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Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
Star Wars [film tie-in]
220 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 1976
59 people are currently reading
945 people want to read
About the author
George Lucas
266 books603 followersGeorge 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.
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.
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June 10, 2025
Star Wars is truly an empire unto itself. The eleven films of the series have grossed over $10 billion worldwide; and when one adds in television programs, action figures, soundtrack albums, video games, tie-in books, amusement park rides, lunchboxes, graphic novels, and other forms of licensed merchandise, one is looking at gross revenues somewhere in the range of $300 billion and climbing. And I find it interesting to contemplate how humble the beginnings of that empire were – a low-budget 1977 space-fantasy movie filmed in Tunisia and Guatemala, and this modest mass-market paperback novelization of the film’s screenplay.
George Lucas, of course, had a promising directorial career long before he became “the Star Wars guy.” A Modesto, California, native who attended the University of California film school, Lucas parlayed his teenage years in Modesto into the critically praised and commercially successful American Graffiti (1973), a thoughtful look at the angst facing a group of teenage friends on the cusp of adulthood in their little inland-California town. His next film, four years later, was the original Star Wars (1977).
But when you see George Lucas listed as author on the cover of this paperback, don’t believe it! – because the actual author, as Lucas acknowledges in a foreword, is Alan Dean Foster, a prolific science-fiction novelist who has written many novelizations of movie scripts, as with Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). Foster, of course, knows the name of the game here: fans of the film want a book that will help them recreate and repeat, albeit in a different medium, the pleasures of viewing the film – just as the film fan listening to the soundtrack in their car is reliving favorite moments from a favorite movie while driving to work or to the mall.
So, what does this little mass-market paperback Star Wars book offer to anyone who is not already a Star Wars fan? To what extent does it convey anything different from the visual and auditory experience of viewing the original 1977 film?
Well, for one thing, it captures the idea of Star Wars, at that point in history, as very much a work in progress. This paperback’s official title is Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker – as if the events presented in the film are to be nothing more than a chapter in the larger saga of the life of one young man from the desert planet Tatooine. There needs no Force-ghost come from the grave to tell you that the series did not progress quite that way.
A prologue informs us that “Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match” (p. 1). There is also a prefatory quote from Senator Leia Organa of Alderaan: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes” (p. 2).
From there, we are thrown into the same situation explained in the screen crawl that opens the first movie. A rebellion is in progress against the rule of the tyrannical Galactic Empire, and the in medias res introduction presents us with the spectacle of a small civilian ship being captured by a large Imperial spaceship, a “star destroyer.”
Along with the human occupants of the ship – most of whom will soon be dead – there are two robots or androids, known in this fictive universe as “droids.” One, C-3PO, is a protocol droid that speaks billions of languages – a “tall, humanlike machine” with a bronze finish, and withal a fussy character that will remind the reader of many an English butler in many an American movie. The other, R2-D2 – “a stubby, tripodal robot”, “with his squat, cylindrical body’s low center of gravity well balanced on thick, clawed legs” – turns out to be a brave, loyal, and resourceful companion through all the adventures that are to follow.
R2 and 3PO – who, as characters, may well derive from the wandering peasants Tahei and Matashichi in Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s film The Hidden Fortress (1957) – will play a decisive role in this narrative; for just as the civilian ship is being overtaken by the Imperial forces, a young woman – “young, slim, and…of a calm beauty” – is placing something inside R2’s memory circuits. This is, of course, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan – again, a parallel with a Kurosawa character, Princess Yuki from The Hidden Fortress – and while she will soon be in Imperial hands, the information that she has been carrying, placed within R2’s memory circuits, is a crucial piece of military intelligence that could threaten the entire Imperial structure of power.
The Empire knows this, of course, and therefore it has sent one of its most feared operatives after Princess Leia and the data tapes she stole. Please allow me to introduce one Darth Vader: “Two meters tall. Bipedal. Flowing black robes trailing from the figure and a face forever masked by a functional if bizarre black metal breath screen – a Dark Lord of the Sith was an awesome, threatening shape as it strode through the corridors of the rebel ship” (p. 7). With the “cloud of evil” that surrounds him, his “malevolent presence”, Vader of course makes a vivid impression right away. He captures Princess Leia, seeks the stolen data tapes, and invokes the power of an energy field called “The Force,” choking a dismissive Imperial officer without touching him: “‘I find,’ Vader mentioned, ‘this lack of faith disturbing’” (p. 43).
But R2-D2 and C-3PO make a successful escape by jet-pod from the captured spaceship to the surface of the nearby desert planet Tatooine. After a series of strange misadventures, they end up on the farm where 20-year-old farmboy Luke Skywalker lives with his aunt and uncle. Luke is described in terms of his ordinariness; with his “shaggy hair and baggy work tunic”, the book’s narrator observes, “The most prepossessing thing about the young man was his name” (p. 15).
A thought-provoking scene that does not appear in the film further emphasizes Luke’s ordinariness. At a repair station, Luke bursts in to tell some friends that he has seen signs of battle in the skies above Tatooine; but his friends dismiss Luke, calling him “Wormie.” The way these other characters treat Luke made me think of the socially maladroit Terry “The Toad” Fields from Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) – and made me wonder if a young George Walton Lucas Jr., growing up as a skinny kid with glasses in Modesto, California, might have felt just as out-of-place in his desert world as Luke clearly does in his.
But one friend, Biggs, believes in Luke. A recent graduate of the Imperial military academy, Biggs confides to Luke that he is considering joining the rebellion against the Empire: “Only the threat of rebellion keeps many in power from doing certain unmentionable things. If that threat is completely removed – well, there are two things men have never been able to satisfy: their curiosity and their greed” (p. 35).
Luke is rescued from a dangerous desert encounter by one Obi-Wan Kenobi, an older man whose face shows some hint of all that he has been through:
[His] aged visage blended into the sand-stroked cloth [of his cloak], and his beard appeared but an extension of the loose threads covering his upper chest. Hints of extreme climates other than deserts, of ultimate cold and humidity, were etched into that seamed face. A questing beak of nose, like a high rock, protruded outward from a flash-flood of wrinkles and scars. (p. 79)
Obi-Wan Kenobi, or “Ben” Kenobi (a Franklinian allusion, perhaps?), educates young Luke regarding the ways of “the Force” – a powerful energy field that suffuses all things in existence, and that can be manipulated, for good or ill, by some but not all people. He also tries to urge Luke to avoid 1970’s-style apathy and get involved with the important issues of his time: “Remember, Luke, the suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it.” (p. 92)
In their efforts to get away from Tatooine and get the stolen data plans to the Rebel Alliance, Luke and Obi-Wan solicit the aid of Han Solo – “a sharp-featured young man” who “displayed the openness of the utterly confident, or the insanely reckless” (p. 112) – and his first mate Chewbacca, an “anthropoid” creature whom Lucas/Foster describes as “a great hairy mass” (p. 110). The two have a freighter, the Millennium Falcon, that is quick enough for effective smuggling operations.
Han Solo shows his readiness for action when he gets the drop on a bounty hunter that had been gunning for him – “Light and noise filled the little corner of the cantina, and when it had faded, all that remained of the unctuous alien was a smoking, slimy spot on the stone floor” (p. 116) – and he contracts to take Luke and Ben to the planet Alderaan, a center of resistance to the Empire. A series of capture-and-escape adventures proceed from there.
Fans of Star Wars will enjoy the frisson of re-experencing familiar moments from the film, with slightly different lines of dialogue. Viewers will remember the three-dimensional computerized chess game that Chewbacca plays against the two droids. When Chewbacca reacts with rage to an effective move by R2-D2, C-3PO protests: “There are certain standards any sentient creature must hold to. If one compromises them for any reason, including intimidation, then one is abrogating his right to be called intelligent.” Solo blandly replies, “I hope you’ll both remember that…when Chewbacca is pulling the arms off you and your little friend” (p. 132).
Ben meanwhile trains Luke in the ways of the force. When a blindfolded Luke effectively parries the attacks of a hovering practice droid, Han calls it luck, and Ben replies, “In my experience there is no such thing as luck, my young friend – only highly favorable adjustments of multiple factors to incline events in one’s favor” (p. 137).
The entire planet Alderaan, it turns out, has been destroyed by the Death Star, and the Millennium Falcon is captured and brought on board the space station. Luke, Han, Ben, and the two droids must figure out a way to rescue Princess Leia and escape the Death Star. In the process, Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself facing Darth Vader, his former pupil. Vader expresses arrogant confidence that he will quickly slay his aging former instructor, and Ben responds in this manner:
“You sense only a part of the force, Darth,” Kenobi murmured with the assurance of one to whom death is merely another sensation, like sleeping or making love or touching a candle. “As always, you perceive its reality as little as a utensil perceives the taste of food….This is a fight you cannot win, Darth. Your power has matured since I taught you, but I too have grown much since our parting. If my blade finds its mark, you will cease to exist. But if you cut me down, I will only become more powerful. Heed my words.” (pp. 184-85)
All of this, of course, leads up to a final confrontation wherein the Rebel Alliance executes a daring plan to destroy the Empire’s mighty Death Star through attacks by small, one-person fighters against an exhaust port that, if struck the right way, will initiate a chain reaction that will destroy the entire space station. It’s a fine plot element. It’s just unfortunate that Lucas saw fit to use that same plot element, with variations, in one Star Wars movie after another.
We all know, of course, what a cultural phenomenon Star Wars became. I will never forget seeing it, as a 16-year-old in 1977, on the 70-by-35-foot Cinerama curved screen at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C. – a transformative experience of pure cinematic magic. It is a great, entrancing movie.
And we all know that, for the Star Wars fan who just can’t get enough of that universe, there are plenty of ways to stay in tune with the Force. The Kindle version of Lucas/Foster’s Star Wars that I have offers excerpts from eight other Star Wars novels; and then there is a timeline that covers 5000 years, and sets the Star Wars films on that timeline among, by my count, 139 (!) Star Wars novels so far. Utinni! (that's Jawa for "Get going!") May the Force give you time to do some serious reading.
I won’t be travelling that far with you, I must confess. While, as mentioned above, I liked the first film very much, I found much of the action and dialogue in the subsequent films repetitive (though I must say that the Episode IX film provided a fine coda, and a pleasant, classy farewell for actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford from the roles with which they will always be identified). The Blade Runner films are much more my style.
But even the grumpiest Dark Lord of the Sith cannot deny the potency of Star Wars as a cultural force. This modest 1977 novel (a mint-quality, first-edition paperback of which may set you back $270.00 on eBay) takes us back to the very beginnings of that galaxy-shaking cultural phenomenon. Enjoy it if you are so inclined, and may the Force be with you.
George Lucas, of course, had a promising directorial career long before he became “the Star Wars guy.” A Modesto, California, native who attended the University of California film school, Lucas parlayed his teenage years in Modesto into the critically praised and commercially successful American Graffiti (1973), a thoughtful look at the angst facing a group of teenage friends on the cusp of adulthood in their little inland-California town. His next film, four years later, was the original Star Wars (1977).
But when you see George Lucas listed as author on the cover of this paperback, don’t believe it! – because the actual author, as Lucas acknowledges in a foreword, is Alan Dean Foster, a prolific science-fiction novelist who has written many novelizations of movie scripts, as with Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). Foster, of course, knows the name of the game here: fans of the film want a book that will help them recreate and repeat, albeit in a different medium, the pleasures of viewing the film – just as the film fan listening to the soundtrack in their car is reliving favorite moments from a favorite movie while driving to work or to the mall.
So, what does this little mass-market paperback Star Wars book offer to anyone who is not already a Star Wars fan? To what extent does it convey anything different from the visual and auditory experience of viewing the original 1977 film?
Well, for one thing, it captures the idea of Star Wars, at that point in history, as very much a work in progress. This paperback’s official title is Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker – as if the events presented in the film are to be nothing more than a chapter in the larger saga of the life of one young man from the desert planet Tatooine. There needs no Force-ghost come from the grave to tell you that the series did not progress quite that way.
A prologue informs us that “Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match” (p. 1). There is also a prefatory quote from Senator Leia Organa of Alderaan: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes” (p. 2).
From there, we are thrown into the same situation explained in the screen crawl that opens the first movie. A rebellion is in progress against the rule of the tyrannical Galactic Empire, and the in medias res introduction presents us with the spectacle of a small civilian ship being captured by a large Imperial spaceship, a “star destroyer.”
Along with the human occupants of the ship – most of whom will soon be dead – there are two robots or androids, known in this fictive universe as “droids.” One, C-3PO, is a protocol droid that speaks billions of languages – a “tall, humanlike machine” with a bronze finish, and withal a fussy character that will remind the reader of many an English butler in many an American movie. The other, R2-D2 – “a stubby, tripodal robot”, “with his squat, cylindrical body’s low center of gravity well balanced on thick, clawed legs” – turns out to be a brave, loyal, and resourceful companion through all the adventures that are to follow.
R2 and 3PO – who, as characters, may well derive from the wandering peasants Tahei and Matashichi in Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s film The Hidden Fortress (1957) – will play a decisive role in this narrative; for just as the civilian ship is being overtaken by the Imperial forces, a young woman – “young, slim, and…of a calm beauty” – is placing something inside R2’s memory circuits. This is, of course, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan – again, a parallel with a Kurosawa character, Princess Yuki from The Hidden Fortress – and while she will soon be in Imperial hands, the information that she has been carrying, placed within R2’s memory circuits, is a crucial piece of military intelligence that could threaten the entire Imperial structure of power.
The Empire knows this, of course, and therefore it has sent one of its most feared operatives after Princess Leia and the data tapes she stole. Please allow me to introduce one Darth Vader: “Two meters tall. Bipedal. Flowing black robes trailing from the figure and a face forever masked by a functional if bizarre black metal breath screen – a Dark Lord of the Sith was an awesome, threatening shape as it strode through the corridors of the rebel ship” (p. 7). With the “cloud of evil” that surrounds him, his “malevolent presence”, Vader of course makes a vivid impression right away. He captures Princess Leia, seeks the stolen data tapes, and invokes the power of an energy field called “The Force,” choking a dismissive Imperial officer without touching him: “‘I find,’ Vader mentioned, ‘this lack of faith disturbing’” (p. 43).
But R2-D2 and C-3PO make a successful escape by jet-pod from the captured spaceship to the surface of the nearby desert planet Tatooine. After a series of strange misadventures, they end up on the farm where 20-year-old farmboy Luke Skywalker lives with his aunt and uncle. Luke is described in terms of his ordinariness; with his “shaggy hair and baggy work tunic”, the book’s narrator observes, “The most prepossessing thing about the young man was his name” (p. 15).
A thought-provoking scene that does not appear in the film further emphasizes Luke’s ordinariness. At a repair station, Luke bursts in to tell some friends that he has seen signs of battle in the skies above Tatooine; but his friends dismiss Luke, calling him “Wormie.” The way these other characters treat Luke made me think of the socially maladroit Terry “The Toad” Fields from Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) – and made me wonder if a young George Walton Lucas Jr., growing up as a skinny kid with glasses in Modesto, California, might have felt just as out-of-place in his desert world as Luke clearly does in his.
But one friend, Biggs, believes in Luke. A recent graduate of the Imperial military academy, Biggs confides to Luke that he is considering joining the rebellion against the Empire: “Only the threat of rebellion keeps many in power from doing certain unmentionable things. If that threat is completely removed – well, there are two things men have never been able to satisfy: their curiosity and their greed” (p. 35).
Luke is rescued from a dangerous desert encounter by one Obi-Wan Kenobi, an older man whose face shows some hint of all that he has been through:
[His] aged visage blended into the sand-stroked cloth [of his cloak], and his beard appeared but an extension of the loose threads covering his upper chest. Hints of extreme climates other than deserts, of ultimate cold and humidity, were etched into that seamed face. A questing beak of nose, like a high rock, protruded outward from a flash-flood of wrinkles and scars. (p. 79)
Obi-Wan Kenobi, or “Ben” Kenobi (a Franklinian allusion, perhaps?), educates young Luke regarding the ways of “the Force” – a powerful energy field that suffuses all things in existence, and that can be manipulated, for good or ill, by some but not all people. He also tries to urge Luke to avoid 1970’s-style apathy and get involved with the important issues of his time: “Remember, Luke, the suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it.” (p. 92)
In their efforts to get away from Tatooine and get the stolen data plans to the Rebel Alliance, Luke and Obi-Wan solicit the aid of Han Solo – “a sharp-featured young man” who “displayed the openness of the utterly confident, or the insanely reckless” (p. 112) – and his first mate Chewbacca, an “anthropoid” creature whom Lucas/Foster describes as “a great hairy mass” (p. 110). The two have a freighter, the Millennium Falcon, that is quick enough for effective smuggling operations.
Han Solo shows his readiness for action when he gets the drop on a bounty hunter that had been gunning for him – “Light and noise filled the little corner of the cantina, and when it had faded, all that remained of the unctuous alien was a smoking, slimy spot on the stone floor” (p. 116) – and he contracts to take Luke and Ben to the planet Alderaan, a center of resistance to the Empire. A series of capture-and-escape adventures proceed from there.
Fans of Star Wars will enjoy the frisson of re-experencing familiar moments from the film, with slightly different lines of dialogue. Viewers will remember the three-dimensional computerized chess game that Chewbacca plays against the two droids. When Chewbacca reacts with rage to an effective move by R2-D2, C-3PO protests: “There are certain standards any sentient creature must hold to. If one compromises them for any reason, including intimidation, then one is abrogating his right to be called intelligent.” Solo blandly replies, “I hope you’ll both remember that…when Chewbacca is pulling the arms off you and your little friend” (p. 132).
Ben meanwhile trains Luke in the ways of the force. When a blindfolded Luke effectively parries the attacks of a hovering practice droid, Han calls it luck, and Ben replies, “In my experience there is no such thing as luck, my young friend – only highly favorable adjustments of multiple factors to incline events in one’s favor” (p. 137).
The entire planet Alderaan, it turns out, has been destroyed by the Death Star, and the Millennium Falcon is captured and brought on board the space station. Luke, Han, Ben, and the two droids must figure out a way to rescue Princess Leia and escape the Death Star. In the process, Obi-Wan Kenobi finds himself facing Darth Vader, his former pupil. Vader expresses arrogant confidence that he will quickly slay his aging former instructor, and Ben responds in this manner:
“You sense only a part of the force, Darth,” Kenobi murmured with the assurance of one to whom death is merely another sensation, like sleeping or making love or touching a candle. “As always, you perceive its reality as little as a utensil perceives the taste of food….This is a fight you cannot win, Darth. Your power has matured since I taught you, but I too have grown much since our parting. If my blade finds its mark, you will cease to exist. But if you cut me down, I will only become more powerful. Heed my words.” (pp. 184-85)
All of this, of course, leads up to a final confrontation wherein the Rebel Alliance executes a daring plan to destroy the Empire’s mighty Death Star through attacks by small, one-person fighters against an exhaust port that, if struck the right way, will initiate a chain reaction that will destroy the entire space station. It’s a fine plot element. It’s just unfortunate that Lucas saw fit to use that same plot element, with variations, in one Star Wars movie after another.
We all know, of course, what a cultural phenomenon Star Wars became. I will never forget seeing it, as a 16-year-old in 1977, on the 70-by-35-foot Cinerama curved screen at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C. – a transformative experience of pure cinematic magic. It is a great, entrancing movie.
And we all know that, for the Star Wars fan who just can’t get enough of that universe, there are plenty of ways to stay in tune with the Force. The Kindle version of Lucas/Foster’s Star Wars that I have offers excerpts from eight other Star Wars novels; and then there is a timeline that covers 5000 years, and sets the Star Wars films on that timeline among, by my count, 139 (!) Star Wars novels so far. Utinni! (that's Jawa for "Get going!") May the Force give you time to do some serious reading.
I won’t be travelling that far with you, I must confess. While, as mentioned above, I liked the first film very much, I found much of the action and dialogue in the subsequent films repetitive (though I must say that the Episode IX film provided a fine coda, and a pleasant, classy farewell for actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford from the roles with which they will always be identified). The Blade Runner films are much more my style.
But even the grumpiest Dark Lord of the Sith cannot deny the potency of Star Wars as a cultural force. This modest 1977 novel (a mint-quality, first-edition paperback of which may set you back $270.00 on eBay) takes us back to the very beginnings of that galaxy-shaking cultural phenomenon. Enjoy it if you are so inclined, and may the Force be with you.
January 29, 2021
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....
Ah yes, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie that started it all. But that was in 1977. Let's flash back to a time just before that, to where the story of this amazing book, and its sequel, began.
1976
Some guy named George Lucas (never heard of him, wink) commissioned author Alan Dean Foster to write two books. The first, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, would be a novelization of Lucas' upcoming movie, Star Wars. In case the movie bombed, Lucas wanted Foster's second novel to be a story that could be produced into a low-budget sequel to Star Wars. The franchise is, of course, now one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, but Lucas didn't know that would be the case at the time. This second novel is called Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and if you're a big Star Wars fan, go add this book to your TBR list right now, because although its ratings on GR aren't very good, 3.26 stars from 9557 ratings at the time of this writing, it is very literally a lost Star Wars movie that was never made, so you have to read it. I personally intend to read and review it in the coming weeks, but we'll see if that ends up happening.
Back to Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. I really liked it, though I found the writing to be a bit wooden and two-dimensional at times. You just can't recreate something like the Mos Eisley cantina scene in a book. The movie has music you can hear, and the scene has its own atmosphere unique in the history of film. Alan Dean Foster did an admirable job trying to write scenes like this, but for me some of them didn't quite match the quality of their movie counterparts. Some of them, however, I think he did a great job with, such as the lightsaber duel between Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, and the attack run on and destruction of the Death Star at the end of the story.
One thing I really, really loved is the scene where the Millenium Falcon has infiltrated the Death Star, and Han and Luke have to overpower a few Stormtroopers to steal their armour and disguise themselves. A senior officer then calls out to one of the unconscious Stormtroopers over the radio, asking him why he's not reporting in. The scene is incredibly brief, and though it happens in both the book and the movie, there's a really cool difference between the two versions. Here is the scene as it occurs in the book:
"THX-1138, why don't you reply?" The officer was beginning to panic when an armored figure descended the ramp and waved toward him.
Notice anything about that scene? The missing Stormtrooper's unit number is THX-1138! That is the title of George Lucas' first movie! I simultaneously watched the movie the same week I read this book, and in the movie the missing Stormtrooper's name is changed to "TK421". I can't help but wonder why the easter egg reference to Lucas' first movie was removed in the eventual Star Wars film, but it's really cool that it's still in the novelization.
In conclusion, I normally wouldn't say a movie novelization is a "must-read", but this one really is. This book was the beginning of the printed world of Star Wars, which now encompasses hundreds of books, set across numerous different series. In fact, just the other day I happened to look at the Wikipedia page for the Death Star, and it listed this book as its first appearance anywhere. It's just a really cool book, and not just from a historical-importance perspective; it's also a captivating and well-written book in its own right. Given its sequel is fundamentally a lost Star Wars movie in novel form, you can bet I'll be checking that out sooner rather than later. Highly recommended!
Ah yes, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie that started it all. But that was in 1977. Let's flash back to a time just before that, to where the story of this amazing book, and its sequel, began.
1976
Some guy named George Lucas (never heard of him, wink) commissioned author Alan Dean Foster to write two books. The first, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, would be a novelization of Lucas' upcoming movie, Star Wars. In case the movie bombed, Lucas wanted Foster's second novel to be a story that could be produced into a low-budget sequel to Star Wars. The franchise is, of course, now one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, but Lucas didn't know that would be the case at the time. This second novel is called Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and if you're a big Star Wars fan, go add this book to your TBR list right now, because although its ratings on GR aren't very good, 3.26 stars from 9557 ratings at the time of this writing, it is very literally a lost Star Wars movie that was never made, so you have to read it. I personally intend to read and review it in the coming weeks, but we'll see if that ends up happening.
Back to Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. I really liked it, though I found the writing to be a bit wooden and two-dimensional at times. You just can't recreate something like the Mos Eisley cantina scene in a book. The movie has music you can hear, and the scene has its own atmosphere unique in the history of film. Alan Dean Foster did an admirable job trying to write scenes like this, but for me some of them didn't quite match the quality of their movie counterparts. Some of them, however, I think he did a great job with, such as the lightsaber duel between Obi-wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, and the attack run on and destruction of the Death Star at the end of the story.
One thing I really, really loved is the scene where the Millenium Falcon has infiltrated the Death Star, and Han and Luke have to overpower a few Stormtroopers to steal their armour and disguise themselves. A senior officer then calls out to one of the unconscious Stormtroopers over the radio, asking him why he's not reporting in. The scene is incredibly brief, and though it happens in both the book and the movie, there's a really cool difference between the two versions. Here is the scene as it occurs in the book:
"THX-1138, why don't you reply?" The officer was beginning to panic when an armored figure descended the ramp and waved toward him.
Notice anything about that scene? The missing Stormtrooper's unit number is THX-1138! That is the title of George Lucas' first movie! I simultaneously watched the movie the same week I read this book, and in the movie the missing Stormtrooper's name is changed to "TK421". I can't help but wonder why the easter egg reference to Lucas' first movie was removed in the eventual Star Wars film, but it's really cool that it's still in the novelization.
In conclusion, I normally wouldn't say a movie novelization is a "must-read", but this one really is. This book was the beginning of the printed world of Star Wars, which now encompasses hundreds of books, set across numerous different series. In fact, just the other day I happened to look at the Wikipedia page for the Death Star, and it listed this book as its first appearance anywhere. It's just a really cool book, and not just from a historical-importance perspective; it's also a captivating and well-written book in its own right. Given its sequel is fundamentally a lost Star Wars movie in novel form, you can bet I'll be checking that out sooner rather than later. Highly recommended!
December 28, 2022
So I was 12 years old when the movie was released, and I remember being mesmerized. It’s one of the first movies I went to see alone with my little brother. So reading the novelization, I got to revisit this old friend many times over the years. The screenplay was written by George Lucas, along with the conception of the story before and the story afterward, but even though it’s his vision, Lucas didn’t write the novelization. Alan Dean Foster did and years later, he was given due credit for answering little quibbles that Star Wars fans have argued about for decades. (Han shot first.) There is a nice mix of simple technobabble to satisfy science fiction fans; sufficient emotional beats to pull at the heart strings of drama fans; and enough high adventure to draw in the action junkies. There is humor, fantasy, and even a little romance. The story has it all and it was one of the early stories that captured the sci-fi imagination. The funny thing is that my kids are captured too. This is truly a classic and it should be treated as such.
May 4, 2015
It's May 4th! In honor of Star Wars Day... a long time ago (December of 1976), in a galaxy far, far away (Bluefield, Virginia)... I was home from college for winter break and spotted this weird little paperback on the spin-rack of the corner drug store. (I believe it was Goodykoontz Pharmacy, but I'm not certain.) It looked like a nifty little space opera; I was familiar with George Lucas from THX-1138 and American Graffitti, though I didn't know him as a novelist. I picked it up and enjoyed reading it between the holidays; it was clever and nicely-written and held my interest in an old-fashioned pulpy manner. I never suspected the book would get another printing, or that the film which was to be released in a few months would enjoy any marked success, or that anyone would remember this Star Wars thing by next year, or that Alan Dean Foster was the actual author. It was fun, and I'm glad to have the irony of the memory, and long may it last... or, rather, may The Force be with us, always.
November 25, 2016
I read this just after the movie came out when I was 7 or 8 years old. I remember loving it but preferring the wonders of the silver screen. I curiously never went back to read it again. Perhaps I will someday...
November 25, 2011
It has been a long while since I revisited this, the very first Star Wars novelization. Having recently read one of the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels, a couple of things caught my attention, partially in contrast to the Zahn work:
- It's remarkable how the use of high-quality language can make such a difference in my perception of a story. This book introduced me to words such as "lambent" and "actinic" when I was only seven or eight years old. I happily devoured these new words because I wanted to know what happened next.
- It is commonly held that although George Lucas' name is on the cover, Alan Dean Foster wrote the book. As a professional science fiction writer, he brings a little more gravitas to the telling of what could have been seen as a silly little space fantasy. His ability to write terrific descriptions has much to do with the success of this book, I think. When he describes Ben Kenobi's face as having a "flashflood of wrinkles and scars" or Grand Moff Tarkin as a "quiescent piranha" he is going above and beyond the call of duty for a genre movie tie-in. But it leaves a more lasting impression.
- Back at the beginning of the Star Wars phenomenon the stories were a lot simpler and there was a lot more left to the imagination. Much of the impression that the original Star Wars story leaves on us comes from the fact that we are left to fill in the back-story with only hints and pieces. What was the Old Republic like? Who were the Jedi knights? What is this mysterious Force? Obviously as the universe of Star Wars evolved, more pieces of the puzzle were filled in and there are more new worlds and ideas to explore. But we also lose something of value when the mysterious sense of a deep and rich history disappears.
- It's remarkable how the use of high-quality language can make such a difference in my perception of a story. This book introduced me to words such as "lambent" and "actinic" when I was only seven or eight years old. I happily devoured these new words because I wanted to know what happened next.
- It is commonly held that although George Lucas' name is on the cover, Alan Dean Foster wrote the book. As a professional science fiction writer, he brings a little more gravitas to the telling of what could have been seen as a silly little space fantasy. His ability to write terrific descriptions has much to do with the success of this book, I think. When he describes Ben Kenobi's face as having a "flashflood of wrinkles and scars" or Grand Moff Tarkin as a "quiescent piranha" he is going above and beyond the call of duty for a genre movie tie-in. But it leaves a more lasting impression.
- Back at the beginning of the Star Wars phenomenon the stories were a lot simpler and there was a lot more left to the imagination. Much of the impression that the original Star Wars story leaves on us comes from the fact that we are left to fill in the back-story with only hints and pieces. What was the Old Republic like? Who were the Jedi knights? What is this mysterious Force? Obviously as the universe of Star Wars evolved, more pieces of the puzzle were filled in and there are more new worlds and ideas to explore. But we also lose something of value when the mysterious sense of a deep and rich history disappears.
April 10, 2009
Usually novelizations of movies are not as good as the movies themselves. This is certainly true here. The Star Wars movie is fantastic; but it loses a lot when transferred to print.
May 4, 2018
I'm giving this three stars because it's great fun to read aloud and do dramatic recitations. That is by far the best way to attempt getting through this (and I say this as a lifelong fan of the movie).
November 8, 2020
I read this as a child over and over again. I loved the way it expanded Luke Skywalker's story and the appearance of Jabba the Hut (this doesn't happen in the movies until Return of the Jedi).
January 31, 2025
knowing the changes that were made to the final cut of this movie and also what this universe grew into, it's really amazing that it was able to become a phenomenon at all. if the movie had stayed much like this it wouldn't have grown into something
July 29, 2025
Fun read. Interesting to see the changes Lucas made from script to screen
September 27, 2020
I originally read this book back in June of 1977 after having seen and been blown away by the movie, just like many another 13-year-old lad I'm sure. I hadn't read it since, though I've seen the movie a few more times over the years. I am surprised how well the book holds up.
It's a true and faithful novelization with no significant differences from the film. Because the stories are told in different media, some of the campiness gets lost in the novelization, but I consider this a benefit. Also lost is the musical score, the pageantry, the sound and color of light sabers clashing, the roar of the spaceship engines, the bleak desolation of Luke's homeworld, Tatooine, the sleaziness of the bar scenes. Alan Dean Foster does his best to translate what he can of this and does not do a bad job of it, but I can't honestly give his effort more than four stars.
My biggest surprise: the dialogue. Most of it is faithful to Lucas's screenplay, which should be a bad thing the extent to which Lucas gets publicly panned for it. But most of it actually sparkles whether it's in cinematic or book form. Particularly strong is the way Luke and Uncle Owen clash, Leia's chagrin at having to save "her rescuers," and the scene where Leia expresses her disappointment in Solo's self-interested choices, among a number of other well-done exchanges. The quality of the dialogue is definitely under-rated.
It's a true and faithful novelization with no significant differences from the film. Because the stories are told in different media, some of the campiness gets lost in the novelization, but I consider this a benefit. Also lost is the musical score, the pageantry, the sound and color of light sabers clashing, the roar of the spaceship engines, the bleak desolation of Luke's homeworld, Tatooine, the sleaziness of the bar scenes. Alan Dean Foster does his best to translate what he can of this and does not do a bad job of it, but I can't honestly give his effort more than four stars.
My biggest surprise: the dialogue. Most of it is faithful to Lucas's screenplay, which should be a bad thing the extent to which Lucas gets publicly panned for it. But most of it actually sparkles whether it's in cinematic or book form. Particularly strong is the way Luke and Uncle Owen clash, Leia's chagrin at having to save "her rescuers," and the scene where Leia expresses her disappointment in Solo's self-interested choices, among a number of other well-done exchanges. The quality of the dialogue is definitely under-rated.
June 29, 2016
Allegedly Alan Foster who wrote this book did not see the film before writing it. He wrote it based on a script that was George Lucas's 4th draft but not final the final revision. Since the book was released a whole 6 months before the movie that's probably all true.
When I found this out I had hoped it would be an exciting fresh take on the film that started it all. Unfortunately, it was dumb. Rather than saying the movie was better than the book, I guess that Lucas's interpretation of his script put into film form was better than Foster's interpretation of Lucas's script put into novel form. Probably Lucas could change and cut and re-write whatever he wanted, but Foster probably had to stick to the screenplay.
If it weren't for my love of Star Wars and the nostalgic gloss I got to see this book through, it may have been one of the worst books I've ever read. Clearly I should read more.
When I found this out I had hoped it would be an exciting fresh take on the film that started it all. Unfortunately, it was dumb. Rather than saying the movie was better than the book, I guess that Lucas's interpretation of his script put into film form was better than Foster's interpretation of Lucas's script put into novel form. Probably Lucas could change and cut and re-write whatever he wanted, but Foster probably had to stick to the screenplay.
If it weren't for my love of Star Wars and the nostalgic gloss I got to see this book through, it may have been one of the worst books I've ever read. Clearly I should read more.
July 16, 2021
Once, at a time long past, the known galaxies were places of peace and order.
It was an era when the Senate ruled wisely, always keeping the needs of the people at the forefront of its agenda. It was a time when the lesser, baser human desire for consolidating personal power were rarely, if ever seen.
And supporting the governing rule of the good Senate were the Jedi Knights who carried out their protective duties with honor and respect for the people they were called to serve.
Then, over time, a small, but quietly growing number of power-hungry individuals began to appear, then organize. At first, these were small scale, secretive coalitions operating within the various levels of government and the echelons of commerce. Among these scattered groups was one person who expertly navigated his way though these clandestine little organizations, solidifying influence, and sharing his vision for a “grander” future in the Republic to tiny, but attentive audiences.
He waited patiently for the right time to make his power move, and years later, when the time was right, her was elected President of the Republic.
His name was Palpatine.
He entered office promising a bright future for all the systems under the Republic’s control. There were gestures of statesmanship as he vowed to reunite the disaffected among the people and to heighten the glory of the once great Republic.
But once he secured office, he declared himself Emperor, distanced himself from the people and surrounded himself with the assistants and “yes men” he had just appointed.
Soon the people’s cries for justice had no way of reaching his ears.
And then, over time, things began to get worse as the Jedi Knights were killed off and the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disenfranchised systems in the galaxy. Also, there began a series of smaller-scale power plays within the New Order by ambitiously devious people who had some power and used the Imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their personal agendas.
But a small group of people, on a few systems, rebelled at these atrocities. They declared themselves opposed to the New Order and began a noble, but initially insignificant effort restore the old Republic.
Over time word reached each of these rebellion friendly communities that the Imperial Empire, as part of their New Order agenda, had been in the process of planning, and now, indeed was actually constructing a battle station of immense proportion. There were rumors that the new station was equipped with weapons so powerful that even an entire planet might be vulnerable to its attack. And even as this early intelligence was reaching the ears of the rebel leaders, this battle station took on an identity of its own…they called it the “Death Star.”
The prospect of the completion of this battle station and the rumors of it’s almost unbelievable destructive power were sobering considerations for the rebel forces scattered about in the various systems. And the consideration of any one station having the potential to destroy an entire planet compelled the rebels to step up their game, more effectively organize, and operate with greeter intentionality.
One of the early steps the rebels took was to assign a group of spies to a mission of locating an electronic blueprint of the battle station, then abscond with the plans in tow. The spies did successfully locate the plans, then hastily transmitted the data to an Alderaan vessel that was the ship of Senator Leia Organa, a member of the powerful governing body and a princess in the Alderaan Royal Family. The spies were told that Princess Leia was a trusted source who had access to the corridors of power. The stolen plans would be safe and properly analyzed if transmitted into her hands.
Unfortunately, the Empire forces detected the transmission that was sent from the spies to Senator Leia’s ship. They sourced the originating location and swept in before the Rebel spies could escape. The spies did see the Imperial forces approaching, and in order to avoid capture or questioning, they all killed themselves.
The Imperial forces then traced the location the transmissions were being sent to, and in an effort to recapture the missing “Death Star” design intelligence, gave chase to Senator Leia’s spaceship.
Upon identifying that ship as the receiver of the data, the Imperial cruiser sent warnings to the Alderaan ship to stop immediately. But Leia’s ship did not stop, and soon an exchange of multiple energy beams were fired from one ship to another. The Alderaan ship was much smaller and equipped with lower power weapons. Soon, the Empire vessel disabled it, and the stormtroopers began to force their way on board.
And while the Alderaan ship’s security contingent encamped themselves, preparing for a man-to-man skirmish with the stormtroopers, Senator Leia was hastily transferring the files of the “Death Star” plans into the memory banks of a small robot with squat, cylindrical design. The robot was named Artoo Detoo.
After transferring the information into the droid’s memory banks, Leia records a message, then looks to her right, then left, then quietly dashes away.
Meanwhile, Artoo Detoo’s companion, See Threepio, finally locates his missing companion, “Did you hear that?” the taller robot demands, “They’ve shut down the main reactor…this time we’ll be destroyed for sure!”
This most recent development, combined with the horrible sounds of laser fire and explosions were sufficient to cause the Artoo Detoo robot to take the lead, guiding his friend See Threepio in a circuitous path all about the ship, until such time as they reach a small escape pod.
And as Artoo Detoo climbs into the cramped space of the small enclosure, there is yet another violent explosion which caused the See Threepio droid to momentarily forget his doubts and join his friend in the pod.
The pod soon explodes from its chute, and seconds later, is visible from the bridge of the Imperial cruiser, “There goes another pod, sir, instructions?” the officer asks.
The captain studies the readout on the screen, “Hold your fire, Lieutenant…instruments show no life forms aboard. The pod’s mechanism must have short circuited. Don’t waste your power.”
And as that miscalculation unfolds, the secret plans to the “Death Star” have escaped the clutches of the Imperial forces…at least for awhile anyway. But soon they deduce that the stolen plans have somehow escaped the confines of the Alderaan ship, and just a bit later, they assume that they must’ve been stashed in one of the escape pods that impacted on the nearby planet.
This moves the dramatic chase from the planet’s orbit to the hot, sandy, desert-like surface of Tatooine.
And it is on Tatooine that we meet the most diverse and amazing cast of characters…
There were the Jawas, short little shuffling creatures with their cloaks and red-yellow eyes peering from under their hoods. There were the aggressive and skittish Tusken Raiders who have a penchant for reeking havoc on the equipment and property of local farmers while riding their Banthas. A wizardly old hermit with an incredible life story. A swashbuckling smuggler-pilot named Han Solo with his tall, furry Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca. Finally, there’s a farmer’s nephew, a young man who feels trapped as he lives and works on his uncle’s farm…dreaming of a much more exciting life…flying great spaceships among the stars…
Also, this book was filled with one vivid description after another, including Lucas’s description of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen:
“He wore and air of grim, semi perpetual exhaustion, sandblasted into his face by too many years of arguing with a hostile environment. His greying hair was frozen in tangled twists like gypsum helicities. Dust frosted his face, clothes, hands and thoughts. But the body, if not the spirit, was still powerful.”
It was a 220-page thrilling, “rollercoaster ride” of a story. Five stars for sure!
It was an era when the Senate ruled wisely, always keeping the needs of the people at the forefront of its agenda. It was a time when the lesser, baser human desire for consolidating personal power were rarely, if ever seen.
And supporting the governing rule of the good Senate were the Jedi Knights who carried out their protective duties with honor and respect for the people they were called to serve.
Then, over time, a small, but quietly growing number of power-hungry individuals began to appear, then organize. At first, these were small scale, secretive coalitions operating within the various levels of government and the echelons of commerce. Among these scattered groups was one person who expertly navigated his way though these clandestine little organizations, solidifying influence, and sharing his vision for a “grander” future in the Republic to tiny, but attentive audiences.
He waited patiently for the right time to make his power move, and years later, when the time was right, her was elected President of the Republic.
His name was Palpatine.
He entered office promising a bright future for all the systems under the Republic’s control. There were gestures of statesmanship as he vowed to reunite the disaffected among the people and to heighten the glory of the once great Republic.
But once he secured office, he declared himself Emperor, distanced himself from the people and surrounded himself with the assistants and “yes men” he had just appointed.
Soon the people’s cries for justice had no way of reaching his ears.
And then, over time, things began to get worse as the Jedi Knights were killed off and the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disenfranchised systems in the galaxy. Also, there began a series of smaller-scale power plays within the New Order by ambitiously devious people who had some power and used the Imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their personal agendas.
But a small group of people, on a few systems, rebelled at these atrocities. They declared themselves opposed to the New Order and began a noble, but initially insignificant effort restore the old Republic.
Over time word reached each of these rebellion friendly communities that the Imperial Empire, as part of their New Order agenda, had been in the process of planning, and now, indeed was actually constructing a battle station of immense proportion. There were rumors that the new station was equipped with weapons so powerful that even an entire planet might be vulnerable to its attack. And even as this early intelligence was reaching the ears of the rebel leaders, this battle station took on an identity of its own…they called it the “Death Star.”
The prospect of the completion of this battle station and the rumors of it’s almost unbelievable destructive power were sobering considerations for the rebel forces scattered about in the various systems. And the consideration of any one station having the potential to destroy an entire planet compelled the rebels to step up their game, more effectively organize, and operate with greeter intentionality.
One of the early steps the rebels took was to assign a group of spies to a mission of locating an electronic blueprint of the battle station, then abscond with the plans in tow. The spies did successfully locate the plans, then hastily transmitted the data to an Alderaan vessel that was the ship of Senator Leia Organa, a member of the powerful governing body and a princess in the Alderaan Royal Family. The spies were told that Princess Leia was a trusted source who had access to the corridors of power. The stolen plans would be safe and properly analyzed if transmitted into her hands.
Unfortunately, the Empire forces detected the transmission that was sent from the spies to Senator Leia’s ship. They sourced the originating location and swept in before the Rebel spies could escape. The spies did see the Imperial forces approaching, and in order to avoid capture or questioning, they all killed themselves.
The Imperial forces then traced the location the transmissions were being sent to, and in an effort to recapture the missing “Death Star” design intelligence, gave chase to Senator Leia’s spaceship.
Upon identifying that ship as the receiver of the data, the Imperial cruiser sent warnings to the Alderaan ship to stop immediately. But Leia’s ship did not stop, and soon an exchange of multiple energy beams were fired from one ship to another. The Alderaan ship was much smaller and equipped with lower power weapons. Soon, the Empire vessel disabled it, and the stormtroopers began to force their way on board.
And while the Alderaan ship’s security contingent encamped themselves, preparing for a man-to-man skirmish with the stormtroopers, Senator Leia was hastily transferring the files of the “Death Star” plans into the memory banks of a small robot with squat, cylindrical design. The robot was named Artoo Detoo.
After transferring the information into the droid’s memory banks, Leia records a message, then looks to her right, then left, then quietly dashes away.
Meanwhile, Artoo Detoo’s companion, See Threepio, finally locates his missing companion, “Did you hear that?” the taller robot demands, “They’ve shut down the main reactor…this time we’ll be destroyed for sure!”
This most recent development, combined with the horrible sounds of laser fire and explosions were sufficient to cause the Artoo Detoo robot to take the lead, guiding his friend See Threepio in a circuitous path all about the ship, until such time as they reach a small escape pod.
And as Artoo Detoo climbs into the cramped space of the small enclosure, there is yet another violent explosion which caused the See Threepio droid to momentarily forget his doubts and join his friend in the pod.
The pod soon explodes from its chute, and seconds later, is visible from the bridge of the Imperial cruiser, “There goes another pod, sir, instructions?” the officer asks.
The captain studies the readout on the screen, “Hold your fire, Lieutenant…instruments show no life forms aboard. The pod’s mechanism must have short circuited. Don’t waste your power.”
And as that miscalculation unfolds, the secret plans to the “Death Star” have escaped the clutches of the Imperial forces…at least for awhile anyway. But soon they deduce that the stolen plans have somehow escaped the confines of the Alderaan ship, and just a bit later, they assume that they must’ve been stashed in one of the escape pods that impacted on the nearby planet.
This moves the dramatic chase from the planet’s orbit to the hot, sandy, desert-like surface of Tatooine.
And it is on Tatooine that we meet the most diverse and amazing cast of characters…
There were the Jawas, short little shuffling creatures with their cloaks and red-yellow eyes peering from under their hoods. There were the aggressive and skittish Tusken Raiders who have a penchant for reeking havoc on the equipment and property of local farmers while riding their Banthas. A wizardly old hermit with an incredible life story. A swashbuckling smuggler-pilot named Han Solo with his tall, furry Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca. Finally, there’s a farmer’s nephew, a young man who feels trapped as he lives and works on his uncle’s farm…dreaming of a much more exciting life…flying great spaceships among the stars…
Also, this book was filled with one vivid description after another, including Lucas’s description of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen:
“He wore and air of grim, semi perpetual exhaustion, sandblasted into his face by too many years of arguing with a hostile environment. His greying hair was frozen in tangled twists like gypsum helicities. Dust frosted his face, clothes, hands and thoughts. But the body, if not the spirit, was still powerful.”
It was a 220-page thrilling, “rollercoaster ride” of a story. Five stars for sure!
Read
November 29, 2024they originally gave chewie a medal are u kidding me
February 9, 2018
A quite faithful adaptation of the movie, Star Wars - or is the movie a faithful adaptation of the story here? In either case, no notable exceptions could I find from movie to book (I suppose there are some scenes not in the theatrical cut of the film, though these were added into the special editions). It's all there, so much so that there isn't really much to gain from reading this.
Suprisingly (given the material) it read qute dry at times. We rarely get an insight into a characters thoughts, rather we are just told what they are doing. The chapters focusing on the droids were especially dry - as mechanical and lifeless as the components they are made of. The humor in their dynamic is present, but the human characters are still much more lively.
If anything, it hints at a Star Wars universe much different than the one which grew from the 1977 movie. A universe where the Emperor is but a puppet to high ranking imperials such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Lord Darth Vader, to name one such example. Those bits are quite interesting, but more or less everything else is as depicted in the film.
Suprisingly (given the material) it read qute dry at times. We rarely get an insight into a characters thoughts, rather we are just told what they are doing. The chapters focusing on the droids were especially dry - as mechanical and lifeless as the components they are made of. The humor in their dynamic is present, but the human characters are still much more lively.
If anything, it hints at a Star Wars universe much different than the one which grew from the 1977 movie. A universe where the Emperor is but a puppet to high ranking imperials such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Lord Darth Vader, to name one such example. Those bits are quite interesting, but more or less everything else is as depicted in the film.
September 23, 2022
Senator Palpatine power hungry caused himself to be elected President of the Republic, then declared himself the Emperor, through deception and treachery exterminated the guardians of justice, the Jedi Knights. On the desert like hot planet of Tatooine Luke unknowingly knows nothing of the Force. Boarding a diplomatic ship on the way to Alderaan, a 2 metre tall with a black metal screen mask, the Dark Lord of the Sith with metal clad fingers will snap & pop the bones in the throat and throw the doll-like figure against the wall, angry the intercepted tapes were not found and on the way to Tatooine. After Luke's guardians are killed he will have a burning desire to become a Jedi Knight like his father. Mos Eisley, the place to seek passage off planet, a wretched collection of disreputable types in a bar meet Han Solo and he agrees to take Ben and Luke so he can pay off a huge debt to the fat, disgusting, grotesque Jabba the Hutt. Obi will be cut in half by Darth Vader and Luke with the help of ghost Ben will use the Force to fire Proton torpedoes into the vulnerable part of the Death Star.
June 6, 2021
Another way to enjoy one of my favorite stories. Always interesting to read a novelization based on the screenplay to find the little differences between the original concept and the finished film. I recommend this to fans of any movie.
SLIGHT SPOILERS
Aside from the two known scenes that didn't make it to the final movie (Jabba talking to Han at Mos Eisley & Luke hanging out with Biggs and their friends), there were three details that caught my attention. Leia does not say "you are my only hope", Luke does not pilot Red Five and Chewy gets a medal!
SLIGHT SPOILERS
Aside from the two known scenes that didn't make it to the final movie (Jabba talking to Han at Mos Eisley & Luke hanging out with Biggs and their friends), there were three details that caught my attention. Leia does not say "you are my only hope", Luke does not pilot Red Five and Chewy gets a medal!
March 30, 2016
This book was an amazing interpretation of the very known movie. It presents the adventures of Luke Skywalker, the child of the famous Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and brother of Princess Leia Organa.
I really enjoyed this book because of it's action and characters and I would recommend it to everyone reading this review.
Bogdan Teodorescu
I really enjoyed this book because of it's action and characters and I would recommend it to everyone reading this review.
Bogdan Teodorescu
April 27, 2016
Contains all the magic of the film, just as it did when I first read it in the 70s. Great from beginning to end.
Read
June 21, 2025SO funny
January 19, 2022
It's obvious early on that this is the Earliest book in the Star Wars universe because there are indications it was written before a lot of the lore and world building was established. For example it calls Palpatine "the president of the Republic" instead of supreme chancellor. Little differences like that. There are also contradictions and some plot holes that only became plot holes with the prequel trilogy. For example the book makes reference to mulltiple Emperors and implies the empire is much older than it turned out to be and even says the older emperors were not as oppressive as Palpatine. Obi Wan also talks about Anakin in a much different light than the movies depicted. For example he seems to imply that Anakin knew Owen Lars very well and that they both grew up on Tatooine together. He talks about how they would disagree ideologically and he says things like that Luke's father should have stuck to farming, but he was never a farmer in the movies he was a slave for Watto then a Jedi and he only met Owen Lars one time very briefly in the movies. In the book the Millenium Falcon made the Kessel run in "less than 12 standard timeparts."
Some other strange things are that they use words I've never heard used in Star Wars before. Like he says the Stormtroopers had handguns but in everything else they are called blasters. He also says the stormtroopers armor is steel but elsewhere it's called plastoid. Even in Star Wars steel is not called steel it's called durasteel or something like that. There's also one point where Ben talks about a duck and Luke asks what's a duck. In general real life creatures never make it into Star Wars even as references.
There are also scenes and dialogue that differ from the movie including scenes that were cut from the movie such as Luke with his friends watching the Star Destroyer and Blockade Runner battle over Tatooine. A lot of what was cut from the movie was cut for good reason, some of the additionals would not have worked in the movie at all but work alright in book form but some are just bad. Harrison Ford's comment of you can write this stuff but you can't say it is much more evident here. C3PO especially is much more pedantic and verbose and it hurts the character.
Beyond that the prose is actually quite good, and is a great story told well. The film is much much better than the book, but the book is worth reading and does add a dimension to the story. It's Star Wars I'm not going to fault it because I already know the story so well.
Some other strange things are that they use words I've never heard used in Star Wars before. Like he says the Stormtroopers had handguns but in everything else they are called blasters. He also says the stormtroopers armor is steel but elsewhere it's called plastoid. Even in Star Wars steel is not called steel it's called durasteel or something like that. There's also one point where Ben talks about a duck and Luke asks what's a duck. In general real life creatures never make it into Star Wars even as references.
There are also scenes and dialogue that differ from the movie including scenes that were cut from the movie such as Luke with his friends watching the Star Destroyer and Blockade Runner battle over Tatooine. A lot of what was cut from the movie was cut for good reason, some of the additionals would not have worked in the movie at all but work alright in book form but some are just bad. Harrison Ford's comment of you can write this stuff but you can't say it is much more evident here. C3PO especially is much more pedantic and verbose and it hurts the character.
Beyond that the prose is actually quite good, and is a great story told well. The film is much much better than the book, but the book is worth reading and does add a dimension to the story. It's Star Wars I'm not going to fault it because I already know the story so well.
June 12, 2022
While it says George Lucas on the cover this novelization was actually ghost written by Alan Dean Foster and is taken from the script that Lucas wrote. What's interesting is that the book contains scene you didn't see in the film but would sadly be added in years later. They don't add much to the story itself but as a kid it was pretty cool to see them and I would often wonder how it would look in the film. The wriring itself is quite wooden and doesn't stray from the source material. It's a spot on retelling of the movie which isn't bad but for non fans, there's nothing here that would entice you into becoming a fan.
The reason the book works is simple. It's Star Wars and it gives us a chance to spend time with the characters we love on a beach, or on those cold winter days where we just want to read. Foster is clearly following Lucas' instructions so what we read isn't really Foster's voice but a simple retelling of Lucas' script but the story is one we all know and love and that's enough to make the book an instant classic. I remember reading this as a kid and being absorded in the awesomeness that was Star Wars and even know as an adult, that love has only diminshed slightly. Does the noveiization add anything of worth to the story? Not really, but that's not important. For fans of the original film it's an opportunity to spend time with characters we love and that's what's really important.
The reason the book works is simple. It's Star Wars and it gives us a chance to spend time with the characters we love on a beach, or on those cold winter days where we just want to read. Foster is clearly following Lucas' instructions so what we read isn't really Foster's voice but a simple retelling of Lucas' script but the story is one we all know and love and that's enough to make the book an instant classic. I remember reading this as a kid and being absorded in the awesomeness that was Star Wars and even know as an adult, that love has only diminshed slightly. Does the noveiization add anything of worth to the story? Not really, but that's not important. For fans of the original film it's an opportunity to spend time with characters we love and that's what's really important.
June 18, 2022
It was fine, mostly as an artifact to compare to the movie. Some of the turns of phrase are lovely, but some things have aged VERY badly, like the descriptions of jawas, or the random scantily clad women used as set dressing. The book really draws a line under how key Marcia Lucas was to the success of the film, honestly. I think I'm more favorably inclined to this book after reading the next two that were published, but... I think I do recommend reading it. The prose is more purple that I would expect to see now, but in a largely positive way. The bizarre sexual energy of the random half-dressed lady in town calling luke 'wormie' is something that must be experienced, there is a FASCINATING focus on both c-3po's robotic sense of smell and r2-d2's three *clawed* little feet, and leia melts a stormtrooper's head into 'a mess of blood and metal.' And congrats to chewie on his "lithe corellian partner," I'm so happy for them.
May 15, 2022
This book not written by George Lucas was used to promote the Star Wars Movie that came out in May 1977. Pretty much taken from the original movie script with some additions that weren’t in the movie. Not much in the way of character development. The story line is straightforward and adventurous. The funny thing is that now 45 years later this book is still a page turner. The added bonus is that if you didn’t read this book until after May 1977 then you could truly picture everything that is going on. You also know the ending, but isn’t that how it goes when you see the movie before you read the book.
August 26, 2022
I would say more accurately 4.5 stars, but this was my favorite Star Wars book so far! Its everything I ideally want from these books, while these books don't add a ton much more depth to the story or characters like the other books do, being they're all twice as long, I loved this one. A short serial adventure that serves as one of the cornerstones for science fiction books. Excited to read the next 2 in the series to round out my Star Wars movie novelization experience, also decided I will not be going near the 3 Disney experiments, it would be unfair to myself to end a great reading experience on an objectively bad note.
April 20, 2024
Soooo... I do own a copy of this but the library had a hardcover with the original cover artwork, so I decided to read that instead.
I enjoyed this, but man, they sure polished up the dialogue for the movie. Many lines that are now iconic are completely missing or very different here, and I have to say the movie version was an improvement.
Also, Alan Dean Foster (ghostwriting for George Lucas) sure threw in some crazy character descriptions. For example, he describes Tarkin as "a thin, hatchet-faced man with hair and form borrowed from an old broom and the expression of a quiescent piranha." I mean... accurate.... but still crazy.
But Chewie did get a medal in the book!
I enjoyed this, but man, they sure polished up the dialogue for the movie. Many lines that are now iconic are completely missing or very different here, and I have to say the movie version was an improvement.
Also, Alan Dean Foster (ghostwriting for George Lucas) sure threw in some crazy character descriptions. For example, he describes Tarkin as "a thin, hatchet-faced man with hair and form borrowed from an old broom and the expression of a quiescent piranha." I mean... accurate.... but still crazy.
But Chewie did get a medal in the book!
September 2, 2023
Perfectly respectable novelisation of the film, writing is spotty but usually makes the mark. Perhaps highlights how strong the original cast was as characterisation is somewhat lacking here, much of reader sympathy relies on very by-the-beat plot points. It is linear, direct, pleasing. The movie of course remains better, and the book lacks the magic of seeing a lightsaber on screen, or the expanse of space spread out behind huge ship warfare etc., but still perfectly fine.
August 13, 2016
There really wasn't much to this book...as it pretty much followed the movie. We maybe get a few new insights, but nothing major. In fact, I felt that it didn't do some characters justice at all! It really felt like it was just a slightly fleshed out version of the script. That being said, it was a bit fun to go back and read this, so it was worth 3 stars to me!
July 16, 2021
It's hard to imagine reading this in 1976 and not knowing what was coming. I tried to put myself in the headspace of reading this like a forgotten 70s sci-fi paperback, disconnected from STAR WARS ™ but it can't be done. It's Star Wars.
Uh anyway check out my newsletter at buttondown.email/starwars
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