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What is your favourite SW movie novelisation? Please give specific details if you can.

A New Hope, for me... first movie novelisation I read back in the years.

And has the best Star Wars non-onscreen line ever created: "What's a duck?"

ROTS come at a close second.

I only read the OT novelisations and ROTS, and of them all ROTS adds more to my appreciation of the film than the OT books do.

To be perfectly honest, I think the OT novelisations suck with the exception of a few particular scenes.

For me ROTS had all of the character development the script and Darth Hayden never really portrayed. Actually seeing him tortured and fearful made a much better story than the "What have I done?" followed less than 30 seconds later by the kneeling and pledging allegiance. I also liked the character profiles "This is Obi-Wan Kenobi..., etc.".

I only read ANH, ROTJ & ROTS but out of them ROTS is my favourite.
Excellent writing, very cinematic and it's also one of the best audiobooks I have ever heard

I read the ANH novelisation before watching any of the SW films. Even though I was unfamiliar with the setting the novel was immensely enjoyable. It was a good book.

For me, it was "Star Wars" by Alan Dean Foster. It has a lot of background info and great scenes the current EU simply lacks. We find out that if C-3P0 even considered running away, every circuit in his brain would have melted.

I was very excited when I found out ADF was writing a new Star Wars novel, and couldn't wait to read it. That was "The Approaching Storm", and it was one of the most boring pieces of crap I ever read, unfortunately.

I remember reading TESB in one 3 hour sitting when I was 15. Some people don't like it, but I still enjoy reading it.

ROTJ has a lot of characterization, especially for Darth Vader. Its really interesting reading his final thoughts before he died.

TPM and AOTC are pretty forgettable, but I'll read them again eventually. I really like what Stover did with ROTS, though.

Revenge of the Sith novelization. After reading that book, the movie was a great big fucking letdown.

HSRTG wrote:Revenge of the Sith novelization. After reading that book, the movie was a great big fucking letdown.

Bingo. The ROTS novel simply blew me the fuck away. I have enough hubris to consider myself somewhat well read - I devoured the old classics when I was in grade school, long before I was assigned to read them in highschool english. But I still rank it as quite honestly one of the single best books I have ever read. I couldn't put it down. The characters were so well developed, the details so vivid, and the prose was simply spot fucking on. It had a number of the best lines I've read in a book.

"And because they sit there with ashes where their hearts were, and do not see two starfighters appear and dive into the fray with lasers blazing.
Only two. Two is enough.

Though it is the end of the age of heros, it has saved its best for last"

"And when Palpatine rose it was more then the Jedi vs Sith. It was not simply the Lord of all Sith burning the Master of all Jedi with his hate. It was the most fundamental battle of all.
Light against Dark.
Winner take all."

"The Dark is patient, generous, and everywhere. An the dark always wins. But in its strength lies its weakness. For a single candle can hold it back.
Love is more then a candle.
Love can ignite the stars."

I probably don't have them spot on, but you get the idea. Its just damn good. And while I've read books with better plots, books with better characters, books that sold better, books that were reviewed better, books whose philosophey I have tried to follow, and books that have stood the test of time to be true masterpieces, none of them has had me as absolutely enthralled as this one did. None got such raw reaction out of me on the first read. In analysis a number surpassed it. But the first read, nothing comes close to the sheer thrill that one gave me. Not fanboy geekism - I got plenty of that from things like Harry Potter. Stover managed to just hit me and get emotional reactions with everything.

Fuck, now I need to read it again.

RotS novel, no doubt. To this day I wish the conversations between Palpatine and Anakin had been in the movie, word for word.

I haven't read ROTS (although now that I've read your reviews I might have to), but I remember reading the OT novelizations several times throughout my childhood. ESB was my favorite. In fact, I read it so often that I had it nearly memorized.

For one of my grade school years, the only books I remembered to leave out (for when I had insomnia/was scared of monsters) in reach were the Star Wars novels, and I consistently chose to read ESB instead of the others for reasons that I can't even remember. I read it twice through on some nights. Eventually I lost that book, but when I saw another copy at a used-book store on my honeymoon, I had to buy it. Not just for me, but any future insomniacs who might join my family. It was hard to explain that to my wife who is not a Star Wars fan.

RotS. I read it often

ROTS. I honestly wish the rest of the novelizations could be written like that. The writing's so...appropriate. It captures the feel of the era and the people involved in it. Pretty much the most well-written Star Wars novel made yet.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:I haven't read ROTS (although now that I've read your reviews I might have to)

Here's an excerpt

I liked the AOTC novelization the best. Not necessarilly because it was the best book but because the stuff included in the book but not in the movie, or not apparent in the movie, made the story better.

Mostly dealing with Padme's feelings for Anakin. The book included the deleted scenes where Padme is interacting with her family after taking Anakin to her parent's house. The book made their love affair more believable. The movie on it's own makes it really difficult to swallow. Heck, if it had been an 80's action movie Anakin would have fallen in love with Padme after nailing her once. Instead we were asked to stretch even further in believing they were madly in love.

I also like the description of the light sabre fight between Dooku and Anakin. Anakin is much more impressive with the added details about his use of the Force during that duel.

Shadowtraveler wrote:ROTS. I honestly wish the rest of the novelizations could be written like that. The writing's so...appropriate. It captures the feel of the era and the people involved in it. Pretty much the most well-written Star Wars novel made yet.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote:I haven't read ROTS (although now that I've read your reviews I might have to)

Here's an excerpt

Holy hell, now I have to read that book. That excerpt was damn good. It gives you the feeling that was alluded, even hinted at, in ROTS. That Obi-Wan and Aakin are brothers, heroes. That they are an unbreakable froce bound by fearce loyalty. Man, that was a good page of reading.

Thanks, Shadowtraveller. I'm sold.

If only the movie had half as much emotion as that page of text it would have been amazing.

RotS is awesome. The 'Age of Heroes' Prologue give me chills almost everytime I read it. Though the 'its also happening right now' was a bit OTT and Hammy.

I've never read any of the Star Wars movie novelisations, but by the sound of it, I need to pick up a copy of the RotS one. Sounds to be ahead of the movie in leaps and bounds. Or lightyears, even.

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:I've never read any of the Star Wars movie novelisations, but by the sound of it, I need to pick up a copy of the RotS one. Sounds to be ahead of the movie in leaps and bounds. Or lightyears, even.

It is. In just one incident, Cody drops the artillery capacity of multiple companies on Kenobi, instead of just one measly gun.

I havent read the RotS novelization so my vote may change in the future, but for me i really enjoyed TPM novelizaton.

it has a ton of deleted or never filmed scenes and thats why i buy novelizations of movies.

I read the OT novelizations just for this fact but they have very little if no deleted scenes in those novelizations.

If you can, you really need to listen to the ROTS audiobook. I only wish Grievous had sounded in the movie like he did the audiobook.

I went with RoTS, too, basically for all the reasons stated above. Like Ender and some others, I don't just think that it's the best Star Wars novel. I think it's one of the best novels, period.

I'll be re-reading it tonight. That's for sure.

I've only read bits of the RotS novelization so I can't yet place it as my favorite so given that limitation I honestly rank RotJ as my favorite especially for the final sequences with Vader and Luke. The movie itself still gets me when he asks Luke to take the mask off but then to read the novelizaiton and ge tthat imagery of the spring rain falling on his skin for the first time in two decades only to realize it is Luke's tears...that shit just hits me like a sledgehammer.

CmdrWilkens wrote:<snip>
The movie itself still gets me when he asks Luke to take the mask off but then to read the novelizaiton and ge tthat imagery of the spring rain falling on his skin for the first time in two decades only to realize it is Luke's tears...that shit just hits me like a sledgehammer.

Man, that hits me hard just reading your post. I really wish they could get the
same caliber of writers in the EU as they did for the novelizations.