Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special: THE FORCE UNLEASHED (Spoilers)

Average score: 75.7/12 = 6.31

 

Likes: Darth Maul appearance, Galen getting into Vader`s head in the last battle, Galen`s ``family crest``

Dislikes: Felt too much like Halo:The Flood ie. missions felt like I was playing a video game, Kota- use the force to see you blind drunk!

Overall, it wasn`t the best SW book I`ve ever read, and I wish it could have been a novelization of Battlefront 3


6.5

 

Average score: 82.2/13 = 6.32

 

6.8/10

TFU is an entertaining read that had the potential to be so much more if Williams had taken some more liberties with the material. As many have said, it reads too much like a video game. Even having never played the game myself I could easily tell which parts of the novel described game play, boss battles, and cutscenes. Sure, the same events have to happen in the novel and the game, but why not mix it up a bit? Must there be a description of Starkiller fighting his way through scores of grunts flinging Force Lightning left and right in order to reach every single objective?

Of course, the story itself (as opposed to the writing) has its issues, but I know that they're the game's fault, not the novel's. Mainly, Starkiller is a real Marry Sue and I find his change of heart difficult to understand or believe. How does a guy who was raised from early childhood by Vader to be a merciless killer who revels in the Dark Side end up becoming so noble and compassionate in just a few months? I can understand former jedi like Vader returning to their roots in the end, but Starkiller is more like Darth Maul than Vader. Where the heck did he get compassion and a sense of justice from? The answer brings me to the Marry Sue problem. Since Starkiller is a player-surrogate the game designers no doubt wanted him to be a good guy, but they also wanted the player to be able to use badass Dark Side powers and fight jedi and stormtroopers alike. Hence the unlikely turn. And to complete the Marry Sue package, it all ends with Starkiller kicking Vader's butt and holding his own against Palpatine. I mean... Damn! Plus it turns out that he's the founder of the Rebel Alliance and even its iconic insignia that went on to be used by the New Republic and Galactic Alliance is based on his family crest? That's an awful lot to swallow for a guy who's never mentioned afterward. This is why I don't like Kyle Katarn either. Characters that are made to be player-surrogates are always Marry Sues.

Anyway, in spite of these complaints which all stem from the nature of the source material, TFU is a fun action-adventure story which manages to nicely blend aspects of the PT and OT. The first section of the novel reminds me of the "Kill Bill" films, in a good way, and Starkiller is a cool (if not realistic) character to read about.

 

Average score: 89/14 = 6.36

 

I finally finished it! Took me almost two months since I couldn't stomach this rag for more than a handful of pages at a time. Without a doubt one of the bottom five Star Wars books ever. The first section of this thing read like a high school students summery of the videogame. The second and third parts were only slightly better. This is probably the laziest effort I've ever read honestly. If Sean Williams ever writes another Star Wars novel it will be too soon.

2/10 which is being generous in my opinion especially since it was a hardcover.

 

Read waaay too much like a video game; just a complete lack of effort. Like an earlier post said, you can practically tell where the cutscenes are.

SoTE wins.


1/10

 

I'm still kicking myself for waay overrating the book so these last two scores should go a long way for making up for my rating.

 

Average score: 92/16 = 5.75

 

4/10. Sean Williams did a decent but not spectacular job with what he was given; unfortunately, TFU's story and characters are only interesting in just how far Hayden Blackman managed to ride off the rails. An overpowered protagonist who can't lose had better have one hell of a compelling story--but Galen doesn't. Worse, the story runs roughshod over just about every other piece of continuity in this period. Forgivable if done to good effect, but TFU isn't.

 

Average score: 96/17 = 5.65

 

I can't disagree with those who've said this book reads like a video game.

Fortunately, that didn't bother me because I thought the subject had more weight that I expected, both in the story and author Sean Williams' execution.

Williams' Star Wars works have resonated with me because he's a solid writer, who understands the universe both in tone and in content. The Force Unleashed flowed well for me, and I was left with a strong feeling that this work has solidified itself in the Star Wars cannon.

7/5/10

 

Unlock and bump for paperback release.

 

Sometimes, books surprise you. I got this for completeness sake and didn't expect much from it. After all, I already played the game and knew how the story went. So, can there be anything new or exciting about the novelization?

Yes, there was. Months after I finished all of the books that really thrilled and interested me, and sticking to buying things because they have "Star Wars" on the cover, I finally had another moment of "this is why I got hooked on Star Wars", which atm seem reserved for the Clone Wars comics. After tons of stories of guys falling to the dark side for a variety of reasons, this story is basically the reverse - and it is very well done. No angsting, no "my god what have I done" moments, and instead a solid story harkening back to the prologue of Faust (sorry, if this seems to be a presumptuous comparison, but it's the best one I know^^). "You can't keep a good man down." Galen is basically a good person, he just doesn't know. And he doesn't really discover it rationally - he just begins to drift towards the light almost unconsciously, without ever - as is so popular for heroes in his position - blaming anyone. That's just a relief.

And - the icing on the cake - all the appearances by old friends. Shaak Ti... Bail Organa... Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Anakin having cameos by PROXY^^... I missed this.

And then there's the ending: Here, TFU represents the turning point along the scale. In the overwhelming majority of the prequel material, the endings are somber. Not necessarily bad ends, but at least the reader, if not the characters usually gets a reminder of the shadows and the darkness on the horizon, and that this victory isn't much in the grand scheme of things. Here, we have a 'bad' end. The hero is dead. But the undertones are hopeful, with the Rebellion finally rising after decades of waiting, and the old fighters along with the next generation moving along to a new hope. From now on, as bleak as everything is, as bleak as that finale is, on a burnt, pillaged, ravaged planet in the place of a murder, from now, things are looking up. I could ramble on some more, but won't.

Just a great book. And even greater for being so unexpected. 9/10.

 

Average score: 112.5/19 = 5.92

 

Should be picking up the PB for my collection later today...

Anyways, it was a fairly solid book, but I didn't really like how Starkiller was worked into the early Rebellion stuff.. and overall, I guess I was kinda meh on it at the same time. Maybe if I'd actually played the video game, I'd feel differently, but maybe not. We're judging the book by itself anyways, so...

7/10

 

Average score: 119.5/20 = 5.98

 

Average score: 127.2/21 = 6.06

 

Extremely, extremely mediocre. It just doesn't feel like Williams's heart is in the book at all. The prose is extremely dull -- not quite bad, but definitely poor. There's no life to it, no zest. It just kind of plods through scene after scene. I wasn't able to identify with the characters at all. They never felt like more than shallow sketches, and consequently I never managed to care about them. There was no depth to them, no expansion. Their thoughts were shallow, generic, surface thoughts. And that's the core of the problem: Williams doesn't go beyond the video game to expand the characters, expand the plot, and flesh these people out into 3-D characters. It's very, very much a novelization -- hell, not even a novelization, a transcription -- of a video game. "The apprentice" (why can't Williams call him Starkiller? Why is he so distant from the character?) goes here, goes there, feels moody, gets these orders, kills two Felucians, one with lighting and one with his lightsaber, then comes across a rancor, kills that with lightning, comes across a group of Felucians he kills. He doesn't slow down the action to make it meaningful, but he doesn't judiciously cut away from some of it either; instead, it just gets bogged down in transcription. It's like he played the video game right through and just wrote down what happened.

His failure to dive into the characters, the plot, to actually expand things, is symptomatic of a general failure of imagination in these books. It's like Williams just turned his imagination off. He just slavishly follows along with the plot. He doesn't POV any characters but Starkiller and Juno, passing up the opportunity to actually expand the story, to go beyond the game's necessary one-person focus and give TFU's big-picture plot the scope and sweep of Star Wars-style space opera -- there are no scenes with Kota, with Vader, with the Emperor, with Bail, with Leia, with Shaak Ti, with Garm and Mon Mothma. Williams's imagination is turned off with the characters, too -- he can't seem to imagine his way into their heads. Either he really doesn't get the characters -- he can't put him in their heads, he can't get beyond surface thoughts -- or he's just unwilling to exercise any creativity in going beyond what's in the game -- he doesn't think he "owns" the characters and so doesn't want to put his own stuff in their heads. In either case, it leaves the characters limp and two-dimensional.

It's not like he needs to rewrite anything; he just has to expand. For comparison, look at the Dark Forces novellas. They're masterful in terms of being an adaptation. Dietz gets into the villain's head, expands him into a full-fledged character in multiple scenes, showing his perspective, giving the story a bigger scope, and making him so much more (speaking of which, Kota NEEDS to be killed by Jerec. Come on, duel of the blind. How awesome would that be?). Dietz sees that you meet Yun here, spare him, the next time you meet him he saves you. That's enough on its own, it works -- but he's not content with that. He expands it. He delves in, exercises his creativity, dedicates an entire subplot to Yun's struggle with the dark side and light side, his transition to a new mindset. He expands Kyle. He expands on how Kyle gets from here to there, takes the opportunity to expand cuts from one scene to the other and add a subplot, bring in a bigger scope by having Kyle go back to the New Republic to discuss things and bring in Luke and Leia and Mon Mothma and get some interesting Kyle-Luke interaction going. Dietz's adaptation actually does something. It expands the story. It has a reason to exist. This novel has no reason to exist. It just regurgitates what's in the game.

It picks up a bit, just a little bit, after Kashyyyk. At that point, Williams seems to finally get that Starkiller needs some kind of internal thought process, and gets into his characterization a little, tiny bit -- just enough to set up his turnaround. Same with Juno. But he ultimately just scratches the surface, and he can't save the book from utt

 

Average score: 129.2/22 = 5.87

 

I have to agree with the dull label. The whole book was basically the secret Marty Stu going from one place to fight to another...and repeat.

The characterization stunk. I just did not care for the characters--even the established ones.

I've read a lot of, but not all (yet) of the SW books. This takes my prize for the worst.

And I was so looking forward to this one too (not a gamer, BTW). The idea/story of Vader's secret apprentice could have (should have) been really cool.

4/10

 

Average score: 133.2/23 = 5.79