The classic that birthed a universe.

It’s fun to go back and read the original script. While the meat of the story remains what we know from the movie a few early differences stand out. ( )

Adapted from the screen play by ADF the book is compact unlike the movie which seemed so sprawling. And of course that was in my mind as I read the book. There were a few additions such as Biggs and the agent at Anchorhead ratting them out and trooper THX-1138 but it read pretty much like the movie. The hero's journey. ( )

Okay, I'm not gonna write a serious review discussing the literary merit of this book. Like, the plot is that of Star Wars, therefore it is amazing, and the writing is supposedly by George Lucas, and therefore ... not great but it works (come on, there's a difference between a book and a screenplay, it's all I'm saying).

I'm just gonna discuss some quotes I found interesting for one reason or another:

"[...] Still, even a duck has to be taught to swim."
"What's a duck?" Luke asked curiously.

I wish this had been in the movie and had been that one quote Luke is famous for (rather than the Tosche line). It's adorable!! It makes so much sense, of course Luke would never have seen a duck - he lives on a desert planet. I just want him to hang out with a duck at some point and think of old Ben.

"Your father's lightsaber," Kenobi told him. "At one time they were widely used. Still are, in certain galactic quarters."

Is this, like, a thing? I have very little knowledge of the EU (these novelizations and one Young Jedi Knights book is the only Star Wars books I ever read as a child), but I thought only jedis used lightsabers and I thought they were mostly extinct by this point. It's not a line in the movie, so ... I don't know what to make of it. I assume the book was written post-movie, so Lucas must've really wanted this to be true though.

"Fast ship? You mean you've never heard of the Millenium Falcon?"
Kenobi appeared amused. "Should I?"
"It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve standard timeparts!"

HAH! This has been retconned to hell and back, but apparently it's not meant to be about a unit of lenght, it IS meant to be a unit of time. Still, it's so awkwardly phrased "twelve standard timeparts!" and makes even less sense given that they talk about minutes, hours, weeks and days in the rest of the book. I'm assuming there IS some sort of standardized way of measuring time (or how else would Jabba know when to expect Han - three weeks could mean anything in space), but that line makes even less sense without the parsecs ...

Oddly, Luke was thinking of a dog he had once owned [...].

Dogs are canon!!! This makes me happy. I'm not sure what use Luke would have had of a dog. Droids seems pretty much like pets in this universe, and since they're not exactly herding sheep or anything back on Tattooine, I don't see why they'd have one. I hardly think uncle Owen would let him keep one just for fun?

"THX-1138, why aren't you at your post? THX-1138, do you copy?"

I love how this line is EXACTLY how it appears in the movie ... except for the number on the stormtrooper. We see what you did there, Lucas. We all do.

"Are you both safe?"
"For the moment, though I'm not sanguine at my old age. We're in the man hangar, across from the ship."
[...] He clicked off, smiling suddenly at Threepio's reference to his "old age". Sometimes the tall 'droid was more human than people.

3PO annoys the shit out of me sometimes, but things like this makes it hard not to like him. He's so weird. Oh yeah, and notice how it's 'droid and not droid. It's also 'puter at a lot of places, which is even worse.

"I met your father once when I was just a boy, Luke. He was a great pilot. You'll do all right out there. If you've got half of your father's skill, you'll do a damn sight better than all right."

This is spoken by an old pilot right before they go up against the death star. So it seems it's common knowledge who Anakin Skywalker was and who his son is. But no one knows that Anakin is Vader? And how does Leia fit into to all of this - do people know the father but not the mother? In ep 6 Leia says she remembers her mother so it seems she was raised by her for a while before being adopted - how is this kept a secret but Luke's heritance is not? Or is "Skywalker" such an unusual name that people can just assume that his Anakin's son from hearing that?

I doubt those questions will be answered, ever, but it's still interesting to see things like this creep into the book. As I said, I assume the book was written after the movie, so any changes must have been stuff that Lucas really believed would be important later, and he claims to have planned all six movies from the beginning ... but I've always doubted that and I always will. ( )

Star Wars as a whisky, adventure epic before it became the over saturated and bloated franchise it is today. A not too bad story written by an underrated writer (NOT LUCAS) Allan Dean Foster deserves more credit for his work. ( )

This was probably the first sw book that I've ever read. It tells the most important aspects of the story, Phantom menace, supported by great illustrations. The pictures are mainly from the movie.
The book isn't a pure novelization. If you are interested in a quick read and a combination of text+pictures, this book is great for you. ( )