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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for fans of the movie, so-so otherwise, August 5, 2004
This review is from: Willow: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
Willow Ufgood is a nelwyn (little people) farmer who aspires to being a good farmer, a good father, and (if possible) the village sorcerer's next apprentice. However when he finds a daikini (tall people/us) baby, his whole world is turned upside-down. This baby is Elora Danan, a child of prophecy, destined to be the end of the evil witch-queen Bavmorda, and Bavmorda's army is looking for her. There's a destiny at work here, and Willow must see it through. But along the way he will find help in unexpected places, most unexpectedly in the form of Madmartigan, a rogue of rogues and self-proclaimed "greatest swordsman that ever lived."
All right, this book is a novel based on the screenplay for the movie of the same name. It doesn't seek to be a mere text edition of the movie, but sets out to expand and improve upon the screenplay. Do you want to know where Vohnkar learned to be a great warrior? Do you want to know about the rise of Fin Raziel and Bavmorda? Do you want to know the past of Madmartigan and Airk Thaughbaer? Well, this book is the place to look! Being a fan of the movie, I deeply enjoyed all of the background information that this book gave me. It really filled in a lot of blanks.
Now, that said, how does the book do as a standalone novel? Overall, I found it to be somewhat thin when it came to motivation. That is, the characters often seemed to be marionettes going through an act, rather than living, breathing people, caught up in a dark adventure. But, in spite of that, I did enjoy the book, and am very glad I read it. I highly recommend it to all fans of the movie, and guardedly recommend it everyone else.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Willow's Missing Bits Made This Good, March 27, 2000
This review is from: Willow: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
I am a big fan of the film and decided I would read the Chris Claremont/George Lucas trilogy that carries on the story recently. I figured I would start with the novel before the trilogy, Willow (the film's novelization). I have read some pretty terrible novelizations, and some really great ones. This one I'm giving an average rating. Overall it moves just like the film, although some of the action and most of the comedy that was in the film, is missing in the novel. Madmartigan's humour must have totally relied on Val Kilmer's performance. The other characters are up to par though. The greatest reason to read this novel as a fan of the movie are the few scenes that must have been cut, or too expensive for the film. One thing that totally shocked me was the entire new character and storyline that was missing from the film! Sorsha's father! In the film you never meet him. In the novel it is great! It's a short novel that took me a sitting to read. I don't recommend this novel to anyone other than fans of Willow, who will really enjoy the missing bits from the film!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Loved The Film, Not The Novel., March 7, 2000
This review is from: Willow: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
I have always been a huge fan of the Willow film. Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley had great chemisty and it worked perfectly. In the novel Kilmer's Madmartigan character doesn't come through as well. His wise-cracking antics and such are not presented well, if they are present at all. The novel lacks description. Not of just places and people, but of actions. Too much does it rely on script-like dialogue to tell the story. Leaving the reader to figure out on their own what s happening during dialogues. Like most novelizations, I read this one to hopefully hear a little more that went on in the story. Thankfully it was there. Some strange additions and welcome additions were in this novel. Entirely new characters and small new storylines are there. To my shock there is a red-haired king involved of which I don't want to go into too much detail, but the novel really surprised me with this little tidbit. I grabbed a copy of this novel mainly to introduce me to the stories by George Lucas and Chris Claremont series that takes place after this story. Shadowmoon, Shadowdawn, and Shadowstar. I don't regret that I read this novel as it only took me one sitting, but hopefully the rest of the Willowish novels will be better.
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