Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray will finally focus on Leia Organa’s life — and her most important choices — after Return of the Jedi.
The appropriately epic cover art for Star Wars: Bloodline was revealed today by USA Today. Evoking a 1940’s military poster, Leia stands shadowed by the man who is both her enemy, and her father. Excited yet?
Star Wars: Bloodline will be Claudia Gray’s second foray into the Star Wars literary universe. Her first Star Wars novel, an Original Trilogy-spanning young adult story called Lost Stars, was released as part of the Journey to The Force Awakens. To the surprise of many fans unfamiliar with the nuances of young adult fiction, Lost Stars has been one of the most enthusiastically received stories in the new Star Wars cannon, and Gray’s next work is eagerly anticipated by many.
The revelation of Star Wars: Bloodline‘s subject is sure to increase that anticipation. While Leia, then a Princess and Senator, has a brief cameo in Lost Stars, Gray will now have the opportunity to dig deeply into one of the Saga’s most complicated (and frankly, under-served) heroes.
Related: Claudia Gray discusses bringing Star Wars to the YA galaxy in Lost Stars
But the journey will not be an easy one for the unflinching Rebel leader. In the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Leia’s personal history will loom large as she strives to make the Galaxy — and her family — a better place. Darth Vader, of course, is a crucial part of this painful equation.
“I find myself remembering [The Phantom Menace] posters,” Gray says, “Where you see the boy Anakin with Vader’s shadow stretching out behind him. In this book, we find out just how far Vader’s shadow falls.”
Leia’s life is also populated by other crucial characters, including her husband Han Solo, her brother Luke Skywalker, and her son Ben. But though the Princess/Senator/General is deeply influenced by her family, Gray says that Star Wars: Bloodline is most concerned with Leia as an independent actor.
“This novel isn’t fundamentally about Leia as a wife, sister or mom,” the author says. “This is about the role she’s created for herself since the fall of the Empire, and the one she takes up by the time of [The Force Awakens].”
An excerpt provided at USA Today offers a glimpse at Leia’s political life — and the dangers it entails. For fans hungry for more of the Skywalker Saga, more of the post-Jedi galaxy, or just more Star Wars, it looks like Star Wars: Bloodline will be just what the medical droid ordered.
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray will reach our galaxy on May 3, 2016.
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Source: USA Today
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