(Since writing this review a few months back when I had not completey finished reading this book I HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK AND I wish to add a few comments,which see at end of this review, indicated by ADDITIONAL LATER COMMENTS)I remember how I felt back in 83, sitting in the darkened theater, when I heard Obi Wan give that lame excuse to Luke's question/comment about how he had said Vader killed his dad....I felt sick and betrayed by Lucas....I smelled a rat....I didn't fall for it....but I couldn't quite feel as certain about the matter as I would have liked. WAS I missing something? HAD Lucas NOT actually pulled a fast one on all of us after all???????? I wondered and wondered.....AAAAAAAAAAALL these years BUT I was pretty sure this was a "stunt" that Georgie had pulled. This book I am reviewing settled the matter with the force of an atom bomb expoding. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Lucas had indeed pulled a fast one. I have never felt so validated in all my life....and Lucas's credibility and integrity sank to the bottom of the list almost, for me anyway. This book is an amazingly impressive piece of research and integrity. If I could have I would have given it more stars than can fit on this page. The impact that those first TWO Star Wars films had in my life in the ensuing years thereafter is beyond description and that impact was in no small way plugged into the respect and trust I had in Lucas....but the third film with the above mentioned response to Luke's question bothered me greatly and disturbed me for a long time....UNTIL THIS BOOK. Now the haunting questions have been answered and as a result much of my initial respect and trust in Lucas is gone BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY this book has, in validating my initial suspicions, caused me to realize that YES, my mind....my guts....my intuition back then...and therefore NOW....was/is working JUST FINE....and I am feeling a lot of anger at the stunt/deception that Lucas pulled off in this matter. I do not like my intelligence being insulted and considering the "setting" in which this stunt of Lucas was pulled off in and that has been exposed in this fantastic book, I can only hope many many many people out there who had their minds messed with by Lucas in this matter, like me, will read this book. Great and loud, sky shattering "THANK YOUs" are in order for the author of this book....well done....WELL DONE,
(ADDITIONAL LATER COMMENTS: Now that I have finished this book - only last night, a few months after the above comments - I have to revise, SOMEWHAT, my above comments. Upon finishing reading this book - truly a masterpiece of investigation - I see, and much better understand, the much larger picture it paints than when I first wrote the above angry commentary on the story it presented, when I had not yet finished reading this book completely. Much of what I said above, late last fall, still remains largely valid for me but this book really painted a much larger and more complex picture of a truly large complex history of the Star Wars "saga" than I had expected/suspected and, likewise, a much more complex story about Lucas than I had expected. The result of all of this has been a tempering of my anger towards Lucas regarding the "changes" he made over time in the Father Skywalker/Darth Vader matter....ONLY TEMPERING my anger, NOT COMPLETELY REMOVING IT. This book is indeed, I do believe, the most fascinating book I have ever read...not only because of its "tale" but the way it was researched and written. Again I say, regarding this book and author.....WELL DONE.....WELL DONE indeed. Many many many stars for you!!!)
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Outdated book weighed down by way too much angst
You'd think this book was unveiling the Watergate tapes with how seriously it takes revealing that George Lucas's myth behind The-Complete-and-Absolute-Star-Wars-Saga's creation is indeed just a myth (next you'll tell me the Blair Witch Project was fake!). The argumentative tone gets old fast, and I'm actually on the author's side, believe it or not!Not helping is that the book is also outdated: its boldest and most confident assertion is that Lucas came up with the "Vader is Luke's father" plot turn during an epiphany while writing the second draft of 'The Empire Strikes Back.' But just two years later JW Rinzler's 'The Making of The Empire Strikes Back' would find the plot turn listed in Lucas's handwritten preliminary notes for 'Empire' and the series' then-future (interestingly, it would seem the original idea was that eventually *Luke* would make the sacrifice that redeems his father - see attached).It honestly wasn't a bad guess given the information available at the time, but it's hilarious in hindsight reading the book claim how it would have been preposterous of Lucas to withhold the plot twist from first draft screenwriter Leigh Brackett--he's *right*, it's a ridiculous thing to do... and it appears that is precisely what Lucas actually did. Oops!
Top reviews from other countries
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Andrea AnglaniReviewed in Italy on November 22, 2013
L'evoluzione di Star Wars: la vera storia
- Robert EvansReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2013
Informative and authorative
