Star Wars: Queen's Shadow

By: E.K. Johnston

Narrated by: Catherine Taber

Written by the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Star Wars Ahsoka!

When Padmé Naberrie, "Queen Amidala" of Naboo, steps down from her position, she is asked by the newly-elected queen to become Naboo's representative in the Galactic Senate. Padmé is unsure about taking on the new role, but cannot turn down the request to serve her people. Together with her most loyal handmaidens, Padmé must figure out how to navigate the treacherous waters of politics and forge a new identity beyond the queen's shadow.

E. K. Johnston does it again

Padme Amidala has been my favorite character in the Star Wars universe since I was a little girl in the theater watching the Phantom Menace with my dad. One of my earliest memories of putting on a costume is wearing her red throne room dress for Halloween that year. While continuing the intrigue and politics of the Star Wars universe, which is my favorite aspect of it, Johnston’s book also let me feel closer to my favorite character. Her art for writing style goes above and beyond adequately displaying the presents that the character radiates in the films. Her vivid imagery makes me want to go back through all of the films and all of the Star Wars books that I’ve read And make a list of every costume that Padme has ever worn and then make each one of those. I got chills listening to this book, and I most certainly cried listening to this book. Katherine Taber‘s performance is stunning and I hope that she gets to record more content as Padme. I definitely recommend reading this if you are a Star Wars fan and if you are a prequels fan.

An excellent transition between episodes 1 and 2

Great narration from Catherine Tabar, Padme's voice actress on Clone Wars. Excellent development and focus for her, Padme, and her staff, and other characters. A great way to bridge the gap between episodes 1 and 2, a nice change of pace from the Disney cannon, adding moreto the prequels cannon. I don't intend to keep it, but, I'd highly recommend it to any Star Wars fans.

Not what I expected from a SW book

if you like politics, hearing all about padmes clothes, and a book with very little action; this is the one for you.

A Strong Character-Driven Story

E.K. Johnston is becoming one of my favorite “new” authors in the Star Wars franchise for her ability to evoke the feel of Star Wars and deliver powerful character-driven stories featuring strong female characters. Though this book started a bit slow, it was a great tale of Padmé Amidala’s transition from Queen to Galactic Senator - a worthy story that adds depth to a character that was underserved in the films. Additionally, once it gets going in chapter 2-3, the story feels as fast paced as any Star Wars adventure, while being mostly a tale of political intrigue. It expands the genres bounds and tells a SW story from a different perspective (similar to the Rouge One prequel, Catalyst). Her development of the various handmaidens and other senators was also exemplary, I hope that she writes a Mon Mothma book someday...another hugely important character that has always been relegated to the background.

The voice acting was overall very good - nice that they got Padmés voice actor from CW to do it. My only reservation was that her range was somewhat limited (granted that the cast of characters was HUGE) and at times it was difficult to tell some of them apart (especially characters in the lower ranges). However, she delivered the dialog well and with a lot of emotion, which more than made up for it.

Surprisingly entertaining and wonderfully detailed

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. Characters like anakin skywalker Are only secondary thoughts that appear once in a while. So refreshing to have a story from this certain point of view with so many details explained about the 1st prequel movies and about the clone wars TV Show. And the narrator is the same actress Who voiced padme in the TV show. Worth every penny and every minute!