Star Wars Film Novelizations

The author, me, would like to note that my reviews vary. Sometimes, I'm lazy and make it short. Other times, I have a lot on my mind, so things get lengthy and sometimes ranty. Just a fair warning before you look at my reviews below.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks - 5 Stars

This book is perfect, despite its obvious flaws. First off, I love the additional scenes with Anakin; in fact, I love that it opens with Anakin, as it should (the prequels are focused on him, for the most part). Then, it enters the territory of the film that I’ve ultimately grown to love a lot. I like that in between some scenes from the film, we get to see Anakin a bit more. I’ll stop there with relaying what happened in the book as mostly, it’s just the first film (in order of the timeline) but with more details. Honestly, the writing throughout was wonderful; it explained everything well and it wasn’t too confusing. I was immersed. My only disappointment would be the lack of scenes with Padmé and her handmaidens; I absolutely love them.

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore - 4 Stars

I ended up not liking this novelization as much as I did the one before it, because I don’t particularly care that much about this film (it’s probably because I still don’t care about the “forbidden” love thing; it’s more the attachment that’s forbidden but a lot of us just go with saying forbidden love instead, so).

I like that Shmi gets moments of what she’s up to before her inevitable demise; getting to see more of Owen, Beru, and Cliegg, and C-3PO was good, too. Unlike the previous book, we get to see more of Padmé, and we get to see her family, thanks to the new scenes and the inclusion of deleted moments from the film. I like the extra moments of Anakin and Obi-Wan. I like the way the entire film is written out, basically, but ultimately, I wasn’t as into it as the other, for the reason I already explained.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Woodring Stover - 3 Stars

Much like with the film, it just feels like Padmé is just there, existing, only ever mentioned as Anakin’s wife and is the main focus for why Anakin does what he does later on, though he already had a lot of darkness within him, seen in the previous book/film. Many of the scenes were overwritten; they dragged on longer than they needed to, over explaining feelings and thoughts for far too long. And taking out iconic lines is very annoying, honestly; this is supposed to be a novelization of the film, not your own work of art (your own vision of the film). I love the movie, though.

I am gonna be assuming these novelizations were made during/after the film releases, so they went by what probably would've been shown on screen but this was the worst one of all because it reads like fan-fiction to me, a bad one.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed - 4 Stars

This film novelization turned out better than I originally thought, but I still liked the prequel novel (one of them, anyway) to this book a little better. Maybe it’s because I already know the story, thanks to the film. Maybe it’s because I read the prequel first. I’m glad I got to see my favorite group in book form, though, even if Jyn was kind of a weakling at some points, which was out of character for her, I believe. And the ending where Jyn and Cassian are about to die, it was like a “I love you” confession before death when in the film, it felt more like “we’re friends that just kicked the empire’s ass; now, let’s die peacefully (enough) together”; that was weird.

Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas, Alan Dean Foster - 4 Stars

It was around this point, of me reading the novelizations in order of events without knowing what year they were released, that I realized the books were definitely/very likely being written as the films were being made, which would explain a lot of the inaccuracies for each one.

Nothing much was new; there were just a few extra scenes of Luke. Everything else was just about the same, mainly just put into a novel format. It fixed some errors while keeping other errors; like, it’s based on an earlier draft, basically, so it’s not exactly the same but mostly is, like I said.

These novelizations should be remade, to be honest. They should be rewritten to be entirely accurate to what we know about the series now (and to the films).

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut - 3 Stars

The writing for this one was not as good; it was a bit lackluster. And, like the previous book, it had some inconsistencies that were probably in an earlier draft of the film. That or the writer wanted to change it up a little bit. In more recent years of rereading these novels a lot, I am leaning more towards them following an earlier draft. Other than making a few changes, there were no added scenes.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi by James Kahn - 3 Stars

While the writing was a bit lackluster here, too, at least a few additional scenes occurred. And, again, there were a few changes, like Jabba is much worse to Leia during her time as his slave. And, once again, some of the information is inconsistent because it was likely based on an early draft.

The novelization for the entire series definitely should be rewritten to be more accurate, while adding in a few extra scenes that fit the narrative.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster - 4 Stars

I would like to begin by saying I absolutely despise the newer movies, a.k.a the newest/latest trilogy. I just did not care all that much for it but I’d watch it to see the whole thing in its completion.

With that said, you’re probably wondering why the rating is so high. I read this book…like I was reading a non-canon, fan-made novel for the franchise. It really helped me like it, as I pretended it was only just a book and not a film. So, yeah, it’s good, when you think of it as not being part of the film line-up.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Jason Fry - 3 Stars

Again, you’re probably wondering why the rating is so high (at least, wondering why it’s over two stars still). It's for the same exact reason as given previously; I read it like it was non-canon events.

And yes, the one star less is definitely because the whole storyline remains a mess.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson - 1 Star

And now, you're probably not wondering why the rating is so goddamn low. Reading it like non-canon, fan-made shit did not work this time around; it was still so bad. A complete mess that couldn't be fixed. Someone should do as I suggested; rewrite the entire novelization series of Star Wars and make some of them make more sense.