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

Counting 70 ratings: 666/70 = 9.52

 

I thought the Novel of ROTS was good, better than some of the Clone Wars books

Good Stuff

 

10/10. Definitely. Stover lent a poetic quality to it that was haunting, as he also did with the NJO's Traitor. <3

 

Counting 71 ratings: 676/71 = 9.52

 

10

This book has perhaps the very best ending of any prologue that I have ever read; Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last. I had a really good feeling about this book when I read that line and I wasn't let down. What made me really excited was how many references to other EU sources was made. Stover really did his homework. I don't think I've ever read another book that had as much respect for the other EU materials out there. Perhaps what I liked best about this book though, was how we get a different perspectives from just the movie version, like when Dooku is musing about the war in the begining or how we get Anakin's perspective during Mace's duel with Sidious.

Obi-Wan's characterization was right on. Anakin was portrayed as a tortured soul that expanded on the movie version. Palpatine's evil is even more sinister in the book than in the movie. I was on the edge of my seat in the begining of the book when he kept trying to split up Anakin and Obi-Wan. And I laughed out loud when Obi-Wan was thinking about Anakin's butt. I loved this book!

 

Counting 72 ratings: 686/72 = 9.53

 

. . . why was Obi thinking about Haydon's butt?

 

Because he woke up while hanging upside down in the elevator shaft, with his head in close proximity to it - and he was wondering whose it was; the logical conclusion of course being that it was Anakin's, given their circumstances. He then has it confirmed by Anakin's speaking.

Come on, now, Ex, you claim to have read the book and not liked it, yet you don't remember one of its funnier (and in a subtle way that you of all people should have appreciated, what with its fundamentally ironic way of doing things) moments? For shame!

- Keralys

 

Sorry, I haven't read ROTS, and don't intend to. Movie books are breezily written, and designed to be so. Matt lacked enough info to write the great Sidious finale more than two half-page whaffles of nondescription. I call that cheating readers; and I don't like being cheated. TPM was stiffly written. AOTC was outrageous. I won't make that a 3rd mistake, not when I have 2 more Erikson books bursting flavour still to read.

I was just curious about his bum observation.

 

I haven't read it, but here are the reasons why it sucks.

I don't remember the TPM novelization. The AOTC novelization was awful. The ROTS novelization was wonderful. The movie was awful, but the book was fantastic. There were a few things that Stover wasn't quite able to salvage -- most notably, for me, the fact that Padmé, supposedly a good politician and a strong willful person, is such a wuss in this story -- but for the most part the book was only about a million times better than the movie.

 

Huh. Funny. Of all the novelizations, RotS is the only one worth owning, at least IMO. Ex, you truly are missing out. And you must remember - it wasn't Stover who "cheated" the readers that way; he did the best he could with the information he had at the time he wrote the book. Also, take into account that you glanced only at the areas in which the book would, by definition, be weakest.

You really should pick it up and read it, from the library if nothing else; it's one of my favorite books - not just Star Wars books, but books in general; it was so well done.

- Keralys

 

I know, Keralys, and I've mentioned that on occasion: that he could only write what he knew and was given at that time. I've never held the author responsible for the totally nondescriptive whaffle of the Sidious fight. Surely a little point form list of who does what and where couldn't have been given to him?

Mastadge, which book are you talking about when you said "I haven't read it, but here are the reasons why it sucks."

 

I was just repeating you.

 

10

I'm so slow I shan't even write why I loved it.

 

9.5 out of 10.

It's written in a way that I haven't realy seen often before, and done extremely well (especially the first two thirds). However the ending is a bit rushed, probably because Matt wasn't allowed to write a Lord of the Rings size epic. I could easily read the novelization up to the end of the Mace/Sidious fight and then watch the rest of the movie from there and be more satisfied than watching or reading each seperately.

 

Ah! I finally worked out what you meant, my good Mas. I see what you mean. No, I haven't read it, true, but what I did peruse in-store left me with a cheated impression. That is what I was saying.

 

9.9

As near perfection as man can come. A thing of pure beauty.


And Ex, perhaps you shouldn't hold a movie adaptation to standards that, as a movie adaptation, it cannot reach. Deal with it on its own terms, and you may be quite pleased. It actually seems to me like *your* kind of book. Very deep. Inside the characters' heads. Writes down to no one. And actually, since Stover didn't know, I'd say he did the best thing possible with that scene -- instead of making something up that wouldn't match up with the movie, he boiled it down to its essence and wrote a description of the mental battle, of the stakes for the galaxy, that captured all the importance without geting bogged down in details that would eventually be proved inaccurate.

 

I do, Havac. That's why I won't buy another movie or book related comic. I found AOTC and Last Command's art rushed and lacking depth of scenes. Or why I haven't bought other game or movie books. Except for Babby 5: Call to Arms. I couldn't watch all of it on TV, and wanted to know how it ended. Kinda of silly, seeing how I bought over 2yrs ago and still haven't read it, but it was cheap.

 

I still say it's worth your time to check it out from the library. Don't go in with any preconceived notions and just read it. You'd be surprised, I think.

BTW, there's an article on your precious Martin in this week's TIME magazine. It convined me that sometime, eventually, I need to pick up those books.

 

Precious Erikson, you mean. Although I liked Martin's prose too.

Never read a Times-class magazine but I've decided to not to read A Feast for Crows. The trade paperback is just too big on the shelf. But how long can I last until someone inadvertantly spoils me?? I'd have to leave net forums until however long the paperback comes. Literature would lose me.

 

I've seen you make this criticism before, and I still don't understand it. What description is required? Step One: Palps throws Senate pod, Yoda ducks. Step Two: ??? Step Three: Profit!

No, I liked it the way Stover presented it: during the middle of the action, we learn that Yoda is in the process of learning a very disturbing lesson. The movie shows us he gets physically "pwnd" in the fight; the novelization tells us why he's losing and gives us the first hint of realization of how his guys will have to fight back.

By the way, the very idea of putting this in the same sentence as the insubstantial TPM novelization and the horrid AOTC novelization is, for lack of a better description, like pitting Mara Jade against a Devaronian in a beauty contest . . .

 

BTW, I'll toss in a 9.4/10.

I haven't scored many of these novels here, but I'd say this would be near the highest I'd go with a SW novel.

 

Firstly, he overpowerd Sidious in the movie, but that's my pov. I can't argue your own impression. Secondly, let me put it bluntly, you're not paying hard hardcover money to read two half-pages of vague nondescription. You got absolutely nothing in the book, and I call that shameless insult. Just a series of one-line sentences that doesn't tell you much. It was the author's way to fill in what he didn't have, but ulitmately it cheated substance to the reader.

And the endings scenes were abbreviated to the extreme, lacking any substance, again, like AOTC's. It was vital to the anguish Kenobi was feeling as he left his crisped darth, but like most SW books these years, the ending was rushed and you got none of that. One poetic pov from Vader doesn't spine the skeleton.

But hey, each to their own, right?

 

Sure, to each his own.

But my impression was that, however formidable Yoda was, the only times he got the upper hand were when Sidious was drunk on what you might call the "unholy laughter." Most of the Senate pod sequence, for instance, Yoda is on the defensive.

 

That's a natural reaction, though: to seek new ground when boulders are hurled at you. But he held his own in sabering, and when it came tiem for the bubble test of wills, he outpowered Siddy. Only thing is, he fell whereas Siddy held on.