SPOILER "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray (Discussion)

Aw, thanks, @PrincessLeiaCB3! You beat me to it!

OK, people, full SPOILERS ahead! Don't say we didn't warn you.

I don't have a full-fledged review to offer, but any and all Bloodline topics are open for discussion.

My first impression, having stormed through this book at lightspeed:

Leia is just unbelievably strong.

But she does have some flaws--some very understandable ones. Like avoiding the painful work of dealing with and accepting who her birth father is, and what that means for her son, for decades. And of course the repercussions of that, which we have seen in TFA...

But she is so awesome.

 

From what I've gathered, this book seems to make unraveling what happened leading up to TFA even more complicated than we had figured.

 

Does anyone who's read the book have any insight into which plot threads might have been influenced by Rian Johnson? I know he wanted to make sure the backstory depicted in Bloodlines was consistent with whatever it is he wants to explore in Ep VIII.

Given the rumors about Dern's character and the probability that Ep VIII will have to deal with the fallout from the Republic being mostly destroyed, maybe he was just giving input on the political factions at play?

Any other thoughts?

 

holy cow, @Choose Light, you really tore through it, didn't you? say more! say more!

i won't have a chance to start until this afternoon ~ aaarghhh!

 

I'm attempting to stay spoiler-free for Ep. VIII so I don't know about that rumor. There's tons of politics and politicians known by name and faction in the book, though. Maybe someone else can answer specifics--sorry!

 

Leia is in her late 40s and Ben has not turned yet to Leia's knowledge--but then, she (and Han--he's off racing most of the book) cannot reach Luke and Ben live (they are together, traveling apparently?--guess they have poor cell coverage even in a GFFA ). She has kept her birth heritage secret up till now, even from Ben. She was hoping/planning on Luke telling him, because Luke understood Anakin's redemption in a way she could not. She finally tells Ben about it (after the secret is public in the Hosnian system) in a recorded message. No news on whether it reaches him. No mention of Snoke either.

--- Double Post Merged, May 3, 2016, Original Post Date: May 3, 2016 ---

Took off work to read it, and I blew through it. Hoping I didn't miss any crucial info in my speed-read, so anyone please correct me if I'm wrong.

--- Double Post Merged, May 3, 2016 ---

I'm seriously bummed because I volunteered to work at the concession stand for my son's baseball team tonight so I'll have to wait to catch up on discussions! Rotten timing!

 

It isn't specific, but you can figure it out. Six sounds about right. Leia is in her late 40s (p. 64), so I'd say Ben is early twenties (Leia was what, mid-twenties at the end of RotJ? As old as 27, maybe? And Ben was born a year later).

Leia has no inkling of him turning yet in the book. But maybe we do.

 

I had heard 6 as well, but that doesn't fit with Han saying it was a "boy" that destroyed the Jedi temple. I had assumed they meant 16 years, rather than 6.

Why does Star wars always struggle with it's timelines? The movies kept them very vague episodically speaking, as in we don't know exactly how long the Falcon was in the slug being repaired, how long Luke was on Dagobah, how long it takes to get between planets, etc. With Episode 1 everyone seemed too young which meant the ages of the OT characters had to be revised by a good 15 - 20 years. It seems like when they try to get specific in the books it just throws a spanner in the works.

I haven't read this book yet, but things like this give me the trepidations.

 

Unless Ben has already turned and Luke has kept it from Leia and Han at this point in time. I could very well see Luke keeping it a secret, especially with knowing how Leia feels about being related to Darth Vader.

 

okay i'm going in ~ will come back in a few hours when i'm done. hopefully i have some coherent thoughts.

 

My feeling is that they could have it go either way since Leia doesn't hear "live" from them during the book. (She's not worried about this because of irradiation interference or something messing up communication.) So Ben could already have gone Dark but Leia didn't know it, or he hasn't gone Dark yet. But never once does she worry about Snoke or any mention of Snoke occur. Unless it turns out Snoke is someone else she knows, and she hasn't figured out his insidious () role in regards to Ben yet.

The thing I'm puzzled about is that when Han and Leia communicate it's basically like Skyping or Facetiming--it's visual. And it doesn't seem that there's any friction yet between Han and Luke/Ben either, so surely Han must have "seen" Ben sometime in the last few years...then how come the books say he hasn't seen the face of his son as a man? I'll have to go back and read those bits again.

 

There is no word from Luke or Ben in the whole book, even sends a message. Loved the exciting adventures though, found it very satisfying.

--- Double Post Merged, May 3, 2016, Original Post Date: May 3, 2016 ---

Spoiler

Big thing from the book is the unraveling of the mystery, and The First Order may be involved. Mostly about the end of Leia's political career and the genesis of The Resistance is at the end. Lots of cute Han and Leia moments, one is really exciting and surprising and adventurous.

--- Double Post Merged, May 3, 2016 ---

Not sure this would spoil anything for VIII, but it would have for VII

 

I'm kind of hoping that there's stuff in the political and "espionage"/investigation storylines--which is a lot of the book--that we will realize the significance of in Ep. VIII, or perhaps IX. The FO was already well sprouted and growing, and although it doesn't seem that Leia knows the whole deal (even the name), by the end she is aware that the New Republic will be all but useless in fighting it. She knows it will grow, and as her political influence is all but gone anyway...voila! The Resistance is born...

 

Ben is roughly 26 during the events of this book

 

checking in (man i'm a slow reader compared to you folks).

first of all, Leia totally cheats at Sabaac using the Force. i mean, come on!
secondly, is it just me or is the description and all of Leia's criticisms of Ransolm just disturbingly ironic?
third, Han being such a great mentor to all those pilots is likewise chafing me. there's a line there about the things he wanted to teach his son (but obviously didn't, though we get no explanation whatsoever).

i have nervously eaten a whole box of crackers and i'm only seven chapters in. hahaha

 

Yeah, find that sad he is such a mentor, and yet his son didn't connect to him that way, or didn't seem to. That happens often though.