Art of Star Wars: A New Hope

Rating:
Summary: A great novelization
Review: First, let's dispense with the myth that Lucas wrote this himself. It was fully written by noted sci-fi/fantasy author Alan Dean Foster (who also wrote the novelizations for Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Krull, Black Hole, Alien Nation and although credited to Gene Roddenberry, he also wrote Star Trek The Motion Picture) Lucas was busy actually making the movie while ADF was writing this novel based on Lucas's working script. This accounts for some of the differences in the story.

ADF is a great writer, with a good voice and a great use of brevity to convey details. This is a quick read and a real treat for star wars fans. When this was first released it was called "Star Wars: From the adventures of Luke Skywalker" and was released before the movie even came out. ADF was already contracted to write a sequel since no one had any idea how the film would do, thus "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" makes a wonderful companion piece (the similar style between the two should be a dead giveaway that Foster wrote both).

This where it all began. If you want to read the SW books, make sure you start here.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY WONDERFUL
Review: I can't even to begin to express how delighted I am with this visit to George Lucas' galaxy, "far, far away". To see designs from the minds of these amazing creators, popular gadgets, gizmos and vehicles as they were conceptionalized, is a real treat and forever an inspiration of how the magic of film making and imagination can transport an audience.

Rating:
Summary: An excellently written novelization of the movie
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Five stars for content, minus one for durability
Review: In 1979, Ballantine Books (then the sole licensed publisher of Star Wars novels and most tie-ins) published two versions of this book. One was a limited edition hardcover, which I have never seen, the other was one of those "trade paperback" editions (coffee table size but in softcover). What made this book a must-get was that it contained the entire fourth revised draft of the screenplay for A New Hope (it was the first time I had seen the Episode IV subtitle...even though I bought this book AFTER seeing The Empire Strikes Back). The screenplay I read included scenes that were later edited out of the final film (mainly scenes on Tatooine focusing a bit on Luke's life there and introducing Biggs Darklighter. Another deleted scene -- later restored for the Special Edition 20 years later -- introduced Jabba the Hutt...he would have been very different in look and demeanor from the final Jabba, but at least he was there. Some of these scenes appear both in the novelization (make that ALL) and in the Radio Drama.

The other attractive thing of this book was the amazing artwork. It ranges from pre-production paintings, costume concepts, actual photos, storyboards, and poster art. It even has a section devoted to spinoff art and some cute fan art, mostly drawn by small children.

The one flaw in the book is not content related but the choice of paper and binding. The pages are glossy, like those of a yearbook...but the glue that holds the pages to the binding was not strong enough to hold the pages together. I went through three copies of this book in the time it was in print...I only looked at the last one ONCE and the pages still came loose. Thus, out of 5 stars, I give this book 4.

Rating:
Summary: The Original and Still the Best!
Review: Okay...I have owned several copies of this book. Never the hardcover, since that one is rare ... It is lovely to look at and the screenplay...the fourth draft, which has scenes that were cut in the first version and some adapted in the Special Edition, gives us more of the story as it would be presented in the novel and radio dramatization. It is a wonderful book to look at, ALTHOUGH my other copies had the weakness of falling apart even if one was careful when perusing it. Some problem with the binding, I imagine. It is worth getting, though.

Rating:
Summary: Everything from the beginning...
Review: This is a nice book for the addicted fans who are looking for more. Well, there is not much more than in the movie, but is nice to read the original script (expecially for those like me who are not from an anglophone country) and take a look at the pre-production sketches and to the matte paintings. I appreciated it very much, but if you aren't an addicted fans it's sufficient to search in the net to see the same pictures.

Rating:
Summary: The book's better than the movie
Review: Yeah, Star Wars is great- but this is Star Wars as it was originally intended. For those wandering about the changes, as well as the reviewers who have such gems of wisdom to offer as, "interesting things happen like Luke is blue 5 instead of red 5" should be aware that the novel was written before the film. So the changes made were to the film and there are not additions in the book- merely things that did not make it into the film.

But, my being harsh aside- this is a great book, whilst it goes against the movie canon now. (Darth Vader is much more like a shogun for example and has little true loyalty to the Emperor)

George Lucas obviously has a passion for the story (and backstory) of Star Wars in this novel that he's lost as he made the prequels. Not a bad author either, if a bit over the top with the description.