PT Prequel novelizations.

What do you all think of them? I keep hearing that they are and then hear that they aren't canon. Which is it? Also what do you think of them all? There's big differences in the novels then the movies. It's a fun experience. Apparently Dooku hates non humans? Him being told to hold back VS Skywalker makes the fight look different. I like them all, personally I say Episode 3's was the best.

 

They are canon except the parts that contradict the movies (be it dialogue, scenes, characters, etc).

Like them all except RotS.

 

Really thats interesting. Curious as to what you didn't you like about the book? I've heard many say that the novelization of ROTS is better than the movie. I've never personally read it though. I have read TPM novelization and half of AOTC.

 

As far as canon goes, basically they are adapting canon stories. So the story is canon but I don't think anything else from the books are being considered. For instance, the RotS novel indicates Depa Billaba had turned to the dark side, which the comic series Kanan willingly contradicts.

RotS is a great novel. I thought the TPM was ok, but didn't add much. I really want insight and bonus scenes in a novel, not simply a plot rehash. Since we have home video, there's no need to read these to get the story, so I want more. I felt RotS did that and TPM didn't. And I really dislike R.A. Salvatore's writing, so the AotC novel basically was a complete miss for me.

 

i re-read TPM recently and i'm pretty sure i read AOTC before the film was released. i know i spoiled one of the movies this way..
with few exceptions they mostly seem like play-by-plays of the films and don't really add much.

may have to give ROTS a chance

 

Stover's heavy-handed and embellished writing.

Couldn't disagree more.

 

Haven't read TPM. The Anakin-Padme romance flows WAY better in the AotC novel for sure...I now sort of understand what George was trying to do there. RotS is my favorite though, despite a lot of info in it later being contradicted.

 

All 3 novelizations help the movies imo but ROTS holds an important place in my heart.

 

i loved Stover's revenge of the sith....some people don't like his extra detail i do...after all isn't it why we get the novelisations?....for the juicy little bits that didn't make it into the movie?.....just started re-reading shatterpoint by Stover too....forgot how good this book is, the private journals of mace windu was an excellent touch by the author

 

I think all the films are better, the ROTS novel is flawed but can be fun. I don't like Dooku being racist against non humans, and Anakin seams weaker in the book for sure.

 

I prefer the film, but I really like how well Episode Is novelization tied into the film.

 

I won't vote because I have not read Episode II's novel, but the Episode I novelization was one of the first pieces of Star Wars media I ever consumed - even before seeing the movie! That one is probably closest to my heart, although I like Episode III's novel is well - I remember there being a lot of behind the scenes back and forth so that little details that weren't in the film could make it into the book.

 

I know the ROTS novel adds a lot of context and lets us in on some of the other characters' thoughts over the course of the movie but at the same time, as I understand, retains some of the silly puns Anakin made while killing the Separatists and the whole love triangle thing among a few other key changes made late into production

I've not read it, but it sounds like a bit of a mixed bag

 

Just like Vader in ESB.

 

"Apology accepted" isn't quite on the same level as "I am your reward. You don't think I'm handsome?"

 

Wow, that just breaks the serious and tragic mood.....

 

WAIT what? There was a love triangle???

Oh please god why......

 

That's a slight overstatement - Anakin suspects for a moment that Padme might be having an affair with Obi-Wan (thanks to Palpatine's insinuations) - but neither her nor Obi-Wan have anything like that, or even romantic tension.

​

​

"Ah, that—well, that is the difficult part. The disturbing part. It seems that Master Kenobi has been in contact with a certain Senator who is known to be among the leaders of this cabal. Apparently, very close contact. The rumor is that he was seen leaving this Senator's residence this very morning, at an... unseemly hour."​

"Who?" Anakin opened his eyes and sat forward. "Who is this Senator? Let's go question him."​

"I'm sorry, Anakin. But the Senator in question is, in fact, a her. A woman you know quite well, in fact."​

"You—" He wasn't hearing this. He couldn't be. "You mean—"​

Anakin choked on her name.​

Palpatine gave him a look of melancholy sympathy. "I'm afraid so."​

Anakin coughed his voice back to life. "That's impossible! I would know—she doesn't... she couldn't—"​

"Sometimes the closest," Palpatine said sadly, "are those who cannot see."​

Anakin sat back, stunned. He felt like he'd been punched in the chest by a Gamorrean. By a rancor. His ears rang, and the room whirled around him.​

"I would know," he repeated numbly. "I would know..."​

"Don't take it too hard," Palpatine said. "It may be only idle gossip. All this may be only a figment of my overheated imagination; after all these years of war, I find myself inspecting every shadow that might hide an enemy. That is what I need from you, Anakin: I need you to find the truth. To set my mind at rest."​

A distant smolder kindled under Anakin's breastbone, so faint as to be barely there at all, but even a hint of that fire gave Anakin the strength to throw himself to his feet.​

"I can do that," he said.​

The flame grew stronger now. Hotter. The numb fatigue that had dragged at his limbs began to burn away.​

"Good, Anakin. I knew I could count on you."​

"Always, sir. Always."​

He turned to go. He would go to her. He would see her. He would get the truth. He would do it now. Right now. In the middle of the day. It didn't matter who might see him.​

This was business.​

"I know who my friends are," he said, and left.​

​

​

He moved through Padme's apartment like a shadow, like a ghost at a banquet. He touched nothing. He looked at everything.
He felt as if he'd never seen it before.
How could she do this to him?
Sometimes the closest are those who cannot see.
How could she?
How could he!
In the Force, the whole apartment stank of Obi-Wan.
His finger traced the curving back of her couch.
Here. Obi-Wan had sat here.
Anakin rounded the couch and settled into that same spot His hand fell naturally to the seat beside him... and there he felt an echo of Padme.
The dragon whispered, That's a little close for casual conversation.
This was a different kind of fear. Even colder. Even uglier. Fear that Palpatine might be right...
The apartment's air still hummed with discord and worry and there was a smell of oxidized spices and boiled seaweed hoi-broth, that was it. Someone in the past few hours had been drinking hoi-broth in this room.
Padme hated hoi-broth.
And Obi-Wan was allergic to it—once on a diplomatic mission to Ando, his violent reaction to a ceremonial toast had nearly triggered an intersystem incident.
So Padme had been entertaining other visitors, too.
From a pocket on his equipment belt he pulled a flimsi of Palpatine's list of suspect Senators. He scanned down the list, looking for names of Senators he knew well enough that he might recognize the Force-echoes of their presence here. Many he'd never heard of; there were thousands of Senators, after all. But those he knew by reputation were the cream of the Senate: people like Terr Taneel, Fang Zar, Bail Organa, Garm Bel Iblis—
He began to think Palpatine was just imagining things after all. These beings were known to be incorruptible.
He frowned down at the flimsi. It was possible...
A Senator might carefully construct a reputation, appearing to all the galaxy as honest and upright and honorable, all the while holding the rotten truth of himself so absolutely secret that no one would sense his evil until he had so much power that it was too late to stop him...
It was possible.
But so many? Could they all have accomplished that?
Could Padme?

 

As I've posted elsewhere, I really didn't like the ROTS novelization. In addition to the previously-noted triangle aspect and the Bondian quips, I thought Stover overused the whole "This is how it feels to be (fill in the blank) right now..." idea, and I disagree with his apparent view that Anakin was mentally ill, and that Darth Vader was practically an full alternate personality.

And directly translating Artoo's dialogue into English is just plain wrong.

 

He made it clear at the end that Anakin had been lying to himself - there never was a "dragon" or a "Vader" - only him.

I thought Allston did it quite well in the later novels - I think NJO.

 

But the way he did it was ripped off from William Goldman's Magic: the alternate personality telling him that there was never an us, only a him. It takes away much of Ani's responsibility for his situation; he didn't choose the Dark Side, he was sick. It goes against the whole idea of Ani being a man who chose to do what he knew was wrong, and ended up deeply regretting his choice.

And Artoo's exact words should always remain somewhat mysterious, since he ends up knowing much more than anyone knows or suspects. The only exception I give is when he's used as a Greek Chorus/narrator in the "William Shakespeare's 'Star Wars'" series; those worked perfectly.

 

Seemed to me like Stover's version had Anakin make the critical decision to join him "in cold blood":



"It's them or me, Anakin. Or perhaps I should put it more plainly: It's them or Padme."
Anakin made his right hand—his black-gloved hand of durasteel and electrodrivers—into a fist.
"It's just—it's not... easy, that's all. I have—I've been a Jedi for so long—"
Sidious offered an appalling smile. "There is a place within you, my boy, a place as briskly clean as ice on a mountaintop, cool and remote. Find that high place, and look down within yourself; breathe that clean, icy air as you regard your guilt and shame. Do not deny them; observe them. Take your horror in your hands and look at it. Examine it as a phenomenon. Smell it. Taste it. Come to know it as only you can, for it is yours, and it is precious."
As the shadow beside him spoke, its words became true. From a remote, frozen distance that was at the same time more extravagantly, hotly intimate than he could have ever dreamed, Anakin handled his emotions. He dissected them. He reassembled them and pulled them apart again. He still felt them—if anything, they burned hotter than before—but they no longer had the power to cloud his mind.
"You have found it, my boy: I can feel you there. That cold distance—that mountaintop within yourself—that is the first key to the power of the Sith."
Anakin opened his eyes and turned his gaze fully upon the grotesque features of Darth Sidious.
He didn't even blink.
As he looked upon that mask of corruption, the revulsion he felt was real, and it was powerful, and it was—
Interesting.
Anakin lifted his hand of durasteel and electrodrivers and cupped it, staring into its palm as though he held there the fear that had haunted his dreams for his whole life, and it was no larger than the piece of shuura he'd once stolen from Padme's plate.

On the mountain peak within himself, he weighed Padme's life against the Jedi Order.
It was no contest.
He said, "Yes."
"Yes to what, my boy?"
"Yes, I want your knowledge."
"Good. Good!"
"I want your power. I want the power to stop death."
"That power only my Master truly achieved, but together we will find it. The Force is strong with you, my boy. You can do anything."
"The Jedi betrayed you," Anakin said. "The Jedi betrayed both of us."
"As you say. Are you ready?"
"I am," he said, and meant it. "I give myself to you. I pledge myself to the ways of the Sith. Take me as your apprentice. Teach me. Lead me. Be my Master."
Sidious raised the hood of his robe and draped it to shadow the ruin of his face.
"Kneel before me, Anakin Skywalker."
Anakin dropped to one knee. He lowered his head.
"It is your will to join your destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords?"
There was no hesitation. "Yes."
Darth Sidious laid a pale hand on Anakin's brow. "Then it is done. You are now one with the Order of the Dark Lords of the Sith. From this day forward, the truth of you, my apprentice, now and forevermore, will be Darth..."
A pause; a questioning in the Force—
An answer, dark as the gap between galaxies—
He heard Sidious say it: his new name.
Vader.
A pair of syllables that meant him.

 

I just realized I never read the AOTC novelization. ROTS is one of the best books I have ever read.

 

It's got much less in the way of Bonus Scenes Not In Film - though it does have some. I liked the Shmi scenes at the start of the book, Jango teaching Boba fishing, Anakin meeting Padme's family, Padme confronting Dooku before she's sentenced to death by the Geonosisians, etc.

If you're OK with R. A. Salvatore's writing style, you might like it.

 

Exactly. The annoying purple prose.