Star Wars novel reviews 4
Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back by Ryder Windham
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
An Empire grows stronger. A rebellion is threatened. A young apprentice learns from a wise master. An identity is revealed. The journey takes a dark turn.
Yet another novelization by Ryder Wyndham of the original trilogy. And as expected, I like how Wyndham narrated the story from Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin. Not much extra things in this novel, but then again since most of Empire's movie scenes ended up in the film (less deleted scenes) it's expected. I like how detailed his narrative was and I like (how it had been with A New Hope) Wyndham included the names of many of the named minor characters in the story. Like usually the movie don't really said the names of minor characters unless needed, but that's where the novelization could shine. I love the extra mentions about Zef Senezca, Wedge, Dack... and how Hobbie (the name Luke kept mentioning during the Battle of Hoth) was an friend of Biggs. And if you see my post on tumblr... you probably know that I'm really fond of Biggs. As if past posts don't say that enough.
And I like how Wyndham expanded some of the scenes to connect one scene to another, as well as included character's monologues or thoughts in between where you won't be able to see in the film. And during those scene you'll start to better understand... 'so that's what happened' and so on. I guess that's the appeal on why I love well-written novelizations.
Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
It is a time of crisis. Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, is being taken to the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. As Princess Leia mounts a rescue mission and Darth Vader scours the Galaxy for Luke Skywalker, another sinister figure emerges. Cunning and ruthless, leader of a powerful crime syndicate, he will pit himself against Vader for the favor of their mutual master...the dreaded Emperor.
Did some bit of rereading, since the novel had been written to be set in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Easily ended up being my favourite, considering that it filled a lot of development in between the two movies. Like... how had Luke fared after their escape from Bespin; being told of an unexpected truth about his father, losing the 'heirloom' that was his father's lightsaber, unable to go back to ask Yoda to confirm the truth (yet) and unable to reach out to Ben. And then trying to strengthen his mastery over the Force, as well as trying to keep away from the temptations from the dark side of the Force. And there's also him attempting to learn yet another skill of a Jedi all on his own; which is the skills to make his own lightsaber. We also get to see how Leia, Lando, Chewie and the others had coped... trying to locate Boba Fett before he make that shipment to Jabba's; in which led them towards the Black Sun.
Of everything in this novel, Black Sun was the actual new entity in the scheme of things. Yet, its existence allowed for certain untold things that were left unsaid in Return of the Jedi. Yet also expanded more on the things mention in Return of the Jedi. Aka, how the Emperor actually 'allowed for the Alliance to learn' about a certain knowledge... and how did that lead to 'many Bothans died' in order for that information to be obtained. Also, we get to learn more about the Bothan's spynet, how Leia AND Luke get their costumes they had been wearing in Return of the Jedi. That aside... we get to see more about Vader, which is always a treat to enjoy. I mean... it was so sweet (hahaha, did I say sweet? Well, I'm a Vader fan) to see the battle between him and Xizor; trying to keep Luke alive as Xizor kept trying to have Luke killed. And while it was really, not that obvious... there are some parts in the novel that fleshed out some human part of Vader as he tried so hard to find Luke, while trying to fend off Xizor schemes which included killing his son.
A lot of the things in the novel will end up leading towards Jedi; though due to the current stand on EU against the Star Wars new canon... the novels canonicity might be question. As it is, it does clash slightly with Moving Target, Leia's newest novel. Then again, Moving Target ALSO clashed with some parts on Return of the Jedi novelization. Though to be honest, I preferred Shadows for filling in the blanks in between Empire and Jedi.
Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi by Ryder Windham
A rebellion makes its most desperate move. A galaxy hangs in the balance. A new Jedi rises. A circle is completed.
The journey ends.
To be honest, I'm not sure what else to comment about the novel aside from the fact it was really well written. It really is. It's just like watching the film again but in written form. And it does follow the film quite closely. And I have looked for info about the earlier trilogy novelizations, and there were listed some parts in those novelization that were actually written differently compared to the film. So... if you're the kind of reader that prefer to read the film novelization that followed the trilogy really closely, then Wyndham's novelization is going to be good for you. And Wyndham's really good at keeping the pacing and flow of the story. Like you know, for movies... they usually jump the pacing in between scenes in order to cut the total length of the film as well as move the story faster. That's good on film, but not for novels. Because of such blanks in between those scenes exist, Wyndham was able to fill in those blanks with his own narrative as well as adding more background details which one would not be able to show on film without sounding like a documentary. Regardless, that was the appeal of novels.
I love how Wyndham manage to add these extra details to further enrich the story; like the origins of Jabba's Palace before it was turned into a villain's lair, how Lando managed to sneak into Jabba's Palace as one of its guard. Or the identity of the smuggler that Leia had disguised as, or about the various creatures inside the palace. Or reading about what went on our favourite character's mind as the events play out. It's really a different experience you can only feel by reading the book. And while reading the novel, I can't help noticing some of the film's details that I normally didn't notice before. It really adds to the film's enjoyment, by knowing of the details and inner working of the characters... in which it'd be hard to be shown on film. But really, he did well in describing the happenings in the film in written form.
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I separated this one because I don't like this book so much. But since I've finished reading it I might as well commented on it.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster
Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to the planet Circarpous. But he discovered that hidden on the planet was the Kaiburr crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast....
For the first Star Wars novel to ever be written... I'm not sure of what I'm supposed to expect. The start of the novel was promising enough; Leia piloting her own Y-Wing with Luke on his X-Wing. And then diverting towards Mimban and crash landing, finding their way to some unknown Imperial establishment. The setup where Luke and Leia had to go disguising themselves and later meeting with this old woman with this shard of a crystal that supposedly enhance one's connection to the Force... well, at the start, sounded interesting. Despite that, considering this novel was supposed to be the sequel to A New Hope had the movie not turned out well... I am very much GLAD that it did not end up actually being turned into a sequel movie.
Anyway, extra trivia. Kaiburr crystal is one of the many crystals that can be used in making lightsabers.
Sure, this was written before it was established that Leia was going to be Luke's twin... but still it was just weird. While in A New Hope, there was a hint that Luke had a childish crush on Leia... the way Luke was written here, it's like someone had possessed him and threw away the real Luke somewhere else. Or more like... somehow the writer confused Luke and Han's personalities and merged them together. Because that's definitely NOT the Luke Skywalker I'm familiar with from A New Hope. I mean, even if I'm just basing this with only A New Hope in mind, this novel is still... very out of character.
And it's not just Luke. Leia was written off character as well. I mean... for someone supposedly been part of the Rebellion for so long; you'd think she knew that she should not attract unnecessary attention to herself. Considering she is one of the well-known figures in which the Empire would want dead. Yet in this novel she'd been so dumb as to behave like a princess when she should not. Also, to have Leia not knowing to swim yet having Luke--someone who had lived most of his early years on a desert planet--know how to swim, is just plain weird. Of all people, it should be Luke who was supposed to be terrified of big bodies of water compared to Leia. Also, it was also weird that Leia was able to fight with a lightsaber the moment she held it in her hand. Even Luke had been clumsy when he first used it, and the lightsaber was supposed to exhibit some properties that would make it harder for non-Force users to use. Being a laser sword after all. And we're not even touching the part where lightsabers would have been tuned to specific people thus making it harder for anyone else to use; in which ADF wouldn't be aware of cos that canon hadn't existed yet.
And we are NOT even talking how Darth Vader is totally not like the Darth Vader that we come to know in A New Hope. It's as if, ADF wrote this without watching A New Hope despite this novel was supposed to set after it. None of the characters were behaving like themselves. Or more like, their characters were too over simplified into caricatures of themselves. Luke, a farm boy turned hero; Leia, the feisty princess; Vader, the evil dude. The three were written so badly they might as well be different people! All of them were turned into one-dimensional characters that lacked any other appeal.
Which is somewhat hard to believe; considering that Alan Dean Foster should have at least know how said characters were supposed to act like... having written the earlier version of A New Hope novelization as George Lucas's ghost writer! Sure... perhaps, compared to the others... he was a bit shortchanged--since he'd written this before Empire and Jedi--which would mean he would not be aware about the planned twist of Luke and Leia's relationship. But really, to the point of completely missing the mark with all three of the titular characters, that's ONE accomplishment. Okay, did some digging and apparently, the earlier novelization had some parts written differently than the film. But even then, it shouldn't have caused such drastic extrapolation of the character traits!
The narrative is very awkward too. Very awkward to the point it makes it hard to read through and picture whatever was it that supposed to happen. I had to reread some sentences many times just to figure out what was it they were telling because the wording was just so strange. So much, to the point that I couldn't understand what I was reading because many of the scenes and supposed action and fighting were so disconnected from each other. The writing was so choppy near the end that I found it ridiculous. The supposed 'sexual tension' turned out not to so 'sexual' as some people made it out to be, and read like it was taken from some cheesy cheap movie plot that read so fake it was impossible to believe. And there were some words that don't fit well into the fictional setting. Like the mention of 'St. Elmo' or Luke calling himself a 'country boy' when it should be more accurate to say that he's from a backwater planet. (Or just farm boy). Because those words/terms shouldn't exist in that universe!
But most of all, I hated the fact that this novel's plot made more sense as one of those Indiana Jones novels rather than as a Star Wars novel. Like what the hell Luke died out of the blue after for some reason I can't comprehend Vader suddenly fell off a hole out of nowhere. It's just ridiculous. One might as well just go look for the comic version of this story, to try get some sense out of it.
Overall, I'm glad that this plot was scraped off in favour of Empire Strikes Back. It is so bad I wanna force choke someone. This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
An Empire grows stronger. A rebellion is threatened. A young apprentice learns from a wise master. An identity is revealed. The journey takes a dark turn.
Yet another novelization by Ryder Wyndham of the original trilogy. And as expected, I like how Wyndham narrated the story from Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin. Not much extra things in this novel, but then again since most of Empire's movie scenes ended up in the film (less deleted scenes) it's expected. I like how detailed his narrative was and I like (how it had been with A New Hope) Wyndham included the names of many of the named minor characters in the story. Like usually the movie don't really said the names of minor characters unless needed, but that's where the novelization could shine. I love the extra mentions about Zef Senezca, Wedge, Dack... and how Hobbie (the name Luke kept mentioning during the Battle of Hoth) was an friend of Biggs. And if you see my post on tumblr... you probably know that I'm really fond of Biggs. As if past posts don't say that enough.
And I like how Wyndham expanded some of the scenes to connect one scene to another, as well as included character's monologues or thoughts in between where you won't be able to see in the film. And during those scene you'll start to better understand... 'so that's what happened' and so on. I guess that's the appeal on why I love well-written novelizations.
Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry
It is a time of crisis. Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, is being taken to the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. As Princess Leia mounts a rescue mission and Darth Vader scours the Galaxy for Luke Skywalker, another sinister figure emerges. Cunning and ruthless, leader of a powerful crime syndicate, he will pit himself against Vader for the favor of their mutual master...the dreaded Emperor.
Did some bit of rereading, since the novel had been written to be set in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Easily ended up being my favourite, considering that it filled a lot of development in between the two movies. Like... how had Luke fared after their escape from Bespin; being told of an unexpected truth about his father, losing the 'heirloom' that was his father's lightsaber, unable to go back to ask Yoda to confirm the truth (yet) and unable to reach out to Ben. And then trying to strengthen his mastery over the Force, as well as trying to keep away from the temptations from the dark side of the Force. And there's also him attempting to learn yet another skill of a Jedi all on his own; which is the skills to make his own lightsaber. We also get to see how Leia, Lando, Chewie and the others had coped... trying to locate Boba Fett before he make that shipment to Jabba's; in which led them towards the Black Sun.
Of everything in this novel, Black Sun was the actual new entity in the scheme of things. Yet, its existence allowed for certain untold things that were left unsaid in Return of the Jedi. Yet also expanded more on the things mention in Return of the Jedi. Aka, how the Emperor actually 'allowed for the Alliance to learn' about a certain knowledge... and how did that lead to 'many Bothans died' in order for that information to be obtained. Also, we get to learn more about the Bothan's spynet, how Leia AND Luke get their costumes they had been wearing in Return of the Jedi. That aside... we get to see more about Vader, which is always a treat to enjoy. I mean... it was so sweet (hahaha, did I say sweet? Well, I'm a Vader fan) to see the battle between him and Xizor; trying to keep Luke alive as Xizor kept trying to have Luke killed. And while it was really, not that obvious... there are some parts in the novel that fleshed out some human part of Vader as he tried so hard to find Luke, while trying to fend off Xizor schemes which included killing his son.
A lot of the things in the novel will end up leading towards Jedi; though due to the current stand on EU against the Star Wars new canon... the novels canonicity might be question. As it is, it does clash slightly with Moving Target, Leia's newest novel. Then again, Moving Target ALSO clashed with some parts on Return of the Jedi novelization. Though to be honest, I preferred Shadows for filling in the blanks in between Empire and Jedi.
Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi by Ryder Windham
A rebellion makes its most desperate move. A galaxy hangs in the balance. A new Jedi rises. A circle is completed.
The journey ends.
To be honest, I'm not sure what else to comment about the novel aside from the fact it was really well written. It really is. It's just like watching the film again but in written form. And it does follow the film quite closely. And I have looked for info about the earlier trilogy novelizations, and there were listed some parts in those novelization that were actually written differently compared to the film. So... if you're the kind of reader that prefer to read the film novelization that followed the trilogy really closely, then Wyndham's novelization is going to be good for you. And Wyndham's really good at keeping the pacing and flow of the story. Like you know, for movies... they usually jump the pacing in between scenes in order to cut the total length of the film as well as move the story faster. That's good on film, but not for novels. Because of such blanks in between those scenes exist, Wyndham was able to fill in those blanks with his own narrative as well as adding more background details which one would not be able to show on film without sounding like a documentary. Regardless, that was the appeal of novels.
I love how Wyndham manage to add these extra details to further enrich the story; like the origins of Jabba's Palace before it was turned into a villain's lair, how Lando managed to sneak into Jabba's Palace as one of its guard. Or the identity of the smuggler that Leia had disguised as, or about the various creatures inside the palace. Or reading about what went on our favourite character's mind as the events play out. It's really a different experience you can only feel by reading the book. And while reading the novel, I can't help noticing some of the film's details that I normally didn't notice before. It really adds to the film's enjoyment, by knowing of the details and inner working of the characters... in which it'd be hard to be shown on film. But really, he did well in describing the happenings in the film in written form.
----------------------
I separated this one because I don't like this book so much. But since I've finished reading it I might as well commented on it.
Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster
Luke Skywalker expected trouble when he volunteered to follow Princess Leia on her mission to the planet Circarpous. But he discovered that hidden on the planet was the Kaiburr crystal, a mysterious gem that would give the one who possessed it such powers over the Force that he would be all but invincible. In the wrong hands, the crystal could be deadly. So Luke had to find this treasure and find it fast....
For the first Star Wars novel to ever be written... I'm not sure of what I'm supposed to expect. The start of the novel was promising enough; Leia piloting her own Y-Wing with Luke on his X-Wing. And then diverting towards Mimban and crash landing, finding their way to some unknown Imperial establishment. The setup where Luke and Leia had to go disguising themselves and later meeting with this old woman with this shard of a crystal that supposedly enhance one's connection to the Force... well, at the start, sounded interesting. Despite that, considering this novel was supposed to be the sequel to A New Hope had the movie not turned out well... I am very much GLAD that it did not end up actually being turned into a sequel movie.
Anyway, extra trivia. Kaiburr crystal is one of the many crystals that can be used in making lightsabers.
Sure, this was written before it was established that Leia was going to be Luke's twin... but still it was just weird. While in A New Hope, there was a hint that Luke had a childish crush on Leia... the way Luke was written here, it's like someone had possessed him and threw away the real Luke somewhere else. Or more like... somehow the writer confused Luke and Han's personalities and merged them together. Because that's definitely NOT the Luke Skywalker I'm familiar with from A New Hope. I mean, even if I'm just basing this with only A New Hope in mind, this novel is still... very out of character.
And it's not just Luke. Leia was written off character as well. I mean... for someone supposedly been part of the Rebellion for so long; you'd think she knew that she should not attract unnecessary attention to herself. Considering she is one of the well-known figures in which the Empire would want dead. Yet in this novel she'd been so dumb as to behave like a princess when she should not. Also, to have Leia not knowing to swim yet having Luke--someone who had lived most of his early years on a desert planet--know how to swim, is just plain weird. Of all people, it should be Luke who was supposed to be terrified of big bodies of water compared to Leia. Also, it was also weird that Leia was able to fight with a lightsaber the moment she held it in her hand. Even Luke had been clumsy when he first used it, and the lightsaber was supposed to exhibit some properties that would make it harder for non-Force users to use. Being a laser sword after all. And we're not even touching the part where lightsabers would have been tuned to specific people thus making it harder for anyone else to use; in which ADF wouldn't be aware of cos that canon hadn't existed yet.
And we are NOT even talking how Darth Vader is totally not like the Darth Vader that we come to know in A New Hope. It's as if, ADF wrote this without watching A New Hope despite this novel was supposed to set after it. None of the characters were behaving like themselves. Or more like, their characters were too over simplified into caricatures of themselves. Luke, a farm boy turned hero; Leia, the feisty princess; Vader, the evil dude. The three were written so badly they might as well be different people! All of them were turned into one-dimensional characters that lacked any other appeal.
Which is somewhat hard to believe; considering that Alan Dean Foster should have at least know how said characters were supposed to act like... having written the earlier version of A New Hope novelization as George Lucas's ghost writer! Sure... perhaps, compared to the others... he was a bit shortchanged--since he'd written this before Empire and Jedi--which would mean he would not be aware about the planned twist of Luke and Leia's relationship. But really, to the point of completely missing the mark with all three of the titular characters, that's ONE accomplishment. Okay, did some digging and apparently, the earlier novelization had some parts written differently than the film. But even then, it shouldn't have caused such drastic extrapolation of the character traits!
The narrative is very awkward too. Very awkward to the point it makes it hard to read through and picture whatever was it that supposed to happen. I had to reread some sentences many times just to figure out what was it they were telling because the wording was just so strange. So much, to the point that I couldn't understand what I was reading because many of the scenes and supposed action and fighting were so disconnected from each other. The writing was so choppy near the end that I found it ridiculous. The supposed 'sexual tension' turned out not to so 'sexual' as some people made it out to be, and read like it was taken from some cheesy cheap movie plot that read so fake it was impossible to believe. And there were some words that don't fit well into the fictional setting. Like the mention of 'St. Elmo' or Luke calling himself a 'country boy' when it should be more accurate to say that he's from a backwater planet. (Or just farm boy). Because those words/terms shouldn't exist in that universe!
But most of all, I hated the fact that this novel's plot made more sense as one of those Indiana Jones novels rather than as a Star Wars novel. Like what the hell Luke died out of the blue after for some reason I can't comprehend Vader suddenly fell off a hole out of nowhere. It's just ridiculous. One might as well just go look for the comic version of this story, to try get some sense out of it.
Overall, I'm glad that this plot was scraped off in favour of Empire Strikes Back. It is so bad I wanna force choke someone. This entry was originally posted on Kaleidoscope World.