe after Fay David in Legends) are supposed to be two of the five, I'm starting to think that the writers are pretending fans aren't noticing these differences. After all, during the Battle of Endor, just cause we saw two cruisers go up in the film doesn't mean more ships didn't get hit by the Death Star II before it stopped firing though Aftermath: Life Debt just said the two went up.

 

When PP is selling well, then it is likely that Disney is giving E.K. Johnston a new task exactly about this.

Is Teckla Minnau inside the new Padmé books?

 

Yub she was in the first book that was post TPM and went through AOTC etc. So far she is not in the new book! But not done with reading yet! But indeed another missed opportunity.

 

I like Palpatine in this.

Spoiler

How he has ensured the first tac bill will fail, but making the TF oppose it, then he has the next three written. Very canny.

I think EK writes good politics.

 

My copy is currently out for delivery.
For those still wanting to buy this, Amazon UK now shows it in stock.

 

Palpatine's really awesome, in what I've read so far. The bill game is like watching someone play chess against himself.

I also like the Chommell sector politics. It's cool to see how everyone in the palace learns how to work together on increasingly significant problems, with the shadow of bigger fish looming in the distance.

 

Just waiting for an @ek_johnston book about the Winguards aka Landos Handmaidens... Most LGBTQ+ pansexual... Two are a couple. Lobot put them together Panaka style... Witness Landos first days of his reign as Baron Administrator #starwars @DelReyStarWars @StarWars https://t.co/7Hg4GrDPB8

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Unfortunately EK Johnston only writes books about teenagers.

 

Something he gets a lot of experience with.

There's always a bigger fish.

I also wonder if the culture of naboo (having the monarch take on a new persona) helped Palpatine with his own personas.

 

Even without Padmé, give us post ROTS handmaiden survival stories under the Empire.

Or how Moff Panaka recruited Roganda Ismaren, Shira Brie, Mara Jade and other "handmaidens" for the Emperor into a new team...

 

You just had your meal Sinny, and you're still hungry?