Star Wars by George Lucas

by George Lucas

Spotlight proudly presents the library editions of Dark Horse Comics' adaptation of the long-awaited Episodes of the Star Wars saga. These volumes unlock some of the history and events that laid the foundation for the Rebel Alliance's epic struggle against the Empire. Make sure you catch this legendary series that's sure to please Star Wars fans of all ages.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Wars, Fantasy

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Nominated for four Academy Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.
After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas moved to San Francisco and co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote and directed THX 1138 (1971), based on his student short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was American Graffiti (1973), inspired by his youth in early 1960s Modesto, California, and produced through the newly founded Lucasfilm. The film was critically and commercially successful and received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. Lucas's next film, the epic space opera Star Wars (1977), later retitled A New Hope, had a troubled production but was a surprise hit, becoming the highest-grossing film at the time, winning six Academy Awards and sparking a cultural phenomenon. Lucas produced and co-wrote the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). With director Steven Spielberg, he created, produced, and co-wrote Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989) and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and served as an executive producer, with a cursory involvement in pre and post-production, on The Dial of Destiny (2023).
In 1997, Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy as part of a Special Edition featuring several modifications; home media versions with further changes were released in 2004 and 2011. He returned to directing with a Star Wars prequel trilogy comprising The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). He last collaborated on the CGI-animated movie and television series of the same name, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014, 2020), the war film Red Tails (2012) and the CGI film Strange Magic (2015). Lucas is also known for his collaboration with composer John Williams, who was recommended to him by Spielberg, and with whom he has worked for all the films in both of these franchises. He also produced and wrote a variety of films and television series through Lucasfilm between the 1970s and the 2010s.
Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers. He directed or wrote the story for ten of the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Through his companies Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, Lucas was involved in the production of, and financially benefited from, almost every big-budget film released in the U.S. from the late 1980s until the 2012 Disney sale. In addition to his career as a filmmaker, Lucas has founded and supported multiple philanthropic organizations and campaigns dedicated to education and the arts, including the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which has been noted as a key supporter in the creation of the federal E-Rate program to provide broadband funding to schools and libraries, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a forthcoming art museum in Los Angeles developed with his wife, Mellody Hobson.

Reviews

[Matt Kelland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story. Apparently there's a movie of it.

[Leisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading books from my childhood collection. Book #25. Rating based on my past affection for the book and warm fuzziness of memory. I read and reread this 100 times as a 10 year old. Rereading it today, I realized how much I still have it memorized!

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is hit or miss, there’s some unnecessary repetition and very blunt descriptions, but I think it does a pretty good job with the action. That being said - it’s tough to say because the mental picture you have when reading is exactly the movie, there’s very little deviation at all, and it’s clear that Lucas had this whole thing very well thought out by the time he was doing it for screen. It’s interesting the way real world things are used for metaphors or occasionally in dialogue (Kenobi says “even a duck needs to learn to swim” and Luke replies “what’s a duck?”). Wookies have glowing yellow eyes. Brandy is a drink there. What’s cool is with the novelization there’s space to detail what rooms of the Death Star were used for or their function within the broader ship. Luke is part of Blue Squadron on the Death Star raid, and he’s not immediately good at flying the X-Wing. Biggs and Wedge are much bigger parts of the Death Star raid (which goes on for a very long time). Chewbacca explicitly is stated to have received a medal. Book ends heavily hinting at Luke’s infatuation with Leia.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a lot of interesting minor differences. Mostly it was just ... Star Wars: the book, which makes sense. Fun standout moments:

1) the Whills are mentioned, though only in epigraph form
2) Vader says something early on like 'Chaos take you!' which sounds horrible, but I like it
3) We get to see ... dammit, I always get them confused ... either Wedge or Biggs when Luke visits him and other friends on Tattooine. This little moment really helps sell meeting him later at the rebel base.
3a) That meeting w/friends really helps flesh Luke out, at least I thought so
4) The book is like 250 pages long in the edition I read, and Han isn't introduced till like page 100. Which feels weird. I haven't seen the movie in decades, but I guess I always remember Ford more than Hamill in the first one, so it's weird to view the story without the faces/voices. Luke is definitely the standout in the book.

Beyond that ... meh. It'd be fun to do a rewrite of this that's more 'aware' of the prequel trilogies, so that like ... the sections from Vader's POV think about the loss of Padme, or Obi Wan sections talk about how he's feeling about facing Anakin again.

[Ashton Cluff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Star Wars was an amazing story that blended science fiction with strong themes of heroism and friendship. The novel follows Luke Skywalker a farm boy who becomes entangled in the major conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the evil Galactic Empire. The author develops Luke’s transformation from a slave boy on Tatooine into a courageous leader, moments such as when he learns to trust the Force highlighting his growth. The book shines through its amazing supporting characters Han Solo’s wit and arrogance mixed with Princess Leia’s determination add depth and balancing energy to the story. One of the best scenes is the attack on the Death Star, where Luke relies on faith rather than tools to succeed. A scene that strongly helps convey the book’s deeper message of belief and courage. The author's descriptions bring the galaxy to life and paint vivid images of the harsh deserts of Tatooine to the the Death Star. I would give this book a strong 4 out of 5 stars because it has thrilling battles and amazing character development, although I think the movie adaptations are more enjoyable. I would highly recommend it to readers who enjoy science fiction good versus evil type stories.

[Jesse Kade Jenkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a massive SW novels fan...this was, well... Look, the story is the story, it is EV-A-RY-THING. I am at home in a galaxy far, far away but...BUT, this is one of the most lack luster novelizations that I have ever read. Most novelizations add context, flesh out the story, and give color. This seems, almost, like a copy and paste and, frankly, a script would have probably been a more exciting read. Slow, dry, poorly written, this novel goes a long way to prove that, while a great creator, Lucas is not a writer; at least in this medium. I am not mad that I read it, but it was not good.

[Drew Kenyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw the movie then read the book.

[Craig Koller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The start of a great adventure.

[Patrick Kornegay, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely more graphic than the film, but the story is essentially the same. Great read for anyone who loves Star Wars, but doesn’t necessarily reads the books/comments!

[presi! · Rating 4 out of 5]

"we're a couple of shooting stars, Biggs, (...) and we'll never be stopped."

the gutteral SHOCK i experienced when my mother found this book in HER SCHOOL'S LIBRARY... and it's literally a print from 1982... INSANITY.

as for the book it's literally just the plot to episode 4

AND IT'S AWESOME‼️‼️

[Mike Calvert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. Some good insight on what George was really thinking.

[Rebecca Weissman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Learned I don't care for movie novelizations. Final battle scene went on for 15 pages too long after the rest of the story was relatively fast paced.

[Cheyenne Alberding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the moive and the book is just as good and I started reading it when going through a rough time and it keeps reminding me about the fact that no matter how hopeless life seems that "in time a new hope will emerge " and so i would recommend reading this every time you start to get hopeless