Books A/V OT young reader adaptations by Alexandra Bracken, Adam Gidwitz, and Tom Angleburger

I don't mind the ESB and ROTJ books; I see them as silly retellings, like the Shakespeare books. But paired with the ANH book, it's an odd line-up. Why did they not go all silly or all serious?

Agreed with everyone about the Bracken excerpt being stellar and wanting her to write a Leia book ASAP. Either pre-ANH or, *gasp*, as a lead up to TFA?

 

I've mentioned before, I see the ESB book being a modern day campfire telling to whippersnappers about what happened a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away. It's reclaiming the Fairy Tale framing aspect that begins every Star Wars movie. It's the voice of an author telling a fairy tale to modern children. And you can feel the force in the same way you can bring Tinkerbell back from the dead by clapping.

I mean, while Lord of the Rings was written as a serious in-universe history, Tolkien framed 'The Hobbit' as a fun folk tale being told to modern our-world children, with lots of modern point-of-references for his audience.


*Or, alternatively, you could see it as totally a kids recruiting book retelling canonical scripture stories from the Order of Luke Skywalker of Latter-day Jedi, from the perspective of some crazy old wizard that really does believe these really are ancient stories, and that the Force is real in our day and in this galaxy, and to let these kids listening know how they can know for themselves, "you have that power, too." #forcetheme

 

I find the ROTJ one pretty irksome, but hopefully it gets better as the book goes along. I have no problem with ESB, second person could be an interesting take, especially after we just got the first person Heir to the Jedi.

 

Seriously, I loved all three of them.

Bracken's work on the Leia bits is so impressive, so crisp and focused and deep at the same time, that I can't wait to see what she does with Han and Luke (as it seems like we're getting the perspectives of all three of them -- and, if the repeated enumeration at the beginning is any indication, Han's before Luke's?).

In ESB, I didn't mind the "So you want to be a Jedi" inserts in the least -- I thought they were a great, tantalizing way to make the abstract concept of the Force more accessible. Again, I'm extremely curious how far Gidwitz can take that. And I really enjoyed his style of humor, even though I thought that bit about leaving out the "mushy parts" was a bit mucho. Be interesting to see what he does about the Carbon Chamber scene, then

As for Angleburger (am I the only one imagining Lovecraftian fast food every time I read that name?), I showed that opening to some kids at our school's writing club, and we all agreed it was genius. Stupid, but genius. Fear not, reader. It will get better.

 

JediMara77 I think each author was given the liberty to relate each story in their own way so I think they're inconsistent by design. They're being experimental, which is cool to see. Bracken's is easily the best for many reasons, but I appreciate the creativity that Gidwitz and Angleburger employed. Each author put their own twist on the retellings.[/quote]


Yeah, I know. It's just jarring that two went off in very similar directions while the other stayed, for lack of a better word, straight.

 

Stover's second-person scenes were good enough, at least to me, to make me fairly open-minded when it comes to other SW books having them.

 

Will anything be added onto in the books, do you think?

 

I think that this is great and to answer one of the poster that said that he didn't want chapter by chapter telling's of the same thing, you better expect it buddy, because its coming. Disney has got the OT flavor and they want to bring it out. Haven't you noticed that Rebels is OTish, Marvel comics is centered in the OT, and in star wars insider 158, they said that while they want to explore other eras, they don't mind doing so but, ........if you noticed they said even if they stayed within the OT era. That means that this is were they want to concentrate for now and the foreseeable future, minus that Clone War un-adapted episodes novel.

With that said, the OT novelizations are pretty good but remember that you have the 3rd draft of the script there and not the current movie. So a scene by scene telling by word is not going to happen. You would have to get the script book by LB covers all those movie scenes and excerpts that explain what was cut and not added. Then you have to have the radio drama script books as they expand upon scenes not in the novel or movie. Then you need the Marvel comic book adaption as the same can be said about those. Then you need RW junior novels because not only are they good but they add depth.

So these new novels coming out will add more, but don't forget the Golden Books coming out in July, as well as the 3 CD booklets of the OT. It looks like for the foreseeable future we are going to get a lot of the OT stuff so if you don't want any well.....you know what happens. All I can tell you is that expect a chapter by chapter account of the OT with more coming out probably next year. There is no getting away from it.

 

So, there's a panel with the three fine authors on at SDCC right now. And yes, Bracken is definitely pulling from the EU, she outright said it. The one big thing they no-no'd her on was Han's backstory. Angleberger also added a scene to RotJ to make sure it passes the Bechdel test.

Link here: http://www.starwars.com/news/sdcc-2015-star-wars-publishing-panel-liveblog?linkId=15447738

 

Looking forward to these new interpretations to add to the ones that I have already.

 

The one with Leia sounds very promising. The excerpt was great, and Alexandra Bracken did her best to include as much EU as she could, mostly from the ANH radio drama.

 

Interestingly, these will also be released as unabridged audiobooks and available via audible.com.

Not sure I would have checked them out otherwise, and I hope they continue this trend for YA and young reader books, for me and my kids.

We like listening to audio books during road trips, and so far I ashamed to admit my failure to convert them into SW fans

At their age, 5 (they're twins), I was stoked to see ESB in the theatre. But they only have a cursory curiosity and mostly get excited because they know I love it. They are currently dominated by all things Mario.

These books can be my in! And...as much as it pains me to admit it, TPM might be a good way to bait them.

 

I'm actually coming around to trying the ESB and ROTJ ones after all. They still both look pretty silly, but what the heck, they might be fun.

 

Alex seems really cool, it's neat to hear how much like a lot of posters on this forum she is. I'll definitely be picking up her book. Maybe the others as well, I'm not sure yet. But hers most definitely.

 

Great interview. I was especially intrigued by this quote

Any thoughts on just what that could mean?

 

I'm not sure what needs to be explained there. Bracken incorporated elements from the old ANH radio drama. The one that had scenes on Alderaan, Lord Tion and so on.