What do you think?
A New Hope: Star Wars: Episode IV
256 pages, Paperback
Published July 29, 2025
About the author
George Lucas
224 books617 followersGeorge Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Nominated for four Academy Awards, he is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the 20th-century New Hollywood movement, and a pioneer of the modern blockbuster. Despite this, he has remained an independent filmmaker away from Hollywood for most of his career.
After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas moved to San Francisco and co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote and directed THX 1138 (1971), based on his student short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was American Graffiti (1973), inspired by his youth in early 1960s Modesto, California, and produced through the newly founded Lucasfilm. The film was critically and commercially successful and received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. Lucas's next film, the epic space opera Star Wars (1977), later retitled A New Hope, had a troubled production but was a surprise hit, becoming the highest-grossing film at the time, winning six Academy Awards and sparking a cultural phenomenon. Lucas produced and co-wrote the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). With director Steven Spielberg, he created, produced, and co-wrote Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989) and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and served as an executive producer, with a cursory involvement in pre and post-production, on The Dial of Destiny (2023).
In 1997, Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy as part of a Special Edition featuring several modifications; home media versions with further changes were released in 2004 and 2011. He returned to directing with a Star Wars prequel trilogy comprising The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). He last collaborated on the CGI-animated movie and television series of the same name, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014, 2020), the war film Red Tails (2012) and the CGI film Strange Magic (2015). Lucas is also known for his collaboration with composer John Williams, who was recommended to him by Spielberg, and with whom he has worked for all the films in both of these franchises. He also produced and wrote a variety of films and television series through Lucasfilm between the 1970s and the 2010s.
Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers. He directed or wrote the story for ten of the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Through his companies Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, Lucas was involved in the production of, and financially benefited from, almost every big-budget film released in the U.S. from the late 1980s until the 2012 Disney sale. In addition to his career as a filmmaker, Lucas has founded and supported multiple philanthropic organizations and campaigns dedicated to education and the arts, including the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which has been noted as a key supporter in the creation of the federal E-Rate program to provide broadband funding to schools and libraries, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a forthcoming art museum in Los Angeles developed with his wife, Mellody Hobson.
After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas moved to San Francisco and co-founded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote and directed THX 1138 (1971), based on his student short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was American Graffiti (1973), inspired by his youth in early 1960s Modesto, California, and produced through the newly founded Lucasfilm. The film was critically and commercially successful and received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. Lucas's next film, the epic space opera Star Wars (1977), later retitled A New Hope, had a troubled production but was a surprise hit, becoming the highest-grossing film at the time, winning six Academy Awards and sparking a cultural phenomenon. Lucas produced and co-wrote the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). With director Steven Spielberg, he created, produced, and co-wrote Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989) and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and served as an executive producer, with a cursory involvement in pre and post-production, on The Dial of Destiny (2023).
In 1997, Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy as part of a Special Edition featuring several modifications; home media versions with further changes were released in 2004 and 2011. He returned to directing with a Star Wars prequel trilogy comprising The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). He last collaborated on the CGI-animated movie and television series of the same name, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014, 2020), the war film Red Tails (2012) and the CGI film Strange Magic (2015). Lucas is also known for his collaboration with composer John Williams, who was recommended to him by Spielberg, and with whom he has worked for all the films in both of these franchises. He also produced and wrote a variety of films and television series through Lucasfilm between the 1970s and the 2010s.
Lucas is one of history's most financially successful filmmakers. He directed or wrote the story for ten of the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Through his companies Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, Lucas was involved in the production of, and financially benefited from, almost every big-budget film released in the U.S. from the late 1980s until the 2012 Disney sale. In addition to his career as a filmmaker, Lucas has founded and supported multiple philanthropic organizations and campaigns dedicated to education and the arts, including the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which has been noted as a key supporter in the creation of the federal E-Rate program to provide broadband funding to schools and libraries, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a forthcoming art museum in Los Angeles developed with his wife, Mellody Hobson.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 10, 2026
Recently, Disney and Lucasfilm has begun to republish the film novelizations of the Star Wars Saga into new matching paperbacks. A while ago, they released the original trilogy, and then did the same with the prequel films about a month or so ago. I bought all of them as soon as we got them in at the bookstore I work at during the summer, but they sat in my shelf for the longest time. The release of the prequels a few weeks ago finally got me motivated to sit down and read them before the next school year begins. While I was quite enthusiastic at first, my choice to read them in order of release has already put a damper on my excitement.
As a huge fan of Star Wars, I am not surprised whatsoever that I did not like this book. I recently rewatched A New Home (alongside the rest of the saga), and I also read some of the original screenplays and shooting scripts for the film in their entirety for the first time at few months ago. It was very interesting reading both the very early drafts that barely resemble the final film, as well as the shooting scripts that were so close to what is on the screen — but not quite, with the little differences making it so much fun to read. As I started this book, I quickly realized how much I would prefer to read a screenplay of a movie like Star Wars, as opposed to a novelization.
At its core, this is a science-fiction and fantasy novel from the mid-to-late seventies, and it is not very good. I already do not love a lot from that genre of fiction (especially from that specific era), but this was just dreadful to get through. You can tell a filmmaker wrote this, because the chapters read like a screenplay would; mainly in terms of how scenes jump around. It feels like a movie script with a ton of added (needless and boring) description, and then was formatted into the form of a novel (including more em-dashes than I have ever seen in my entire life). The fast-paced nature of the script and film were now gone, and what is left is paragraphs of boring descriptions of what this galaxy look like — it is not a fun read.
This nov makes absolutely no sense unless you have already watched the movie, which means it honestly fails at being a gripping novelization. The most interesting part of the book is the fact that it is based on an earlier draft of the movie. It features deleted scenes, adds characters like Biggs Darklighter back into the story, has lore and characterization that not only does not line up with A New Hope, but also the rest of the saga. It is neat just to see little lines or phrases that slightly changed, either in the edit or just on set of the film. But again, all of it reminded me that I would just rather read this in script-form.
That basically sums it all up; this movie does not work as a book. If you really want to read A New Home instead of watching it for some reason, then just read a screenplay online. This is a neat collectable for the shelf (especially alongside the other matching books), but that is about it. I really wanted to love this, but I am not surprised that I was just begging for it to get to the end. With that being said, there are some fantastic Star Wars novels and comics out there. I think Star Wars books are awesome, albeit from Canon or Legends — but they work because they were written as novels and not as movie scripts. Stick with the expanded universe and leave the Skywalker Saga to the big screen.
To wrap things up, as this is my first full-length review and analysis (a five paragraph essay and notes, as opposed to my usual three paragraph format), here are some highlights with specific annotations that I thought I would share before wrapping up:
- Page 38: There is a typo/error in which the editor forgot to add another quotation are to end a piece of dialogue, which made me laugh.
- Page 139: This is probably my favorite section of the novel. The passage is about a page long, and it is just Darth Vader alone in his thoughts. It is a neat scene, but it is more interesting because this is not Anakin Skywalker; it was before those characters were one-in-the-same… just an interesting passage that I recommend reading.
- Page 144: There is a fun THX-1138 easter egg here, which was changed and moved in the final film. While this does have a ghost-writer attached, you can still tell that George Lucas wrote this.
- Page 197: Here we have the reunion with Biggs Darklighter, who I mentioned earlier. He is probably the most famous deleted scene character in film history. His character reappearing here actually works really well in novel-form (because we spend time with him earlier in the book), as opposed to the Special Edition of the film where his scene feels random and out of place… also, this page features a veteran pilot who recognizes Luke Skywalker’s last name (which was cut from the final film). The older pilot says he knew his father, which does not make any sense at first — but my head-canon is that he remembers Anakin Skywalker from the Mos Espa Podrace, the Battle of Naboo, or the Clone Wars. It is a random moment, but it is neat to think about.
- Page 203: The Death Star finale does not work well in novel-form, but has some peculiar aspects . It features an older version of the dogfight (before it was saved in the editing room), has Luke Skywalker as “Blue Five” instead of being part of Red Squadron, and this page specifically calls poor pitiful Porkins by the nickname: “Piggy” — which I just find rude; rest in peace you rebel scum.
- Page 234: In this novelization, Chewbacca actually gets a medal at the ceremony. Finally, this book did something better than its movie counterpart.
This analysis and annotation format is something I would like to do moving forward, at least for these specific novelizations (and hopefully for more books in the future). If you made it to the end of this, I appreciate you — if you want to see more stuff like this from me, then just let me know. Until then, in the wise words of Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi; “The Force will be with you, always.”
As a huge fan of Star Wars, I am not surprised whatsoever that I did not like this book. I recently rewatched A New Home (alongside the rest of the saga), and I also read some of the original screenplays and shooting scripts for the film in their entirety for the first time at few months ago. It was very interesting reading both the very early drafts that barely resemble the final film, as well as the shooting scripts that were so close to what is on the screen — but not quite, with the little differences making it so much fun to read. As I started this book, I quickly realized how much I would prefer to read a screenplay of a movie like Star Wars, as opposed to a novelization.
At its core, this is a science-fiction and fantasy novel from the mid-to-late seventies, and it is not very good. I already do not love a lot from that genre of fiction (especially from that specific era), but this was just dreadful to get through. You can tell a filmmaker wrote this, because the chapters read like a screenplay would; mainly in terms of how scenes jump around. It feels like a movie script with a ton of added (needless and boring) description, and then was formatted into the form of a novel (including more em-dashes than I have ever seen in my entire life). The fast-paced nature of the script and film were now gone, and what is left is paragraphs of boring descriptions of what this galaxy look like — it is not a fun read.
This nov makes absolutely no sense unless you have already watched the movie, which means it honestly fails at being a gripping novelization. The most interesting part of the book is the fact that it is based on an earlier draft of the movie. It features deleted scenes, adds characters like Biggs Darklighter back into the story, has lore and characterization that not only does not line up with A New Hope, but also the rest of the saga. It is neat just to see little lines or phrases that slightly changed, either in the edit or just on set of the film. But again, all of it reminded me that I would just rather read this in script-form.
That basically sums it all up; this movie does not work as a book. If you really want to read A New Home instead of watching it for some reason, then just read a screenplay online. This is a neat collectable for the shelf (especially alongside the other matching books), but that is about it. I really wanted to love this, but I am not surprised that I was just begging for it to get to the end. With that being said, there are some fantastic Star Wars novels and comics out there. I think Star Wars books are awesome, albeit from Canon or Legends — but they work because they were written as novels and not as movie scripts. Stick with the expanded universe and leave the Skywalker Saga to the big screen.
To wrap things up, as this is my first full-length review and analysis (a five paragraph essay and notes, as opposed to my usual three paragraph format), here are some highlights with specific annotations that I thought I would share before wrapping up:
- Page 38: There is a typo/error in which the editor forgot to add another quotation are to end a piece of dialogue, which made me laugh.
- Page 139: This is probably my favorite section of the novel. The passage is about a page long, and it is just Darth Vader alone in his thoughts. It is a neat scene, but it is more interesting because this is not Anakin Skywalker; it was before those characters were one-in-the-same… just an interesting passage that I recommend reading.
- Page 144: There is a fun THX-1138 easter egg here, which was changed and moved in the final film. While this does have a ghost-writer attached, you can still tell that George Lucas wrote this.
- Page 197: Here we have the reunion with Biggs Darklighter, who I mentioned earlier. He is probably the most famous deleted scene character in film history. His character reappearing here actually works really well in novel-form (because we spend time with him earlier in the book), as opposed to the Special Edition of the film where his scene feels random and out of place… also, this page features a veteran pilot who recognizes Luke Skywalker’s last name (which was cut from the final film). The older pilot says he knew his father, which does not make any sense at first — but my head-canon is that he remembers Anakin Skywalker from the Mos Espa Podrace, the Battle of Naboo, or the Clone Wars. It is a random moment, but it is neat to think about.
- Page 203: The Death Star finale does not work well in novel-form, but has some peculiar aspects . It features an older version of the dogfight (before it was saved in the editing room), has Luke Skywalker as “Blue Five” instead of being part of Red Squadron, and this page specifically calls poor pitiful Porkins by the nickname: “Piggy” — which I just find rude; rest in peace you rebel scum.
- Page 234: In this novelization, Chewbacca actually gets a medal at the ceremony. Finally, this book did something better than its movie counterpart.
This analysis and annotation format is something I would like to do moving forward, at least for these specific novelizations (and hopefully for more books in the future). If you made it to the end of this, I appreciate you — if you want to see more stuff like this from me, then just let me know. Until then, in the wise words of Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi; “The Force will be with you, always.”
July 20, 2026
star wars is magical
May 8, 2026
A New Hope is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I was quite looking forward to this; however, I’d heard this wasn’t the best book out there. Despite that, I had a really good time with this one, although I don’t know exactly how that is love of the source material versus quality of the book.
Given that this is a novelization, it makes sense to say that the positive qualities of the original story apply here. This is a solid hero’s journey story with some good character work, and it is adapted more or less one-to-one, with some differences in dialogue and a couple of added scenes. As far as the book itself, I actually really like the way it was written. Star Wars is generally considered sci-fi, or maybe sci-fantasy if we want to get really specific; however, this book to me feels much more fantastical in its writing than you might expect. It gives the story a sort of mythical, fantasy-esque quality that arguably doesn’t exist or isn’t as strong in the film, which I rather enjoyed—it gives the story a slightly different feel and tone. Also, something I appreciate about novelizations is it gives the writer the opportunity to include scenes cut from the movie or even include entirely new material, and while this book has very little that isn’t in the movie, it does include a couple of the deleted scenes early on. While I understand why they were cut from the film, as they would make the pacing feel awkward and aren’t fully necessary, I really like them as an inclusion since they flesh out the story just a little bit more.
My main gripe with this book is that it just doesn’t add more. It’s a short novelization, only about 250 pages in my copy, and while that makes sense given the relatively simple story, I would’ve loved just a bit more. There are moments where the dialogue is a bit more fleshed out and the aforementioned inclusion of deleted scenes, but overall this is very much a direct adaptation—that’s fine, but I want more from a novelization.
Overall, despite being a bit less additive to the source material than I’d like, this was still a very enjoyable and entertaining book. While I’m sure part of that is due to my love of the movie, I think the way the story is presented here does a lot to make it feel fresh and still be a fun read, despite having seen the film dozens of times before. Not a massive recommendation for fans, but worth checking out.
Rating: 8.5/10
Given that this is a novelization, it makes sense to say that the positive qualities of the original story apply here. This is a solid hero’s journey story with some good character work, and it is adapted more or less one-to-one, with some differences in dialogue and a couple of added scenes. As far as the book itself, I actually really like the way it was written. Star Wars is generally considered sci-fi, or maybe sci-fantasy if we want to get really specific; however, this book to me feels much more fantastical in its writing than you might expect. It gives the story a sort of mythical, fantasy-esque quality that arguably doesn’t exist or isn’t as strong in the film, which I rather enjoyed—it gives the story a slightly different feel and tone. Also, something I appreciate about novelizations is it gives the writer the opportunity to include scenes cut from the movie or even include entirely new material, and while this book has very little that isn’t in the movie, it does include a couple of the deleted scenes early on. While I understand why they were cut from the film, as they would make the pacing feel awkward and aren’t fully necessary, I really like them as an inclusion since they flesh out the story just a little bit more.
My main gripe with this book is that it just doesn’t add more. It’s a short novelization, only about 250 pages in my copy, and while that makes sense given the relatively simple story, I would’ve loved just a bit more. There are moments where the dialogue is a bit more fleshed out and the aforementioned inclusion of deleted scenes, but overall this is very much a direct adaptation—that’s fine, but I want more from a novelization.
Overall, despite being a bit less additive to the source material than I’d like, this was still a very enjoyable and entertaining book. While I’m sure part of that is due to my love of the movie, I think the way the story is presented here does a lot to make it feel fresh and still be a fun read, despite having seen the film dozens of times before. Not a massive recommendation for fans, but worth checking out.
Rating: 8.5/10
March 30, 2026
3.5/5 - This was interesting. I've read it before, years ago, so it wasn't an altogether new experience, but it was hard to just read this book as it was. I was constantly comparing it to the movie I've seen over a multitude of times or comparing characters' responses to how they would have been presented if this was newly written with what we know of all the other Star Wars films and shows. However, one part that surpassed everything was the Death Star battle; I was completely sucked in. I wish more of the book's moments made the final cut, especially Luke's first run at the exhaust port. I also really loved the presentation of Biggs versus the film. Here, it truly feels like it would be he, Luke, and Wedge, taking on the world moving forward and his death is more strongly felt.
July 22, 2026
Its good as expected but idk it kinda threw me off with like the slight dialogue changes from the movie. Also i feel like some parts i was like what. But i still love it.
When I read it I could picture the voices of all the actors too so that was nice—Sir Alec Guinness🥹
When I read it I could picture the voices of all the actors too so that was nice—Sir Alec Guinness🥹
December 7, 2025
I loved the moive and the book is just as good and I started reading it when going through a rough time and it keeps reminding me about the fact that no matter how hopeless life seems that "in time a new hope will emerge " and so i would recommend reading this every time you start to get hopeless
March 11, 2026
The movie is better but i enjoyed the book
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews