Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray

Leia: Princess of Alderaan is the third novel in the Star Wars series written by Claudia Gray. In this novel, sixteen-year-old Princess Leia is coming of age and must prove herself worthy of the throne of Alderaan. Adopted as a baby by Breha and Bail Organa after Bail returns from a mysterious mission, Leia has grown up in the palace preparing for the day when she will oversee Alderaan.

Leia's Day of Demand has arrived and guests from worlds across the galaxy are present on Alderaan. Many of her father's diplomatic allies in the Imperial Senate, including Winmey Lenz and Mon Mothma of Chandrella, Tynnra Pamlo from Taris and Cinderon Malpe of Derella, are in attendance.

In the Day of Demand, Leia's right to be declared an heir must first see her prove her worth through a series of "Challenges". For her Challenge of the Mind, Leia will help her father in the Imperial Senate and represent Alderaan in the Apprentice Legislature. For her Challenge of the Body she plans to climb Alderaan's Appenza Peak to its summit. For her Challenge of the Heart, Leia intends to undertake aid missions to planets in need.

However, after the ceremony, Leia is left alone and she feels abandoned and forgotten by her parents who seem unduly preoccupied. Her father is often in discussions with various senators and her mother seems focused on planning her next state dinner. In an attempt to do something too impressive for them to ignore, Leia impulsively decides to undertake a mission to the planet, Wobani. This planet, never prosperous, has seen its economy destroyed by a program ordered by Emperor Palpatine. Suffering from famine and isolated by travel restrictions, Wobani is on the verge of collapse with millions of refugees. With her ship Tantive IV filled with rations, Leia along with Captain Antilles arrive to a shocking scene of thousands of starving people. Leia attempts to transport some of the refugees to her home planet of Alderaan, appealing to the Imperial officer in charge, Major Tedam. However, he refuses her request, telling her she must leave with only her crew on board. In a daring move, Leia circumvents the restriction by hiring on one hundred refugees as crew members.

Their return to Alderaan is further complicated when they stop at the deep space station, Calderos Station only to discover that it has been attacked. The Tantive IV is allowed to continue on, but Leia realizes that people are beginning to fight back against the tyranny of the Empire. When Leia returns home, the pride she feels at what she has accomplished is quickly dispelled when she learns of the possible fallout from her actions from her mother, Queen Breha.

The next day Leia travels to a region of Alderaan containing the Appenza Peak to rendezvous with her pathfinding class. The group includes the wealthy Chassellon Stevis of Coruscant, Harp Allor of Chandrila, Sssamm Ashsssen of Fillithar (a planet with serpentine-like life forms), Amilyn Holdo of Gatalenta and Kier Domadi of Alderaan. Leading their group is Chief Pangie of the Chandrilan Pathfinding Corps who tells them they will visit different climates on different worlds. This challenge is to climb partway up the mountain and then to find their way back down. When Harp breaks her ankle, the group separates into those who want to help her led by Princess Leia and those who don't led by Chassellon. During the journey down the mountain, Leia and Kier talk about her responsibilities and life on Alderaan.

Princess Leia - played by actress Carrie Fisher in the original trilogy.

Leia's next duty is to attend the first session of the Apprentice Legislature on Coruscant. Because her father is a senator in the Imperial Senate, they have a penthouse apartment known as Cantham House which Leia is familiar with. Leia and her fellow apprentices first attend a reception where they are greeted by Grand Moff Whilhuff Tarkin, who is Emperor Palpatine's second. Leia introduces herself to Tarkin, whom she finds unsettling and not entirely friendly.

Leia had hoped to spend some time with her much absent father, but when she returns to their family's apartment, she learns from her father that he must leave for a meeting with Mon Mothma and will be away on a fact-finding mission for at least a week. In his absence, Leia attends the first session of the Apprentice Legislature. After introductions are made, the young apprentices are tasked with determining which planet should be the location of Emperor Palpatine's new aeronautical engineering academy. Leia, with the help of Kier, manage to convince the assembly to choose Arreyel, a planet suffering from being on the wrong side in the Clone Wars.

Later that evening, while working late in her office at the Apprentice Legislature, Leia inadvertently stumbles upon some puzzling information regarding Calderos Station - the outpost that was attacked. While analyzing the space traffic patterns through Calderos Station, Leia discovers that several unusual planets are involved including Crait and Itapi Prime. Leia believes these unusual traffic patterns through the station are "traces of people who were rising up against the Empire..." in a very dangerous way.

Uncertain as to what to do, Leia decides to investigate herself. Using the Polestar piloted by Lieutenant Ress Batten, she travels to Crait, a planet covered in salt flats. The Polestar is able to escape a weak tractor beam and identifies a small settlement in the northern area of the planet. But once on Crait, Princess Leia is taken by unidentified soldiers while Batten is forced to remain with the ship. To Leia's shock, she meets her father who is also stunned to see his daughter.

Leia reveals to him how she was able to track the rebels to Crait. She questions her father on having attacked the Empire, reminding him that he has always maintained they "had to exercise influence through the Senate, to change the system from within."  But Leia is also amazed and wants to be a part of her father's efforts to weaken the Empire from within. Her father however is adamant that she is not to be involved, believing that if they are discovered, her ignorance will save her.

It is an unexpected meeting with Grand Moff Tarkin that sees Leia thrown headlong into a dangerous situation that threatens not only her family but the entire rebellion movement.

Discussion

Fans of Star Wars will definitely enjoy this well-written novel about Princess Leia of Alderaan and her life before she becomes involved in the Rebel Alliance. 

Gray spends some time creating the setting for the events that happen in the novel, although those readers unfamiliar with the Star Wars canon may have difficulty understanding the various characters, different planets and life forms. The novel contains many references to characters, events and settings in the Star Wars movies. The assumption is that most young readers will know the story line well enough to understand these references. For example, when Princess Leia visits the mining colony on Onoam, a moon orbiting the planet Naboo. Readers will recall that Naboo is actually the home planet of Leia's biological mother, a fact she doesn't yet know in this novel. Sometimes Gray helps her readers with descriptions that clarify. For example, Sssamm Ashsssen is a snake-like life form lacking legs and hands. His physical nature becomes apparent on the hike on the mountain as he aids Leia and her companions taking the injured Harp to safety.

The essential story line in Leia: Princess of Alderaan focuses on Leia's coming of age and her journey into the beginnings of rebellion against the Empire's tyranny. As Leia begins attending the Apprentice Legislature, she is working towards the goal of some day becoming Queen of Alderaan and representing her planet in the Senate. But her new acquaintance, Kier Domadi offers a suggestion Leia has not ever considered - choosing her own path. This concept is expressed metaphorically in the journey Leia takes on the mountain during her first pathfinder session, when Harp Allor is injured. Leia forges a new alliance with some of the pathfinders to find a route down the mountain, different from the one they took in the ascent.

When Leia uncovers her parents involvement in the resistance to the Empire, she is  inspired by their courage to forge her own path in life. She wants to act because "the battle ahead was one for her future..." At first Leia has no concept of what her role in the resistance to the Empire might be. Initially she believes that if she can document some of the Empire's excesses and get this information to those who can use it, this might be helpful. But as Mon Mothma explains to a naïve Leia, "The people of the galaxy know Palpatine is corrupt and cruel." She explains, "Trillions of people understand what he truly is, and with every day that passes, more of them become willing to do whatever it takes to see the Empire fall."

As it turns out, Leia's most valuable asset appears to be her presence on Coruscant. Leia's doubts about ever playing a meaningful role in helping to bring down Palpatine are quickly dispelled when she realizes during a conversation with Moff Tarkin, that he knows about the secret armada her parents and others have been amassing at Paucris Major. Suddenly Leia is vitally important to the resistance in a way she could never have imagined, as the only one who can warn her father that the Empire knows and is coming for them. This turn of events will cost Leia dearly, but it will prove her mettle in the far more dangerous times to come.

Gray has crafted Leia's character well; she's believable and true to the character in the original movie trilogy. Leia is intelligent, decisive, a quick learner, and able to assess the people around her quickly and fairly. For example, at first she believes Kier might be standoffish and stiff-necked but quickly comes to realize that he is shy. Kier adds depth to Leia's character, acting as a love interest and as someone who questions Leia's parents involvement with the beginning rebellion because of the threat it poses to the peaceful, beautiful and wealthy Alderaan. Kier believes that Alderaan is possibly "...the one truly safe place in the entire Empire". It is as he is dying that Leia fortunately discovers his plan to inform the Empire about the rebellion fleet. Kier loves Alderaan more than he hates the Empire, something Leia understands but does not agree with. As Star Wars fans know, Kier has under-estimated the evil of the Empire, as Alderaan is eventually annihilated by the Death Star.

Perhaps the most delightful character in the novel is Amilyn Holdo, an eccentric human, with wildly coloured hair, an odd young woman with a loopy way of talking, but who, in the end, proves to be both insightful and a courageous young woman.

Overall, Leia: Princess of Alderaan is well done and will appeal to fans of the Stars Wars movies and science fiction fans too.

Book Details:

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
Glendale, California: Disney- Lucasfilms Books    2017
409 pp.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Marguerite Caine is the daughter of two brilliant scientists; Dr. Sophia Kovalenka, a physicist and Dr. Henry Caine, an oceanographer, physicist and mathematician. Dr. Kovalenka has been working on multidimensional universes and theorized that it should be possible to interact with them. Marguerite's father became interested in her work and they eventually became research partners and married. Marguerite and her sister, Josie, are the result of that union.

After twenty-four years of research, her parents were ready to try traveling between dimensions after their work demonstrating the existence of alternate dimensions had been replicated.They began working on building a device that would enable energy to travel between dimensions and since consciousness is a form of energy, theoretically this meant that people would be able to travel to other dimensions. The device to enable multidimensional travel needed to be made out of specific materials which move easier than other forms of matter and "anchor the consciousness of the traveler". Eventually Henry and Sophia made a device, which they named "Firebird" that seemed like it would work.

However, one of Marguerite's parent's trusted research assistants, Paul Markov, is suspected of murdering her father and has fled into another dimension with the only working Firebird. Theo Beck, their other research assistant, is determined to recover the device and to stop Paul. To do so he has assembled two working Firebird devices from old prototypes which will enable him to pursue Paul who is leaving traces as he travels through different dimensions. Despite Theo's objections, Marguerite is determined to be involved and they both travel to the dimension where Paul has fled.

The first dimension Marguerite lands in finds her in London, England. Computers appear to have been invented much earlier and are more advanced. When she is contacted by Theo via computer, she learns that he is in Boston at MIT. It appears that Theo has experienced some sort of confusion, a side effect of dimensional travel and one that Marguerite has not had yet. Marguerite discovers that in this dimension her entire family was killed in an hovercraft accident years ago and that she is living with her father's sister, her Aunt Susannah. She also learns that Paul Markov is a research assistant at the University of Cambridge.

Marguerite finds her way to Aunt Susannah's posh apartment. The Marguerite in this dimension doesn't read, is a partier and dresses in designer labels. When she gets in trouble at a party, Theo rescues her and takes her back to Aunt Susannah's apartment. However Theo has problems, first blanking out in this dimension and needing a "reminder" to wake his consciousness and then he shoots up with a strange green liquid later on. This causes Marguerite to realize she may not be able to count on Theo to help her.

After recovering, Theo tells Marguerite that they need to find Wyatt Conley, head of Triad Corporation which has been financing Marguerite's parent's research. Triad is one of the world's biggest tech companies and Conley is to speak at a convention in London. Marguerite remembers that Paul was increasingly suspicious of Triad, especially after a machine used for measuring something called "dimensional resonance", which had been in Marguerite's family's home, overloaded, shocking Marguerite but otherwise not harming her. During the months before his disappearance she remembers him being very paranoid.

Theo and Marguerite confront Paul at the convention but when Theo gets carted off by security, Marguerite is taken by Paul onto the Tube. In the subway car he is shocked to learn of her father's death and tells Marguerite he would never hurt her father. Paul tells Marguerite that Theo must take her home and then abruptly jumps to another dimension.

Marguerite follows him only to find herself in a dimension where she is the daughter of His Imperial Highness Tsar Alexander V of Russia. As Marguerite enters into the body of the Marguerite in this dimension, she is walking down red velvet carpeted stairs and she falls, breaking a pearl necklace and the Firebird. In this dimension, Marguerite's mother is dead, her father Henry Caine is tutor to the royal children, and she has an older brother Vladimir and a younger sister, Katya and brother, Peter. Paul who has jumped ahead of her into this dimension, is the dashing Lieutenant Paul Markov, assigned to protect the Imperial Princess Marguerite.

At first Paul remembers who he is and as he's escorting Marguerite to her rooms, he warns her that Wyatt Conley is dangerous and that she needs to go home. However, Marguerite shows him the broken Firebird which he says can be fixed but before that happens, Paul loses his own Firebird when Colonel Azarenko takes it from him. Even worse, Paul's consciousness begins to fade inside this dimension's Lieutenant Markov. Marguerite does not know where Theo has landed in this dimension until she eventually receives a letter from him indicating that he is in France.

In this dimension, Marguerite falls in love with Lieutenant Markov and discovers that her father had an affair with the Tsar's wife, Sophia Kovalenka and that he is her father. Marguerite recognizes her father's brilliant mind and decides to ask him to put the Firebird back together. When the royal family decides to travel to Moscow via train, they are ambushed by the Tsar's brother, Grand Duke Sergei, who is intent upon killing the Romanov family and seizing power. This results in Marguerite and Lieutenant Paul Markov fleeing the train and spending an intimate night together. During this time Marguerite decides to reveal to Paul who she is, in the hopes that he can help her retrieve the Firebird and get her own device repaired.

The attack on the train leads to a civil war. Marguerite insists that Paul take her to the royal war camp which he does and there she also tells her biological father, Henry, her true identity in the hope that he can reconstruct the Firebird. Eventually her father does repair the device and Marguerite jumps to the next dimension, shortly after Lieutenant Markov has died and the fate of Paul from her dimension unknown.

Because her Firebird is set to follow Paul to whatever dimension he jumps, Marguerite reasons he is alive in this dimension that is very much like home. Marguerite finds her parents both alive and that they have been awarded a Nobel Prize indicating that they must have made their discoveries several years earlier. Marguerite learns that in this dimension, Paul is being sought by the police for stealing her parents data. When Theo shows up, he continues to press her to not believe in what Paul tells her. At dinner with her parents, Theo tells her that Triad wants to not only send energy but matter as well to different dimensions. The proof that matter can be sent is the presence of the Firebird in each alternate reality. Her father states that Conley's agenda is more sinister, involving spying on other dimensions and to take over the bodies of other people in alternate realities. Because they cannot stop Triad, they have managed to get Theo into Triad as an intern. This position allows Theo to take Marguerite into Triad's headquarters to see Lab Eleven where he works. However a series of desperate texts from Paul warn Marguerite to leave the building immediately. Marguerite manages to do this and meet up with Paul.  In this dimension, Paul reveals what is really going on and the danger Marguerite is in.

Discussion

A Thousand Pieces of You is the first in the Firebird series by Gray with the second book, Ten Thousand Skies Above You, due out November 3, 2015. This first novel weaves an intriguing story involving the sci fi element of dimensional travel with a romantic relationship between Marguerite and Paul. The interesting premise which forms the basis for the entire series - traveling through alternate dimensions - is the prime strength of this novel.

The story is told in first person narration by Marguerite, a strong, vibrant protagonist. The novel starts out with Marguerite believing Paul is responsible for her father's death and that she must kill him to exact revenge. While this is a great hook to draw the reader into the story, (Marguerite writes "Kill Paul Markov" in lipstick on a wall) the decision to kill him seems a little over the top despite the fact that he's wiped their research data, killed her father and stolen the Firebird. Even Marguerite recognizes that such an action is problematic: wouldn't killing him in another dimension kill two people, one of whom lives in that other dimension but who is innocent? Marguerite does understand this when she says "It hasn't escaped my attention that the Paul I need to destroy is currently a passenger in the body of another Paul Markov entirely. Although right now it seems to me that anybody as evil as Paul would be evil in every single dimension, I don't know that for sure. So it's not as simple as finding him and...shooting him..." Wouldn't Marguerite's mission be to bring him back to his home dimension to face murder charges?

Gray does a good job of creating and maintaining suspense throughout the story and readers will probably clue into the fact that Paul might not be the person Marguerite needs to be worried about. Eventually all the lose ends are tied together through revelations by various characters. Unlike Paul or Theo, Marguerite retains her ability to function in the different realities because of the Accident with the machine that was placed in her home by Triad. It is this ability to retain her memories and her consciousness that Wyatt Conley of Triad hopes to utilize. His intent is to use Marguerite to control her parents - the inventors of dimensional travel, and thus control the technology in as many alternate realities as possible. In this way he can keep the technology to himself. Paul believes that the Wyatt Conley from the dimension which developed the technology earlier and in which Marguerite's parents won a Nobel Prize, has been visiting their home dimension for some time and may have even been in collusion with that Conley. All this is eventually revealed to Marguerite by Paul so that she understands the danger she is in.

At first it appears that there will be a love triangle between Marguerite, Paul and Theo but that is gradually resolved as the novel moves along. Marguerite's time in the alternate reality set in Russia is quite lengthy and it is in this dimension that Gray diverges from the storyline to develop the romance between Marguerite and Paul.While this development slows the novel, the relationship between Paul and Marguerite does further the plot because Paul holds vital information about her father's murder and the motive behind what really happened.

At times the novel does suffer from poor editing - for example when Marguerite spends almost an entire page discussing homeschooling. But overall readers will enjoy this story which offers the opportunity to consider what it might be like to travel to other dimensions (if they do in fact exist) along with a touch of romance. The beautiful cover art by Craig Shields will certainly entice readers to at least open the cover and check out the first few pages.

Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of New Orleans based writer Amy Vincent. She is also the author of the Spellcaster and Evernight series.

Book Details:
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
New York: HarperTEEN     2014
357 pp.