The Star Wars Trilogy, Episodes IV, V & VI [Hardcover]

George Lucas (Author), Donald F. Glut (Author), James Kahn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

Twenty-five years after the phenomenon was born, Star Wars remains one of the greatest fantasy sagas ever told. Here is the original, complete Star Wars trilogy, featuring the novels of all three classic films, Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Read these stories and rediscover the wonder of the epic that begins:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. . . . 

Luke Skywalker lived and worked on his uncle's farm on the remote planet of Tatooine. But he yearned for adventures out among the stars -- exotic travels that would take him beyond the farthest reaches of the universe to distant, alien worlds. But when Luke intercepted a cryptic message from a beautiful, captive Princess, he would be catapulted into the adventure of a lifetime.

Luke Skywalker, the proud Princess Leia, and headstrong Han Solo . . . merciless Darth Vader, wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, loyal droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the inscrutable Yoda . . . Chewbacca the Wookiee, shifty Lando Calrissian, and the vile Jabba the Hutt -- all the vivid characters from the Star Wars universe spring to life in these thrilling pages.

The Star Wars Trilogy is a must-read for anyone who wants to relive the excitement, the magic, and the sheer entertainment of this legendary saga -- now and forever. 

Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The three novelizations of the original Star Wars trilogy each sold millions of copies. In honor of Star Wars'-or technically Episode IV: A New Hope-silver anniversary, Ballantine has released this handsome three-in-one hardcover edition sporting a cover by conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie, who greatly influenced the look of the films, e.g., Vader's mask was his idea. Though Star Wars might seem like geek fan boy stuff, creator Lucas (all the novels are based on his initial treatments for the scripts) does use proven literary motifs: a coming-of-age story as well as a search for a father figure, with a talisman (daddy Darth's lightsaber) linking the generations, it is most importantly about redemption. Each of the novels also includes an introduction by Lucas. A quarter-century later, millions of fans worldwide remain ravenous for all things from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away; the new films rake in zillions, and print titles in the "expanded universe" (characters/plots not covered on-screen) are widely read. This volume should do well.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: LucasBooks; 25 Anv edition (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345453395
• ISBN-13: 978-0345453396
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.5 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Tatooine to Endor......, April 14, 2003

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Star Wars Trilogy, Episodes IV, V & VI (Hardcover)

The 25th Anniversary edition of The Star Wars Trilogy breaks no new ground or make any editorial changes to the three movie tie-in novels based on the screenplays for Star Wars (now known as A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. There are no adjustments or rewrites to make the novels match the Special Edition re-releases of 1997. It isn't even the first time all three novels are collected in one volume...there are mass-market and trade paperback three-in-one editions. The only new features are the cover art by Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual artist whose paintings "sold" George Lucas' "out of this world" ideas to leery 20th Century Fox executives and short intros to each novelization by Lucas himself. Whether or not those were written for the 25th Anniversary Edition or if they appeared in other reissues of the novels isn't important; what is important is that the 25th Anniversary Edition's elegant package recaptures the magic of reading the Classic Trilogy....

Like most novelizations of popular movies, the authors (Alan Dean Foster being the ghostwriter for George Lucas, Donald F. Glut, and James Kahn) have adapted the screenplays to Episodes IV, V and VI with a certain sense of unity, yet each writer has a distinctive style of his own. On the whole, the best writer is Foster, who had, before Star Wars, adapted the Star Trek animated series into the Star Trek Logs series. Very few Star Wars authors, with the exception of Timothy Zahn and a few others, capture the essence of the characters and situations of the movies as well as Foster. Glut is almost as good a writer, and his style is not all that different from Foster's. Kahn's style is minimalist. I like the Jedi novelization, but there is a strange sense of connect-the-dots permeating it all the same.

All right, so we aren't talking great literature here, and I do know that the writers work from drafts of the screenplay that are different from the final shooting script. That's why Luke Skywalker's comm sign in the novel of A New Hope is Blue Five; in the movie the callsign is Red Five. And the novels do expand the storyline and "restore" deleted scenes....the literary equivalent of a DVD extra features disc, you might say.

I rate this book 5 stars not because it is brilliantly written or philosophically meaningful, but rather because it recaptures the magic of reading those dog-eared paperbacks, but with a bit more class.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much different from the movies, July 13, 2005

By 

R.Suarez "R-Suarez-" (Mc Allen, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Star Wars Trilogy, Episodes IV, V & VI (Hardcover)

This hardcover edition of the books is definitely way better than having the pocket editions, it is a commemorative edition of the 25th anniversary of the saga with a special introduction to each novel written by no other than George Lucas himself.

The first part of the book is a prologue of two pages length that basically explains the events we have seen in the new prequels, how the Republic once existed and how a corrupt politician named Palpatine made his way to become the galactic Emperor.

The three novels are basically the same stuff we have already seen in the movies, there are however, a couple of details that add up to the story from the films.

In the episode IV we get to read more of Luke and his friends in Tatooine as they watch what seems to be a battle above the surface of the planet; in episode V there is this little difference in which Yoda's skin was blue and in episode VI, after seeing Yoda die and confirming that Vader is Luke's father, Ben Kenobi confesses to Luke the truth about his father and describes the final duel we recently saw in episode III, adding the interesting fact that Owen Lars is Kenobi's brother!

A piece of collection if you are a Star Wars fan and in a very fancy presentation; Besides getting the three books into one, don't look for another added value because there are none, get ready to read line by line the same dialogues seen on the original films if you buy it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting look into back story, July 19, 2006

By 

William J. Malamon (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Star Wars Trilogy, Episodes IV, V & VI (Hardcover)

I would recommend these for any fan. Some interesting insights into the films. The prologue to A New Hope has a two page write up that describes the back story for all the prequels. You'll also find some conflicts with the prequels ie, Luke's uncle is said to be Obi-wan's brother and Anakin's unnamed wife lived after Luke and Leia's birth.