2. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (A New Hope Novelization) (1976) by Alan Dean Foster and the Radio Drama (1981) by Brian Daley
Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker
Summary: So this kid who grew up on a "moisture farm" on a desert planet buys a used robot from these little black mage looking dudes. It has a hologram of a princess asking some crazy old guy who lives near him for help. She's hot, so he goes along with it. The old guy is a space wizard, and he agrees to help save her. They get in a bar fight, but hire a guy (who lasers a bounty hunter under the table) to fly them to the princess, but the evil space empire blows up her planet and has her in their giant evil space station. They get caught, but disguise themselves and break her out. The space wizard fights this evil cyborg guy in black armor, dies, and the rest of them escape. Then the space station is going to blow up the planet the rebellion is on, so the kid goes and shoots a rocket up its tailpipe to destroy it.
What it introduces: Everything.
Commentary: There's a lot of ground to cover here if I was actually going to talk all about ANH. But I mostly want to focus on the novelization itself. It's not great. I wasn't exactly in love with Alan Dean Foster after Splinter, and this didn't do anything to improve my opinion of him. All in all, I don't think he's a bad writer (thought not necessarily a great one either), but he's not the right choice for Star Wars. He doesn't seem to get the fun of it all. Even Empire, dark as it is, is a reasonably fun movie. His writing is always so serious, even veering vaguely philosophical at times. I've heard his Alien novelization is better, and I think that's a better fit for his style. There's a beat up, old used copy sitting on my bookshelf that I'll get to someday.
It's not entirely his fault though. Movie novelizations are a weird game. You have to take a script (or whatever material they give you) from a movie that's not even made yet, turn it into a novel, and probably expand on it, and hopefully get everything "right" when the movie comes out. It doesn't help that Star Wars was famously changed substantially in the final edit (let alone from whatever earlier draft Foster had). There's a lot of weirdness here. I tried to read it before Splinter and got like a chapter in before I stopped because of it. I'm not sure we ever actually get a concrete mention of R2-D2's wheels, for example. The infamous "extra" trench run, where Luke takes the torpedo shot and misses, is still in here, having not been edited out yet.
And in the modern age of streaming and relatively early home media releases, the role of a novelization is very different than it was in the 70s. When Star Wars came out, the novelization was pretty much the only way to take the movie home (aside from a 6 part Marvel comic series). If you liked Star Wars in '77, it'd be worth the couple bucks to go to your local Borders or Waldenbooks (or even an indie or a chain that still exists!) and buy it.
But today, I'd argue that the big appeal of novelizations isn't for people who want the movie, but for those who want more movie. To an extent, the novel does this. The most famous deleted scenes (Luke meeting with his friends at Tosche Station before getting the droids, and Jabba meeting Han in the docking bay) are in there, among other things. The prologue contains a cool little two page version of the prequels that's still mostly accurate. Obi Wan delivers a sick burn to Vader at the start of their duel, “As always, you perceive its reality as little as a utensil perceives the taste of food.”
But today, there are a lot of different options for an expanded or retold versions of A New Hope. By my count, there have been four "proper" novelizations over the years (and who knows how many junior reader, picture book, etc. adaptations) and a half dozen comic versions. But the best alternative would come out some 5 years later, in the form of the NPR radio dramas. I'll swing back to them in time, but if you haven't yet, give them a listen. They're all over the internet, but this youtube version is easily accessible, and has pictures to go along with it.
Review: 2/5 Most of what I said about Splinter stands here. This is still fine if you're looking for a quick, basic, 70s sci-fant novel. Dean does a passable job with the source material, which means you don't have to worry about a lot of weird plot holes or anything. But his writing never quite clicks, and if you're more than a casual fan it's going to be weird. Worth it for a completionist, but probably not for someone just looking to read the best of (or even just "good") Star Wars novels.
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