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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed #1
The Force Unleashed
Darth Vader's young Sith apprentice will forge an unlikely alliance with a ruined Jedi Master seeking redemption as he ventures to destroy Emperor Palpatine.
"The Sith always betray one another... I'm sure you'll learn that soon enough."
The overthrow of the Republic is complete. Absolute power now rests in the iron fist of Darth Sidious–the cunning Sith Lord better known as Emperor Palpatine. But more remains to be done. Pockets of resistance in the galaxy must still be defeated and missing Jedi accounted for... and dealt with.
These crucial tasks fall to the Emperor's ruthless enforcer, Darth Vader, who in turn has groomed a lethal, nameless Sith apprentice to secretly dispatch the last of his masters' enemies. Since childhood, Vader's nameless agent has known only the cold, mercenary creed of the Sith. His past is a void; his present, the carrying out of his deadly orders. But his future beckons like a glistening black jewel with the ultimate promise: to stand beside the only father he has ever known, with the galaxy at their feet. But there is one, in control of his master, that stands in the way.
This acolyte's journey will take him across the far reaches of the galaxy and test him with shattering revelations that strike at the very heart of all he believes, stirring within him long-forgotten hopes of reclaiming his name... and changing his destiny.
Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!
"The Sith always betray one another... I'm sure you'll learn that soon enough."
The overthrow of the Republic is complete. Absolute power now rests in the iron fist of Darth Sidious–the cunning Sith Lord better known as Emperor Palpatine. But more remains to be done. Pockets of resistance in the galaxy must still be defeated and missing Jedi accounted for... and dealt with.
These crucial tasks fall to the Emperor's ruthless enforcer, Darth Vader, who in turn has groomed a lethal, nameless Sith apprentice to secretly dispatch the last of his masters' enemies. Since childhood, Vader's nameless agent has known only the cold, mercenary creed of the Sith. His past is a void; his present, the carrying out of his deadly orders. But his future beckons like a glistening black jewel with the ultimate promise: to stand beside the only father he has ever known, with the galaxy at their feet. But there is one, in control of his master, that stands in the way.
This acolyte's journey will take him across the far reaches of the galaxy and test him with shattering revelations that strike at the very heart of all he believes, stirring within him long-forgotten hopes of reclaiming his name... and changing his destiny.
Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!
368 pages, Nook
First published January 1, 2008
278 people are currently reading
3115 people want to read
About the author
Sean Williams
272 books468 followers#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books--forty-two at last count--including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is a YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine and elsewhere. Thanks for reading.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 380 reviews
June 17, 2022
Before Disney released the shark jump that was The Last Jedi, Star Wars was a force to be reckoned with, and not just in celluloid form! Between bestselling books such as the Thrawn trilogy, the fabulous computer-animated Clone Wars television series, and computer and video games ranging from the critically acclaimed Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader to the various Lego titles, Lucas' space opera was more than just films. Were they all amazing? No...but, when done right, they were a wonder to behold.
So, even though this is a literary adaptation of a video game, it was still enjoyable and well-written. If you think this would just be Pac-Man in book form, take it from this longtime geek: Gaming has come a long way since the '80's; now, many video and computer games have complex stories that rival New York Times bestsellers or Hollywood blockbusters. So, even if you haven't touched a Nintendo or PlayStation controller in a decade or two, if you're a Star Wars fan, you may enjoy this. It definitely whisked me into "a galaxy far, far away".
So, even though this is a literary adaptation of a video game, it was still enjoyable and well-written. If you think this would just be Pac-Man in book form, take it from this longtime geek: Gaming has come a long way since the '80's; now, many video and computer games have complex stories that rival New York Times bestsellers or Hollywood blockbusters. So, even if you haven't touched a Nintendo or PlayStation controller in a decade or two, if you're a Star Wars fan, you may enjoy this. It definitely whisked me into "a galaxy far, far away".
September 15, 2008
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is based on a video game of the same name. Most of the time, when I hear about a book based on a video game, I would cringe. Personally, I think that most of the time publishers are out to make an extra buck on a product. This is similar to Disney releasing multiple straight-to-video sequels of all of their popular movies; they don't care about the quality, because kids will beg their parents for it. Similarly, publishers know that hardcore fans of popular games will buy just about anything in order to get more material about their favorite time-consuming past-time.
That being said, The Force Unleashed does not fall into the category of "trying to make an extra buck on a video game". One reason may be that it was planned along-side the game, and not as an afterthought. In fact, The Force Unleashed was planned as a multimedia "event". This included a video game, a comic book, a novel, and even a soundtrack. Each one gives a slightly different take to the story.
Granted, the first few chapters felt like a video game. The characters hop from mission to mission with little more in between than someone telling them, "Here is your next mission". I could tell which parts were probably the playable parts of the game (meaning the fight scenes). I imagined that the first fight scene of the book was probably the tutorial fight of the game (you know, where they take you step-by-step through the controls). To be fair, I've never played the game, so I'm just guessing. But that's how it felt.
This doesn't mean that the first part of the book wasn't well written, or that it wasn't interesting. But I didn't want to read a whole book like that. Luckily, I found that those first chapters were actually a necessary set-up for what turned out to be an excellent book. The author did a nice job of tying those first few missions into the rest of the story. By Part 2, I didn't want to put the book down.
The book brings up fundamental questions about the nature of the Force. Can the Dark Side be used by someone who isn't totally evil? Does it always ultimately lead to corruption? These were some of the questions addressed.
The book also ties in nicely to the origins of the Rebellion. If you ever wondered how that got started, this is the book to read.
I'm glad George Lucas has finally opened this era of the Star Wars Universe up to exploration. It was off limits until Episode III came out, but now more material is being written during this time period, including a live-action TV show and several other novels and comics. If everything is written as well as The Force Unleashed, we have a lot to look forward to.
That being said, The Force Unleashed does not fall into the category of "trying to make an extra buck on a video game". One reason may be that it was planned along-side the game, and not as an afterthought. In fact, The Force Unleashed was planned as a multimedia "event". This included a video game, a comic book, a novel, and even a soundtrack. Each one gives a slightly different take to the story.
Granted, the first few chapters felt like a video game. The characters hop from mission to mission with little more in between than someone telling them, "Here is your next mission". I could tell which parts were probably the playable parts of the game (meaning the fight scenes). I imagined that the first fight scene of the book was probably the tutorial fight of the game (you know, where they take you step-by-step through the controls). To be fair, I've never played the game, so I'm just guessing. But that's how it felt.
This doesn't mean that the first part of the book wasn't well written, or that it wasn't interesting. But I didn't want to read a whole book like that. Luckily, I found that those first chapters were actually a necessary set-up for what turned out to be an excellent book. The author did a nice job of tying those first few missions into the rest of the story. By Part 2, I didn't want to put the book down.
The book brings up fundamental questions about the nature of the Force. Can the Dark Side be used by someone who isn't totally evil? Does it always ultimately lead to corruption? These were some of the questions addressed.
The book also ties in nicely to the origins of the Rebellion. If you ever wondered how that got started, this is the book to read.
I'm glad George Lucas has finally opened this era of the Star Wars Universe up to exploration. It was off limits until Episode III came out, but now more material is being written during this time period, including a live-action TV show and several other novels and comics. If everything is written as well as The Force Unleashed, we have a lot to look forward to.
October 13, 2008
After seeing this book as a bestseller for a couple of weeks, I decided to read it. I typically don't read the Star Wars novels, but this was the second I decided to read.
I read Shadows of the Empire and came away with the taste that it was a great story written very badly. The Force Unleashed, however, was written very well. I was captivated the entire book, watching "Starkiller" change into Galen, his true self.
This book emphasizes changes that can be made within, no matter how dark or angry one can be.
Betrayals, classic slicing and dicing of lightsabers, and outstanding force abilities tied with a great story line makes this book the best out of the Star Wars saga.
I read Shadows of the Empire and came away with the taste that it was a great story written very badly. The Force Unleashed, however, was written very well. I was captivated the entire book, watching "Starkiller" change into Galen, his true self.
This book emphasizes changes that can be made within, no matter how dark or angry one can be.
Betrayals, classic slicing and dicing of lightsabers, and outstanding force abilities tied with a great story line makes this book the best out of the Star Wars saga.
August 7, 2020
There’s a lot to unpack here, not least because The Force Unleashed, like the novelisations of the Star Wars films, is not an original tale but based on pre-existing source material.
I’m going to try not to talk about the game too much, but it’s impossible to leave behind entirely because of the impact it has on this book. And I will say that as a lifelong gamer and Star Wars fan, I did not like the game. There were many reasons for that, including, briefly, the bad PC port, AI stupidity, unimaginative level design, accursed QuickTime Events, and Starkiller himself (which I’ll get into more later).
The immediate influence I noticed was the gamification of the story. Several other reviewers have noted how the first third of the book sees Starkiller sent off on a mission, cut through swathes of enemies, and defeat the boss no problem within twenty pages only to return for Vader to dispatch him on the next copy-paste mission – sure, different planet and different boss, but the whole template of “go to this level, eliminate all enemies, kill boss” is repeated without variation and it is so obvious that a game is the source of this story. As the film industry has learned many times to its cost – a game doesn’t always translate well to different forms of media. While a gamer can be entertained by hours of tossing stormtroopers off balconies with a flick of the Force, there’s only so many different ways this can be described to a passive audience without becoming bored with the repetitiveness. And you know what? I do partially put responsibility for this on Sean Williams’ shoulders. He barely deviates from exactly what happens in the game, and certainly doesn’t try to expand upon it with extra scenes, dialogue, or delving into the thoughts of the characters. His prose is sparse and functional, getting us from A to B of the game’s levels and as a result, it does feel like the write up of a video game, yes. There’s no real reason to read this book when you could simply play the game, and be more engaged and involved in the outcome. And the gamification is never more apparent than when locations are revisited – in the game, this is to save on assets, but it feels artificial and transparent in the story.
The gamification makes the story feel clunky and awkward at times, instead of flowing and natural, but there is another major problem that prevented me from enjoying this novel. Galen Marek, aka Starkiller, aka the apprentice, is a dire Mary Sue. Not only is he Darth Vader’s apprentice, but he can defeat Jedi Masters with ease, and even Jedi Councillors are no problem. He’s so powerful in the Force, he can move Star Destroyers. He rescues Princess Leia, and her father Bail Organa on separate occasions. Did I mention that he comes back from the dead repeatedly, defeats Darth Vader and the Emperor, and discovers the existence of the Death Star, and starts the Rebel Alliance despite never being mentioned in any other media before as playing such a critical role in the Rebellion’s history? Oh, and he’s a teenager while doing all this. The book is set one or two years before A New Hope, and explicitly says Leia is ‘barely the same age’ and a ‘fellow teenager’. It must be infectious too, because it spills over into Juno Eclipse as well – she’s somehow ‘the best pilot at the Academy’, also despite never being referred to before, and despite the Empire’s heavy prejudice against women in its ranks which the book explicitly mentions. And yet, our protagonist is so bland that you’d struggle to describe his personality. This ties in with the game again, because a clean slate protagonist allows the player to imagine themselves in their place, but it doesn’t make for a very compelling main character of a book, and simply being overpowered doesn’t make up for the huge hole in his personality, in fact it makes it worse. Even Juno feels forced. We’re told she’s Galen’s pilot, but given that Vader is so insistent on secrecy – ‘no witnesses!’ – it seems strange that a potential witness would be hired instead of teaching Galen himself how to pilot a starship. Moreover, when Galen undergoes a fresh start in the story and Vader explicitly says that anyone who might’ve known his previous life must go… Juno is somehow imprisoned, instead of being executed on Vader’s orders. And she’s imprisoned on the same vessel where Galen is recovering. What gives? It isn’t like Vader to be coy when an execution needs carrying out. It’s so that she can be conveniently rescued by Galen. She really doesn’t have much life of her own, and exists only to be the love interest. I can’t really even give him credit for his redemption. It feels like a changing of sides born of self-interest, rather than any deep philosophical soul-searching about what is right.
When the game levels – the workings of the machine – are so obvious in the story, and when the characters are so uninspiring, is it any wonder that a reader can’t get into this book? Giving so many important positions and key roles in the formation of the Rebellion to Galen Marek – using the name Starkiller, too, which was the original draft surname for Luke – feels like an insult to the characters who we’ve been told all this time in numerous other stories fought so hard for it – Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis.
I think this might be one of the worst Expanded Universe novels I’ve ever read. Top 10, at least. Avoid.
1 out of 10
I’m going to try not to talk about the game too much, but it’s impossible to leave behind entirely because of the impact it has on this book. And I will say that as a lifelong gamer and Star Wars fan, I did not like the game. There were many reasons for that, including, briefly, the bad PC port, AI stupidity, unimaginative level design, accursed QuickTime Events, and Starkiller himself (which I’ll get into more later).
The immediate influence I noticed was the gamification of the story. Several other reviewers have noted how the first third of the book sees Starkiller sent off on a mission, cut through swathes of enemies, and defeat the boss no problem within twenty pages only to return for Vader to dispatch him on the next copy-paste mission – sure, different planet and different boss, but the whole template of “go to this level, eliminate all enemies, kill boss” is repeated without variation and it is so obvious that a game is the source of this story. As the film industry has learned many times to its cost – a game doesn’t always translate well to different forms of media. While a gamer can be entertained by hours of tossing stormtroopers off balconies with a flick of the Force, there’s only so many different ways this can be described to a passive audience without becoming bored with the repetitiveness. And you know what? I do partially put responsibility for this on Sean Williams’ shoulders. He barely deviates from exactly what happens in the game, and certainly doesn’t try to expand upon it with extra scenes, dialogue, or delving into the thoughts of the characters. His prose is sparse and functional, getting us from A to B of the game’s levels and as a result, it does feel like the write up of a video game, yes. There’s no real reason to read this book when you could simply play the game, and be more engaged and involved in the outcome. And the gamification is never more apparent than when locations are revisited – in the game, this is to save on assets, but it feels artificial and transparent in the story.
The gamification makes the story feel clunky and awkward at times, instead of flowing and natural, but there is another major problem that prevented me from enjoying this novel. Galen Marek, aka Starkiller, aka the apprentice, is a dire Mary Sue. Not only is he Darth Vader’s apprentice, but he can defeat Jedi Masters with ease, and even Jedi Councillors are no problem. He’s so powerful in the Force, he can move Star Destroyers. He rescues Princess Leia, and her father Bail Organa on separate occasions. Did I mention that he comes back from the dead repeatedly, defeats Darth Vader and the Emperor, and discovers the existence of the Death Star, and starts the Rebel Alliance despite never being mentioned in any other media before as playing such a critical role in the Rebellion’s history? Oh, and he’s a teenager while doing all this. The book is set one or two years before A New Hope, and explicitly says Leia is ‘barely the same age’ and a ‘fellow teenager’. It must be infectious too, because it spills over into Juno Eclipse as well – she’s somehow ‘the best pilot at the Academy’, also despite never being referred to before, and despite the Empire’s heavy prejudice against women in its ranks which the book explicitly mentions. And yet, our protagonist is so bland that you’d struggle to describe his personality. This ties in with the game again, because a clean slate protagonist allows the player to imagine themselves in their place, but it doesn’t make for a very compelling main character of a book, and simply being overpowered doesn’t make up for the huge hole in his personality, in fact it makes it worse. Even Juno feels forced. We’re told she’s Galen’s pilot, but given that Vader is so insistent on secrecy – ‘no witnesses!’ – it seems strange that a potential witness would be hired instead of teaching Galen himself how to pilot a starship. Moreover, when Galen undergoes a fresh start in the story and Vader explicitly says that anyone who might’ve known his previous life must go… Juno is somehow imprisoned, instead of being executed on Vader’s orders. And she’s imprisoned on the same vessel where Galen is recovering. What gives? It isn’t like Vader to be coy when an execution needs carrying out. It’s so that she can be conveniently rescued by Galen. She really doesn’t have much life of her own, and exists only to be the love interest. I can’t really even give him credit for his redemption. It feels like a changing of sides born of self-interest, rather than any deep philosophical soul-searching about what is right.
When the game levels – the workings of the machine – are so obvious in the story, and when the characters are so uninspiring, is it any wonder that a reader can’t get into this book? Giving so many important positions and key roles in the formation of the Rebellion to Galen Marek – using the name Starkiller, too, which was the original draft surname for Luke – feels like an insult to the characters who we’ve been told all this time in numerous other stories fought so hard for it – Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis.
I think this might be one of the worst Expanded Universe novels I’ve ever read. Top 10, at least. Avoid.
1 out of 10
July 6, 2020
I read this one because my kids are obsessed with Star Wars (as if I'm not...), but they saw it on my shelf and we went to town (after a quick page-through by dad). I feel like you have to be careful with graphic novels and kids because some take the "graphic" part seriously, but this one's pretty tame luckily.
One of my 7-year-old twins told me, "this is my favorite book ever," so you've got that review at least.
It's a pretty interesting take on he beginning of the rebellion and Vader's involvement. Plus, there are lots of monsters, light sabers, force powers, and everything you love about Star Wars. And the artistry is simply beautiful to look at.
4 out of 5 Stars (Star Wars basics - fun)
One of my 7-year-old twins told me, "this is my favorite book ever," so you've got that review at least.
It's a pretty interesting take on he beginning of the rebellion and Vader's involvement. Plus, there are lots of monsters, light sabers, force powers, and everything you love about Star Wars. And the artistry is simply beautiful to look at.
4 out of 5 Stars (Star Wars basics - fun)
April 13, 2015
A good book that is intended to be complimentary to the video game coming out in September, 2008. Despite being intended as a complimentary book, it could actually stand- though not always firmly- on its own as a good addition to the Star Wars saga. The story and the characters are compelling and story itself is fascinating. It makes me even more anxious to play the game. The only problem with the book is that the action sequences, in the beginning, feels very shackled at times, as though WIlliams wasn't sure how descriptive and exciting he could make it without giving up too much of the game. Also, it seems too much like a game in the beginning as as soon as a mission was completed, its a very short break and then on to a new mission with no further story development or character evolution. But, between pages 150 and 200, he finally lets loose and makes it an enthralling read. In short, a good bridge between the prequels and the classic trilogy.
June 26, 2023
For being such a great video game, this book was just meh. I’m not sure if I was let down because of the game and if it would’ve been better had I not been rereading something I played several times.
The book was difficult to get through, I think because it read like a video game and not a book. There were also a bunch of errors in my edition. On one page, Juno very clearly told Starkiller something and just two pages later, Starkiller reflects on this exact quote but attributes it to General Kota instead of Juno…only two pages apart.
This should be a fascinating story of Vaders secret apprentice Starkiller who had incredible feats of force-strength and meets many new and familiar faces along his journey. But it was just an awkward read.
The book was difficult to get through, I think because it read like a video game and not a book. There were also a bunch of errors in my edition. On one page, Juno very clearly told Starkiller something and just two pages later, Starkiller reflects on this exact quote but attributes it to General Kota instead of Juno…only two pages apart.
This should be a fascinating story of Vaders secret apprentice Starkiller who had incredible feats of force-strength and meets many new and familiar faces along his journey. But it was just an awkward read.
June 28, 2017
I am quite torn on how to rate this book. It took me a really long time to get into it, but by the end I was engrossed in the story. I remember playing the game a few years back, so I thought why not read the book. Well, the game definitely pulled me in quicker, but the book eventually did the job as well. It is not one of my favorite Star Wars novels, but I did enjoy the overall story and couldn't put it down at the end. The first half crawled by for me with too many superfluous descriptions and not enough meaty details on the characters. Overall, I enjoyed the book and who knows, I might pick it up again in a few years.
March 2, 2010
I think I should start with my star wars history. When I was eleven my (younger) siblings rented the Original trilogy from the library, and settled in to watch these formative pieces of culture. I, being the hysterically brave creature that I am, sat outside on the patio tormenting ants, and only watching when the people were outside. I figured that anything inside was too frightening, which was possibly inspired by unwittingly walking in just in time to see Darth Vader strangle an angry guy in a grey uniform. To make it better, I was watching through the glass doors into the living room. No sound. I'm so brave.
But then flash forward two years, and I have literally read every book in the library children's section that doesn't have a drooling bloody plant or similar horrific thing on the cover, or teenagers making out. This includes some truly unfortunate books which I'm still trying to forget, but that is not the story today. I figured it was time to wander into the adult section. But the Mysteries had a lot of blood on the covers, and other "adult books" had icky romances, and the nonfiction was boring and angry, I didn't like horror, and I had bad experiences with Westerns featuring torture. (This was honestly my rationale.) I settled for the SF/Fantasy section as being my safest bet.
...
I know, some of you are now laughing incredulously at me. But in my defence, the books either went WAY over my head- Yay metaphors!- or they were Star Wars EU novels, and Star Trek books. That was also where my Star Trek knowledge base sprung from, but that is not the topic at hand either. I read the star wars books, found they were good, and put a standing order in with the librarian to order me every other star wars book in the system. The results were, mixed. But I was going through two or more books a day, so I just threw aside the painful ones and re-read the good ones. (Oh, Mara Jade and Thrawn, you never fail to make my heart soar.) (Also, I have never liked Luke Skywalker. Nope.)
And then at college I discovered Karen Traviss's Republic Commando and the New Trilogy movies, and many much lovely expansion in the universe, and even found people who knew more than me about Star Wars. When you've grown up in a small town when you are the only one who has read anything in the SF/F section for the past three years, this is BIG.
So I've been known to elbow the boys aside to get at the star wars section, that's all I'm saying. Even if those stupid boys think I don't know the colour difference between a sith blade and a jedi saber. FOOLS. Ahem. Anyways, I did snatch this book away from a particularly snobby creature of the male persuasion, and carry it in triumph to the counter. Where I BOUGHT it. And then I READ it. So there, boys, I can participate in your fandom just as much as you can.
And the triumph over the purchase was the best part of the book. I think if I want to know a video game story in the future, I'll just watch or play the game. I get the sense that this would be awesome to play. To read, well. The characters weren't fleshed out, the plot was meh, the universe was WRONG- (I read many much books, I know this. ( WHO GOES TO THE GROUND ON KASHYYYK? SERIOUSLY??? ) I gave it two stars out of five. I will now expunge the false history from my mind.
But then flash forward two years, and I have literally read every book in the library children's section that doesn't have a drooling bloody plant or similar horrific thing on the cover, or teenagers making out. This includes some truly unfortunate books which I'm still trying to forget, but that is not the story today. I figured it was time to wander into the adult section. But the Mysteries had a lot of blood on the covers, and other "adult books" had icky romances, and the nonfiction was boring and angry, I didn't like horror, and I had bad experiences with Westerns featuring torture. (This was honestly my rationale.) I settled for the SF/Fantasy section as being my safest bet.
...
I know, some of you are now laughing incredulously at me. But in my defence, the books either went WAY over my head- Yay metaphors!- or they were Star Wars EU novels, and Star Trek books. That was also where my Star Trek knowledge base sprung from, but that is not the topic at hand either. I read the star wars books, found they were good, and put a standing order in with the librarian to order me every other star wars book in the system. The results were, mixed. But I was going through two or more books a day, so I just threw aside the painful ones and re-read the good ones. (Oh, Mara Jade and Thrawn, you never fail to make my heart soar.) (Also, I have never liked Luke Skywalker. Nope.)
And then at college I discovered Karen Traviss's Republic Commando and the New Trilogy movies, and many much lovely expansion in the universe, and even found people who knew more than me about Star Wars. When you've grown up in a small town when you are the only one who has read anything in the SF/F section for the past three years, this is BIG.
So I've been known to elbow the boys aside to get at the star wars section, that's all I'm saying. Even if those stupid boys think I don't know the colour difference between a sith blade and a jedi saber. FOOLS. Ahem. Anyways, I did snatch this book away from a particularly snobby creature of the male persuasion, and carry it in triumph to the counter. Where I BOUGHT it. And then I READ it. So there, boys, I can participate in your fandom just as much as you can.
And the triumph over the purchase was the best part of the book. I think if I want to know a video game story in the future, I'll just watch or play the game. I get the sense that this would be awesome to play. To read, well. The characters weren't fleshed out, the plot was meh, the universe was WRONG- (I read many much books, I know this. ( WHO GOES TO THE GROUND ON KASHYYYK? SERIOUSLY??? ) I gave it two stars out of five. I will now expunge the false history from my mind.
December 4, 2015
This is one of the more unique Star Wars novels on the market, as part of the intense marketing blitz surrounding the much-hyped video game from 2008. Filling a hole in both the Star Wars timeline and in the real-world Star Wars media, the Force Unleashed fit nicely as something we Star Wars fans were craving in its original context. Despite being extremely excited for the game and the story concept back around the time of its original release, I never had the opportunity to play the game for more than an hour or so. Years later, I finally grabbed a copy of the novel and was pleasantly surprised.
The novelization of the Force Unleashed is by no means the most well-written Star Wars book I’ve ever digested. But for me, that didn’t matter. This book is a perfect example of the enjoyable content the old Expanded Universe, now Legends, has to offer: Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, a lovable droid hell-bent on assassinating its master and helping him train by transforming into many fan-favorite Jedi and Sith of old for the purpose of a good-old-fashioned lightsaber-fight, a fully fleshed-out starship, compelling companions, Sarlaac pits, lively planets, and nostalgia galore!
If you like Star Wars at all, this is a fun read. You don’t necessarily need to have a rich knowledge of the Expanded Universe to enjoy it, either. I have a fair share of criticisms with both the content and writing of this book, but found myself simply smiling, setting them aside, and saying, “sure, why not?” With that in mind, this was a book I’m glad I picked up, and hope to give the game a long-awaited play-through.
The novelization of the Force Unleashed is by no means the most well-written Star Wars book I’ve ever digested. But for me, that didn’t matter. This book is a perfect example of the enjoyable content the old Expanded Universe, now Legends, has to offer: Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, a lovable droid hell-bent on assassinating its master and helping him train by transforming into many fan-favorite Jedi and Sith of old for the purpose of a good-old-fashioned lightsaber-fight, a fully fleshed-out starship, compelling companions, Sarlaac pits, lively planets, and nostalgia galore!
If you like Star Wars at all, this is a fun read. You don’t necessarily need to have a rich knowledge of the Expanded Universe to enjoy it, either. I have a fair share of criticisms with both the content and writing of this book, but found myself simply smiling, setting them aside, and saying, “sure, why not?” With that in mind, this was a book I’m glad I picked up, and hope to give the game a long-awaited play-through.
August 12, 2024
Maybe 1.5 or 1.75 stars? It is very much a *video game novel*
For 2024, I decided to pick up where I left off after 2022 and reread books published between 2004 and 2011—a hodgepodge of Clone Wars, inter-trilogy, and Original Trilogy stories, plus a smattering of Old Republic Sith. This shakes out to twenty-one novels and four short stories, mainly consisting of the Republic Commando series, the Darth Bane trilogy, the Coruscant Nights trilogy, five Clone Wars books written by the Karens, and four standalone novels.
This week’s focus: another video game novel, this one about Vader’s secret apprentice Starkiller: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams
SOME HISTORY:
In the conceptual stage of The Force Unleashed video game, LucasArts threw around a whole bunch of ideas, from playing as a bounty hunter to playing as a Wookiee, until George Lucas narrowed it down to Underworld and the Rise of the Rebellion. LucasArts thought about making the protagonist a Rebel Jedi, then one of the Emperor’s Hands, before finally settling on the protagonist being a dark Jedi trained by Vader to help him overthrow the Emperor—or so it seems. As with other multimedia projects, Starkiller’s story was told in different formats, and the novel was written by Sean Williams, author of the Force Heretic trilogy in the New Jedi Order series. The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams made it to number one on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of September 7, 2008, and was on the NYT list for four weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I think I saw a commercial or gameplay video of the game when it was released in the fall of 2008, but Starkiller looked so overpowered that I never sought out the novel until this year.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Trained by Vader since childhood, the nameless agent called Starkiller knows nothing of his past, and his future is devoted to overthrowing the Emperor and ruling by Vader's side. In carrying out missions for his Master, he will travel to disparate worlds and make unlikely new allies that will cause him to question his tasks as well as his destiny…
THE PLOT:
The video game of The Force Unleashed has different endings depending upon the final choices you make, but the novel follows the Light Side ending. (The Dark Side ending concludes with Vader and all the Rebels dead, and Starkiller now serving the Emperor.)
In Part One, Vader tasks his apprentice Starkiller with tracking down and killing three different Jedi. Starkiller isn’t alone on these missions, though, as he’s accompanied by the droid Proxy and his pilot, Captain Juno Eclipse. Juno was a TIE fighter pilot, but now she pilots Starkiller’s ship the Rogue Shadow. Starkiller is dispatched to Nar Shaddaa, where he blinds—but probably doesn’t kill—General Rahm Kota. He heads to the junkyard world of Raxis Prime, kills another Jedi, then heads to Felucia to kill Shaak Ti. He returns triumphant, only to be betrayed and presumably killed by his Master.
When Part Two opens, we find out that Starkiller isn’t dead; Vader only pretended to kill him, and now tasks him with stoking up dissent against the Empire so he can maneuver all the Rebels together in one place, and somehow that will lead to Vader and Starkiller overthrowing the Emperor. At least, that’s what Vader tells him…So Starkiller saves Juno Eclipse from imprisonment and goes to Cloud City to pick up General Kota, who’s now a sad sack alcoholic. Next they head to Kashyyk to aid Princess Leia Organa, and Starkiller crashes a skyhook and sees a vision of his past—and maybe his future too. They go to Felucia in search of Bail Organa, and Starkiller fights Shaak Ti’s fallen apprentice, Maris Brood. Starkiller destroys a shipyard on Raxis Prime, then they finally end up on Corellia for a meeting between Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm bel Iblis. The Empire gatecrashes this secret meeting, captures the Senators, and brings them to the in-construction Death Star orbiting the world of Despayre.
Starkiller and Juno make their way to the Death Star, where Death Star learns that this was all a ploy between Vader and the Empire to root out the Rebels and destroy them. Starkiller fights Vader but shows him mercy and doesn’t kill him, and Starkiller ultimately sacrifices himself so that the Rebels can escape. As the book ends on Kashyyk, we learn from General Kota that Starkiller was really Galen Marek, the son of a Jedi, and the Rebels adopt Galen’s family starbird symbol as the emblem of the Rebellion.
CHARACTERS:
There are only two viewpoint characters in The Force Unleashed: Starkiller and Juno Eclipse. Of those two, I liked Juno better, because she felt more like a real person than Starkiller. She was raised to believe that the Jedi were bad and the Republic had to be replaced with the Empire, and that the Empire is doing good things and keeping order. It’s not until she attends the Imperial Academy and joins the Navy as a TIE fighter pilot that she starts to question those beliefs. Juno seemed like a competent young-ish adult, but then the text seemed to be hinting that she was a teenager—she was the youngest person ever at the Academy on Corulag, and she seems to be the same age as Starkiller and Leia Organa. After looking this up on the Star Wars wiki, I’m not sure I accept that Juno was a fourteen-year-old cadet and a sixteen-year-old Captain, but whatever.
I did buy her backstory of the Bombing of Callos, though. Juno told Vader that she didn’t think they should keep attacking after the world had surrendered, so Vader ordered her to disable the reactor core—and when her fighters carried out their bombing run, it had severe toxic effects that ruined the planet. These were Juno’s first realizations that the Empire isn't just about order, but also about control and power and fear, so when Starkiller starts meeting with Rebels Juno actively aids him in his tasks. She doesn’t know he has a secret agenda, and she thinks it’s the right thing to do because she’s seen the horrors of the Empire very well.
Her romantic subplot with Starkiller worked less well for me, partially because Starkiller is a stereotypical blank slate video game protagonist. He doesn’t know his past or his heritage, and all he knows is what Vader taught him. I don’t understand what Juno sees in Starkiller, because she’s a much more fleshed out person than he is. Starkiller is flat; I guess that makes sense for a video game player character, since you’re going to project a bit on them as you’re playing, but it doesn’t make for an interesting book character. Starkiller doesn’t even know his own name, and we don’t learn that he was Galen Marek, the son of two Jedi Knights, until Rahm Kota tells us at the very end.
Starkiller is very strong in the Force, which is why Vader snatched him as a child, but his Force abilities are so far beyond anything we’ve seen in the books. I think that something fun to play in a video game may not necessarily make sense in a book, and I think that applies to all of Galen’s Force feats. He destroys absurd numbers of droids, kills a bunch of people, pulls down a Star Destroyer on Raxus Prime. It’s very over the top! He also periodically has visions of the past and the possible future, and doesn’t side with the Rebels until he finally realizes that Vader has set him up. He’s not a particularly compelling hero.
Starkiller faces off against three Jedi in those initial “level” chapters. The first is General Rahm Kota, who seems to know who Starkiller is and what he was doing but pretends to be a sad drunk and declines to get involved until the very end. Kazdan Paratus was a Jedi engineer who fled to the trash world of Raxus Prime, and descended into madness. His fight with Starkiller was very silly, involving droid versions of the Jedi Council. Finally, Starkiller confronted Shaak Ti on Felucia, and I found her death very sad. She was supposed to die in Revenge of the Sith but those scenes never made it into the film, so it felt like the video game latched onto adding her as a big draw. I like seeing Shaak Ti, and her comments before her death were the initial cracks in Starkiller’s understanding of himself and his purpose, but I wish they hadn’t thrown her away in one chapter of a video game novel. I also thought that Shaak Ti’s apprentice Maris Brood was going to play a larger role in the story, but we briefly see her in a Force flashback, Starkiller fights her on Felucia, and she runs away after he shows her mercy.
Leia Organa, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm bel Iblis are here, but they feel like NPCs—especially Leia, who’s on Kashyyk and dispatches Starkiller to rescue her father on Felucia. It’s nice to see them, but you don’t get any sense of their characters. They just exist to direct the protagonist to his next mission.
Vader talks with Starkiller about overthrowing the Emperor, but I don’t think he’s ready to commit to that yet. I always got the sense that he talked a good talk, but he didn’t seriously consider overthrowing the Emperor until he found out about Luke’s existence. In The Force Unleashed, he’s still Palpatine’s creature. I do find it interesting that LucasArts didn’t think Palpatine was scary enough to be Starkiller’s Master, and made him Vader’s apprentice instead. Palpatine may look innocuous, but he scares me more than Vader. Vader is visually and physically imposing, whereas Palpatine is just evil for evil’s sake.
ISSUES:
The Force Unleashed felt more like a video game than a novel. I know, it’s a video game adaptation, but Hard Contact and Shadows of the Empire didn’t have the same problems for me. Hard Contact took the world of the Republic Commando game but told a different story; Shadows of the Empire felt more like a novelization than a book that was trying to hit all the beats of the video game, probably because the novel and game are two different adaptations of the same base story. The Force Unleashed just feels like a video game written down. Part One is just three consecutive missions that Vader assigns to Starkiller, and while they’re all a little different, they each have the same objective. Part Two uses that video game trick of returning to worlds we’ve seen before, so they go back to Felucia to rescue Bail Organa and go back to Raxis Prime to destroy the shipyards.
It was a little too obvious that each plot event was a video game mission, and the novel itself felt like the bare bones of the game plus some additional insights. I liked Juno’s character, but I didn’t understand why Starkiller needed a hacker pilot—if Vader had a secret apprentice, it would make more sense if he flew his own ship. But in a video game, it makes sense to have a character that gives you information as you run through a level, thus Juno’s hacker skills (which seem strange coming from a TIE fighter pilot).
Starkiller’s Force powers are probably really fun to play in the game, but didn’t work for me in the novel. He’s pulling off Force feats that we have rarely seen before, and his skills felt beyond what even Vader or Luke can do. I questioned the reality of Starkiller redirecting a falling Star Destroyer, especially when it took the combined effort of all the Jedi in Darksaber to push away Daala’s Star Destroyers and still led to Dorsk 81’s death! He also used Sith lightning a lot, which makes it more difficult for me to believe that other characters believed he was a Jedi.
But my biggest issue with The Force Unleashed was the way that it depicted the formation of the Rebel Alliance. Contrary to what we’ve seen in other books, like Rebel Dawn or “Interlude at Darknell” from Tales from the New Republic,The Force Unleashed depicts Starkiller as the originator of the Rebel Alliance. And even worse, it was all a ploy by the Emperor and Vader to root out the Rebels and destroy their group. What’s the point of having Mon Mothma and Bail Organa and Garm bel Iblis join forces together, if it was only in service of a plot twist? And I think having Starkiller as the instigator takes away all the credit from Mon Mothma and the Organas and others, and makes them into good people manipulated by evil. It makes for some fun video game levels, but I don’t want it to be the official explanation at all. I also hate the fact that the final fight is on the Death Star; I’m meant to believe that Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and bel Iblis were all held on the Death Star?? That they saw it?? I don’t like it! I don’t like the implications!
IN CONCLUSION:
The Force Unleashed is a novel adaptation of the video game, and carries a lot of the video game’s quirks. The novel is heavily focused on Juno Eclipse and Starkiller/Galen; I enjoyed getting to learn about Juno, but Starkiller was a little bit too much of a blank slate for me. The plot unfolds like a video game, with Starkiller visiting different worlds for each of his missions and then returning to earlier worlds for new missions. I don't like the twist that this story puts on the formation of the Rebel Alliance, or that they’re all on the Death Star at the end, and I feel like Starkiller’s Force powers are just way too much for a book. Cool to play! But when you read it, he comes across as really overpowered.
Next up: the second book in the Coruscant Nights trilogy, Street of Shadows by Michael Reaves.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/WP4-mP90xIE
For 2024, I decided to pick up where I left off after 2022 and reread books published between 2004 and 2011—a hodgepodge of Clone Wars, inter-trilogy, and Original Trilogy stories, plus a smattering of Old Republic Sith. This shakes out to twenty-one novels and four short stories, mainly consisting of the Republic Commando series, the Darth Bane trilogy, the Coruscant Nights trilogy, five Clone Wars books written by the Karens, and four standalone novels.
This week’s focus: another video game novel, this one about Vader’s secret apprentice Starkiller: The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams
SOME HISTORY:
In the conceptual stage of The Force Unleashed video game, LucasArts threw around a whole bunch of ideas, from playing as a bounty hunter to playing as a Wookiee, until George Lucas narrowed it down to Underworld and the Rise of the Rebellion. LucasArts thought about making the protagonist a Rebel Jedi, then one of the Emperor’s Hands, before finally settling on the protagonist being a dark Jedi trained by Vader to help him overthrow the Emperor—or so it seems. As with other multimedia projects, Starkiller’s story was told in different formats, and the novel was written by Sean Williams, author of the Force Heretic trilogy in the New Jedi Order series. The Force Unleashed by Sean Williams made it to number one on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of September 7, 2008, and was on the NYT list for four weeks.
MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:
I think I saw a commercial or gameplay video of the game when it was released in the fall of 2008, but Starkiller looked so overpowered that I never sought out the novel until this year.
A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Trained by Vader since childhood, the nameless agent called Starkiller knows nothing of his past, and his future is devoted to overthrowing the Emperor and ruling by Vader's side. In carrying out missions for his Master, he will travel to disparate worlds and make unlikely new allies that will cause him to question his tasks as well as his destiny…
THE PLOT:
The video game of The Force Unleashed has different endings depending upon the final choices you make, but the novel follows the Light Side ending. (The Dark Side ending concludes with Vader and all the Rebels dead, and Starkiller now serving the Emperor.)
In Part One, Vader tasks his apprentice Starkiller with tracking down and killing three different Jedi. Starkiller isn’t alone on these missions, though, as he’s accompanied by the droid Proxy and his pilot, Captain Juno Eclipse. Juno was a TIE fighter pilot, but now she pilots Starkiller’s ship the Rogue Shadow. Starkiller is dispatched to Nar Shaddaa, where he blinds—but probably doesn’t kill—General Rahm Kota. He heads to the junkyard world of Raxis Prime, kills another Jedi, then heads to Felucia to kill Shaak Ti. He returns triumphant, only to be betrayed and presumably killed by his Master.
When Part Two opens, we find out that Starkiller isn’t dead; Vader only pretended to kill him, and now tasks him with stoking up dissent against the Empire so he can maneuver all the Rebels together in one place, and somehow that will lead to Vader and Starkiller overthrowing the Emperor. At least, that’s what Vader tells him…So Starkiller saves Juno Eclipse from imprisonment and goes to Cloud City to pick up General Kota, who’s now a sad sack alcoholic. Next they head to Kashyyk to aid Princess Leia Organa, and Starkiller crashes a skyhook and sees a vision of his past—and maybe his future too. They go to Felucia in search of Bail Organa, and Starkiller fights Shaak Ti’s fallen apprentice, Maris Brood. Starkiller destroys a shipyard on Raxis Prime, then they finally end up on Corellia for a meeting between Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm bel Iblis. The Empire gatecrashes this secret meeting, captures the Senators, and brings them to the in-construction Death Star orbiting the world of Despayre.
Starkiller and Juno make their way to the Death Star, where Death Star learns that this was all a ploy between Vader and the Empire to root out the Rebels and destroy them. Starkiller fights Vader but shows him mercy and doesn’t kill him, and Starkiller ultimately sacrifices himself so that the Rebels can escape. As the book ends on Kashyyk, we learn from General Kota that Starkiller was really Galen Marek, the son of a Jedi, and the Rebels adopt Galen’s family starbird symbol as the emblem of the Rebellion.
CHARACTERS:
There are only two viewpoint characters in The Force Unleashed: Starkiller and Juno Eclipse. Of those two, I liked Juno better, because she felt more like a real person than Starkiller. She was raised to believe that the Jedi were bad and the Republic had to be replaced with the Empire, and that the Empire is doing good things and keeping order. It’s not until she attends the Imperial Academy and joins the Navy as a TIE fighter pilot that she starts to question those beliefs. Juno seemed like a competent young-ish adult, but then the text seemed to be hinting that she was a teenager—she was the youngest person ever at the Academy on Corulag, and she seems to be the same age as Starkiller and Leia Organa. After looking this up on the Star Wars wiki, I’m not sure I accept that Juno was a fourteen-year-old cadet and a sixteen-year-old Captain, but whatever.
I did buy her backstory of the Bombing of Callos, though. Juno told Vader that she didn’t think they should keep attacking after the world had surrendered, so Vader ordered her to disable the reactor core—and when her fighters carried out their bombing run, it had severe toxic effects that ruined the planet. These were Juno’s first realizations that the Empire isn't just about order, but also about control and power and fear, so when Starkiller starts meeting with Rebels Juno actively aids him in his tasks. She doesn’t know he has a secret agenda, and she thinks it’s the right thing to do because she’s seen the horrors of the Empire very well.
Her romantic subplot with Starkiller worked less well for me, partially because Starkiller is a stereotypical blank slate video game protagonist. He doesn’t know his past or his heritage, and all he knows is what Vader taught him. I don’t understand what Juno sees in Starkiller, because she’s a much more fleshed out person than he is. Starkiller is flat; I guess that makes sense for a video game player character, since you’re going to project a bit on them as you’re playing, but it doesn’t make for an interesting book character. Starkiller doesn’t even know his own name, and we don’t learn that he was Galen Marek, the son of two Jedi Knights, until Rahm Kota tells us at the very end.
Starkiller is very strong in the Force, which is why Vader snatched him as a child, but his Force abilities are so far beyond anything we’ve seen in the books. I think that something fun to play in a video game may not necessarily make sense in a book, and I think that applies to all of Galen’s Force feats. He destroys absurd numbers of droids, kills a bunch of people, pulls down a Star Destroyer on Raxus Prime. It’s very over the top! He also periodically has visions of the past and the possible future, and doesn’t side with the Rebels until he finally realizes that Vader has set him up. He’s not a particularly compelling hero.
Starkiller faces off against three Jedi in those initial “level” chapters. The first is General Rahm Kota, who seems to know who Starkiller is and what he was doing but pretends to be a sad drunk and declines to get involved until the very end. Kazdan Paratus was a Jedi engineer who fled to the trash world of Raxus Prime, and descended into madness. His fight with Starkiller was very silly, involving droid versions of the Jedi Council. Finally, Starkiller confronted Shaak Ti on Felucia, and I found her death very sad. She was supposed to die in Revenge of the Sith but those scenes never made it into the film, so it felt like the video game latched onto adding her as a big draw. I like seeing Shaak Ti, and her comments before her death were the initial cracks in Starkiller’s understanding of himself and his purpose, but I wish they hadn’t thrown her away in one chapter of a video game novel. I also thought that Shaak Ti’s apprentice Maris Brood was going to play a larger role in the story, but we briefly see her in a Force flashback, Starkiller fights her on Felucia, and she runs away after he shows her mercy.
Leia Organa, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm bel Iblis are here, but they feel like NPCs—especially Leia, who’s on Kashyyk and dispatches Starkiller to rescue her father on Felucia. It’s nice to see them, but you don’t get any sense of their characters. They just exist to direct the protagonist to his next mission.
Vader talks with Starkiller about overthrowing the Emperor, but I don’t think he’s ready to commit to that yet. I always got the sense that he talked a good talk, but he didn’t seriously consider overthrowing the Emperor until he found out about Luke’s existence. In The Force Unleashed, he’s still Palpatine’s creature. I do find it interesting that LucasArts didn’t think Palpatine was scary enough to be Starkiller’s Master, and made him Vader’s apprentice instead. Palpatine may look innocuous, but he scares me more than Vader. Vader is visually and physically imposing, whereas Palpatine is just evil for evil’s sake.
ISSUES:
The Force Unleashed felt more like a video game than a novel. I know, it’s a video game adaptation, but Hard Contact and Shadows of the Empire didn’t have the same problems for me. Hard Contact took the world of the Republic Commando game but told a different story; Shadows of the Empire felt more like a novelization than a book that was trying to hit all the beats of the video game, probably because the novel and game are two different adaptations of the same base story. The Force Unleashed just feels like a video game written down. Part One is just three consecutive missions that Vader assigns to Starkiller, and while they’re all a little different, they each have the same objective. Part Two uses that video game trick of returning to worlds we’ve seen before, so they go back to Felucia to rescue Bail Organa and go back to Raxis Prime to destroy the shipyards.
It was a little too obvious that each plot event was a video game mission, and the novel itself felt like the bare bones of the game plus some additional insights. I liked Juno’s character, but I didn’t understand why Starkiller needed a hacker pilot—if Vader had a secret apprentice, it would make more sense if he flew his own ship. But in a video game, it makes sense to have a character that gives you information as you run through a level, thus Juno’s hacker skills (which seem strange coming from a TIE fighter pilot).
Starkiller’s Force powers are probably really fun to play in the game, but didn’t work for me in the novel. He’s pulling off Force feats that we have rarely seen before, and his skills felt beyond what even Vader or Luke can do. I questioned the reality of Starkiller redirecting a falling Star Destroyer, especially when it took the combined effort of all the Jedi in Darksaber to push away Daala’s Star Destroyers and still led to Dorsk 81’s death! He also used Sith lightning a lot, which makes it more difficult for me to believe that other characters believed he was a Jedi.
But my biggest issue with The Force Unleashed was the way that it depicted the formation of the Rebel Alliance. Contrary to what we’ve seen in other books, like Rebel Dawn or “Interlude at Darknell” from Tales from the New Republic,The Force Unleashed depicts Starkiller as the originator of the Rebel Alliance. And even worse, it was all a ploy by the Emperor and Vader to root out the Rebels and destroy their group. What’s the point of having Mon Mothma and Bail Organa and Garm bel Iblis join forces together, if it was only in service of a plot twist? And I think having Starkiller as the instigator takes away all the credit from Mon Mothma and the Organas and others, and makes them into good people manipulated by evil. It makes for some fun video game levels, but I don’t want it to be the official explanation at all. I also hate the fact that the final fight is on the Death Star; I’m meant to believe that Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and bel Iblis were all held on the Death Star?? That they saw it?? I don’t like it! I don’t like the implications!
IN CONCLUSION:
The Force Unleashed is a novel adaptation of the video game, and carries a lot of the video game’s quirks. The novel is heavily focused on Juno Eclipse and Starkiller/Galen; I enjoyed getting to learn about Juno, but Starkiller was a little bit too much of a blank slate for me. The plot unfolds like a video game, with Starkiller visiting different worlds for each of his missions and then returning to earlier worlds for new missions. I don't like the twist that this story puts on the formation of the Rebel Alliance, or that they’re all on the Death Star at the end, and I feel like Starkiller’s Force powers are just way too much for a book. Cool to play! But when you read it, he comes across as really overpowered.
Next up: the second book in the Coruscant Nights trilogy, Street of Shadows by Michael Reaves.
YouTube review: https://youtu.be/WP4-mP90xIE
July 4, 2018
This book introduces an apprentice to Vader who does things one can't imagine. It starts to set the stage for the original movie and ponders whether or not Vader will be like other Sith apprentices before him. It also presents the idea of how people who are raised to be evil deal with seeing people with other points of view.
July 9, 2009
Some really great action, here, for someone who has never played the game. Originally I bought this novel because my nephew was Demo-ing this game last August and I was blown away at the graphics, the skills he'd learned during one of these sessions and, did I mention the amazing graphics! Knowing many of of scholars love Sci-Fi, I felt it would have a duel purpose and when a female scholar raved about it, I was more pressed than ever to read it. The first half reads like a video game, where the characters NEVER seem to need any recharging or rest of any kind. The plot thickens, as they say, and the action was almost secondary to some of the other subplots, which kept it going.
285-"What was freedom worth if it led to death?" seemed to be the overall theme, though our "Starkiller" protagonist is pondering this more than halfway through the novel. If ever rebel or freedom fighter felt this way, there would NEVER be liberties as we now know them.
185-"He found the world's new ambience familiar but not comfortable, and he felt that he was recognized but not welcome."
I don't know how many times I've felt this way. Though, truthfully, I often move when I've gotten to comfortable in one specific place. Complacency scares the shite, out of me. Sure, once I find the just right place, I'll set down some roots, but until then....
186-"The relationship between Master and apprentice was always a tense one--and from that tension sprang great power.
"Shaak Ti had understood that, too. The Sith always betray one another, she had said, just as every life-form had betrayed every other life-form, if left to their natural inclination. Peace and harmony were aberrations imposed from the outside, to be resisted at every juncture."
A very different take on "Peace and harmony" that I thought was fascinating. Similar to some of Tom Clancy's novels that expose "There's far more money in war, than peace." Sad, pessimistic, dark, but true.
Hated the ending, though realist, I wish it had a better battle. I also expected Captain Eclipse to have a far bigger role throughout the second half of the book. I know, probably not in line with the GAME, but it just seemed with all her experience, the author could've made her a much stronger character.
285-"What was freedom worth if it led to death?" seemed to be the overall theme, though our "Starkiller" protagonist is pondering this more than halfway through the novel. If ever rebel or freedom fighter felt this way, there would NEVER be liberties as we now know them.
185-"He found the world's new ambience familiar but not comfortable, and he felt that he was recognized but not welcome."
I don't know how many times I've felt this way. Though, truthfully, I often move when I've gotten to comfortable in one specific place. Complacency scares the shite, out of me. Sure, once I find the just right place, I'll set down some roots, but until then....
186-"The relationship between Master and apprentice was always a tense one--and from that tension sprang great power.
"Shaak Ti had understood that, too. The Sith always betray one another, she had said, just as every life-form had betrayed every other life-form, if left to their natural inclination. Peace and harmony were aberrations imposed from the outside, to be resisted at every juncture."
A very different take on "Peace and harmony" that I thought was fascinating. Similar to some of Tom Clancy's novels that expose "There's far more money in war, than peace." Sad, pessimistic, dark, but true.
Hated the ending, though realist, I wish it had a better battle. I also expected Captain Eclipse to have a far bigger role throughout the second half of the book. I know, probably not in line with the GAME, but it just seemed with all her experience, the author could've made her a much stronger character.
June 22, 2012
The series based on the Republic Commando video games turned out to be fun action mixed with extremely thought-provoking questions about the morality and status of clones. This so far is not remotely the same quality.
The first few chapters are so obviously the video game levels described as a story that I laugh outloud and visualize graphics during each journey through the level to a silly "boss" such as a crazy Jedi constructing a Jedi temple out of trash on a junkyard planet. The Sith kid and Vader are not believably portrayed either. But I'll finish it anyway.
Finished: This ended up being a page turner, but it really is dumb. The kid is too powerful, ridiculously powerful. The video game levels and ever more powerful "bosses" were continually evident. The kid's betrayal and survival made no sense. The actions of Bail Organa and others made no sense. These deep, wise Rebel Alliance founders, completely paranoid of betrayal at every turn, joined up because a force user who won't tell them his name says they should? I felt that the established Alliance people and minor Jedi all came off as feeble and dumb. The falling off the cliff and vanishing into the force made no sense. And dumbest, he beats up Darth Vader and the Emperor? And then doesn't try to kill them to show how non-Sith he's become?
I liked the main character OK and his change of heart, but the story is not worth it and actually detracts from the overall Star Wars universe. This not a nuanced, interesting add on to the established continuity like the Han Solo origin series; it's a cheap video game plot written up as a novel. It looks like it could be a fun game--bad book.
The first few chapters are so obviously the video game levels described as a story that I laugh outloud and visualize graphics during each journey through the level to a silly "boss" such as a crazy Jedi constructing a Jedi temple out of trash on a junkyard planet. The Sith kid and Vader are not believably portrayed either. But I'll finish it anyway.
Finished: This ended up being a page turner, but it really is dumb. The kid is too powerful, ridiculously powerful. The video game levels and ever more powerful "bosses" were continually evident. The kid's betrayal and survival made no sense. The actions of Bail Organa and others made no sense. These deep, wise Rebel Alliance founders, completely paranoid of betrayal at every turn, joined up because a force user who won't tell them his name says they should? I felt that the established Alliance people and minor Jedi all came off as feeble and dumb. The falling off the cliff and vanishing into the force made no sense. And dumbest, he beats up Darth Vader and the Emperor? And then doesn't try to kill them to show how non-Sith he's become?
I liked the main character OK and his change of heart, but the story is not worth it and actually detracts from the overall Star Wars universe. This not a nuanced, interesting add on to the established continuity like the Han Solo origin series; it's a cheap video game plot written up as a novel. It looks like it could be a fun game--bad book.
January 18, 2024
3.4
-Nothing too crazy, still enjoyable tho
-I like how the author wrote starkiller as a like genius tactician but with child-like ideas
-The force dream Starkiller had in his old house was really cool, I liked how he disarmed Vader without realizing it
-PROXY was a real one, gone but never forgotten 🫡
-The love element of Juno and Galen seemed kinda rushed but I still liked it
-I thought Shaak Ti died in order 66 to Anakin but they must’ve retconned it
-I like that he could use lighting as well, made his fights more fun to read
-I liked the Vader betrayals that happened, I really didn’t see them coming
-Nothing too crazy, still enjoyable tho
-I like how the author wrote starkiller as a like genius tactician but with child-like ideas
-The force dream Starkiller had in his old house was really cool, I liked how he disarmed Vader without realizing it
-PROXY was a real one, gone but never forgotten 🫡
-The love element of Juno and Galen seemed kinda rushed but I still liked it
-I thought Shaak Ti died in order 66 to Anakin but they must’ve retconned it
-I like that he could use lighting as well, made his fights more fun to read
-I liked the Vader betrayals that happened, I really didn’t see them coming
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2010
The Clone Wars are long gone and the Jedi all but extinct. Darth Vader has been tasked by the Emperor to root out and destroy the remaining Jedi but what the Emperor doesn’t know is that Vader has trained an apprentice of his own both for this task and for nefarious purposes of his own…
The Apprentice,we don’t find out his name until much later, must travel through a troubled galaxy killing on the command of his master. Although he is confident in his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force, the apprentice is going to find that the galaxy is still capable of throwing surprises at him, especially surprises that hint at his own hidden origins…
This book is was also made into a video game, which I have and is great by the way. The first few chapters in particular read like a computer game; make your way through to the end of the level, defeat the "end of level boss" (renegade Jedi Masters) and then go into the next stage. It was fun while I was reading it, as with "The Clone Wars" "The Force Unleashed" has everything that a Star Wars fan would expect out of a Star Wars book. It just felt a little contrived to start off with, like the hero had to get through to the next levels otherwise the reader would never get to see what the game was like (as well as it being a much shorter book with a radically different ending!) However, I guess if you’re going to base a book on a video game then you need to be able to show the reader the game in it’s entirety. I think this is one area where gamers are going to get a lot more out of the book than I did.
Reading "The Force Unleashed" also made me realize how much goes into a fight scene on the screen. When a scene like this is broken down and described on the page there’s much more going on than you would think, this is certainly true in "The Force Unleashed" where fights, battles, etc are described in great detail.
I’ve already mentioned that the book has everything that a Star Wars fan is looking for and that being said, I’m a Star Wars fan! The finale is suitably explosive and the book, as a whole, seems to fit fairly well into the overall Star Wars continuity.
The author's masterstroke (at least as far as I was concerned after reading "The Clone Wars") is to concentrate on telling the tale through characters that you won’t meet anywhere else in the Star Wars universe. Maybe the constraints of writing about a video game left him with no choice. I don’t care because what I got were characters that I knew nothing about, certainly not whether continuity would be placing them in future episodes that I had already come across. This meant that cliff-hangers were suddenly cliff-hangers once again and the Star Wars universe felt a little fresher as I was discovering something new after what seemed like far too long. I believe that this book is a great extension of The Star Wars universe and explains a lot and I would like to see it be incorporated in further on screen installments.
The Apprentice,we don’t find out his name until much later, must travel through a troubled galaxy killing on the command of his master. Although he is confident in his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force, the apprentice is going to find that the galaxy is still capable of throwing surprises at him, especially surprises that hint at his own hidden origins…
This book is was also made into a video game, which I have and is great by the way. The first few chapters in particular read like a computer game; make your way through to the end of the level, defeat the "end of level boss" (renegade Jedi Masters) and then go into the next stage. It was fun while I was reading it, as with "The Clone Wars" "The Force Unleashed" has everything that a Star Wars fan would expect out of a Star Wars book. It just felt a little contrived to start off with, like the hero had to get through to the next levels otherwise the reader would never get to see what the game was like (as well as it being a much shorter book with a radically different ending!) However, I guess if you’re going to base a book on a video game then you need to be able to show the reader the game in it’s entirety. I think this is one area where gamers are going to get a lot more out of the book than I did.
Reading "The Force Unleashed" also made me realize how much goes into a fight scene on the screen. When a scene like this is broken down and described on the page there’s much more going on than you would think, this is certainly true in "The Force Unleashed" where fights, battles, etc are described in great detail.
I’ve already mentioned that the book has everything that a Star Wars fan is looking for and that being said, I’m a Star Wars fan! The finale is suitably explosive and the book, as a whole, seems to fit fairly well into the overall Star Wars continuity.
The author's masterstroke (at least as far as I was concerned after reading "The Clone Wars") is to concentrate on telling the tale through characters that you won’t meet anywhere else in the Star Wars universe. Maybe the constraints of writing about a video game left him with no choice. I don’t care because what I got were characters that I knew nothing about, certainly not whether continuity would be placing them in future episodes that I had already come across. This meant that cliff-hangers were suddenly cliff-hangers once again and the Star Wars universe felt a little fresher as I was discovering something new after what seemed like far too long. I believe that this book is a great extension of The Star Wars universe and explains a lot and I would like to see it be incorporated in further on screen installments.
November 24, 2017
I found this one to be a bit of a struggle to finish. There are many problems with this narrative, and I think that they mostly stem from the constraints inherent in it being a videogame adaptation.
Characterisation is thin - since the apprentice (the main character) is the player avatar, he doesn’t get much to do. His arc is perfunctory, basically tracing the “light side” path, leading to the good ending from the game (I’ve only played the intro to the game, so I’m guessing here!). Sure, he changes, but it never feels natural, or a logical progression of the character.
The narrative is split between short sections of introspection and angst, followed by long sections that are clearly just descriptions of videogame action. I found it got tedious pretty quickly.
As for the other characters - Vader was nerfed, the Emperor was appropriatelt evil, the blind jedi sidekick was no Kanan Jarrus, and the love interest was telegraphed but oh so unconvincing. The best character was PROXY, the apprentice’s droid and sparring partner.
The plot made a kind of sense, if you follow videogame reasoning. Lots of “wipe out all the enemies in the level, rinse, repeat, fight boss, then do the same on the next map.” Also, too many locations were unnecessarily returned to - I think because in the game they needed to reuse finite assets - so we get 2 visits to each location, which messes with the flow of the narrative.
Only really suitable for the hardcore fan.
Characterisation is thin - since the apprentice (the main character) is the player avatar, he doesn’t get much to do. His arc is perfunctory, basically tracing the “light side” path, leading to the good ending from the game (I’ve only played the intro to the game, so I’m guessing here!). Sure, he changes, but it never feels natural, or a logical progression of the character.
The narrative is split between short sections of introspection and angst, followed by long sections that are clearly just descriptions of videogame action. I found it got tedious pretty quickly.
As for the other characters - Vader was nerfed, the Emperor was appropriatelt evil, the blind jedi sidekick was no Kanan Jarrus, and the love interest was telegraphed but oh so unconvincing. The best character was PROXY, the apprentice’s droid and sparring partner.
The plot made a kind of sense, if you follow videogame reasoning. Lots of “wipe out all the enemies in the level, rinse, repeat, fight boss, then do the same on the next map.” Also, too many locations were unnecessarily returned to - I think because in the game they needed to reuse finite assets - so we get 2 visits to each location, which messes with the flow of the narrative.
Only really suitable for the hardcore fan.
September 25, 2011
In the late nineties, Lucasfilm produced their first multimedia extravaganza with Shadows of the Empire. Steve Perry wrote the novel, and there was also a video game, a soundtrack, graphic novels, the whole works. It went pretty well. Now, twelve years later, Lucasfilm did it again with the Force Unleashed. This time, eh....
It's obvious that the video game was the leader of this whole project, because it's a video game story. The characters are broadly drawn, and a lot of the plot consists of the main character, Starkiller, running from place to place cutting people and things in half. That's fun on the screen, not so much on the page. Worse, secondary characters who could fade into the background in the game are instead given page after page of viewpoint, but they don't get to do anything. After all, they didn't do anything in the game, right?
Worst of all for a Star Wars fan like me, this book covers a few events that are really important to the saga--the construction of the Death Star, the foundation of the Rebel Alliance--but does so in ways that are far less interesting than the hints and tidbits we've gotten before. It's just all so perfunctory. Part of that is Sean Williams' spare prose, but mostly, I think he just didn't have much to work with.
Basically, don't read this novel. It's not good Star Wars, it's not good anything.
It's obvious that the video game was the leader of this whole project, because it's a video game story. The characters are broadly drawn, and a lot of the plot consists of the main character, Starkiller, running from place to place cutting people and things in half. That's fun on the screen, not so much on the page. Worse, secondary characters who could fade into the background in the game are instead given page after page of viewpoint, but they don't get to do anything. After all, they didn't do anything in the game, right?
Worst of all for a Star Wars fan like me, this book covers a few events that are really important to the saga--the construction of the Death Star, the foundation of the Rebel Alliance--but does so in ways that are far less interesting than the hints and tidbits we've gotten before. It's just all so perfunctory. Part of that is Sean Williams' spare prose, but mostly, I think he just didn't have much to work with.
Basically, don't read this novel. It's not good Star Wars, it's not good anything.
May 29, 2018
Absolutely brilliant!
I was a huge fan of the game so when I saw this book I immediately snagged it. I don't do this often but, I couldn't put the book down, I read the entire thing from front to back in one sitting. Great story. I didn't know much about Starkiller other than what was laid out in the game (which wasn't a lot.)
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars. It gives a bit of insight into what was going on between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
I was a huge fan of the game so when I saw this book I immediately snagged it. I don't do this often but, I couldn't put the book down, I read the entire thing from front to back in one sitting. Great story. I didn't know much about Starkiller other than what was laid out in the game (which wasn't a lot.)
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars. It gives a bit of insight into what was going on between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
March 25, 2009
Contrived.
Lacks the rich texture expected of a good story...in whatever galaxy. The worst Star Wars story I've read to date.
Not surprisingly, it reads like the "go path" of a video game--at the same time straining to include as many "hooks" into the Star Wars universe (the six movies).
Spoiler Warning: What kind of "orthodox" Star Wars story allows it's hero to defeat and spare Darth Vader and the Emperor (at the same time) prior to Luke Skywalker's rise as a Jedi?
Lacks the rich texture expected of a good story...in whatever galaxy. The worst Star Wars story I've read to date.
Not surprisingly, it reads like the "go path" of a video game--at the same time straining to include as many "hooks" into the Star Wars universe (the six movies).
Spoiler Warning: What kind of "orthodox" Star Wars story allows it's hero to defeat and spare Darth Vader and the Emperor (at the same time) prior to Luke Skywalker's rise as a Jedi?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2025
Wow. This was gonna be my last chance on novelizations because they’ve been mostly misses thus far. Sean Williams’ “The Force Unleashed” broke the ceiling of my expectations and set the new standard for what novelizations should be.
Disclaimer: I’ve played the game. Knew what was coming. Thought this book did everything the game did, but better. It cleaned up the more shallow parts of the game, added layers to undercooked characters, all while never shying away from the absolute rock-em, sock-em hacking and slashing gameplay that the game is known for.
The Force Unleashed is very much a “levels” game: go here, do this, return to hub, repeat. It’s hard to write a story that way without it feeling arbitrary. Williams adds a little bit of extra flair, a little bit of introspection to each of these “levels” so that it doesn’t feel like you’re reading different levels, but one connected story, where each “objective” serves a larger purpose and ties the whole thing together.
There’s very needed character writing in every chapter. Starkiller is explored as a very broken character who’s torn between wanting something more, and denying himself everything. It’s a treat to watch him struggle to find meaning and find himself while still under the oppressive hands of Vader.
Juno is given a lot more screen time than expected and it’s solid. She’s a mostly forgotten plot device in the game, but here, she’s written 1)believably and 2)with autonomy. Her origin story is a bit overdone in my opinion, but it’s nice that she is even given one.
The fighting is written wonderfully, and as stated, doesn’t shy away from the absurdly overpowered gameplay. Starkiller cuts through hundreds of imperials, rebels, droids, aliens, and huge combat vehicles throughout, often with ease. The Star Wars world is still cannon fodder before him, but the “boss” fights are great. The choreography is clear and impactful, the inner monologue of Starkiller gives great insight, and I want to highlight how freaking PHENOMENAL Marc Thompson is as the narrator/VA for the audiobook during these scenes. I could swear he was actually mic’d up fighting Jedi knights in the booth.
Some story elements are added brand new, some are direct 1:1 reproductions, and a rare few are changed. I think all changes or additions are for the better.
This is a “hell yeah” video game with tip-of-the-iceberg writing made into something more, and I applaud it. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or make the most compelling use of the Star Wars mythos, but I think this could stand on its own a story if the game never came out.
Final note: seriously, give the audiobook a shot. I read and listened and I enjoyed listening much more. It’s got a score of the classic Star Wars tracks, constant ambient noise, and a masterful performance by Marc Thompson. Really bummed to see he wasn’t selected for the sequel, which I had no intentions of picking up because the game was garbage, but will now read because this was so much fun.
Disclaimer: I’ve played the game. Knew what was coming. Thought this book did everything the game did, but better. It cleaned up the more shallow parts of the game, added layers to undercooked characters, all while never shying away from the absolute rock-em, sock-em hacking and slashing gameplay that the game is known for.
The Force Unleashed is very much a “levels” game: go here, do this, return to hub, repeat. It’s hard to write a story that way without it feeling arbitrary. Williams adds a little bit of extra flair, a little bit of introspection to each of these “levels” so that it doesn’t feel like you’re reading different levels, but one connected story, where each “objective” serves a larger purpose and ties the whole thing together.
There’s very needed character writing in every chapter. Starkiller is explored as a very broken character who’s torn between wanting something more, and denying himself everything. It’s a treat to watch him struggle to find meaning and find himself while still under the oppressive hands of Vader.
Juno is given a lot more screen time than expected and it’s solid. She’s a mostly forgotten plot device in the game, but here, she’s written 1)believably and 2)with autonomy. Her origin story is a bit overdone in my opinion, but it’s nice that she is even given one.
The fighting is written wonderfully, and as stated, doesn’t shy away from the absurdly overpowered gameplay. Starkiller cuts through hundreds of imperials, rebels, droids, aliens, and huge combat vehicles throughout, often with ease. The Star Wars world is still cannon fodder before him, but the “boss” fights are great. The choreography is clear and impactful, the inner monologue of Starkiller gives great insight, and I want to highlight how freaking PHENOMENAL Marc Thompson is as the narrator/VA for the audiobook during these scenes. I could swear he was actually mic’d up fighting Jedi knights in the booth.
Some story elements are added brand new, some are direct 1:1 reproductions, and a rare few are changed. I think all changes or additions are for the better.
This is a “hell yeah” video game with tip-of-the-iceberg writing made into something more, and I applaud it. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or make the most compelling use of the Star Wars mythos, but I think this could stand on its own a story if the game never came out.
Final note: seriously, give the audiobook a shot. I read and listened and I enjoyed listening much more. It’s got a score of the classic Star Wars tracks, constant ambient noise, and a masterful performance by Marc Thompson. Really bummed to see he wasn’t selected for the sequel, which I had no intentions of picking up because the game was garbage, but will now read because this was so much fun.
June 5, 2022
I had high hopes that this novelization would attempt to explain, and even expand upon, the mess that was the video game's script. That is not the case. The novelization is the video game, beat-for-beat, with very, very little added to the story. I at least wanted some explanation as to why Juno would fall in love with a man with both attachment issues and a terrible buzzcut, but that not was expanded upon in the least. However, the one positive aspect, and the element added most to the novel, was the further development of Juno's character. The reader learns (a little) more from her perspective and more of her motives. Although her function in this story remains the same as the video game (the pretty person for Starkiller to care about), it was nice to see an attempt to expand on her character. Still, that was not enough to bump this up to two stars.
April 18, 2025
I always wanted to play this game but never did sooo
I didn't realize the creators made Starkiller their specialist little boy. It's actually pretty funny.
I think as far as video game books go this is fine. But there so much unneeded action and weirdly unexplainable parts that work for a video game format but not a book.
The romance??? if it could be called that was so underwhelming and yet somehow pivotal to literally saving the whole galaxy.
So much could have been filled in and expanded on that wasn't. But I must read the second so I finally know the story.
I didn't realize the creators made Starkiller their specialist little boy. It's actually pretty funny.
I think as far as video game books go this is fine. But there so much unneeded action and weirdly unexplainable parts that work for a video game format but not a book.
The romance??? if it could be called that was so underwhelming and yet somehow pivotal to literally saving the whole galaxy.
So much could have been filled in and expanded on that wasn't. But I must read the second so I finally know the story.
June 26, 2019
Star Wars Legends Project #208
Background: The Force Unleashed was written by Sean Williams, and is based on the video game of the same name (the story of which was largely developed by W. Haden Blackman). It was published in August of 2008. Williams has authored or co-authored half a dozen Star Wars novels, including a sequel to this.
The Force Unleashed takes place about 2 years before the battle of Yavin. The main character is Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. Vader himself also plays a major role, along with the Emperor, Shaak Ti, Bail Organa, and Jedi General Rahm Kota. The novel takes place on and around Kashyyyk, Nar Shaddaa, Raxus Prime, Felucia, Bespin, and on board the Death Star.
Summary: During the Purge, Darth Vader hunted down a rogue Jedi Master on Kashyyyk and discovered that he had a young son, powerful in the Force. Killing all witnesses, including nearby Imperials, Vader took the boy and trained him in secret. Now, as his training nears completion, Vader hopes they will soon be ready to stand against the Emperor and take over the reins of galactic power. But the Emperor is not so easily defeated, and his apprentice may have some ideas of his own as well.
Review: This was released somewhere around the nadir of my involvement in Star Wars fandom, so I didn't realize until recently just how big of a deal the launch of The Force Unleashed was, encompassing media several platforms. When you have something like that, the hope (I assume) is to tell a brand-new story that fits within established continuity, but that's also very consequential to that continuity. In this case, that instinct led them to tell a story that basically ruins the story of the original Star Wars movie. It's like what I'd expect to see if George Lucas went back and remade Episode IV with the sensibilities of the prequel trilogy.
I played through the game that this novel tied in with while I was reading, and I'm glad that I did. I'm giving this novel a whole extra star because playing made it really clear how much Williams improved the quality of the material he was given to work with. Unfortunately, the material is unsalvagable, which accounts for the lack of additional stars. Williams should have followed the Traviss model of taking the germ of the idea of the game and then doing completely his own story with it.
Weirdly, reading Williams' book feels a bit like watching him play through the game at various points, which could be either a pro or a con (I didn't love those bits), but as often as not, when I played through those portions of the game, his description was nothing like my experience. So I at least know he didn't just play through the alpha version of the game himself and keep a journal of everything that happened. The main thing he does is develop important secondary characters that the game never bothers to assign personalities or motivations. This is most notable in the character of Juno Eclipse, who becomes a major POV character in the book in a way that makes her arc actually make sense. He also develops a compelling explanation for one of the most mystifying and random boss battles in the game.
Try as he may, however, he can't breathe any life into the protagonist. I've played 8-bit sidescrollers with characters who aren't as bland and flat as Starkiller. Neither the game nor the book ever gives us any reason to care about him or anything he does. And in addition to all of the outrageous plot details (which I'll avoid spoiling), Starkiller in the book and the game is a complete cipher with regards to his allegiance in the Force. He's an adherent of the Dark Side, of course, but as he proceeds along a long but steady arc towards redemption, there is never really a moment where it feels like he's having difficulty moving towards the Light Side. Part of that is because he continues deploying a few dozen thunderstorms worth of Sith Lightning throughout and never seems overly concerned with hundreds or thousands of collateral deaths . . . and (flying in the face of just about every Star Wars story ever) that doesn't seem terribly relevant to which side of the Force he draws his power from. It's never even addressed.
Also, in terms of drama, it's hard to generate any tension around a protagonist whose powers are essentially godlike. There is no challenge he can't overcome through the application of tremendous Force abilities, and often this is accomplished with ease. There are even a few moments where, in the midst of a massive fight with overwhelming odds against him, he seems half-bored as he contemplates which of a dozen destructive options he wishes to employ in order to easily dispatch his enemies. In the game's most famous scene, he literally reaches up with the Force and rips a Star Destroyer out of the sky. If Darth Vader's apprentice possesses powers like this, then it seems like every other powerful Force user ever is really pulling their punches.
I'm pretending this one never happened.
D
Background: The Force Unleashed was written by Sean Williams, and is based on the video game of the same name (the story of which was largely developed by W. Haden Blackman). It was published in August of 2008. Williams has authored or co-authored half a dozen Star Wars novels, including a sequel to this.
The Force Unleashed takes place about 2 years before the battle of Yavin. The main character is Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. Vader himself also plays a major role, along with the Emperor, Shaak Ti, Bail Organa, and Jedi General Rahm Kota. The novel takes place on and around Kashyyyk, Nar Shaddaa, Raxus Prime, Felucia, Bespin, and on board the Death Star.
Summary: During the Purge, Darth Vader hunted down a rogue Jedi Master on Kashyyyk and discovered that he had a young son, powerful in the Force. Killing all witnesses, including nearby Imperials, Vader took the boy and trained him in secret. Now, as his training nears completion, Vader hopes they will soon be ready to stand against the Emperor and take over the reins of galactic power. But the Emperor is not so easily defeated, and his apprentice may have some ideas of his own as well.
Review: This was released somewhere around the nadir of my involvement in Star Wars fandom, so I didn't realize until recently just how big of a deal the launch of The Force Unleashed was, encompassing media several platforms. When you have something like that, the hope (I assume) is to tell a brand-new story that fits within established continuity, but that's also very consequential to that continuity. In this case, that instinct led them to tell a story that basically ruins the story of the original Star Wars movie. It's like what I'd expect to see if George Lucas went back and remade Episode IV with the sensibilities of the prequel trilogy.
I played through the game that this novel tied in with while I was reading, and I'm glad that I did. I'm giving this novel a whole extra star because playing made it really clear how much Williams improved the quality of the material he was given to work with. Unfortunately, the material is unsalvagable, which accounts for the lack of additional stars. Williams should have followed the Traviss model of taking the germ of the idea of the game and then doing completely his own story with it.
Weirdly, reading Williams' book feels a bit like watching him play through the game at various points, which could be either a pro or a con (I didn't love those bits), but as often as not, when I played through those portions of the game, his description was nothing like my experience. So I at least know he didn't just play through the alpha version of the game himself and keep a journal of everything that happened. The main thing he does is develop important secondary characters that the game never bothers to assign personalities or motivations. This is most notable in the character of Juno Eclipse, who becomes a major POV character in the book in a way that makes her arc actually make sense. He also develops a compelling explanation for one of the most mystifying and random boss battles in the game.
Try as he may, however, he can't breathe any life into the protagonist. I've played 8-bit sidescrollers with characters who aren't as bland and flat as Starkiller. Neither the game nor the book ever gives us any reason to care about him or anything he does. And in addition to all of the outrageous plot details (which I'll avoid spoiling), Starkiller in the book and the game is a complete cipher with regards to his allegiance in the Force. He's an adherent of the Dark Side, of course, but as he proceeds along a long but steady arc towards redemption, there is never really a moment where it feels like he's having difficulty moving towards the Light Side. Part of that is because he continues deploying a few dozen thunderstorms worth of Sith Lightning throughout and never seems overly concerned with hundreds or thousands of collateral deaths . . . and (flying in the face of just about every Star Wars story ever) that doesn't seem terribly relevant to which side of the Force he draws his power from. It's never even addressed.
Also, in terms of drama, it's hard to generate any tension around a protagonist whose powers are essentially godlike. There is no challenge he can't overcome through the application of tremendous Force abilities, and often this is accomplished with ease. There are even a few moments where, in the midst of a massive fight with overwhelming odds against him, he seems half-bored as he contemplates which of a dozen destructive options he wishes to employ in order to easily dispatch his enemies. In the game's most famous scene, he literally reaches up with the Force and rips a Star Destroyer out of the sky. If Darth Vader's apprentice possesses powers like this, then it seems like every other powerful Force user ever is really pulling their punches.
I'm pretending this one never happened.
D
March 3, 2024
This story has had so many retellings, whether it be the various game consoles or a comic or here with the novel. I think the PS2 version is probably my favorite version of the story but the book is awesome. It gives so much character to Juno and really gives insight to all the characters thoughts and has some awesome extra scenes!
June 27, 2024
I feel like Galen is so overrated especially with a lot of fans that just watch “lore videos” don’t get me wrong he’s good but he’s not the best. The book also helped clear a lot of mixed interpretations by the games but the story was eh and I feel the description of him and his romance with Juno was kinda bad but nonetheless a good book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2017
This book was very interesting. I enjoyed reading it because it gave a different point of view in Star Wars but there were some things that I didn't like so I gave it only 3 stars.
May 19, 2023
definitely wish Disney hadn't done away with this! Would've been great.
February 26, 2024
The novelization is well done, though it could have expanded on the story further.
September 17, 2025
Read the hard-cover book and played the game, a long time ago, when they were released, and now I've enjoyed this Legends version with new voice acting and special effects.
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