Star Wars: Queen’s Peril – E.K. Johnston

I really don’t know why I do this to myself. It’s true, I’ve enjoyed quite a few of the new Star Wars canon novels. But, for every one that I’ve enjoyed, there’s been more than a few that were lackluster (and that’s putting it mildly). I’m not going to beat around the bush here. Today’s book, Queen’s Peril is probably the bottom of the barrel when it comes to Star Wars fiction. I almost didn’t finish this one. It’s that bad. But, for the sake of completion, I stuck with it and I’m ready to tell you what I think about it.

Queen’s Peril is the second book in a trilogy of novels dedicated to Padme Amidala. I feel like Amidala is a character that hasn’t really been explored in the novels, so I was really looking forward to another book about her. I mostly enjoyed the first book, Queen’s Shadow. Sure, it was a little slow at times. But overall, I found it to be a decent read. So, with that in mind, I was looking forward to reading this one.

Despite being the second book in the trilogy, Queen’s Peril is actually a prequel to the last novel. The first half of this book covers Padme’s election to the monarchy. It details her installation as Queen and tells the story of how she assembled her handmaidens. The second half of the book, mirrors the events of The Phantom Menace. But it shows them from the perspective of Amidala and her entourage.

All of this sounds like the perfect set up for a rather interesting story, right? Well, it should be. But, something about the way this book is written just left me feeling bored and honestly, a little disgusted. I’ve always liked the Star Wars novels authored by E.K. Johnston. But this one feels different. For starters, the “wokeism” is really on full display here. I can’t help but feel like the author’s job here is to highlight feminism to the point of absurdity. It’s quite obvious that the point of this book is to put the spotlight on the fact that Amidala and her handmaidens are smarter than nearly every other character in the roster. This is especially true when it comes to the Queen’s head of the security, Capt. Panaka. You see, the author makes it clear that the Captain feels that the Queen doesn’t take his security precautions seriously. So, he takes it upon himself to do things like stash weapons in the royal chamber and set up various security systems on the down low. All of which the Queen and her handmaidens discover – except for one…

A major plot point in the book revolves around the fact that Capt. Panaka installs a “blood detector” in the Queen’s bedchamber. The idea here is that if the Queen is ever injured and begins bleeding, the detector will alert him. However, in reality, boneheaded Panaka forgets that teenage girls “bleed” once a month… So, yes. We have a whole subplot dedicated to the fact that girls have periods. I mean… ok? I don’t have a problem with mentioning menstruation in a Star Wars novel, I suppose. But, the way it’s done in this book is just so awkward and unnecessary that I feel like the decision to include it it raises more questions than it answers. It just comes off as weird.

Putting that aside, the first half of the book is also a slog to get through. The pacing is slow and, if I’m being honest, it’s just boring.

The second half picks up the pace considerably, as it covers the events of The Phantom Menace. But it does so in such a disjointed way that it ends up feeling off. This section of the book is filled with time skips, it jumps from character to character, and it quite obviously assumes that the readers are familiar with the events of the film. If the first half of the book was a drag, this second half happens at lighting speed. This change up just feels out of place and the two halves of the book feel very much out of sync with each other. Honestly speaking, it’s a hot mess.

There’s just so many unusual issues with this book that’s it’s difficult for me to list them all here. I wanted to like this one, but I really can’t recommend it to most readers. Star Wars fiction really hit a stinker with this publication.

Story: Boring, weird pacing, and not particularly interesting. The characters are extremely one-dimensional in this book. I’m not going to say this is the worst Star Wars book I’ve ever read, but it’s right up there.

Recommended:  I can really only recommend this one to the most hardcore Padmé Amidala fans. Even then, this one is tough to get through.