A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Cover art by Drew Struzan. © 2015 Del Rey Books & Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Well, I finally did it.  After four years, a cross-state move, and a multitude of ups and downs, including adjusting to life in a new hometown, getting used to living with what amounts to a new family, and now a state of COVID-19 quarantine, I finished reading Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I usually don’t consider the act of finishing a book a huge achievement. I usually finish most of the books I start reading, unless I run into one that I really hate and can’t even get to the halfway mark because, ugh, it’s so awful that I’d rather have my eyes plucked out by crows rather than have to read…one…more…page.   I’ve had that unpleasant experience quite a few times in six decades’ worth of reading, and I’m sure I’ll have it a few more times before I die. The last time I felt that completing a book without skimming through “the slow parts” was worth writin...

Cover art by Drew Struzan. (C) 2015 Del Rey/Random House and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On January 5, 2016, Penguin Random House's science fiction/fantasy imprint Del Rey published the hardcover edition of Alan Dean Foster's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the novelization of the film written by Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Arndt, and J.J. Abrams, directed by Abrams, and based on characters and situations.  Though Lucasfilm's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, allowed Del Rey to release the e-book edition on December 18, 2015, the same day of the film's theatrical release, it asked the publisher to delay the publication of the hardcover for a few weeks. Disney feared that if it followed the long-standing tradition of releasing the novelization of a Star Wars film before the theatrical premiere, fans would leak the film's plot - especially the "big reveals" that Abrams strove to keep secret - all over the Internet.  However, Disney-owned Lucasfilm p...