booksandpajamas's review against another edition
3.0
“Someday you're going to have to learn to separate what seems to be important from what really is important.”
Twenty years after the birth of Luke and Leia, the Empire has risen. Darth Vader, being in control, is trying to destroy every last piece of the Rebellion.
When Luke receives a cryptic message from a beautiful princess held captive by the Dark Lord, he knows he has to save her. Together with his father's old master Obi-Wan Kenobi and a smuggler named Han Solo they get to the Death Star by accident. With nothing but courage and his father's old lightsaber, Luke tries to save the princess, but faces all kinds of dangers right in front of him.
I have to say that I liked the movie more. It felt like they didn't do Han much justice in this book. On screen he was so sassy and I really loved that and in the book it wasn't really noticeable.
Then again, I liked to know and read more about Luke. I liked to read things from a new perspective. George Lucas didn't fail on this one, but he did better with the movie. It just lost a lot when transferred to the book, which I didn't really feel with the first three. Perhaps I'm a rare prequel lover. Don't murder me for that.
rachel_abby_reads's review against another edition
2.0
I'm curious to know if this was written before the movie or after; there are additional lines and things that aren't in the movie, but I can imagine them being shot and then ending up on the cutting room floor.
I've held this book in contempt for a long time, but although I still wouldn't call it great literature, there are some things that I find good.
There are some inconsistencies between the original trilogy and the prequels, but they were apparently either overlooked or dismissed as inconsequential.
I've held this book in contempt for a long time, but although I still wouldn't call it great literature, there are some things that I find good.
There are some inconsistencies between the original trilogy and the prequels, but they were apparently either overlooked or dismissed as inconsequential.
altruest's review against another edition
5.0
Don't tell anybody, but I haven't actually seen all of the Star Wars movies. I've seen enough clips and parodies to know most of the story, but I'm fairly ignorant of the exact sequence of events. I think I might enjoy reading through the novelizations a little more than the movies.
5/5
5/5
relaxedreader's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.5
phileasfogg's review against another edition
4.0
My excitement over the new Star Wars movie led me to finally read this, about thirty years after buying it.
I had hoped it would be awesome, like the movie. These movies are like the Iliad and Odyssey of our civilisation (yes, I'm still excited). It might be a bit much to expect a movie novelisation to rise to the levels of Homer (or a good translator thereof), but this was still pretty disappointing.
The dialogue stinks. I dare say there's a story behind this, if I cared to Google it. My guess was that the book was based on an early version of the script. And that the actors, reading a script in which the dialogue was similar to that in this book, changed their lines to something a human might, and could, actually say. I wonder if that means Harrison Ford is responsible for that notorious line about parsecs?
Apart from dialogue, the prose style is a little below my idea of workmanlike. There's lots of 'saidism'. Sometimes it seems like nothing can just happen, without being diluted by unnecessary adjectival and adverbial clauses. And there's an occasional 'I don't think that word means what you think it means.'
Fairly surprising for a modern reader is the human chauvinism, the narrator's plain hatred of non-human life forms. Whoah. Instead of a threshold to a world of wonder and danger, the cantina sequence seems focused on the disgusting alienness of the aliens.
But it's Star Wars, and it's a good story even when indifferently told.
I enjoyed seeing a little more of Luke's background than the movie shows. His relationship with his childhood friend Biggs adds a lot. The raid on the Death Star is my least favourite bit of the movie, and the book improves on it by letting us get to know the pilots a little.
I had hoped it would be awesome, like the movie. These movies are like the Iliad and Odyssey of our civilisation (yes, I'm still excited). It might be a bit much to expect a movie novelisation to rise to the levels of Homer (or a good translator thereof), but this was still pretty disappointing.
The dialogue stinks. I dare say there's a story behind this, if I cared to Google it. My guess was that the book was based on an early version of the script. And that the actors, reading a script in which the dialogue was similar to that in this book, changed their lines to something a human might, and could, actually say. I wonder if that means Harrison Ford is responsible for that notorious line about parsecs?
Apart from dialogue, the prose style is a little below my idea of workmanlike. There's lots of 'saidism'. Sometimes it seems like nothing can just happen, without being diluted by unnecessary adjectival and adverbial clauses. And there's an occasional 'I don't think that word means what you think it means.'
Fairly surprising for a modern reader is the human chauvinism, the narrator's plain hatred of non-human life forms. Whoah. Instead of a threshold to a world of wonder and danger, the cantina sequence seems focused on the disgusting alienness of the aliens.
But it's Star Wars, and it's a good story even when indifferently told.
I enjoyed seeing a little more of Luke's background than the movie shows. His relationship with his childhood friend Biggs adds a lot. The raid on the Death Star is my least favourite bit of the movie, and the book improves on it by letting us get to know the pilots a little.
jenbusch65's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0