'Star Wars: Queen's Hope' Review
*Spoilers for Star Wars: Queen's Hope*
E.K. Johnston's trilogy of Star Wars novels has come to a close with Star Wars: Queen's Hope. Released earlier this year, Queen's Hope serves as the third and final installment in her series of novels focused on Padmé Amidala. While her first novel Queen's Shadow, focused on Padmé's transition from the Queen of Naboo to a Senator, and the second novel, Queen's Peril, served as a prequel to flesh out her time as Queen, Queen's Hope focuses exclusively on her early days in the Senate amidst the outbreak of the Clone Wars. Beginning with her marriage to Anakin Skywalker, the book follows Padmé as she embarks on a mission for the Republic while her royal handmaiden Sabé acts as her decoy on Coruscant. We also get interludes from the perspectives of various other characters in the story, including Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine, and Padmé's other handmaidens.
The crux of the novel's story is Padmé's plot, which shows her undertaking her first major mission during the Clone Wars. While Sabé poses as her in the Senate, she and her royal bodyguard Gregar Typho travel to Hebekkr Minor to aid the people there. While there, however, she finds herself getting involved with a Neimodian named Oje N'deeb, who leads a splinter cell within the Trade Federation that plans to abandon the Separatist Alliance.
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All the while, Sabé remains on Coruscant under the guise of Padmé herself. With Bail Organa and Mon Mothma at her side, she has taken on the task of helping to establish a bill that will more equally distribute resources throughout Naboo's sector in the Mid Rim. However, Sabé finds it quite challenging to maintain her facade as she struggles to adapt to a new political landscape with which she has little experience.
Also helping Sabé is another of Padmé's handmaidens named Saché, who travels to Karlinus, a planet in Naboo's sector, in order to get their government on board with the bill. Saché is accompanied by Tepoh, a non-binary but feminine-leaning handmaiden who acts as Saché's aid while zhe trains for zher new duties. Along with the three central plots are various interludes showing the perspectives of the book's secondary characters.
Three of these interludes occur within the head of Chancellor Palpatine, who is observing the goings-on of the Senate and figuring out how to use them to his political advantage. Another interlude follows Anakin and Obi-Wan in an early battle of the Clone Wars, during which they are helped by Sister, a trans woman clone trooper whose brothers call her Sister to let her know that she belongs with them.
The novel's main narrative is engaging in its own right, showing the struggles of Padmé and Sabé as they attempt to juggle their new responsibilities with their increasingly strained relationship. We also get more insight into Padmé's relationship with Anakin and how she has been coping with her trauma due to The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
Padmé and Sabé's relationship also comes to a bittersweet conclusion by the end of the book, solidifying each character's new chosen paths amidst the growing conflicts of the galaxy. While the perspective-shifting with the interludes detracts from the overarching story, the interludes themselves are welcome additions and a testament to how interesting each of these characters is.
More than anything, though, Queen's Hope and E.K. Johnston's trilogy allows readers to know what it's like to be Padmé Amidala. As one of the prequel trilogy's least utilized characters, Padmé needed a story all to herself, and these books have provided that. Despite having perhaps a few too many subplots and perspective shifts, Queen's Hope is still essential reading for any fan of Padmé Amidala and the prequel era as a whole. As a fan of the character myself, I'm happy to give this novel and this trilogy a round of thunderous applause.
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