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

Nothing about the sand people - by the time the POV switches to Tatooine we're already in Mos Eisley.

 

Thanks for that LelalMekha.

Dialogue deviations don't bother me at all - I discussed a while back, in a different thread, my own personal policy about that sort of thing. If it's "adapting" what we see on-screen, then what's on-screen is the canonical version of events (and dialogue). If we're seeing new events that didn't happen on-screen, then the new material is canon. I find that looking at it that way offers the least amount of consternation.

Admittedly without having read it yet, the mention of the Eclipse sounds like an editorial error. There's been a bit of a run of those in the new canon novels lately - "Sixes," Madine's "voluminous white beard" from Aftermath, Ciena teleporting from the Executor to Cloud City in Lost Stars, and a couple others I've seen. I have no problem simply acknowledging them as errors and moving on.

And other stuff I just take on a case by case basis. The EV-9D9 thing - her Databank entry just says her programming has a quirk that predisposes her to torture, not that it was necessarily that way from the start. Both stories could easily be true - maybe she was reprogrammed to have that quirk. In general I'm finding that the older I get, the less bothered I am about continuity errors. I don't know what that says about me, but there you go.

 

Now, I'll say it again, just to be sure: I WANT to count those new novels in the new Canon. However, I'm a bit frustrated that they have a tendency to put certain things in a "gray area" (aka "canonish" or "kinda canon").

 

I saw these new retellings of the original trilogy at Shopko earlier today. To me I'm sure the chapters are dumb since they're more for kids or whatever.

The empire strikes back novel do they tone down or make it goofy of Luke's hand?

 

I just asked. Did they make it goofy or whatever fir the part with Luke's hand chopped off in these new retelling hardcovers?

 

That's strange. My copy has a slide whistle sounding when his hand is chopped off, and when it lands on the ground it's giving Vader the middle finger.

 

In the Empire Strikes Back book, did they include the scene when the tie bombers were dropping the bombs on the asteroids?

 

Yes, I'm satisfied with the answer she gave to my question--although I still would have preferred a firmer yes.

 

Basically "Malla" is canon but "British butlers" aren't.

 

I absolutely loved the New Hope retelling, far more than I thought I would. Started ESB, though, and I just can't get into it. The second person is a little jarring, particularly with the conversational, earthly tone. But it also switches out of second person (kind of) when Luke is not around in the story. Then the silly "tests..." I don't know. It's not awful by any means (and it is an interesting idea). I suppose it just feels like it is written for a much younger reader than ANH was and I find that kind of odd.

I think for now that I will be moving on to ROTJ. I may come back to this one at a later date (I'm a little OCD about finishing books I've started...) but it's just not my cup of tea.

 

We had Alexandra Bracken on the podcast yesterday. She's an absolute delight and we talked a lot about the book, and just gushed about Star Wars in general.

Also, Bracken's Leia is the best-written Leia I've ever read.

 

The most interesting thing about these books for me is how utterly different they are from each other. Each author takes a very different approach - Bracken is very straight, but taking 'secondary' POVs; Gidwitz is doing that second-person thing and breaking the fourth wall; Angleberger goes for a chatty, whimsical, camp-fire tone.

I enjoyed them all; they're a little odd as a set.

 

I am very strongly considering reading at least the adaptation of a New Hope and considering all three of them for a present for my nephew.

 

It really can't be understated how big of a Star Wars fan Alex Bracken is. Nanci and I have done a TON of interviews on the podcast, but I think the one with Bracken is the most fun we've ever had entirely because of how much she loves Star Wars.

 

Now that I've read them - I have to say I liked them a lot.

The ROTJ one mentions Asha quite a few times - which I'm sure Ewok Poet will find of interest.

 

Been a bit away from non-fic boards because humans are scary, but I'm going to look this up ASAP. Hvala.

 

Okay, I just finished reading the books over a period of four days on the graveyard shift and getting very little sleep. My mind is hazy on the details, but I have to say I love these adaptations. I'm definitely rereading them when my brain clears up.

 

I just went through Tom's book and...wow. Teebo is a writer again. To me, this is the biggest deal of all the big deals.

Not to mention that a great portion of the book seems to be include his POV, e.g. the thing I keep on saying, that Han wanted to kill him and that it was so obvious.

I'm impressed. And it appears that Tom is as nerdy about Ewoks as me!

 

I've never had a strong opiniion about the Ewoks, good or bad. They served their purpose in the story and that was enough for me. However, having also just finished Angleburger's adaptation, I have to say: his portrayal of the Ewoks was glorious. I will never look at those little fur-balls again without his interpretation in my mind. Plus, and this can't be said enough about any Star Wars writing that pulls it off: it was simply a lot of fun.

 

It definitely reminded me that present-tense is a style that can work very well for Star Wars.