Star Wars: A Storybook (Star Wars Series) (Paperback)

by J. J. Gardner (Author) "IT was a vast, shining globe and it cast a light of lambent topaz into space-but it was not a sun..." (more)
Key Phrases: targeting visor, detention block, energy bolts, Artoo Detoo, Blue Leader, Darth Vader (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"'I want to come with you to Alderaan,' Luke said, resolved. 'I want to become a Jedi like my father.'" This marks the start of Luke Skywalker's involvement with the Rebellion in George Lucas's grand narrative of good versus evil, Star Wars. You know the story, you've seen the film--but this chunky little book is a real gem. Star Wars fans of all ages will enjoy both the fine abridgment and Brandon McKinney's 146 two-color illustrations, drawn in classic comic book style. --C.B. Delaney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Luke Skywalker was a twenty-year-old who lived and worked on his uncle's farm on the remote planet of Tatooine...and he was bored beyond belief. He yearned for adventures that would take him beyond the farthest galaxies. But he got much more than he bargained for....
--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: Scholastic (February 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590066544
• ISBN-13: 978-0590066549
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,337,600 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellently written novelization of the movie, February 21, 2001

By	"kandladin" (Castle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Wars, Episode IV - A New Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

I had planned to read this book for a while, and I was looking forward to it a lot, since the kids' one was way to short and boring even when I was ten years old. So, as you can probably guess my expectations were rather high, too high perhaps, but even so I was not disapointed. George Lucas has proved himself not only an excellent filmmaker, but also a great author as well. This book, while a bit dry at times, illustrates the movie in a spectacular fashion, and breathes new life into it, so that it seems interesting all over again. I read it one day when I was stuck in a hotel room, but this book was so interesting I litterally could not put it down. Every true Star Wars fan should read this, since it completly tells the story with a bunch of added stuff, that truly flesh out the story and that were completly missing from the movie. One thing that surprised me was the occasional small details that were changed. Such as Threepio being described as bronze instead of gold, and Luke being Blue 5 instead of Red 5. Another thing that struck me as odd was the slight differences in characters, Luke and Ben most noticably. Ben is less wise, more mischevious, and at times even funny, a previously unheard of thing! Luke also is slightly different. He seems, well, less innocent, more stupid, and even acts like somewhat of a jerk at times, and is all around more heroic and self centered, and generaly less cute. This was both interesting and annoying, since Luke was always my favorite character and to be honest I liked him better the other way. Leia is also noticably different, she being somewhat less strong, which annoyed me somewhat. Anyway, this was an excellent book, that deserved an honest four stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid adaptation of a classic story, March 26, 2007

By	Andrew Pruette "Rancors Love to Read" (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Star Wars, Episode IV - A New Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

This novelization of the first Star Wars film is the alpha ancestor of the entire Star Wars universe. Published several months before the release of the film (which was simply titled "Star Wars" in 1977, picking up the "A New Hope" signifier in the 1979 theatrical re-release), the book was a success on a small scale but did not take off until the film became a phenomenon. George Lucas is credited with authoring this novel, but as he acknowledges in his introduction, the book was ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster based on Lucas' screenplay. Foster went on to write two more Star Wars novels, Splinter of the Mind's Eye in the late 70's and The Approaching Storm in 2002.

Credit must be given to Foster for capturing a Star Wars "feel" in this novel without any preceding Star Wars material to work from and without knowledge of the scrutiny every scrap of Star Wars literature would eventually be subjected to. He follows the screenplay quite faithfully, and except for the inclusion of a sequence on Tatooine that was shot but cut from the film late in the editing process, his novel follows the film's sequence of scenes exactly. He does toy with the dialogue to an extent, re-writing lines throughout. To a modern-day Star Wars nut, this can sometimes be jarring, as everything about this story is so familiar. It's interesting in movie novelizations how the authors often change dialogue but nothing else: I like seeing a little more experimentation, such as that in Matthew Stover's superb novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

Foster is a descriptive writer and this story flows along briskly. One quirk that happens multiple times is he often uses comparisons rooted in our own mundane Earth to describe something, such as "like a dog padding on plastic," "like an Oriental poppy in a sea of oats, " and "like the damping rods in a nuclear reactor." Foster definitely had his work cut out for him in trying to describe such a visual universe before any visual media had been released to the public, but the dozen or so Earth allusions often shatter the otherworldly feel of the story.

As I mentioned earlier, the book contains a sequence set on Tatooine that did not make the final cut of the movie. It occurs early in the story with Luke observing the capture of the Tantive IV in orbit and rushing off to Anchorhead to tell his friends about the battle. When he arrives at Tosche Station, he has an unexpected joyful reunion with his old friend Biggs Darklighter. This segment with Biggs plants the seeds of sympathy toward the Rebellion in Luke's mind and also heightens the impact of Biggs' death during the Death Star attack at the end of the story.

The novelization of Episode IV is a serviceable rendition that does not add too much to the film. It would be interesting to see a new interpretation, either by Foster or another author, written in the modern day that could incorporate material from the prequels and the Expanded Universe material that has been released since 1977.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece!, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Wars, Episode IV - A New Hope (Mass Market Paperback)

What can I say? This book is excellent. It is written by George Lucas himself, and it is VERY good. He is not only an accomplished film-maker, but author as well. It is very well written, and I highly suggest that all Star Wars fans pick it up.