Star Wars - Splinter of the Mind's Eye

[milo bloom]

It's a great little story, I'd love to see an animated feature done of it.

As for the lightsabers on the DVDs, there's tons of flaws in the DVDs, and I'm not just grousing about the SE changes, there are numerous color issues and sound problems that are well documented on the internet. Most of these were even immediately noticed after the DVDs were first released in 2004 but were dismissed by Lucasfilm. All of the re-releases were the same masters so there's been no changes. One of the big worries about the upcoming Bluray set is that Lucasfilm is using the same HD master and these flaws won't be fixed.

 

[Turtletrekker]

- For some reason, not only is Han not in the novel, he isn't mentioned at all. Vader tells Luke that it was Luke who shot at his Tie fighter, and near the end Luke mentions knowing "a scoundrel" that one of the other characters would like, but he is not named. Does Harrison get paid every time Han Solo is printed?

Han is mentioned, but only once. At one point while Luke and Leia are trudging through the swamp, Luke asks Leia about what the Empire had done to her on the Death Star "Before Han Solo and I rescued you."

 

[timothy]

all ways loved this book along with marvel star wars comics.

 

[Silvercrest]

Another couple of things in the novel that stood out which I did not mention above:
- I was surprised that the Luke/Leia possible romance was more implied than anything in the novel. There was more sexual tension between the two in Empire than this novel, where they at least kissed.

I always figured that either ADF didn't want to take any liberties with the characters, or George directed him not to.

- During the final battle with Vader, it is implied that Obi Wan controls Luke, or is telepathically linked to him and gave him the skill to battle Vader. This obviously did not happen in any of the films.

I imagine the nature of the Force wasn't very well fleshed out then-- as much as it ever has been. ADF probably took the facts that 1) Ben is one with the Force, 2) Ben can still speak to Luke, and 3) the quote from the movie that the Force can control your actions. Combine all three, and it's a reasonable extrapolation of how the Force works.

- For some reason, not only is Han not in the novel, he isn't mentioned at all. Vader tells Luke that it was Luke who shot at his Tie fighter

It took me a while after initial reading to catch that one. An odd mistake for Vader to make, considering he was behind Luke and out of his reach (and ready to blow him away) at the time.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

It took me a while after initial reading to catch that one. An odd mistake for Vader to make, considering he was behind Luke and out of his reach (and ready to blow him away) at the time.

Maybe he thought Luke used the Force to fire backwards, or something. I don't know. :-)

I don't know if this was a mistake on the writer's part, or if it was changed so there was another source of conflict between Luke and Vader. Like blowing up the Death Star isn't enough of one!

It was nice, at the very least, to see someone other than Robot Chicken acknowledge that Vader might be somewhat perturbed by the destruction of the Empire's super secret battle station. Yet, it wasn't mentioned at all in the two sequels.

I read someone online mention it is strange that Vader refers to Luke as "Skywalker". Doesn't he call Luke that in every other movie too?

 

[Set Harth]

It took me a while after initial reading to catch that one. An odd mistake for Vader to make, considering he was behind Luke and out of his reach (and ready to blow him away) at the time.

Maybe he thought Luke used the Force to fire backwards, or something. I don't know. :-)

I don't know if this was a mistake on the writer's part, or if it was changed so there was another source of conflict between Luke and Vader. Like blowing up the Death Star isn't enough of one!

It seems to be a mistake on the writer's part. Just goes to show, SW book writers have been screwing up since the seventies, and SW book editors have always been useless clowns.

 

[The Old Mixer]

It was nice, at the very least, to see someone other than Robot Chicken acknowledge that Vader might be somewhat perturbed by the destruction of the Empire's super secret battle station. Yet, it wasn't mentioned at all in the two sequels.

Vader was the one arguing that the "technological terror" was nothing to be proud of and its power was nothing compared to that of the Force. Luke just proved him right. "That's my boy!"

 

[Silvercrest]

Hmm... one wonders if, after shooting down Luke, Vader might have taken a potshot at the exhaust port himself just to prove a point.

<vader> My apologies, Grand Moff, but I failed to stop the Rebel scum before he, ahem, released his last torpedo. I suggest you abandon this technological monstrosity while there is still time. You have about thirty seconds. In the meantime, I shall convey news of your failure directly to the Emperor. Farewell. <vader>

 

[Klaus]

I remember thinking the idea of dialing the saber down to a pencil-thin beam for cutting a lock was a cool idea...

I still have my SF Book Club copy.

 

[Patrickivan]

I just read the 3rd or 4th edition of RotJ, and even that was significantly different then the movie. I hear the subsequent editions had been modified to reflect the movie more closely.

But it was much darker too. Suggestions of Leia being raped by Jabba being the foremost. Issues around Ben and Luke. I liked it, but it certainly punctuates that Lucas's claims of having this whole space opera mapped out from the get-go, is pure BS. Hell, reading the Starkiller version of Star Wars made me laugh. It was horrible!

 

[Whofan]

Some of that might be embellishment by the writer, though. Certainly, the other adaptation novels have a lot of changes from the script/movie. Especially the novels for TPM and AOTC, which have long preludes before they get to the actual adaptation of the film! Likewise, ROTS features a lot more motivation for Anakin's downfall. Or to use Star Trek movie adaptations as an example, all the added stuff about David and Saavik and also Carol and the Genesis team.


But yeah, the earlier treatments for Star Wars are almost nonsense. Likewise, there's also an earlier draft for ROTJ which features laughable dialogue and concepts from Lucas (Such as the Jedi ghosts coming back to life!), before Kasdan's involvement in the finished film. Although it did have some cool concepts like what would eventually become Coruscant.

 

[JoeZhang]

Han wasn't included in the novel because he wasn't contracted to do any Star Wars sequels at the time, unlike Hamill and Fisher. However I thought the vague mention was sufficient. I was eight years old when I read that book and I knew exactly who Foster was talking about.

I have a Star Wars annual from around that period, there are pages and pages about Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and Harrison ford gets maybe a couple of paragraphs.

 

[I Grok Spock]

I probably read this a dozen times before Empire was released. It's hard to remember a time when the first movie, this book, and a handful of comics were the totality of Star Wars.

 

[Stevil2001]

I have a plan to, at some point, read the original novelizations and the novels that slot between them in order:
- From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Shadows of the Empire
- Return of the Jedi
- The Truce at Bakura

I'm curious to see how they hold up as an expanded saga.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I wanted to read the original SW novelization, as I hear it has some backstory information that was better than the prequels.

Unfortunately, my small town library doesn't have it.

 

[Kegg]

I wanted to read the original SW novelization, as I hear it has some backstory information that was better than the prequels.

It's been a while since I read it, but - not really. I recall it explicitly stating that Palpatine was once the President of the Republic and had it liquidated to form the Empire, but that was about it.

Obi-Wan did have a brief and sort of amusing reference to a little known planet called Earth, though.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

It's been a while since I read it, but - not really. I recall it explicitly stating that Palpatine was once the President of the Republic and had it liquidated to form the Empire, but that was about it.

Obi-Wan did have a brief and sort of amusing reference to a little known planet called Earth, though.

Interesting.

I thought it made Palpatine out to be a tragic figure. Like someone who was taken over by the Dark Side of the Force.

Maybe I just misread what someone else here said about it years ago.

 

[Silvercrest]

I thought it said that he wasn't particularly evil, but that he became too insulated from the people he was ruling. His underlings kind of took over and a lot of atrocities were committed in his name.

 

[TremblingBluStar]

I thought it said that he wasn't particularly evil, but that he became too insulated from the people he was ruling. His underlings kind of took over and a lot of atrocities were committed in his name.

That is probably it. Either way, very different from what we saw in the prequels, or even in Jedi. He was obviously evil in that movie.

 

[Silvercrest]

It's also interesting because Splinter did make a reference to Palpatine as evil ("the water was as black as the inside of the Emperor's mind" or some such thing) and yet Alan Dean Foster wrote both books.

I don't know if that means Palpatine's backstory was changing at that point, or if he just got it wrong in the original book.