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The Last Starfighter
When Alex conquers the Starfighter video game, he is recruited to be part of an elite legion of fighters and battle for the beleaguered Star League and hundreds of worlds - including Earth.
218 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1984
15 people are currently reading
871 people want to read
About the author
Alan Dean Foster
499 books2,033 followersBestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
October 26, 2008
Late August 2008: I’m sitting at home alone, I haven’t spoken in hours, I’m contentedly detached from the world with cobwebs forming on my cock as I stare unblinkingly at the television, a cigarette long burnt to the filter encrusted on my lower lip, my dinner half-eaten, cold, and now being dragged along the floor by my trio of fierce felines when they noticed I didn’t so much as attempt to stop them from pulling the pizza off the table, and the work clothes I laundered on permanent press are probably wrinkled all to shit from sitting in the dryer for ages, completely forsaken. I’ve forgotten what any form of moisture on my eyes feels like, my thumbs are blistered and most likely irreparably damaged, and several vertebrae are presumably dislodged permanently from the slouched posture I’ve assumed for so long.
I am playing Tetris, and I am fucking huge.
About the only sensible thing running through my head in the last few hours is my pride in having some Ukrainian heritage, probably the reason my ass is so fantastically awesome at this puzzle/game/measuring-stick-of-human-worthiness; and that’s not really sensible. I sat entranced by what was happening; shortly, I was actually going to reach the ‘end’ of Tetris, more points could no longer be accumulated, and I had no idea what might happen when this came to pass. The heralded ‘Great Collapse’? Perhaps I might undergo some metamorphosis and emerge as some highly evolved creature? Maybe I’d just work myself up enough to shit my britches.
I haven’t once cleared a line off the screen that wasn’t part of a Tetris, I not even giving any consideration to the pieces that are falling somewhere near the speed of light before clearing away another four lines at a time but somehow they keep falling just as needed and suddenly, the score reaches the point where the counter can’t continue any further, the screen momentarily goes blank, and a message in tiny white letters appears against the black background: “Well Done!”
I flop back completely aghast: Well-fucking-done, I croak sadly. The majestic congratulation blinks off the screen seconds later, leaving me completely insane with rage. “Well fucking done!” I begin screaming, before foolishly whipping the NES controller into my girlfriend's 42” Viera with velocity enough to impress a major league scout. As the controller makes contact, half of Illinois loses power, from Champaign to Chicago it’s lights out. I sit in the quiet blackness and eventually get around to peeling my perspiring beanbag off my left thigh, a necessary act I’d neglected for quite some time.
Two Days Later: Proper blame still hadn’t been attributed to the blackout that begat a looting and raping spree unheard of since Katrina, and I’m counting a bunch of change in the living room, hoping I might be able to scrape together adequate funds to get a replacement Viera on layaway. After seeing how few dollars I managed to yield from three years of savings, I’m disheartened and decide to walk to the corner 7-11 and get a some beer to begin numbing the pain. I get outside and sniff my fingers; they reek of pocket-change, when what appears to be a Saturn SL-1 pulls up to my townhouse, piloted by a silly old geezer.
“Say, Sonny-Boy,” this relic says, “It’s rumored that someone at this address managed to conquer Tetris; do you know who might have accomplished this stunning feat?”
“I am the badass of which you speak,” I reply smugly, completely ignorant to the fact this weirdo might be some super-secret ComEd agent trying to discover exactly who’s at fault for the power outage. Some gay banter follows, in which I learn that the fiend accosting me is named Cepheus, and that he’s a delegate for some agency agreeable to rewarding my proficiency at Tetris with some major honor; benefits apparently include some space travel, danger abound, introduction to alien species, and maybe even a new television. This seems to beat the hell out of sorting out a bucket of change, so I accept this uncanny invitation.
A Few Hours Later: Cepheus and I emerge from a wormhole, in orbit around our destination, planet Coqinass. In our brief travels, Cepheus has filled me in on some of the details; Coqinass the core planet in some sort of galactic alliance which promotes peace throughout the cosmos, but recent treachery is threatening their way of life; a disgruntled member of their high council has turned traitor and joined forces with a warlike group of savages who have been salivating for a chance to mount an assault on this serene planet for some time. I’m told that this event would suck, and the ‘League’ (as this group of benevolent bitches is dubbed) would crumble, giving way to catastrophe and havoc on a scale my simple mind couldn’t possibly imagine. Appealing to my own sense of self-preservation, should I not give a damn about the galaxy at large, Cepheus is shrewd enough to reiterate multiple times that once the League is cast aside, Earth will have no proper defenders and I can kiss my white ass goodbye. I again confirm that I’m no stranger to danger, and that I’m happy to lend my considerable talents to this just cause. Cepheus assures me this is wise, and excellent.
We descend, Cepheus lands his SL-1 outside ‘Headquarters’, which is stylistically identical to the Kremlin, except that it happens to built on a scale ten times larger. I am briefly introduced to the assembled millions to unbelievable fanfare, and the leader of this League makes a moving speech assuring this sprawling miscellany of alien species that with my arrival, everything is now in place, and victory is assured. I’m glowing, I knew I kicked ass, but didn’t know on how tremendous a scale. I am escorted in royal fashion to my work, which is about the only thing which hasn’t been elaborated on at this point, and we arrive to what appears to be a giant freightyard littered with Tetris pieces.
“This is where the barracks need to be constructed,” Cepheus informs me; “Until you were discovered, our troops have been sleeping in tents and caves, and moral has been hella low.” He made a sweeping gesture over the tetris blocks. “These are pre-fabricated components of the barracks which must be assembled, and you’ll work with your partner, Greg, to raise the structures.” I was introduced to Greg, a bespectacled human dork wearing a Weezer shirt, who gave me a quick rundown of his story; Cepheus swindled him after he’d shown revealed his unparalleled skillz at the Big Prize game back home in Omaha, by picking the machine clean of it’s bounty with that troublesome claw mechanism. Greg also had delusions of grandeur when approached, and is now relegated to operating the crane which will lift and drop the pre-fab pieces for me to remotely manipulate with an NES controller. Cepheus gave us the final details: that each barrack was to be four units (or one ‘tetris’) high, how honored we should be to be providing this service to the League, and showed us where the shitter was and advised that lunch breaks were to be thirty minutes long.
October 2008: After a month of this tedium, Greg and I had constructed about forty-thousand barracks, and were duly dismissed, with much gratitude. Unable to provide a replacement Viera, or US currency with which to buy one, Cepheus offered to help me in any way possible as recompense for our efforts. I had an idea; I turned over my journal entries of this whole ordeal to the charlatan and asked him to send it back in time to some major movie studios, assuming that I’d arrive back on Earth incalculably rich from the box-office profits of this harrowing tale and considered the most promising young screenwriter in my altered future. Cepheus laughed at the idea but ultimately complied, and took us back home.
My plan failed miserably, upon arriving back to my crappy townhouse, the only change I was able to detect was that I now had a remembrance of some 80’s sci-fi disaster called “The Last Starfighter”, a complete rip-off of my trials and tribulations on behalf of the League. Apparently, some asshole in Hollywood thought the story lacked any intrigue and re-wrote the screenplay enough to justify removing my name from the credits, replacing Tetris with some ‘shoot-em-up’ game, turning geeky Greg into some iguana-like alien navigator named Grig, and transforming my character into some whiny bitch that ends up the gunnery master aboard the lone spaceship that defeats the encroaching Ko-Dan armada and the nefarious traitor Xur.
While I didn’t see so much as a cent for my chronicle of my efforts, the studio made sure that anyone looking to make a buck off “The Last Starfighter” was given their chance; Starfighter action figures, lunchboxes, the video game, and of course, the Alan Dean Foster novelization. I’ve noticed that Mr. Foster does actually come up with unique stories and sagas of his own, but I don’t know where the guy finds the time: it seems to me that every sci-fi movie novelization I have is written by this dude (a stunning three books, aside from this book). I can see why so many screenwriters turn to this guy, he pretty much covers the movie spot on, and the creative liberties he does take generally fit well with the characters presented in the film. The biggest drawback was that he seemed to have the interstellar money-grubber Centauri diverge into a little too much scientific jargon, but he did a good job expressing the sentiments and hostilities toward Xur aboard the command ship of the Ko-Dan armada.
If you’ve somehow managed not to watch “The Last Starfighter” for a couple months while chugging Schweppes and chomping circus peanuts in your mom’s basement between playing World of Warcraft, let me suggest that you take a walk on the wild side and check out the book.
I am playing Tetris, and I am fucking huge.
About the only sensible thing running through my head in the last few hours is my pride in having some Ukrainian heritage, probably the reason my ass is so fantastically awesome at this puzzle/game/measuring-stick-of-human-worthiness; and that’s not really sensible. I sat entranced by what was happening; shortly, I was actually going to reach the ‘end’ of Tetris, more points could no longer be accumulated, and I had no idea what might happen when this came to pass. The heralded ‘Great Collapse’? Perhaps I might undergo some metamorphosis and emerge as some highly evolved creature? Maybe I’d just work myself up enough to shit my britches.
I haven’t once cleared a line off the screen that wasn’t part of a Tetris, I not even giving any consideration to the pieces that are falling somewhere near the speed of light before clearing away another four lines at a time but somehow they keep falling just as needed and suddenly, the score reaches the point where the counter can’t continue any further, the screen momentarily goes blank, and a message in tiny white letters appears against the black background: “Well Done!”
I flop back completely aghast: Well-fucking-done, I croak sadly. The majestic congratulation blinks off the screen seconds later, leaving me completely insane with rage. “Well fucking done!” I begin screaming, before foolishly whipping the NES controller into my girlfriend's 42” Viera with velocity enough to impress a major league scout. As the controller makes contact, half of Illinois loses power, from Champaign to Chicago it’s lights out. I sit in the quiet blackness and eventually get around to peeling my perspiring beanbag off my left thigh, a necessary act I’d neglected for quite some time.
Two Days Later: Proper blame still hadn’t been attributed to the blackout that begat a looting and raping spree unheard of since Katrina, and I’m counting a bunch of change in the living room, hoping I might be able to scrape together adequate funds to get a replacement Viera on layaway. After seeing how few dollars I managed to yield from three years of savings, I’m disheartened and decide to walk to the corner 7-11 and get a some beer to begin numbing the pain. I get outside and sniff my fingers; they reek of pocket-change, when what appears to be a Saturn SL-1 pulls up to my townhouse, piloted by a silly old geezer.
“Say, Sonny-Boy,” this relic says, “It’s rumored that someone at this address managed to conquer Tetris; do you know who might have accomplished this stunning feat?”
“I am the badass of which you speak,” I reply smugly, completely ignorant to the fact this weirdo might be some super-secret ComEd agent trying to discover exactly who’s at fault for the power outage. Some gay banter follows, in which I learn that the fiend accosting me is named Cepheus, and that he’s a delegate for some agency agreeable to rewarding my proficiency at Tetris with some major honor; benefits apparently include some space travel, danger abound, introduction to alien species, and maybe even a new television. This seems to beat the hell out of sorting out a bucket of change, so I accept this uncanny invitation.
A Few Hours Later: Cepheus and I emerge from a wormhole, in orbit around our destination, planet Coqinass. In our brief travels, Cepheus has filled me in on some of the details; Coqinass the core planet in some sort of galactic alliance which promotes peace throughout the cosmos, but recent treachery is threatening their way of life; a disgruntled member of their high council has turned traitor and joined forces with a warlike group of savages who have been salivating for a chance to mount an assault on this serene planet for some time. I’m told that this event would suck, and the ‘League’ (as this group of benevolent bitches is dubbed) would crumble, giving way to catastrophe and havoc on a scale my simple mind couldn’t possibly imagine. Appealing to my own sense of self-preservation, should I not give a damn about the galaxy at large, Cepheus is shrewd enough to reiterate multiple times that once the League is cast aside, Earth will have no proper defenders and I can kiss my white ass goodbye. I again confirm that I’m no stranger to danger, and that I’m happy to lend my considerable talents to this just cause. Cepheus assures me this is wise, and excellent.
We descend, Cepheus lands his SL-1 outside ‘Headquarters’, which is stylistically identical to the Kremlin, except that it happens to built on a scale ten times larger. I am briefly introduced to the assembled millions to unbelievable fanfare, and the leader of this League makes a moving speech assuring this sprawling miscellany of alien species that with my arrival, everything is now in place, and victory is assured. I’m glowing, I knew I kicked ass, but didn’t know on how tremendous a scale. I am escorted in royal fashion to my work, which is about the only thing which hasn’t been elaborated on at this point, and we arrive to what appears to be a giant freightyard littered with Tetris pieces.
“This is where the barracks need to be constructed,” Cepheus informs me; “Until you were discovered, our troops have been sleeping in tents and caves, and moral has been hella low.” He made a sweeping gesture over the tetris blocks. “These are pre-fabricated components of the barracks which must be assembled, and you’ll work with your partner, Greg, to raise the structures.” I was introduced to Greg, a bespectacled human dork wearing a Weezer shirt, who gave me a quick rundown of his story; Cepheus swindled him after he’d shown revealed his unparalleled skillz at the Big Prize game back home in Omaha, by picking the machine clean of it’s bounty with that troublesome claw mechanism. Greg also had delusions of grandeur when approached, and is now relegated to operating the crane which will lift and drop the pre-fab pieces for me to remotely manipulate with an NES controller. Cepheus gave us the final details: that each barrack was to be four units (or one ‘tetris’) high, how honored we should be to be providing this service to the League, and showed us where the shitter was and advised that lunch breaks were to be thirty minutes long.
October 2008: After a month of this tedium, Greg and I had constructed about forty-thousand barracks, and were duly dismissed, with much gratitude. Unable to provide a replacement Viera, or US currency with which to buy one, Cepheus offered to help me in any way possible as recompense for our efforts. I had an idea; I turned over my journal entries of this whole ordeal to the charlatan and asked him to send it back in time to some major movie studios, assuming that I’d arrive back on Earth incalculably rich from the box-office profits of this harrowing tale and considered the most promising young screenwriter in my altered future. Cepheus laughed at the idea but ultimately complied, and took us back home.
My plan failed miserably, upon arriving back to my crappy townhouse, the only change I was able to detect was that I now had a remembrance of some 80’s sci-fi disaster called “The Last Starfighter”, a complete rip-off of my trials and tribulations on behalf of the League. Apparently, some asshole in Hollywood thought the story lacked any intrigue and re-wrote the screenplay enough to justify removing my name from the credits, replacing Tetris with some ‘shoot-em-up’ game, turning geeky Greg into some iguana-like alien navigator named Grig, and transforming my character into some whiny bitch that ends up the gunnery master aboard the lone spaceship that defeats the encroaching Ko-Dan armada and the nefarious traitor Xur.
While I didn’t see so much as a cent for my chronicle of my efforts, the studio made sure that anyone looking to make a buck off “The Last Starfighter” was given their chance; Starfighter action figures, lunchboxes, the video game, and of course, the Alan Dean Foster novelization. I’ve noticed that Mr. Foster does actually come up with unique stories and sagas of his own, but I don’t know where the guy finds the time: it seems to me that every sci-fi movie novelization I have is written by this dude (a stunning three books, aside from this book). I can see why so many screenwriters turn to this guy, he pretty much covers the movie spot on, and the creative liberties he does take generally fit well with the characters presented in the film. The biggest drawback was that he seemed to have the interstellar money-grubber Centauri diverge into a little too much scientific jargon, but he did a good job expressing the sentiments and hostilities toward Xur aboard the command ship of the Ko-Dan armada.
If you’ve somehow managed not to watch “The Last Starfighter” for a couple months while chugging Schweppes and chomping circus peanuts in your mom’s basement between playing World of Warcraft, let me suggest that you take a walk on the wild side and check out the book.
September 13, 2021
The Last Starfighter is one of my favorite Foster novelizations, obviously because I enjoyed the charming film upon which it is based. It's the story of a somewhat nerdy young man who's stuck in a trailer park in the back end of nowhere; he masters a science fiction game, acquires a cool and wise mentor, heroically saves the universe, and then presumably lives happily ever after with his bright and hot girl friend. What's not to like? Foster's adaptation is spot-on with the script, with some nice added background characterization. Popcorn time!
February 27, 2020
I loved this movie as a kid. I remember owning a VHS copy that didn't last a year from the constant viewings. (Stupid VHS tapes, I'm GLAD you're an extinct technology!) Anyway, Alan Dean Foster's movie-tie-in novelization of "The Last Starfighter" was, as I recall, exactly like the movie. Like the movie, it was good. How's that for a glowing review?
January 31, 2020
Still so much fun and makes me desperate for a sequel! The script/movie came first then this novelization so not a lot of extra added and in reading this I realized how quick and convenient some things were but I still love it.
June 20, 2025
I don't usually read sci-fi, but I want to and I am trying to to start expanding and exploring. I enjoyed this book and it felt very nostalgic. If you are a fan of 90s/early 2000s movies where a human is transported to space to do something aka save some worlds then you will love this book. It was an easy read and flowed really well. There were also some though provoking moments in here that I appreciated. I will definitely be watching the movie. -- Just found out that one of the main characters in the movie is played by the main character in Music Man which is one of my favorite musicals!! Wow that is crazy.
November 16, 2016
Anyone who's read this book and merely liked it needs to watch the movie based on it.
The special effects will probably look really clunky to anyone who thinks that CGI is the only way to go since (blessedly, IMO) CGI was in its infancy when the movie was released in 1984, but Robert Preston played Centauri and somehow didn't manage to steal the entire show (although his character walked away with a nice signing bonus, lol).
The special effects will probably look really clunky to anyone who thinks that CGI is the only way to go since (blessedly, IMO) CGI was in its infancy when the movie was released in 1984, but Robert Preston played Centauri and somehow didn't manage to steal the entire show (although his character walked away with a nice signing bonus, lol).
October 6, 2024
Que bom, que viagem neste livro. Ficamos agarrados à história. Estava a ler e a visualizar cada frase como um frame de filme, a imaginar como seria no cinema. Excelente! Alan Dean Foster realmente consegue colocar o leitor dentro do mundo do livro e ficamos colados a cada pormenor.
May 22, 2021
Somewhat cheesy and predictable. I sort of reminded me of an 80’s sci-fi film...
Still, for its time, I am sure it was fairly original and unique. I’m glad I read it.
Still, for its time, I am sure it was fairly original and unique. I’m glad I read it.
October 22, 2025
WONDERFUL!
I had a chance to meet the Director Nick Castle and tell him my thoughts on this classic. Also, did you know that the Director of this film was also the actor who played Michael Myers in the original Halloween? Yep! He got paid 25 dollars a day to play that horror icon.
I had a chance to meet the Director Nick Castle and tell him my thoughts on this classic. Also, did you know that the Director of this film was also the actor who played Michael Myers in the original Halloween? Yep! He got paid 25 dollars a day to play that horror icon.
July 13, 2024
The Last Starfighter is one of my all-time favorite movies!
.
This novelization of the movie was OK. It definitely didn't have the charm of the movie, but it did make me want to watch the movie again immediately.
.
This novelization of the movie was OK. It definitely didn't have the charm of the movie, but it did make me want to watch the movie again immediately.
October 18, 2015
Having enjoyed "Ready Player One", I intend to read Ernest Cline's "Armada" soon and figured I'd watch "The Last Starfighter" again before doing so when I remembered having read references to it as a book, probably on TV Tropes. I assumed it had been an obscure science fiction novel before receiving a film treatment but it turned out to be a novelization of the screenplay. Having already picked it up however and seeing that it was less than 200 pages and written at about a middle school level I figured I should just read it as that would likely take less time than finding and watching a copy of the movie since it wasn't on Netflix, and if you only count the actual reading time that may actually be true, though I didn't blow through it in one sitting as it wasn't well enough written to be exactly gripping. What it was, was the same charming if simple sci fi coming of age story with a little less of the plot left on the cutting room floor.
This might be a good book for young readers interested in sci fi and just starting to read for pleasure, at least once someone explains to them what a standup videogame cabinet is and they get past wondering why no one has a cellphone.
I've also heard the movie is getting a made for TV remake and fully expect the result to be tragic.
This might be a good book for young readers interested in sci fi and just starting to read for pleasure, at least once someone explains to them what a standup videogame cabinet is and they get past wondering why no one has a cellphone.
I've also heard the movie is getting a made for TV remake and fully expect the result to be tragic.
July 11, 2016
It is a short and easy to read kids book. And a good kids book. Many of us dreamt to be the ONE in many different scenarios and I guess the Starfighter scenario is well populated. I will keep this book handy for my offspring.
March 9, 2017
I liked this - it hearkens back to the old days of sci-fi, but manages to be at least slightly less misogynistic. It's a good coming-of-age adventure yarn packed with video games, warring aliens, robots, and annoying kid brothers. What's not to like?
December 12, 2014
I love the movie "The Last Starfighter". This story book uses stills from the movie along with an abreviated script to tell the story.
February 21, 2025
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)
I'm finally going through my tv, film etc. tie in library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
I'm finally going through my tv, film etc. tie in library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
February 29, 2024
A very faithful and entertaining novelization of the movie, with Foster displaying his usual skill of converting a script into a good prose story.
There's very little difference in plot or dialogue between book and film. What the novel adds is a look into the thoughts of the various characters. It's especially interesting to follow the thoughts of the Beta Unit--the robot double of Alex Rogan filling in for the human while Alex is in deep space--as he tries to make sense of human interactions. Also, Krill--the commander of the Ko-Dan armada--turns out to be a military professional you end up respecting. He's still one of the two major bad guys, but he has his admirable qualities (and, sadly, we learn he has a family that we know he'll never see again.)
It's these additions to the characterizations that make the novelization a worth-while addition to "The Last Starfighter" universe.
There's very little difference in plot or dialogue between book and film. What the novel adds is a look into the thoughts of the various characters. It's especially interesting to follow the thoughts of the Beta Unit--the robot double of Alex Rogan filling in for the human while Alex is in deep space--as he tries to make sense of human interactions. Also, Krill--the commander of the Ko-Dan armada--turns out to be a military professional you end up respecting. He's still one of the two major bad guys, but he has his admirable qualities (and, sadly, we learn he has a family that we know he'll never see again.)
It's these additions to the characterizations that make the novelization a worth-while addition to "The Last Starfighter" universe.
August 13, 2023
Was not expecting much of an earth shattering read as this book is based off the screenplay of the 1984 film…which happens to be in my top 3 of the 1980s. To my surprise, this adaptation was extremely well written and takes those familiar with the Starfighter story to much deeper level. Crazy I didn’t give it a shot until almost 40 years since it’s publishing, but it was definitely good for the nostalgia factor. Met the director (and original “Boogeyman”) Nick Castle a few months back and wish I got a book signing. Highly recommend for those who love “every kid”, Alex Rogan’s adventure into the stars to “defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.”
December 8, 2023
Rating 4
This is a favourite movie of mine and the adaptation by ADF works very well. It translates an exciting, simple quite sweet sf movie into prose very successfully. There are enough additions to what was seen on screen to add depth to the characters, but not so much that it becomes a different thing.
At times reading this the soundtrack began playing in my mind to match the space scenes.
The rating should probably be 4 but I enjoyed it so much and nostalgia value is high so a 5.
Solid recommendation as this is top ADF adaptation work
This is a favourite movie of mine and the adaptation by ADF works very well. It translates an exciting, simple quite sweet sf movie into prose very successfully. There are enough additions to what was seen on screen to add depth to the characters, but not so much that it becomes a different thing.
At times reading this the soundtrack began playing in my mind to match the space scenes.
The rating should probably be 4 but I enjoyed it so much and nostalgia value is high so a 5.
Solid recommendation as this is top ADF adaptation work
January 29, 2018
A workmanlike upgrade to a decent movie. As usual with Foster's novelizations, he turns a good action/ adventure movie into a good sci-fi story, paving over plot holes and expanding on the mythology to fill a novel in the way a film script won't. Today you would read this mostly for nostalgia purposes.
December 26, 2022
Another fun adaptation here. Its fun to read all of the differences between the original story ideas that appear in the novelizations compared to the final film. This one is no exception. In some ways better than the final film, as it has more story details.
This inspired me to revisit the movie itself, and the wonderful sountrack.
This inspired me to revisit the movie itself, and the wonderful sountrack.
April 1, 2025
I enjoyed watching this movie with my grandson when he was around 10 years old … which would have been around 2002. I thought I would enjoy reading this book, but it doesn’t have the excitement of David Weber’s Dahak series or Elizabeth Moon’s Serrano Legacy series.
Just another book for ‘the round file’ (aka garbage bin).
Just another book for ‘the round file’ (aka garbage bin).
August 7, 2017
Maybe 3.5
I would have loved this book as a kid. As an adult with both significantly better literature under my belt and a better understanding of astrophysics, much less so.
Foster does a number of things well - most of the characters' actions make sense, the writing flows, and so on.
I would have loved this book as a kid. As an adult with both significantly better literature under my belt and a better understanding of astrophysics, much less so.
Foster does a number of things well - most of the characters' actions make sense, the writing flows, and so on.
May 16, 2018
Foster took a campy B-movie and filled in emotional drive and character motive for even the briefest of characters without losing any of the film''s urgency. Aces for a movie novel, and a great revisiting of my childhood.
October 6, 2018
One of my favorite movies, but the novelization leaves a lot to be desired. The author adds motivations and details to the characters that contradict some of the seeming motivations and actions of the characters.
January 26, 2019
This was great to read as I am a huge fan of the film and this book did a great job of filling in the more of some of the character's back story like the main character Alex and as well as the others. Also some great expansion of the main story as well with some great side story arcs.
March 29, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyable book of a young man's battle against the odds, particularly against himself.
Going to have to get this movie and watch it again as the book is actually based on the screenplay.
For all you sci-fi buffs out there this is a must read, and a must watch too.
Going to have to get this movie and watch it again as the book is actually based on the screenplay.
For all you sci-fi buffs out there this is a must read, and a must watch too.
Read
April 25, 2021Read it when I was in grade school back in the 1980s. Was a wonderful story! Since I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up, was right up my alley. Wore the book out from rereading it so much. This was way before the Challenger disaster happened.
April 17, 2022
2.5 - It was fine.
One of my favorite movies adapted into a very so-so book. In trying to flesh out Alex Rogan, Alan Dean Foster actually makes him unlikable as a protagonist.
Very dated and a product of Reagan-era '80s, with multiple swipes at "women libbers" in the first couple of chapters.
One of my favorite movies adapted into a very so-so book. In trying to flesh out Alex Rogan, Alan Dean Foster actually makes him unlikable as a protagonist.
Very dated and a product of Reagan-era '80s, with multiple swipes at "women libbers" in the first couple of chapters.
June 1, 2023
Liked the film. Loved the book.
From playing an arcade game to battling an alien menace. It's the thing young minds imagine. But, for Alex Rogan, this is exactly what happened.
A brilliant rags to riches tale of an optimistic but unfortunate kid who becomes a hero.
From playing an arcade game to battling an alien menace. It's the thing young minds imagine. But, for Alex Rogan, this is exactly what happened.
A brilliant rags to riches tale of an optimistic but unfortunate kid who becomes a hero.
June 5, 2017
"The Last Starfighter" is one of my guilty pleasure movies, but this novelization does not enhance the experience.
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