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

I loved how quick everyone was to crap all over these. I think they look great, I'll probably pick them up and read them with my younger siblings.

 

I'm sorry, but no. Having read the excerpt, So You Want To Be A Jedi really does sound pretty stupid. Maybe goofy stupid in the Jedi Prince style, but unless it's meant for a significantly younger age group than the other two, I'm not sure it gets a pass just because it's meant for kids.

The ROTJ one comes across as trying too hard in some places - and I don't know when writing in the present tense became popular for "young readers" books, but it can't end soon enough for my taste - but the ANH one looks really good.

 

Huh, that...British thing is weird. Other than that, those seem pretty great. The ROTJ one has some serious potential; I may have to pick these up and actually read them.

 

That ANH excerpt is so good. Every moment in which Alexandra Bracken is not writing a pre-ANH Leia novel, detailing her time in the Senate and her life on Alderaan along with her early experiences with Vader and Palpatine, is a wasted moment.

 

On reflection, I think I mind the real-world references in ESB less than the little lessons. I can see the appeal of something like that on its own but this way they just feel like interruptions.

 

Yeah, they're weird. Stick 'em in their own section at the back of the book, or something. But having them dispersed at random intervals throughout the book? No thanks.

 

Hmmm, RotJ as comedic, that's kind of odd.

ESB is interesting in the way it invites the reader to be Luke, and really get inside the spiritual quest to become a Jedi. It makes me think of the second trailer for The Force Awakens, when the voice-over of Luke Skywalker from RotJ's dialogue seems to be addressing the audience over a blacked out screen, telling us, "You have that power too!" As if to say, the power of the Force resides in us, the audience, and invites us in a meta kind of way to enter or re-enter the SW reality on a whole new level. This new ESB re-telling seems to me to be going for the same effect, that's pretty exciting to my mind.

All three of them sound very promising, just from how creatively they approach their task of telling the familiar story in new ways.

 

I like the covers, but I already have the YA books, including the PT and OT trilogy hardbacks from Borders...RIP Borders

Speaking of the PT, I hope they release new YA novels for them too, but anyway.

 

It's not "British" that gets to me... it's the unforgivable string of words after British.

"...butler with his underwear in a twist."


It's like he said, "Kids like irreverent stuff, like that Adventurebob Squaretime show! Let's talk about really REALLY funny weird stuff, just so totally weird, like... like underwear!" Then he snorted a line of powdered sugar and checked himself into rehab because it was all too much.

 

I'm not going to gush nor am I going to bash this. I think this is a pretty good idea and I am looking forward to these new updated versions. We already have the original movie novelizations and while they are from a draft that were one or two steps from the completed movie they were good enough and are iconic still today. We have the three junior novelizations that were done many years ago on the OT and they were good. We then have the three books of the radio adaptions and the annotated screenplay book which has all the scenes that were in the movie along with excerpts of concepts that did not make it in. Then we have those delicious Jonathon Rinzler books that chronicle the entire making of movie of the OT to include different variations of the screenplays and stuff like that. I'm looking forward to the three books don't get me wrong on this, but for those that want to complain just remember that we have gotten all those other things. So this style will be something new and refreshing take on an old story. That's how I look at it and so should many of you.

 

The prose is a bit simplistic of course, but I do love that these truly do expand on "off-screen" events that are new, and also take into account other sources, such as the original radio dramas. I definitely enjoy that so far, the New Canon is re-incorporating the Legends stuff here and there.

 

I might try out the ANH one, but... still not into the ESB one, and comedy isn't my thing so dunno what my thoughts are on the ROTJ one really.

What I also realised this morning: for something being marketed at young readers, the language feels rather... lofty. I mean, are phrases like "Tin Man" that meaningful to kids who've grown up watching Frozen, rather than Wizard of Oz? I'm also not sure how I feel about the British accent line, as it just feels a touch more satirical than I would normally like in a book that's being mainly aimed at children... I mean, it makes me wonder if it's going to go fullblown Godwin's law and compare the Empire to Nazis...

 

I wonder if the whole novel will take the comedy approach or if only certain parts of the novel will.

 

I will imagine the entire ESB book is narrated by the Joker. He's part of Luke's inner conscious, that he's never told anyone about before. The part that inexplicably knows what a British butler is... and for some strange reason really detests them.

"It is winter on the planet Hoth. It is always winter on Hoth. I mean, they have a summer. That’s when the temperature crawls up to about 10 degrees below freezing. It’s lovely. (Insert random giggling here) It is not summer, though. It’s winter, and the snow stands so deep you could lose a (hysterical laughter) small child in it."

"She is punching buttons like they did something to her. He slides up beside her and whispers, 'Well, your highness, I guess this is it.' 'Yeah. I guess so.' She mashes buttons some more. (Dramatic sad Joker voice) Poor buttons."

"You probably think that your next test will be trying to move something with your thoughts. Yeah, we’re not going to try that. Yet. I mean, you can give it a go."

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Where's Mark Hamill's email address? I'm going to beg him to do a dramatic reading of this book in Joker-voice.

 

So Britain and underwear are canon now? Sweeeeeeet.

 

Though those look a lot more like Pampers than Fruit of the Loom. Just saying.

 

The Leia sample is very promising. I like the writing a lot - very crisp and clear.

It's kind of weird - George is gone but so much of the Nu-Continuity adheres more closely to his version of events than the old EU. This is the same Leia George always talked about - how she and her friends realized what the Empire really was and then took action. Cool! These look like they're going to be worth reading.

 

I'm definitely getting the ANH one. The other two, no, I really didn't like what I've read at all. ESB reads like it's aimed at five-year-olds, and the "funny" footnotes in the RotJ one just irritated me. Still, kudos to everyone involved for trying something different, I guess.

There's an interesting bit in ANH where Leia uses her anger to focus while she's being hunted by stormtroopers on the Tantive IV. I'm interested to see where Bracken takes this, because it reads almost like she was unconsciously using the Force ... but the dark side of the Force.

 

I know, different Joker, but after reading this all I can think is:

"Wanna know how I got these scars?"

 

I'm definitely in the camp of "the Leia book looks awesome!" without being too excited about the others. I tried the ESB one and ragequit because I have a burning hatred for second-person narration. I've read too much bad fanfiction to budge on that.

But the Leia book? Yeah, I'm buying that one.