A review by lesserjoke
A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy by Alexandra Bracken

3.0

This book is better than expected for what's essentially a glorified junior novelization of the first Star Wars movie. I particularly like the author's imposed structure of telling the beginning of the story from Leia's perspective, the middle from Han's, and the end from Luke's -- although her insights into Leia's character are so strong (and so unmatched in the other sections) that it might have been better to just keep the princess's point of view throughout. That initial portion of the story feels fresh and engaging, whereas any reader who's seen the movie before will find fewer surprises in the sections led by Han and Luke.

There are some weaknesses to the novel that have been unfortunately inherited from the source material -- like Luke's childhood friend Biggs popping up out of nowhere in the third act -- but in general this is a capable translation of A New Hope from screen to page.