A review by shadowcas
Star Wars Trilogy by Donald Glut, James Kahn, George Lucas
4.0
I feel like I must preface this review by stating that I am not an avid Star Wars fan. I do, however, love movies and I love getting more insight into what the characters are thinking and feeling through the course of a story. I have also never read a novelization of a movie script before. I have read books that movies were later based upon and I have read books that were sequels to movies. Apparently a novelization of a movie script adds very little to the movie itself.
George Lucas’s A New Hope was basically the exact same thing as the movie. It was written with third person point of view with no omniscience. Which basically means, while reading it, I had no idea what the characters were feeling or thinking unless they told someone outright. In movies, it’s easy to convey emotions because most of the time you can read their body language and hear their tone of voice. With a book that has no omniscience narration, you have to rely on adjectives that sometimes fall short and “insider knowledge” from seeing the movies.
Otherwise, A New Hope is very well written with both plot building and dialogue. It’s a quick read and since I read it while I waited for the DVD release of Episode 7, it was an uncomplicated yet detailed refresher.
The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut was what I was looking for when I started reading the trilogy. Glut was able to build upon each of the characters that had been established in the first novel. This time, I was given actual thoughts and emotions conveyed as such by the characters internal narrative. Much is still the same between both the movie and the novel but thankfully, there was enough of a difference that I remained interested in it.
Also, as a big plus, especially since I was reading the novels straight through, the “voice” of the story seems cohesive. There wasn’t a major shift in the style of storytelling so it was not a jarring experience to go from one novel on to the next between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
Return of the Jedi, written by James Kahn, did not offer the same shift in writing styles. Kahn did really well when it came to providing more detail with characters’ feeling and thoughts. I felt like I could really understand what was driving the protagonists through the plot line. With that being said, Kahn also made a jarring change in dialogue styles that, while staying true to the story and script, felt very divergent compared to the two previous novels. It gave a dissimilar “voice” that knocked me a tad off-kilter.
Overall, it’s a novelization of the original three Star Wars Episodes. No real huge revelations are given to the Star Wars Universe. You won’t learn any new secrets that you didn’t already know from watching the movies. They are quick reads that did not leave me feeling like I learned anything more than that I could read a 675 page novel in a few days. It’s a good read and a great addition to the bookshelf, nothing more.
I’ll give the Trilogy a total of 4 out of 5 stars. It isn’t a profound read but it was still enjoyable.
George Lucas’s A New Hope was basically the exact same thing as the movie. It was written with third person point of view with no omniscience. Which basically means, while reading it, I had no idea what the characters were feeling or thinking unless they told someone outright. In movies, it’s easy to convey emotions because most of the time you can read their body language and hear their tone of voice. With a book that has no omniscience narration, you have to rely on adjectives that sometimes fall short and “insider knowledge” from seeing the movies.
Otherwise, A New Hope is very well written with both plot building and dialogue. It’s a quick read and since I read it while I waited for the DVD release of Episode 7, it was an uncomplicated yet detailed refresher.
The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut was what I was looking for when I started reading the trilogy. Glut was able to build upon each of the characters that had been established in the first novel. This time, I was given actual thoughts and emotions conveyed as such by the characters internal narrative. Much is still the same between both the movie and the novel but thankfully, there was enough of a difference that I remained interested in it.
Also, as a big plus, especially since I was reading the novels straight through, the “voice” of the story seems cohesive. There wasn’t a major shift in the style of storytelling so it was not a jarring experience to go from one novel on to the next between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
Return of the Jedi, written by James Kahn, did not offer the same shift in writing styles. Kahn did really well when it came to providing more detail with characters’ feeling and thoughts. I felt like I could really understand what was driving the protagonists through the plot line. With that being said, Kahn also made a jarring change in dialogue styles that, while staying true to the story and script, felt very divergent compared to the two previous novels. It gave a dissimilar “voice” that knocked me a tad off-kilter.
Overall, it’s a novelization of the original three Star Wars Episodes. No real huge revelations are given to the Star Wars Universe. You won’t learn any new secrets that you didn’t already know from watching the movies. They are quick reads that did not leave me feeling like I learned anything more than that I could read a 675 page novel in a few days. It’s a good read and a great addition to the bookshelf, nothing more.
I’ll give the Trilogy a total of 4 out of 5 stars. It isn’t a profound read but it was still enjoyable.