Episode 9: (28 BBY) Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston

Even older men could enjoy this book. I don't know. It's not a bad book.

Older men now? Very popular in the villages, the Queen's Shadow.

The villages. I bet someone there has read this book.

Are she gonna wear it next?

A young queen trades in her regal robes, dons the title of senator, and tries to change the galaxy.

Oh, and along the way, she changes outfits about 5,000 times.

Today, we try on Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston on this edition of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

Hello and welcome to episode 9 of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

My name's Eric. I'm here with my good buddy, John.

Hello.

And today, we are going over Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston.

This will be the second book that we've gone over.

The first being Master and Apprentice.

John, what are you drinking tonight?

Tonight, I'm having a really, really wonderful beverage.

And it's very appropriate, I would say.

It is Monday Night's Space Lettuce.

Ooh, that, yeah. That's good.

Do you know that beer?

Yep, yep. I have.

That is, I rated that beer as like a perfect five the first time I had it.

I love a double IPA, as we've said before.

Trying to think where Monday Night is in Atlanta.

So you're staying on topic.

Yeah, it's local.

You're staying in local.

It's just in Atlanta. It's like downtown Atlanta.

Is it downtown Atlanta? Or not, Marietta.

Red Hair, I think, is the one in Marietta that I'm thinking of.

Have you already opened your beer?

I have not.

Yes, good.

Why would I do that?

I'm just making sure. I don't know.

It's Monday Night. It's kind of a weird thing.

It's the holiday weekend.

You know, I don't know. I don't know what's going on.

Maybe you've been drinking all day, John.

I'm not judging anybody.

I'm not judging anybody.

Before we do that, what are you drinking?

I am drinking a New Belgium 1985 IPA. Have you had that?

I have never even seen that one.

Oh, it's really cool.

The skeleton's got this cool 80s, kind of back to the future gear on.

And it's good.

I'm not going to ruin the review.

I'm going to ruin it because I drank one last night.

It's a really good beer. I enjoy it.

Oh, very good.

All right, you ready?

Should I do a three, two, one?

Yes, I'm ready.

Three, two, one.

Ooh, I need a nice cold glass tonight.

Ah, there we go.

Look at the commercial going here.

I know. 1985, New Belgium.

All right, second book, John.

Second book.

Second book.

So, because we've only been on for nine episodes,

you probably don't know the first question I'm going to ask you,

but I'm going to ask you anyways.

One through 100.

Give me the straight cup.

This one's so hard.

I know, I know, I know.

This one is so hard.

I'm so glad you said that.

So, John and I, we promised ourselves we will not discuss the books at all.

We will not discuss it.

Like the movies, we know the movies, so we'll talk about the movies.

And then some of the other stuff we'll talk about.

But the books, we have sworn to secrecy that we are not discussing the books

in any manner whatsoever until we get together on the podcast.

So, Queen's Shadow, E.K. Johnston.

This book came out in March of 2019.

So, it's a relatively newer book, too, which is kind of interesting

because most of the stuff that we've reviewed, you know,

it's been three or four years old, if not five years old in some of the comics cases.

All right.

One through 100.

What do you got?

I don't.

You gave Bachelor and Apprentice a 90, I think, if I remember right.

Sure.

I mean, that sounds good.

This one is really hard to judge because there's not a lot to it,

and yet there's some interesting things going on.

I would call this book sort of not filler, not filler,

but sort of backfill and foundational at the same time.

It tells you more about the characters that we've seen.

I think if I had to give one word, it would be transitional.

Okay.

Yeah, that's basically what I'm going for, foundational.

I'm assuming that there's more coming from this because this seems to be –

there's really not a lot of meat here, and it seems like it's laying groundwork.

Yeah, I agree with that.

For more to come.

Yeah.

So it's really hard to judge the book based on that because I haven't seen what's coming.

But I'll be honest, it was a little tough to get through at times.

I don't – I'm really delaying giving you a number on it.

I know.

I'm just not giving you a number.

You're building up.

I'm making you great because, like, I go one way and then I subtract five points,

and then I'm like, oh, I have three more points into this.

You want me to give my number first?

No, I don't.

I want to answer your question.

I will answer your question.

Okay.

But the problem is I feel like I need to give you the entire podcast

and the number at the end, which makes no sense.

But it's –

Do you want to wait?

I want to – no.

I want to say – let's just say this.

I don't think I was necessarily –

the target audience for this novel. I found myself relaxing in my charcoal sports shirt with midnight shoulder stripes and complimented with my gunmetal cargo shorts.

And I freshly shampooed my hair and brushed it forward in order to crack the novel.

I don't think I was really the audience for this.

I read the whole thing. That's our job here.

It is. Sometimes it's a tough thing.

Did you give a number?

I did not give a number.

I'm still waiting for the number.

It's somewhere in the 80s. It's gotta be somewhere in the 80s. It's not a bad book. It's not bad. It's certainly not great.

So somewhere in the 80s. How about that? It's somewhere in the 80s.

I thought long and hard about this and I went with 77.

And that's not bad.

That's kind of bad.

No, it's not. And we haven't reviewed that much so it's hard to put that into perspective.

I gave Master and Apprentice high 80s.

This is a good book for who it's geared toward.

Let me take that back. I really enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the book.

It wasn't painstaking to get through.

The middle parts, the second act, was tough.

I think that was probably the toughest. But the third surprised me.

The third actually was like, okay, we're picking up some steam here and this is actually a really good story.

I'm enjoying this. Enjoying her exploits.

Sure. It has elements of a climax.

Yeah, well, that goes back to my transitional comment.

There is a climax, but it's not like...

It's a speech. She gives a speech.

The climax of the book is... Padme goes to Washington. That's what this book is.

It is. And again, if you're into dogfights and if you're into Jedi with lightsabers, there's only one Jedi in this whole book, I think.

Oh yeah, what's her face?

You get Deppa. But you get some of that in some parts.

And maybe that's why I actually like the third act a little bit better.

Because there was a little bit of that.

If you enjoy the politics and stuff and the fashion part of it, then I think you'll probably have a lot better time reading this book.

The actual authors... Let's talk about the actual writing of the book.

Number one, this author is really good at setting up a setting or a context to something.

Descriptive-wise, it almost reminded me of Robert Jordan.

It's very, very descriptive. And some people, that's a turn-off. And I get that.

I really like the way that she would describe things.

And I was very impressed with... Especially whenever they get to Coruscant and they start going to all these parties and stuff like that.

It was very good at setting the mood. Did you agree with that?

Yes. I would agree that it could take some time to get around to the point. Yes.

Yeah, that's kind of, in my opinion, I'm a huge fan of the Wheel of Time series.

Jordan could spend five pages on one scene.

And it was really good because it got you into the whole scene.

But I can understand people thinking it might be a little tedious.

Let's talk about the clothes. Let's talk about the fashion.

Okay.

Fans of Padme. Or fans of... Fans of Padme.

I mean, that's one of the biggest things that I think that kids remembered from watching Phantom Menace was her outfits, these huge extravagant things.

I really like the way that the author gave them utility and described that utility in a lot of cases.

Absolutely, yes.

That was cool. I really like the way that she did that and the way that the silk that was blastered.

Like describing how it wasn't just for looks, it was for tactical reasons and espionage in some cases.

Drawing you away from the handmaidens back to the queen or the...

So, yeah. So all you saw was queen. You didn't see the actual person. That makes perfect sense.

Yeah. And she did a good job describing that.

I think that there was some parts for me at least that were just hard to get through that described every nook and cranny detail of it.

Especially when... What was it? At the party where they're swapping in and out of the costumes and it's...

Yeah.

Oh my God, not another costume switch.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And... But I enjoyed the fact that they could do that and that caused part of the story.

It caused a little suspense in the story and what was going on.

Yeah, that middle part of the book I think was really with V.

And I don't want to use the term dry because it wasn't. It was very descriptive and very colorful. It just wasn't interesting to me at certain points.

You know what I mean?

Now it was not really interesting and so you you liked the third act and you know why you like the third act?

I think it's it's it's the off planet part of it it's the...

Yeah that was a rhetorical question I know why you like the third act.

Why?

Because you finally had a clear-cut problem to solve.

Oh I see.

Because you're a guy and that's what guys do.

Give me a problem I'm gonna solve the problem.

Right?

It also had blaster fire that's pretty cool.

There you go that solves every problem.

And there's a Jedi and she's in a cool ship and yeah well I agree.

But I mean but even some of the relationships that they form at the end of the book I liked a lot.

Like I enjoyed so so knowing who Bill Organa was and you know who he's going to be later on down the road.

Seeing her get introduced into his family with uh Bria I think was the the queen's name.

That kind of stuff was kind of cool just because I mean you know like for you know that's gonna be

raising Lance I mean like you know down the road that's a pretty big.

Oh I just wanted to yell at the book the whole time you're doomed!

You're doomed your whole planet is doomed!

Yeah the uh yeah the the way that they describe Coruscant is just being this like

completely peaceful utopia too I was just kind of like man man.

You mean Alderaan?

Not Corsac.

I'm sorry sorry.

Alderaan yes.

Yeah no and it's fascinating it's fascinating to see to you know we're on Alderaan.

I mean because again I can't shake the this this place and you build it up right this

it's so beautiful it's peaceful you're building that up so you have you know the tragedy that is

that is coming because if you think back and we'll talk about this when we get to episode four.

But if you think back to Star Wars you don't really know much I mean you know almost nothing

about Alderaan and boom it's gone and Leia doesn't even really crack up or anything.

So it's nice to to have a little more backstory there that's what I'm talking about this is kind

of like backfilling things that you know and let's tell you a little more about them.

Okay so so I got another part that I I man it it caused me to take notes and I usually don't

like taking notes when I'm reading something if it's a really good book I don't want to take notes.

The handmaidens and all the different handmaidens.

I enjoyed like the A-team aspect of it like I enjoyed how one was the slicer you know one

was the person that that made sure that all the clothing was correct and had you know was ready

to go.

Right.

You know one was the the I like Sabé a lot and I knew who Sabé was before we read this book so I

mean I knew I was gonna like that character a lot but but reading it like I get lost I get lost on

which handmaiden this was you know what I mean I mean it was like.

Well that that that's the thing yes they you know.

Maybe that's the author saying hey I'm working the same way that you know that she works you

know like you don't know which is which because you don't see them all and you know.

That's a very charitable approach.

I think it's a very charitable approach.

It's you know with all the different names like Sabé and

Ayrte and Dopey and Grumpy and all that kind of stuff it gets a little

little mishmash blended together.

Agreed and then you had the ones that were stayed back on Naboo and then they kind of

come back or they they go back to Naboo you know toward the kind of toward the ending of the book

and I'm like wait which one was this one which was this the artist one was this the music person

like I like I have to think about it the slicer one I liked I thought a little hacker.

Yeah but it's hard to to fill out a bunch of characters like that you you can get

one or two really well and I think she does and the rest you just kind of they're there.

Yeah I agree I agree with that and they have a job and they do their job at certain points

and everybody works together and it all works out really well.

Yeah I mean Sabé was probably my favorite character of the book including Pat and all of it.

I thought she was gonna die.

I was pretty sure she was gonna die.

Oh yeah no no she's that that's that's a cool

that's some cool stuff we'll get to at some point.

One thing that I so four years this happens four years after Episode one

and is it is it four or eight no it's eight years before Episode two or Attack of the Clones.

So like I like seeing Padme in this middle part that nobody knows anything about we know

she gets to power you know we we know that you know later on in the line she's living of course

on all this other kind of stuff but you don't get to see it as much as a transition in the movie

because it's really I've always felt from Episode one Episode two we'll talk about with Episode two

I'm sure.

Yeah you're getting ahead of yourself.

I am I am but but I want to say that that you see Anakin grow physically and then you don't

really see her grow that much and you always wonder why like what was she doing and then

you think back and you're like holy crap this was 12 years ago you know and she just kind of

you know physically she stays the same of course same actress and everything but I'm just saying

like you always wonder like what's going on or what went on for those 12 years for her and I

think that this book did a pretty decent job of describing some of it and and and also meeting

some of the people that we know play larger roles not like huge role oh Bale does certainly but but

but I don't want to call them side characters but but but they're characters that you know and you

kind of wonder about and stuff like Clovis was somebody that was like oh this is kind of how they

you know started working together and that kind of stuff um yeah.

It must be.

No, you won't. Yeah, sorry. Sorry.

But still there's there's other things so you probably remember Depa the Jedi from

From Clone Wars like once you see Clone Wars, you'll recognize. Yeah, how can I remember from Clone Wars?

I haven't done Clone Wars yet. I know. Yes you have

You've we talked about it, but okay. So alright, so I got a couple things that I want to talk about from the book for the book itself

I'm not a big fan of the talking to

really

Blurred out communicators with gruff sounding voices. It's starting to eat at me

like I know that that's how the mischief and everything happens in the Star Wars universe, but

you know, we had two instances it would there was

this Clovis and

Mina

Atari

Terry Mina Bontari. Yeah that where there were you know Padme who is

the center of this whole like consortium thing and

Everything just happens to be walking down the halls and like just kind of hearing these things like I thought that was kind of

Odd, I don't know. What did you think?

That didn't really strike anything with me. I vaguely remember what you're talking about, but

No, I'm didn't bother me. Yeah, I don't know. It's just I feel like the

Communicators when they're talking to people. Yeah, that's kind of it

I think that's kind of a Star Wars conceit that that's it is it is the worst thing

The dropping of stories in this or maybe like it and it's probably it's probably setups for other things down the line that I don't know

about

But whenever Sabé goes to rescue Shmi and all they say is that there was a white moon

I think it was above the door and they couldn't find her right and I'm like, oh that sounds interesting

And then they never do anything with that

That better be for something. Yeah

That's right, I think like it must be something that like the yeah that they must have came in and said

Hey, you guys dropped us in the novel, you know, it'll come up later or something like that

But I was just kind of like I was really hoping that we might get some

battles in action, but

I was really hoping that we might like see more to me and more of that story

You know, I mean like like what is she doing?

You know, how does she get to where she gets to an Attack of the Clones beyond?

I mean, is it really what can they do with that because she still has to end up?

I know I know we know yeah, we know we know where it's gonna end up

But as you wonder what's happening for the 12 years, you know to put her in that predicament

No, I kind of stuff. So I mean I was kind of hoping that there might be some more about her in the book, but

Alas, not really

There's some stories there at the get-go. Okay. All right, but no I I thought that I flagged that one as you know to be continued

Better. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think it was something that was supposed to be out

So I was hoping that it was gonna be inside this novel, but it ended up being outside this novel

yeah, again, I

enjoy I think that the part of this book that I enjoyed the most was making or making or was

hearing

about how kind of be a sabbe was or is and then I don't know I mean I I

Don't know what else to take from the book. Honestly, I mean, you know Padme is gonna be as powerful person

It's a very smart person that makes the right political maneuvers and that kind of stuff. You know, you expect that

But other than that, you know, I thought it was very good to see her get the course gone and make mistakes

Yeah, you know do the wrong everybody does the wrong thing to start with that's that's a pretty standard

Not only is it the way life works, but it's a pretty standard

Storytelling arc you make all the mistakes. I didn't understand the point of the the assassination attempt right at the beginning with a non

Non three non II yeah that that seemed to go just nowhere

Yeah, totally and then and it seemed like what it seemed that that didn't seem like oh

They couldn't possibly have seen something coming there and that seemed like what what are you doing? Yeah, you're not this stupid

You know your character is not this stupid. What are you doing? Well one thing that I will stuff in that situation

I will say that Johnson did a really good job was

showing that all the other senators kind of thought she was a joke at first just because of

Literally, I mean you got to think about if you were a senator for

20 years and then somebody comes up from Naboo one day calls for

Valorum to step step aside poppeting gets installed and then all your world has changed everything in the Senate's changed

But yet she leaves to go back home to help fight her world and I that she did a really good job in conveying

That most of the senators thought she was almost fly-by-night. You know what I mean?

Like you've already screwed. Yeah. Yeah, she's a kid. Yeah, well

Wasn't she I think it didn't say here 14 during the invasion wait so 18 yeah, yeah

True, it's a kid kid. She's good. Yeah, and I get it

But I thought it did a good job of showing the other senators were just kind of like look

We're you know kind of ruined us four years ago. No, we're like, you know, I

was grateful that they did not drag out or the author did not drag out the

This this world this senator wants this thing and so we have to give them that but in order to give them that we have

To get it from this senator and this senator wants I'm glad they didn't play that trope

Yeah, they just kind of established it as that's basically what's going on and now moving on. Yeah

And the boy, yeah, that was yeah, cuz I didn't I didn't want to get bogged down

I mean, come on, Senatorial politics.

I didn't want to get bogged down in it, but also too,

juxtaposition, like I felt like we were kind of robbed of information about how that big deal came together at the end of the book.

But I think it made the point that it doesn't matter.

That doesn't matter.

The point is that she did it.

She pulled it off.

She made her wonderful speech.

She's now an accepted member of the Senate.

That was the point.

Yeah, it brought her up to their level.

The point was not the individual deals that she had to make.

Yeah.

OK, OK.

Behold, behold the sausage.

Yeah, yeah.

You don't need to know how they made the sausage.

There's the sausage.

Yeah.

Can I get to my one, one?

I made one note, one note in the whole book.

Can I get to it?

You made one note out of the whole book?

I made one, I made one note.

All right, what is your one note?

The rest is all in my mind.

So while I was sitting there reading the novel,

I had on a clear sky blue workout T-shirt and turquoise cargo shorts.

I had recently put in leave-in conditioner and spiked my hair mildly.

So on page 229, my mother told me.

Hold on one second.

I got to get my book out.

Go ahead.

Oh, Queen Brea.

OK, this is Queen Brea.

My mother told me that she had a similar shift in her thinking after I was born

and I imagine that I will too.

However, my child comes to me.

Dun, dun, dun.

Yeah.

I thought that was, that was a nice little like sprinkle.

Yeah, that was, yeah, I liked Brea's character.

Not, not, not, not too in your face.

No, yeah.

And also too, the discussion between her and Brea about non-hereditary rulers

versus hereditary rulers was interesting.

It was a neat little take on European politics.

OK, so one character I feel like that I was introduced to a little bit more

or at least got more character from is Mon Mothma.

Like, you know who she is.

You've seen her, you know, in the movies and, you know,

the movie that we've seen so far.

You haven't really talked about her.

But that being said, you know who she is,

but you never really get a glimpse of her as a character.

And I thought this book did a pretty good job of giving her background.

Or at least, at least.

I didn't get much.

Well, it gave you like a political mind on her.

Well, actually the problem I had with it was, however you want to phrase it,

she was like born fully formed as the person that I see in Return of the Jedi.

Yeah, agreed.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

There's no character.

You know, just boom, here you are.

Just exactly how you know she's going to be in how many years?

Is that a way?

What are we in now?

And I picture her in my mind too, exactly as I picture her from the movies.

That actress, absolutely.

Yeah, the exact actress, the exact age.

That's her.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, and that is a kind of a problem, right?

Because, again, what year are we in here?

I've lost track.

28, 28 BBY.

This is 28 BBY.

So, and Jedi is like what?

How many years after?

ABY.

Three years after.

Three years.

That's actually not what I thought.

31 years.

31 years.

Yeah, we're picturing this woman from 31 years in the future.

Yeah, that's true.

Clearly this is, unless her species is different, which is possible in Star Wars.

But more than likely not.

Yeah, it's funny.

So, in that sense, no, I don't have any, I didn't get much on her character.

Let me say this.

Maybe it gave better background of her, or at least introduced me to her doing something.

I mean, not just commanding.

That's about the most you could, it introduced me to her doing things.

Yes, that's it.

And I enjoyed the fact that there was this kind of like, you know, they kind of used Padme at the party, you know, as a cover for the fact that they were going to get together and start talking about stuff.

And it was her, Bale, and other people.

But it was neat seeing kind of like the beginning of the resistance, you know what I mean?

Like, I feel like there's definitely no feeling of leaving, I wouldn't think, as of right now in their minds.

But it was neat seeing the seeds of it, you know what I mean?

Yes, seeing the seeds of something.

Of their cooperation for what might happen later on.

And that, right.

And they don't know what's going to happen, of course.

But I'm just saying like.

Well, there was something there.

I actually did not pursue it.

I can remember my mind starting to, and then I jumped into the next outfit.

But you're right, because my thought there was.

You escape hatched into the next outfit.

They're not rebelling.

What?

You escape hatched into the next outfit.

Yeah, pretty much.

Do you want to know what my next outfit was?

What was it?

So I settled into a flame orange t-shirt with white side lines and jet black cargo shorts.

And I had natural oils in my hair, just sweeping it back.

Okay, okay.

Yeah.

What was your doppelganger?

But no, they weren't rebelling.

It wasn't the rebellion.

That's what you're meant to think of.

But they weren't rebelling against the Empire because that doesn't exist yet.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's what I'm saying.

But you see the seeds of it.

You know that these characters get together and form the thing at some point.

You're at least seeing them cooperating in a group setting as of right now.

Sure.

People we know doing things that we know they do.

Yeah, okay.

You're not giving me that.

I feel like you're not giving me that.

Discounting it a little too much, John.

Bail Organa and Padme are all having kind of a it's obviously

a secret meeting because they they have to have her for the cover.

Number one and number two, Mon Mapa's never planned a party,

but Mon Martha is throwing down tonight. I am discounting it so much.

There is a rotating blue light over this.

Attention Kmart shoppers.

That is a reference and no one will get. OK, so anyway,

that was neat. And of course, they got to change outfits a lot during that.

But no, it is fine.

Did you feel did you feel like Typho and

Marriack Marriack?

That was the that was the lady that took over as captain.

Did you feel like they played like the Angry Parent the whole books?

I can't believe you guys did this. Yeah, like wagging their finger at the.

Yeah, I don't know if I'd say parent, but I get I get that.

I see what you're saying there. Sure. Yeah, I don't know. It's just a weird.

It was it was it was pretty much like every scene that they were in was them being like,

I can't believe you guys did this to me. Yes, that's right.

That was the dynamic. These crazy kids, these crazy kids.

And you know, they're they shouldn't do that. Yeah, that's it's almost like a sitcom.

Let me ask you a question. The next book is

Queen's Peril. No.

So so on our original list, you mean the next book in the series or the next in this series?

I'm in a series. Yes, yes. Queen's Peril is the one that just came out like a month ago.

Yeah, right. And it's it's continuing this. It's a prequel to this book.

Oh, God. What? You get to see the making the dresses, I guess.

No, well, this would probably be the her. I would suspect that it's probably like the last part of her

reign as queen or something like that. I mean, there was nothing really hinted at in this book that I could see a prequel coming from.

Could you? No, no, no. That's why I'm really, really surprised.

I thought you were going to tell me no. Queen's Peril is where they pick up on all these threads that they've they've woven here.

And we're going to get really good story stuff. They go back. I'm pretty I'm pretty positive it's a prequel to this book.

And have they announced where this is going? Is there a sequel announced for this?

Maybe there's a trilogy and there'll be one more after that's posted.

It seems like everything's meant to be a trilogy, you know, in the Star Wars universe.

Yeah, I feel like it is. Yeah. It's a great question. I don't know.

I don't think they've announced anything or at least that I've read. But no, no, no, I'm mad.

I just read this book for no reason. So no, no, no. Here's the deal. You read the book for the podcast, but it's cracking me up that you really want a sequel.

Like, I feel like you're just like, I need to know where these threads go.

I sat through that in vain. I read all this for no reason.

No, you didn't read for no reason. No, I know. Yes, sure. No, you are correct, actually, that I want to see where some of these threads go.

That's right. That's that's good. That's the that's the mark of a good. I didn't say this was a bad book.

I never said this is a bad book. You did not. Yeah. You're the one that gave it like a 70 something.

I gave it a 77. That's not bad. That's like this book. No, it was just it was just not my thing.

It was just not my thing. It was just it wasn't geared toward me. You know, I respect that it was very well written.

And I respect that a lot of people could totally find this book good. I just it wasn't my thing.

I enjoyed Master and Apprentice way more, way more. Absolutely. Yes, definitely. I enjoyed that more.

There was much more blaster fire and lightsaber stuff in that one.

But OK, so let's talk briefly about what's your opinion of if this book was not for you and not for me,

and we're pretty much the same demographic, who's this for and what's your take on that?

I think it's fair. I think it's for it. So, number one, the book is classified as young adult.

So it's it's it is a young adult book. So you're looking at people that are, you know, teens, 20s, maybe 30s.

I don't know. My wife reads the Throne of Glass novel. She loves those. They're young adult.

You know, there's there it's it's I hate saying it's geared toward women because I'm not saying that men could not find this great.

It just it's geared toward women. I mean, it's good.

It's good for people that looked up to Padme and want to know more about her. Padme, not Padme.

Padme. Padme. But yeah, but I'm just yeah, like you tell from the cover, you look at the cover and you're like, oh, I mean, you know,

I think that that's geared toward a young I don't want to say younger audience.

I'm trying to think of like if you were if you were right now. So this came out last year in 2019.

Yeah, I'd say late teenager, because that's where you probably saw Padme in the movies or like that.

She's awesome. You know what I mean? Like that's that's the character. That's awesome.

And then you see Attack of the Clones and stuff where we won't get into it yet because we haven't watched it.

But, you know, you start to see her a lot more action sequences, type stuff and that type thing.

So I think if you if you are a prequel kid, this this book was probably the best.

Luke Skywalker was a Jedi.

Mid-20s, I guess. Mid-20s. That's what I'm saying. Okay. And you're gonna read this book. I don't think so. I don't know that I would read this book, but there are probably lots of Star Wars fans that would read this book.

I just I think it's for the younger crowd. Sure. Fine. I don't really care about that. That's not really I don't really get into that. But definitely, you know, it's for the girls. And that's great. That's fine. As we said right up front, we're not really the demographic for this. So we're reading through this, you know, costume change after costume change and pinning up hair in different ways. We could not possibly care less.

So wait, wait, let's go back a little bit. You're saying so if that is if we are to agree with that, this is geared toward women 18 to 25. I don't know. I'm making up an age range. Not 18 to 25. No, it's geared gets geared to I'm going to say teenage girls. Well, then what would Master and Apprentice be geared toward?

Star Wars guys of any age? Nah, that could be geared towards the prequel boys. I don't know. I think that there are tons of older women who would love this book. Older women, you say? Yeah, older women. Like my Nana. I'm not going to name an age by any means on this podcast. But I'm just saying it's not geared toward just like if you've been celebrating your 39th anniversary.

39th anniversary.

Birthday. Birthday anniversary. But I'm just saying I'm just saying like, even older men could enjoy this. But I don't know. It's not it's not a bad book. Older men now. Very popular in the villages. The Queen's Shadows. The villages. The senior citizen Community in Florida. I bet someone there has read this book.

Where's she gonna wear next? I bet someone there has read this book and enjoyed this book. I would make that bet. I'm not going to take you up on that bet. No, I okay. I think we've exhausted that topic. You and I both know that it's it's it's clearly geared towards the the female audience, or shall we say a female persuasion. And that's that's fine. Right? We can acknowledge that.

Let me let me let me let me add a little bit a little bit another layer into that. It also could be geared toward cosplayers.

Okay, that's that's an interesting take. I have not thought of that. Because it's it's a very dynamic book that shows it now, of course, there's no visuals, but the the descriptions are so good that I think you could come up with a, you know, a drawing or something. And I think that was the intention. If that was the intention. I tip my hat to that because wow, okay.

You're giving somebody to something to latch on there, you know, Oh, I'm a cosplayer. I love cosplaying. I love it. I'm a huge fan. I'm very disappointed because tonight we would normally be at Dragon Con, but we're not Dragon Con tonight here in Atlanta because of COVID. But anyways, but I'm a huge cosplayer fan.

I'm a huge cosplay fan. There's there's small nods. I've always felt like with cosplay, like there's there's just when you know, an outfit, it's like a nod to somebody else that you know, you know who that character is. And imagine seeing somebody dressed in something that you recognize as something from this book.

Mm hmm. That would be a huge, huge kind of mental handshake. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, yeah, that's a good because not only not only you've had to create, you know, the costume, but also, you know, this book and you know, the description well enough to be able to do that. So there is like a little bit of a cool handshake that could go on there based on some of these based on some of these dresses.

Okay, I will concede that I have no I have no reason to dispute that I would never have thought of that. But I think it again, I'm not going to ascribe that motive. I can't possibly do that to this author. But yeah, no, no, I don't. Yeah, I think that that's just one of many motives in which this book was written, but it could be I mean, I could see it being a pretty decent one. I'm sure right now if you went out and looked at

the amount of time it would take to make any Padme outfit that was already in canon before this book. They're they're massive. I mean, like I like that's that's like a

Well, technically, no, not the not the Padme outfits, the Amidala, the Padme, the Padme. We both said Padme tonight. I don't know why we've said Padme. Yeah, but but what I'm saying though is yeah, yeah, the queen outfits that that's the best way to say is yes, extremely elaborate.

But I'm just saying if you are creating that kind of costume, that's a multi-month endeavor. I mean, I can't imagine that somebody could put something like that together.

you know, in a month or so.

I mean, that's like a huge investment of your time to cosplay something like that.

No question. Yeah, sure.

So, I mean, I think that there are probably a lot of people out there that like to

invest that time into her outfits.

And I would think that there's probably a lot of those people that actually read

this book and were like, Oh, this is, this is bread and butter.

Like, this is awesome.

I get to hear, you know, about how they're doing stuff, how they're, you know,

creating these, you know, cool things.

And I think that's, I think that's a decent, a decent direction that Disney+ could

have had in the back of their mind, but they probably, you know, E.K.

Johnston is a very well-known author.

So, I mean, I'm sure she, you know, probably didn't write it with that in mind, but

it is kind of a nod to cosplay with Padme's stories, I would think.

OK, so I'm going to assume that the audience is just as ignorant as I am, and

I won't know anything that she has written.

What else has she done?

So Ahsoka is a novel that we will get to that I have not read.

I am probably most excited about that book, except for maybe some of the Thrawn

stuff coming up, because I have never heard anyone say that they did not

thoroughly enjoy that book.

OK, so she has dabbled.

She's dabbled in Star Wars.

She already wrote.

She already wrote that book, I think, two to three years before this book came out.

So like in 2016.

So this is not her first Star Wars endeavor.

It is not.

It is not.

Very good.

And then she has wrote some, I don't know their names, some other young adult

novels that were pretty popular, I would suspect.

I don't know.

I don't know.

That can't name them off the top of my head.

But she's a very well respected young adult author.

So, I mean, you know, she's got lots of books.

I think the one that I am most known for is the Ahsoka (Book), though.

Like people rave about that book.

So I'm pretty excited when we get to that.

And it's a ways away, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Is that after The Clone Wars?

It's during.

During The Clone Wars.

Okay.

During and then, yeah, I'm trying to put it in my head where it would be, but it's a ways out.

It's, it's, we've got a lot of Clone Wars episodes to watch before we get to there.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to getting to that.

Okay, John.

So we finished up our second book.

We've got, we've got a little bit of the timeline movement that I'm going to have to explain

about what we're going to be doing here.

We've got before Attack of the Clones, which is the second book.

Before Attack of the Clones, which is our next movie, we have three comics and the Doku Lost audio drama.

I don't think that the Doku Lost audio drama is going to take too long to listen to, but we've got two comics,

then the audio drama, and then another comic.

So I am suggesting maybe that the next podcast we do, we do the three comics, and then we'll do one for the audio drama,

and then we'll do the movie podcast.

What do you think about that?

Without knowing anything about the comics, yeah, sure.

Sounds great.

Yeah.

Okay, so each of the comics is a one-off comic, like the Age of Republic, the Darth Maul one that we read,

and the Qui-Gon Jinn one.

Remember the tree people and the head lopping off of Maul?

Yes.

Yeah, so it's this one-shot comic book.

Sure.

It's just one of them's about, you know, we've got one about Obi-Wan, one about Doku, and then I think the third one's Jango Fett,

which will be kind of interesting because that would be before the movie, which might be kind of cool, me exploring that.

So yeah, so that'll be pretty good.

We'll have the three Age of Republic Comics, then the audio dramas.

Now, John, I will give us the...

We talked about it from the beginning.

We grabbed our list at a certain point in time back in December, and we're going to go down in order of our list.

Now, there is new books and stuff coming out all the time.

I'll be honest with you, when the new Charles Sewell books come out, I'll probably want to jump back in time.

And basically, I think either of us have the power to call an audible.

So I think that our audible would be if something new that is not on the list has come out that you really want to read,

that has happened previously, previous to where we're at in the timeline, 28 BBY, you can call an audible.

So if you did want to go back and read Queen's Peril, is that the next one?

I'm really, I could be honest with you, I'm really curious about it.

So I think what I'm gonna do is I'm going to read a couple of excerpts or an excerpt and get back to you and let you know if it's something that we need to go read, or if it's just more dress changes.

Maybe we'll get to that later.

Okay, it's a prequel.

So it would be happening before this in the timeline.

So you would be safe there.

That's why it was something that was happening.

Like if it was happening in the future, then I'd say no, just well, yeah, we're just gonna get to it.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, when we get to it, but yeah, that's why I'm disappointed.

I thought it was going to be, you know, coming up in the timeline a little bit.

But no, apparently it's prequel.

So I have to go verify.

Yeah, go back and read, go back and read some pages and then verify where you think it is in the timeline.

Because I think that it's a prequel to this.

But I could be wrong.

And if you do want to call the audible, then on next week's show, whenever we reviewed the three one shot comics, you are allowed to call the audible if we want to go back and reread it.

Before we watch or before we listen to the Doku lost drama.

Well, good. So glad that you're in agreement with me.

And so our next episode, episode 10, will be us reviewing three one shot comic books from the Age of Republic series.

And then after that, we are Doku Doku Jedi.

The Lost is an audio drama which should be very interesting as our first audio drama.

Thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next podcast. Stay safe.

This is the 11 Parsecs podcast, episode number 9.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe and leave us a good review.

And be sure to check us out at 11parsecs.com and Discord.

I'm Jonathan Smith with the very damper, Eric Thompson. Thank you for joining us.

I'm going to be going to taking care of Luke and Leia, or Leia at least.

I guess I read that. I was reading so quickly.

It's a very, very, very, very last page of the book.

So basically, she, Sabe, is of course distraught over Padme's death.

And goes back to this little hovel in the middle of Naboo.

And she's about to go, she's like, she's so pissed that she's going to go figure out who killed Padme and what all happened with Anakin and all that kind of stuff.

And then she gets a call from Bail Organa like immediately after Padme's death, which basically means that he's got Leia already.

And you wonder if, is Sabe going to go teach Leia stuff? Like is she going to go like train her?

Or is she going to, like you don't know because that's the whole thing at the end of it.

So actually with that epilogue, we may get something that's a third book to this series that is like maybe post, post episode three.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So yeah.

I totally forgot about that epilogue. I saw it coming a mile away.

I was totally ready for it when it happened. Read the thing and thought, yeah, okay.

I mean, I heard you. And I think that's one of the bigger things that came out of this book was you learned how close they were.

And then how pissed she was when she died and that kind of stuff.

You don't think there's anything like when Leia is like, I can remember my mother.

She wasn't talking about Sabe, was she?

Maybe. Yeah. There's no way she would have remembered her mother.

Well, yeah, there's some hand waving going on there.

And Padme and Sabe both have, again, going back to jewelry in this book, but the necklace that they share.

They're like, that's Frendy's necklace. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I don't know if we're reading too much into that or if that's really the intention.

But they've tried to, Canon has tried to hand wave the whole thing about, you know, Leia had some kind of forced connection to her mom or whatever.

That's what she was remembering. I don't know if that's true.

No, I think I bet money that you are correct, that if anything, it's going to be Sabe.

And maybe Sabe was around for like the first year or something just to help protect or figure out how Organa can take this baby up without anybody getting mad or something like that.

But, yeah. I like your theory. I never thought of that. I thought of it as Sabe was going to go train Leia.

Like and start to see that she maybe go down a Jedi Path type thing or at least how to defend herself or something like that.

But I like yours a little bit better that like she's actually what she remembers versus Padme.

That to me would be so much cooler. That would that would actually be really cool.

You might want to take the previous couple of minutes and try and splice them in towards the end.