Star Wars: From The Adventures of Luke Skywalker or Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope by George Lucas/Alan Dean Foster.
When Disney bought Lucasfilm and the Star Wars Franchise, they scrapped the Expanded Universe and re-labelled the old canon as Legends. That decision also meant all the existing film novelisations also became part of the Legends canon. It's a shame as Matthew Stover's Revenge of the Sith is amazing and probably the best of the original novelisations. When I read it back in 2006, I really did struggle to put it down. I even took it to work and read it during my breaks, but that is a another story for another time. For my own enjoyment, I kept the original novelisations as part of my read through, even if I have now decided to scrap the order I am reading them in.
I tend to do most of my reading on the bus going to and coming home from work. It helps to pass the time and means I don't have to interact with the other passengers. Back at the start of December I had just finished one of the many history books in consume and wanted a bit of fun. Some history books can be quite heavy and Sky Movies has begun showing Star Wars movies back to back. The night before I had watched A New Hope for what seems like the millionth time. I scoured the bookcase from a book and my eyes fell across my old, worn out, second hand copy of A New Hope or rather Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. It's amazing what you find at a jumble/rummage sale.
I am not going to bore you with a rundown of the plot. I assume if you are even reading this blog, you would seen A New Hope by now. So, let's take a look at some of the differences. I don't mean the differences in spelling of the various aliens and planets, but the difference between the novelisation and the finished film. Don't forget this was the 70s. Up until recently, the novelisations were released well before the film came out. Often the finished book would have massive differences to the film. They were based on an earlier version of the script before the final cut of the film was...err, finalised.
The opening crawl, which we call know and love, is very different. It starts: Another Galaxy. Another time. It also pretty much lays out the plot of the prequels, but with some major differences. Palpatine's play for power is the same, but there is no mention of clones or droid armies. While we don't get much of an idea as to how visible Palpatine to the galaxy at large, this Palpatine withdraws from public life and becomes a puppet of the of the Imperial bureaucrats. A huge difference to the Palpatine who we all know and love.
The book retains all the deleted scenes which have since become available to us, such as Luke's friends he was supposed to meet at Tosche Station including Biggs Darklighter. We also get to read the Jabba the Hutt scene, where he is a human. Oh, Hutt is spelt differently too.
If you are accustomed to reading Star Wars books, old and new, you'll know a lot of effort has gone in to the world building of that galaxy, far, far, away. I know this is the first novelisation but there are a lot of real world creatures are mentioned. Dogs, ducks and even pandas get name checked. When you are used to Star Wars authors referencing nerfs, banthas and moofs, it just seems a little weird.
While the book proudly displays George Lucas as the author, it was actually written by tie-in stalwart Alan Dean Foster who would later go on to write the first original Star Wars novel A Splinter In The Mind's Eye.
Having seen the movie more times than I can count in my 43 years, it was a lot of fun to read this 'skewed' version of a very familiar story. Part of the fun was reading the deleted content removed from the final screenplay or tweaked before it hit the big screen. Disney have since released junior novelisations of the original trilogy, but the old ones are still the best.
I am not going to go through all the differences, as this will spoil all the fun for you when you read it. This is a different take on the familiar and a refreshing read. Those bus journeys to work, just weren't long enough.
I tend to do most of my reading on the bus going to and coming home from work. It helps to pass the time and means I don't have to interact with the other passengers. Back at the start of December I had just finished one of the many history books in consume and wanted a bit of fun. Some history books can be quite heavy and Sky Movies has begun showing Star Wars movies back to back. The night before I had watched A New Hope for what seems like the millionth time. I scoured the bookcase from a book and my eyes fell across my old, worn out, second hand copy of A New Hope or rather Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. It's amazing what you find at a jumble/rummage sale.
I am not going to bore you with a rundown of the plot. I assume if you are even reading this blog, you would seen A New Hope by now. So, let's take a look at some of the differences. I don't mean the differences in spelling of the various aliens and planets, but the difference between the novelisation and the finished film. Don't forget this was the 70s. Up until recently, the novelisations were released well before the film came out. Often the finished book would have massive differences to the film. They were based on an earlier version of the script before the final cut of the film was...err, finalised.
The opening crawl, which we call know and love, is very different. It starts: Another Galaxy. Another time. It also pretty much lays out the plot of the prequels, but with some major differences. Palpatine's play for power is the same, but there is no mention of clones or droid armies. While we don't get much of an idea as to how visible Palpatine to the galaxy at large, this Palpatine withdraws from public life and becomes a puppet of the of the Imperial bureaucrats. A huge difference to the Palpatine who we all know and love.
The book retains all the deleted scenes which have since become available to us, such as Luke's friends he was supposed to meet at Tosche Station including Biggs Darklighter. We also get to read the Jabba the Hutt scene, where he is a human. Oh, Hutt is spelt differently too.
If you are accustomed to reading Star Wars books, old and new, you'll know a lot of effort has gone in to the world building of that galaxy, far, far, away. I know this is the first novelisation but there are a lot of real world creatures are mentioned. Dogs, ducks and even pandas get name checked. When you are used to Star Wars authors referencing nerfs, banthas and moofs, it just seems a little weird.
While the book proudly displays George Lucas as the author, it was actually written by tie-in stalwart Alan Dean Foster who would later go on to write the first original Star Wars novel A Splinter In The Mind's Eye.
Having seen the movie more times than I can count in my 43 years, it was a lot of fun to read this 'skewed' version of a very familiar story. Part of the fun was reading the deleted content removed from the final screenplay or tweaked before it hit the big screen. Disney have since released junior novelisations of the original trilogy, but the old ones are still the best.
I am not going to go through all the differences, as this will spoil all the fun for you when you read it. This is a different take on the familiar and a refreshing read. Those bus journeys to work, just weren't long enough.
Love it. Remember reading this a long time ago. And the thing I remember most is that Luke doesn't know what a duck is!
ReplyDeleteHow is Hutt spelt you tease?