I really liked Cloak of Deception, Labyrynth of Evil and the ROTS novel, do you more novels like that?
Star Wars Books Thread
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I really liked Cloak of Deception, Labyrynth of Evil and the ROTS novel, do you more novels like that?
Having read both, I've honestly found that there is no appreciable difference between the YA and GA books in terms of importance to the franchise and expansion of the world, so I'm going to have disagree with you on this point.
That's a fair point, however they did make their case in the article why the novel is best read before the movie, so I think they're owed the benefit of the doubt in this case.
Movies usually have a lot of stuff that has to be cut from the final edit for time or other factors, or things that can't be shown well in the medium (for example, in TFA, Rey's use of the mind trick on the stormtrooper doesn't make as much sense without the novelization, since she was thinking her way out, which a book can address a lot easier than a movie). While a well-edited movie can be understood on its own, that doesn't mean that there are other sources that the movie builds off of or offer more insight. The MCU is filled with a lot of specific film and TV series, but watching all of them gives you the full picture and a better understanding of specific films.
Since the production team was involved, I think that gives the novel an additional layer of authenticity beyond its canonical status. Even if not, movies are a group effort. The writer's script gets edited by other writers, some scenes and lines are cut during the filming and post-production process, actors sometimes ad lib, the director's staging choices affect the tone of the scenes, the producers can require specific things be or not be in the movie. There's already multiple people involved in telling the story, so I don't think you can pinpoint any one person as being the sole visionary and final word on what the movie' story is (I'd argue that the director comes closest, but even then, they're not the only voice). And that's not even going into how future movies can change the story (like the Darth Vader retcon).
So, I don't see why excluding a novelist from the people who contribute to the story makes much sense, esp. when the Powers That Be are saying that his book is part of the movie's story.
T
WebLurker said:
He wrote the prologue to Shatterpoint.
As far as I know the prologue to the ROTS novelization was all Stover.
Reverend said:
They may have been "cloaked" by goofy Talzin magic, but the odd thing about Filoni's Nightsisters is that the rank-and-file don't seem to actually use the Force ( at least not in any obvious way ).
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What is in the Novel ? - that scene made perfect sense to me.
IIRC it was just more explicit in what was going on. I agree that the movie did a good job on conveying the shift in power and control, but I have seen others confused and not quite get what happened.
So in a sense, yeah, the book explained it better and that was the right choice for a literary medium, but personally I prefer not to be spoon fed such things in movies.
YMMV of course.
It's one of my favorite of the new books, so I'd say it's worth a look and at 216 pages, it's not a long time investment.
Shadows of the Empire kind of counts I think, the 'bridge novel' between ESB and ROTJ (Although published in 1996). While the novel more or less tells the complete story, there's also a comic and video game that has some alternate POVs of the events. It's basically about Luke and co. searching for Boba Fett before he can deliver Han to Jabba, with Luke getting stronger and more disciplined after his ESB defeat, and a rivalry between Vader and the leader of Black Sun. It also deals with Palpatine's gambit with the Death Star II's location, and the 'many bothans' who died. Of course it's now non-canon, but it's an era Disney hasn't really touched yet.
It basically was a film without a film, and in addition to the novel/game/comics it also had action figures, trading cards and some other merchandise. I think it was also intended, at least in part, to build up anticipation for the SE (Which came out the following year) and prequels.
Shadows of the Empire is a really interesting project, the way it was the media blitz of a movie without a movie. It basically a dry-run for the Special Editions, which in turn were a dry-run for the Prequels. I love how Lucas was warming up the team (and the public) like that. I loved playing that game so much back in the day.
Cool, I'll take a look at it. I read that Poe's story ends with him getting the mission from Leia to find Lor San Tekka, but Poe's standalone comic series also starts with Leia giving him the same mission, and I got the impression that the comics were set like a few months before TFA, whereas Before the Awakening seems to lead directly into TFA...
This kind of thing is exactly why I've cautioned people not to take the "everything published is canon now" too literally. Of course there are going to be contradictions like this along the way as they're not omnipotent and they can't know in advance where they might want to tell a new story down the line. Though they are getting better at avoiding such things by being deliberately vague about certain events and not making absolute statements (e.g. "it was the biggest ship ever built" etc.)
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As I understand it, the comic takes place after Poe's story in Before the Awakening, so there's no contradiction here.
I reread a lot of the books from the early '90s and they were generally disappointing. Something particularly annoying is in Kevin Anderson's books it seems ridiculously easy for someone to, if they have just one or a few mild flaws, go to the Dark Side, so much so that you wonder if it's worth maintaining the Jedi.
Yeah, I went and grabbed a copy, and looking at the other stories, only Finn's really seems to lead directly into TFA. From what I can tell, Rey's can take place any time during her stay on Jakku, and while Poe's ends with Leia sending him after Lor San Tekka, she doesn't say anything about him being on Jakku, just that he might know where to find Luke, and that the First Order is after him, too. So yeah, it doesn't really look like Poe Dameron contradicts anything, it's just a slightly different take on the same basic scene (which happens a lot in TV shows, so it's not that big of a deal).
Marvel has just announced they will be publishing a new 5 issue miniseries focused on Maul's training with Darth Sidious before The Phantom Menace. I really enjoyed what they did with Maul in The Clone Wars, so I look forward to getting a look at his history in the Disney canon that takes that and Rebels into account.
That could be pretty interesting. Pre-TPM Maul is really the only Maul I'd be interested in seeing stories about, so this could be good.
With my current reading, Aftermath: Life Debt has become a slough. Parts of it are interesting, but its really hard to care about the main cast and I wish it was focused on different people. Hopefully it picks up soon, its becoming one of the harder SW books to get through.
I will be curious to see how that develops. The YA book "Maul's journal" was actually quite enjoyable, and wonder how his path will form now. Also, there have been several comic books that focused on Maul right before TPM, and creating an unstable galaxy for Sidious to manipulate.
Should be quite enjoyable.
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