I am one of the people who like the prequel films better than the original trilogy. I would even go as far to say that Revenge Of The Sith is one of the best films ever made. Anyway, my question is 'are the star wars prequel books any good?' I mean like the phantom menace, attack of the clones and revenge of the sith books. They are here in one volume: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-Prequel-Trilogy-Phantom/dp/0345498704/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460824438&sr=1-3&keywords=star wars phantom menace So are they good books? Also should I buy that volume with all of them or buy them seperately (Like does the volume have the proper books in it?)? Thanks
Buy it. Think what you want, but the biggest thing about the PT that the OT in my opinion quite didn't have was that the movie novelizations truly added depth to the movies. Most of the deleted scenes from the PT are in the movie novelization minus the scene or two, and the typical snippet cuts. You'll understand the PT more through the lens of the novels and quite actually believe Anakin's fall to the dark side. I've said it before, those three books alone, without the movie as reference, just going by the story, explains the entire genesis and state of what happens in the trilogy. You get everything from Darth Bane's Rule of Two, to a little known space battle that occurs in AOTC that was done in animatic, but never filmed nor has the animatic been released, but its in the novel. You get the entire battle between Anakin vs Dooku in AOTC. ROTS basically is one of the best movie novelizations I have ever read and from time to time, I still read it to this day. I want to also suggest you purchasing the Labyrinth of Evil novel. This is hands down the best prequel to a movie novel written. The next book would be Darth Plagueis, which is the story of Darh Siduous's master and a prequel to TPM. Those five books should be in every star wars fan library along with the PT movies. With those books, you don't need to bother with TCW show, cause they tell everything that happens from a believable point of view. No Mortis, the unknown Force Spring/well planet or Moraband crap. I will go as far to even say that those novelizations were better than TFA movie novelization, which was a very bland and simple telling of a story. If you want depth, very deep depth, then get those 5 books. Others will post and maybe add an extra book or two, but those 5 are the genesis
Thanks for your great answer, it really helped Would the books be suitable for older teens/adults and not written just for kids. I don't want to read a kids novel, I want to read a good Star Wars novel.
There are several PT novels that I think are great books to read. I always thought Cloak of Deception was what TPM should have been. While Shatter point is excellent and is Heart of Darkness in Space As for Labyrinth of Evil again a great prequel to RotS and as for the book version of Revenge of the Sith it really does turn Lead into Gold and I wish Lucas had gone this path with Anakin, than I can save Padme, maybe, possibly, if we work really hard together that he went with in the movie. They are books all worth reading in jmo
Fett 4- I had forgotten about those. But your right, those books also add depth, especially Shatterpoint. LOE is the king of the hill in my opinion. Super novel.
i am having a hard time with your opinion of ROTS, but ill leave it there. anyway Labyrinth of Evil is epic. and the ROTS novelization is epic. Stover rules. Shatterpoint is good, Cestus Deception was decent
Is this only about the novelisations of the prequels or novels of the prequel-era? "Darth Plagieus", "Cloak of Deception" and "Labyrinth of Evil" have already been mentioned in addition to the novels of TPM, AOTC and ROTS, but I would also add "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader", which depicts the aftermath of ROTS. You could say LoE, ROTS and DL:TRoDV form their own trilogy (and interestingly all those non-movie novels are all by James Luceno). Those and "Yoda: Dark Rendevous" and "Shatterpoint" are the best prequel-era-novels in my opinion.
See also the Republic Commando books. Among the best PT era novels. Shatterpoint was excellent. I still don't really get the LoE love...bored the hell out of me (I find Luceno to be hit or misd...Plagueis was awesome; Tarkin not so much).
I know. At the beginning of LOE he mentions Ian Fleming and Thomas Pynchon for inspiration. He was setting the bar way too high. It's like telling a date about this great five-star restaurant you love as l you pull into McDonalds.
Like the Trump approach to novel writing. I'm great at writing novels. Nobody writes Star Wars novels better than me. Lol. That's actually really unfair to Luceno because I like him (or what I've read about him, anyway), and I, in general, like his work.
Luceno writes best when he can write stuff, that fits his strenghts, which would be continuity and (for SW) complex politics/intrigue mixed with action. Things he couldn't do with Tarkin because of the canon-reset (I also always had the impression, that Tarkin originally would have been longer than it ended being) and there wasn't much intrigue/politics in Millenium Falcon.
I'm about 50/50 on his work, leaning towards his older stuff. It's a great place for an "It's Not You It's Me" date. No. Though sometimes they can be the McRib of novels. Something to crave for so long until you take the first bite and wonder why you're doing this to yourself because omigod it's awful, just awful and it's going to leave a bitter taste in your month that lasts just long enough to forget about it before it's time to continue the cycle.
I thought the prequel novelizations were decent reads, overall. I've found that I don't have the same level of appreciation for the Revenge of the Sith one that others have, though. I get really bugged by differences from the source material in novelizations (which means I have a love/hate relationship with them). In a lot of cases (like the Force Awakens novelizations), they're close enough that I can overlook the differences (esp. if the differences don't change the spirit of the original scenes), but Stover's book reads so differently, I was mostly annoyed by it. I read novelizations to re-experience the movie, and in this case, it felt like a completely different story. (That said, it's a good novel on its own terms and I do like many of the passages, but it's my least favorite novelization of all time.) Since these novelizations are not canon, though, I'd only recommend them if you like the writing style of these retellings. For original novels, I though Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter was fun (albeit a predictable plot boosted by the characters) and Outbound Flight was good (but the weakest of Zahn's Thrawn saga and related stories). The Clone Wars stuff I thought was good included Shatterpoint (although I think it's slightly overrated), Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (liked the characters and some interest Force discussions), and Labyrinth of Evil (it's been so overwritten by both Legends and the canon reboot that I'm not sure how much of it "really" happened in the Legends continuity, but I've always enjoyed it, for some reason). There were other okay and decent stuff worth reading in the prequel era, but it never really did catch my interest the way the original trilogy era (Legends and canon), New Republic (Legends), and the stuff in the Force Awaken era did. I think it might be because of the fact that the prequel era is dominated by either the Clone Wars or the relatively uneventful but uneasy peace before it, which limits the variety of stories that can be told, compared to the other eras, most of which were also working with blank slates at one time or another.
Shatterpoint is the only Star Wars novel I've ever recommended to people who like sci-fi but have no interest in the EU.
Shatterpoint, ROTS novel, The Clone Wars, No Prisoners, the Republic Commando stuff. LoE, Dark Rendezvous, it is all good stuff in my opinion. Shadow Hunter is great as well. If you had to start with just one I'd recommend Yoda: Dark Rendezvous as something that can be read easily with only basic knowledge of the films, and maybe TCW, as a starting point.
I recommend anything by Matthew Stover to people. When I used to volunteer at a library, I would always try and persuade people to try Shatterpoint whenever they asked for a Science Fiction recommendation.
Personally, I've found that the prequel era has the best books, by and large. Cloak of Deception, Revenge of the Sith, and Shatterpoint are 3 of my Top 5; Labyrinth, RODV, Shadow Hunter, and the Med-Star duology are all top 10-15, and YDR is my favorite Star Wars book ever.
