Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH (spoilers)

10/10

Despite lapsing into bouts of fully appropriate purple prose-which had a nice WWII newsreel feel to them-this novelization felt more like an original novel than an adaptation.

Stover had a marvelous stort to work with and he made the most of this opportunity.

It was nice getting inside the head of Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is a conflicted character and we feel that conflict keenly. We ask ourselves what we would do in his place? Would we destroy everything we believed in to save someone we loved? It is in some ways not an easy question to answer and Anakin has a hard time with it. In the end he capitulates to his passion as he always had and it cost he and the one he loves everything. And it hurts.

 

Matthew Stover, already one of my favorite authors, has IMO really come through with this book. I was expecting a good book and I was blown away.

I love the style he used. How he'd stop the action for a second to truly show us the people he was writing about. To let us get into their heads, into not just their thoughts, but who they truly were. He really gets into what makes them 'tick'.

What makes this book so good is that it was all presented in such a way that you care about the characters so much. See the things that they did or didn't do that brought their downfall. And in the end, it makes you want to cry. But, then you see, you shouldn't cry, There is still hope.

It's nice to see a Star Wars book that gets into people's heads more.

9/10

 

Counting 18 ratings: 171.8/18 = 9.54

 

I'll get a more formal review up when I've got time, but for now, here's my rating:

9.5 out of 10

Not quite as good as Shatterpoint and Traitor, but still very well-handled; incredibly mature and dark compared to most other Star Wars novels.

 

9.5/10.

Stover did an excellent job; as mentioned before, he made us care about the characters by fleshing them right out, and taking time out of the main action to give us asides on each one. I felt that it was a little compressed though - the last section could have easily been a good deal longer, especially considering its climatic nature. However, it's easily the best of the PT novelisations. The characters feel so much stronger than in previous novelisations, and this helps to prop up the plot. Kudos, Stover!

I_F

 

4/10

Let me start by saying the I like Stover's work. Traitor was one of the best NJO books, and it brought up an issue that was debated rather heavily here in the Lit forum, which is a good thing in a book IMO. I don't blame Stover for that, just like I don't blame him for the rushed and often boring story about the fall of Anakin Skywalker.

This story was way too rushed. The fact that so much of the book was spent on the beginning really made me cringe, as I knew how little that was leaving for the story of the fall. I was not disappointed (well, I was, but you know what I mean) in this regard. It felt to me like everything after the incredibly long first event happened way too quickly, even though it was mostly Anakin being pulled back and forth emotionally. It made the inevitable fall all that much more rushed, and I found myself almost unable to find it believable by the end.

This was also the slowest break-neck pace I've ever read. I grew so tired of reading about Anakin going back and forth, back and forth, that by the time he does finally give in to the dark side, I found myself glad for it, not saddened by it. It was a relief to finally have it happen and be past that part.

The book gets a little verbose at times, and in my opinion a lot of what's in there is filler. With all the action in the movie there wasn't a whole lot left to make a compelling book.

This book has left me very mixed about the movie. My excitement about it was really high for a while there, but now it's down again. If the movie is as rushed as this book was, then I think a lot of people are going to be very critical. In my opinion, a lot of the things we see in this book should have been covered in AotC. The fact that he is now having to cram it into this story was just too much.

I'm giving this book a 4 with the caveat that Stover did an excellent job with what he had to work with. If this were just a regular SW book that had nothing to do with the movie, I would not have liked it much at all. Too rushed, too little development, too many assumptions having to be made on the reader's part. I am really nervous about the movie now.

 

10/10. A true masterpiece. Id give it 11/10, but thats against the rules.

 

Counting 22 ratings: 204.8/22 = 9.31

 

10/10 Amazing. Loved the Clone Wars nods. Works perfectly with LoE too. I liked the way Stover got into the heads of each character, I was expecting it all from Anakin's head but was pleasantly surprised. He thought it was great that he carried on what he build for Mace in Shatterpoint too.

 

Speechless.

This book is amazing. And I thought the online excerpt couldn't be beaten. Every page was stunning, and I'm not ashamed to say there were tears in my eyes on at least five separate occasions while reading. Stover crafted the text so well; rather than copying-and-pasting the script with a few added scenes, he creates an entirely unique look at the story. The 'This is how it feels to be....' segments are fantastic, especially the initial Obi-Wan introduction. The ultimate Jedi, damn right!

Easily the best Star Wars book I've read, with the added bonus of being the novelization of the single greatest movie in existence. Stover has somehow managed to ensure a level of quality and sheer dark-and-kewlness to hold up against even Lucas's final vision.

10/10. What else?

 

Just awesome! Stover has out-written them all, and considering that he has done it within the confines of the screenplay makes it even more impressive.

Most impressive...

9.9/10

 

JediStryker: After reading your review, and having read the screenplay, I'd say that you are definitely going to be disappointed with the film. If you have no problem with spoilers, I'd suggest that you go and look for a copy of the screenplay (it's floating around everyhwere) so that you can understand what I'm talking about when I say that Anakin's fall is much more abrupt in it (though it is definitely understandable, for those who have read the book), and is really going to receive a lot of criticism. I suppose it all comes down to the Padmé issue (again, can't really discuss in this thread), so if we keep that it mind it makes more sense.

I'm sorry to hear that the novelisation has deflated your movie expectations. No matter what, I suppose that you can rest assured that, if nothing else, Revenge of the Sith will be a visual treat.

 

Counting 25 ratings: 234.7/25 = 9.39

 

WOAH. Just finished it. Best Star Wars book ever. If the movie is this good, it will be the best of them easily. And the ending, so sad, yet with a glimmer of hope. It's not nearly as "depressing" and "dark" as everyone says it is; it simply lacks a truly happy ending. And that, my friends, is a very good thing.

10/10

 

I'll get all the cliches out of the way: great book, not your average novelization, stover gets inside the head of the characters, better than the movie could ever be, etc. Did I miss one?

I'll get all my complaints out of the way now:

Too many pages were spent on the opening battle sequence/rescuing the chancellor. I came to the end of "part one" and anakin and obi-wan still hadn't made landfall on Coruscant. For all the praise i've given stover in the past, obviously space battles aren't his forte. I was kinda bored during the first 30 pages (excluding the intro--that was great (i won't post the ...end of the age of heroes...line) even the intro to the intro was good:"the end starts now"

I was confused at first by the zero reference to Chewbacca and general absence of Kashyyyk in the novel, since this part of the story has been played up to huge degrees by other mediums, but in the end I was glad it was left out because it would have taken us away from the main story of anakin, which was all I was interested in anyway. In fact, I was tempted for half a second to skip through the Obi-Wan and Grievous duel to get to the Part We've All Been Waiting For.


I'm pleased with the novel. From the melodramatic way everyone accepts Palpatine as emperor to Anakin's fall to Obi-wan and Yoda's exile to the 'Jedi purge.' It didn't happen the way I thought it would, but it all makes sense.

I agreee with JediStryker that Anakin's fall was rushed and a lot of the stuff could have been covered in AoTC to make it 'not as rushed.' I also think the 'stumbles' leading to Anakin's fall got a little annoying: There have been brushes with the dark side in Jedi Trial, the cartoon network series, even as far back as Rogue Planet, but he always seems to 'come to his senses.' Anakin slaughters Tusken Raiders--"I'm a Jedi, I'm better than this." Anakin kills someone--"I shouldn't have done that." Geez, fall to the dark side already. It was almost comical and I'm sure critics are going to hammer Hayden for the lines he has to deliver.

I've read all of Stover's other books and I couldn't wait to see what his style could do with this story. I was happy. I hate to think what this novel would have been like if Bob Salvatore got his hands on it.

I dare anyone who reads the last two pages of this novel not to feel sorry for Darth Vader.

And I got a huge thrill from the references to Mace's shatterpoint abilities. This, along with the inner thoughts of Dooku and Anakin and Yoda are going to make the movie much more enjoyable for me. I feel bad for the people who will watch the movie but never read the book.

9/10

 

I read the script to Revenge of the Sith before the novelization, and was disappointed, to say the least. Fortunately, the same didn't happen with the novel. Stover cut what needed to be cut, rewrote what needed to be rewrote (except for one line, which since it's verbatim from the script I suspect Lucas said it needed to stay), and overall spun a work of gold out of the straw script.

10/10

 

10/10 brilliant

 

I enjoyed this book alot. It made the Anakin/Obi Wan brotherhood much more realistic and gave many of the villains much needed depth. The fall of Anakin Skywalker is shown well. Perhaps my favorite EU book-- on par wirth Shatterpoint, TUF, and YR at least.

The character's were done brilliantly, It made me respect and admire Kenobi, Yoda, and Mace even more. I understand Anakin's fall thoroughly now. Hell I even felt sorry for Dooku and Sidious.

All in all this book has me waiting with baited breath for the Movie and for Dark Lord.

10/10

 

Counting 30 ratings: 283.7/30 = 9.46

 

Anyone else read it yet?

 

9.5/10. I can't wait to see Ian McDiarmand chew the scenery in this one.

 

The book was better than it had any right to be; unfortunately, I suspect much of it does to make the story work willl not be present in the film - such as how Anakin's fall is depicted.

A few posters have found Anakin's fall better depicted here, others find the film more abrupt which is worrying - as I found Anakin's fall here somewhat short and unsatisfying. Vader has been greatly weakened as a villain as we're now always gonna link him to a whinging brat. Great.

I'm starting to see ROTS as being to the PT what TUF is to NJO: A great conclusion to a badly told story that prevents the conclusion from being anywhere near as good as it should be, due to the prior segments.

Still, we did get the Clone Wars stories which are some of the best EU comics material going.

JB

 

I loved the book i only have 2 gripes about the book it didnt tell you about any of the jedi death scenes and it didnt tell anything about Kashyyk.

Overall a solid 9/10

 

This may sound semi-dumb, but I finished reading revenge of the sith last night, and I cried. Yesterday was, however, a very emotional day, but still. Very sad, very disturbing. Almost scary at times. I LOVE IT!!!

 

I know I'll be picking this novel up after I see the movie.