A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2002 Del Rey Books (Ballantine) and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Which of the Star Wars books tell the stories of the movies? It depends on what you mean by “the stories of the movies,” and in what context. If you mean the stories, characters, situations, and settings of the films themselves, then you’re probably asking about: Dust jacket of the 1977 hardcover. Art by John Berkey. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker,  credited to George Lucas but actually written by Alan Dean Foster. (Del Rey Books, 1976) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,  by Donald F. Glut. Story by George Lucas. Based on the screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. (Del Rey Books, 1980) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,  by James Kahn. Story by George Lucas. Based on the screenplay by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. (Del Rey Books, 1983) Original 1980 paperback edition of The Empire Strikes Back novelization. Cover a...

(C) 2018 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) When I used to post regularly at the late and unlamented “writing” site Bubblews, I often shared short lists of movies I watched, albums I listened to, or books that I read. If I remember correctly, my summer reading list for 2013 was one of my most popular Bubblews posts.  Why this was so I’m not sure; perhaps because it was a list and  not  a comparatively complex article or review. (Not that I ever wrote anything at Bubblews that requires a master’s degree in English to comprehend, but most people on the Internet tend to shun complex articles or reviews. That’s just how the world is nowadays.) I was going to post a review today, but I haven't felt very creative or passionate enough to get to do that, so here's another reading list instead. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,  Randall Munroe Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges 1944,  Antony Beevor The Fleet at Flood...

Cover illustration by Nicolas Delort. (C) 2017 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) TO BB-8 OR NOT TO BB-8? THAT IS THE QUESTION! The curtain rises on a galaxy-wide drama! New characters take the stage as Rey, Finn, BB-8, and Poe Dameron clash with Kylo Ren and the vile First Order. Star-crossed lovers reunite, a lost knight is found...and tragedy befalls the house of Solo.  The fault, dear Brutus, is in our Starkiller...What's past is prologue! A new chapter of the Star Wars saga begins, with The Force Awakens reimagined as a stage play from the quill of William Shakespeare - featuring authentic rhyme and meter, woodcut-style illustrations, and sly asides that will delight pop culture fanatics and classic-literature lovers alike, Join the adventure in a galaxy far, far away, penned in the style of the Bard of Avon. There has been an awakening in the verse! - Dust jacket inner flap blurb, The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh On October 3, 2017, Qui...

(C) 2015 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Someone asked this question on Quora recently: How many more Star Wars movies are left to make from the original books? My Answer:   Star Wars is not a movie franchise that is based on a book or series of books. The Saga comprised of Episodes I-IX and its various TV and film offshoots got its start on May 25, 1977 with the release of the original Star Wars, which is also known by its 1981 alternate title, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. (Some fans use either A New Hope or ANH, but most folks just call it Star Wars. ) Now, even if you argue that a novel titled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker was published in late 1976, almost six months before the film’s official premiere, you still have to remember that it was based on an earlier draft of the movie’s screenplay. (Herman Raucher did the same thing with his screenplay for Robert Mulligan’s Summer of ‘42. To build interest for the ...

Cover art by Two Dots. (C) 2017 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On April 11, 2017, Del Rey Books, an imprint of Random House, published Timothy Zahn's canonical novel, Star Wars: Thrawn, the long-awaited origin story of one of the greatest villains ever created for the space-fantasy franchise set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Grand Admiral Thrawn was originally conceived by Zahn in the early Nineties when Lucasfilm and Bantam Spectra hired the Hugo Award-winning author to reboot the moribund Star Wars Expanded Universe. Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. the final chapter of George Lucas's storied trilogy, was only followed by a handful of Lando Calrissian novels set before Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and a lackluster Marvel Comics line that ended publication in 1986. And with the long-rumored Prequel Trilogy apparently on permanent hold, it looked as though the franchise itself was in danger of dying. The publication...

Jacket design by David Stevenson. (C) 2005 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  Pros:  Vivid descriptions, crisp writing, good characterizations Cons:  None A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights…. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. -- Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker, Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope There is still good in him. -- Padme Amidala to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith According to the Star Wars timeline, there’s a gap of either 18 or 19 years between the cataclysmic fall of the Republic and the now-legendary Battle of Yavin that ended with the destruction of the Empire’s first Death Star. That gives Lucasfilm Ltd and many Star Wars authors a lot of creative wiggle room to bridge the two film trilogies with Expanded Universe novels and a television series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hop...

(C) 1997 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Pros:  The novels capture the essence of Han and Chewbacca in their pre-Rebellion days Cons:  No Darth Vader, no Empire, no Princess Leia or Luke One of the first things I noticed the first time I listened to National Public Radio's  Star Wars: The Radio Drama  was how Brian Daley had fleshed out the role of Han Solo; starting with the episode titled  The Millennium Falcon Deal , the Corellian with a starship for hire not only was faithful to the character played on-screen by Harrison Ford, but he was more intense and conflicted, especially in his dealings with the galactic underworld. Indeed, Han seemed to be Daley's favorite character to write for, since the writer often gave him some of the best lines in the 13-part adaptation of  Star Wars  (a.k.a. Episode IV:  A New Hope ). That Han and his Wookiee co-pilot/first mate got such a cornucopia of good material in the three Daley-scrip...