Being the huge STAR WARS fan that I am, I, like most fans, have, over the years, checked out some of the STAR WARS novels that have been written in an attempt to follow the expansion of this fantasy universe and read about the further adventures of some of the characters we have come to know and love from the STAR WARS films.
But almost every time I have read one of these books, I have too often been disappointed. In fact, the only truly great STAR WARS novel I have ever read was George Lucas' original novelization of the first STAR WARS film. Almost everything else, even the novelized adaptations of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI have been less than spectacular in my opinion.
But before we begin, let me first tell you which of the STAR WARS novels I've read. I've read the novelizations of Episodes IV-VI of the films, the Timothy Zahn trilogy, the first of the Jedi Academy books, The collected Han Solo Adventures (which actually weren't too bad), SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE, and SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE. The reason I haven't read more is because of my disappointment with these novels. I realize there may be some books I haven't read which may be better than the ones I have, but we'll get to that later.
So what is it exactly about most of the STAR WARS books that makes them not quite live up to their namesake? Let's take a look.
Characters
For me, none of the STAR WARS novels I've read have been able to capture that "spark," that certain something that made the characters come alive in the films. Somehow, the writers feel they can't stray too far away from the characterization that was established in the movies, so all too often, we get sort of generic, cookie-cutter versions of Luke, Han, or Leia. They are almost like android duplicates, or mere shadows of who they should be. They resemble the characters of the STAR WARS films, but they lack the depth. They just seem to be imitations, but not real characters themselves.
One way this is done is by having them constantly use quotes they used in the films. The intention I'm sure is to give us a feeling of familiarity . . . we always expect one character to say "I have a bad feeling about this" at least once throughout the course of a STAR WARS story. But this idea is often taken too far. Pretty soon, the familiar quotes come to replace any real character depth.
I have a particular problem with the lack of character growth that takes place in the books. Basically, there is practically none. The way Luke Skywalker is portrayed is especially lacking. Look at the movies. In less then three years, he matured incredibly. He even ended up becoming a full fledged Jedi. But in the novels, some of which take place many years after the events of RETURN OF THE JEDI, we still see the same impetuous, self doubting, inexperienced, youthful nature that Luke long since should have outgrown. And Luke's skills as a Jedi are never developed to my satisfaction either. In a story that takes place perhaps five years or more after the events of RETURN OF THE JEDI, I expect Luke to be at least as powerful as Vader was. Sure, Vader was a lot older and had a lot more experienced. But Luke did some fast growing up and became extremely proficient very quickly. I want to see some kind of exploration into the idea that Luke is supposed to be one of the most powerful wielders of the Force who ever lived. But we never do. Luke just never gets too far beyond the way he was in RETURN OF THE JEDI, even when he is trying to become a Jedi Master in the Jedi Academy books. (Like I said, I only read the first one, so I could be wrong, but that's the impression I got from that first novel.)
Minor characters are also very neglected in the novels I've read. There are never those "moments" that we had in the films . . . moments like the part where Chewie is repairing 3PO in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, or moments like the argument R2 and 3PO have about which way to go when they first arrive on Tatooine. There are almost never scenes which focus on them and give us an insight into their thoughts and feelings, much less further develop them as real characters.
The main problem is that the many writers of the various STAR WARS novels seem to feel their hands are tied when it comes to characters that have been pre-established so clearly in the films. If they stray too far, they feel the character will no longer seem like themselves anymore. This I can understand to some extent. But the unfortunate side effect is the creation and perpetuation of stagnant characters. What's needed is a deep enough understanding of these characters so that changes and character growth can be appropriate and appealing. All it takes is a little courage and creative leeway that these writers just don't seem to have.
Which brings us to our next point . . .
Bogus, Contradictory Details and Characters
Although they aren't given the creative freedom to explore and change the pre-established characters of STAR WARS too deeply, they appear to be pretty free to fill in any other, peripheral details of the STAR WARS Universe, or create and explore new characters they themselves invented as much as they want.
When it comes to these peripheral details I mentioned, these usually tend to play out pretty well. We're introduced to new technology, planets, and alien races that further flesh out the fantasy universe of STAR WARS in very appealing ways. A lot of it is also pretty consistent with other sources of information that exist in publication about some of the technology and other aspects of the STAR WARS galaxy (tech manuals, role-playing books, etc.).
But this creative freedom also has its drawbacks. As I said, any characters they create themselves can be explored as much as a particular writer wants. So all too often, these authors choose to devote attention to these new characters far more than they should, when they ought to be devoting that kind of attention into developing the main characters (Luke, Han, Leia, Lando, etc.)
The perfect example of this problem was in SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE. This was one of the few novels that has been written that takes place during a time when Darth Vader and the Emperor are still alive. "Great!" I thought. "Finally a book which will focus on Vader and Palpatine and give us a deeper insight into their characters." Well, we kind of got a bit of a deeper insight into their characters, but not much. Instead, Steve Perry chose to focus on some guy named Xixor . . . the head of an important crime organization, that was never mentioned in the films for some reason despite its great importance, with its head, this Xixor character, being almost as important in rank as Vader in the Emperor's chain of command. What?!!
Like Xixor, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, and Dash Rendar are other good examples of what I'm talking about here. Suddenly, these people pop up out of nowhere, who were supposed to have played an integral part in the grand scheme of things; I mean, sure . . . a writer tries to explain why we never heard of or saw these guys before in the movies, despite their supposed importance. But still . . . it all just has too much of a poorly established "afterthought" feeling to it. When authors do this kind of thing, there's just something about it I can't buy (especially when they actually contradict the films . . . Dash Rendar participated in the battle of Hoth and took out three AT-AT's? There were only five AT-AT's and only two of them were destroyed. I didn't see this Dash Rendar guy anywhere . . . just a cheap video game tie-in, if you ask me.).
And there are other little plot devices and ideas writers come up with that just don't seem right . . . creatures that repel, a crystal that can amplify, or a device that can detect the Force . . . a new person who was supposed to have been present during a key event in one of the STAR WARS films . . . Jedi clones . . . STAR TREK-esque cloaking devices (and yes, I'm well aware they mentioned the existence of cloaking devices in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK . . . still, do they have to be SO similar to the ones from STAR TREK?) It all just somehow, at least to me, doesn't feel like it conforms to the spirit of what STAR WARS is all about.
Basically, I feel these writers need to get their priorities straight creatively. Go ahead and develop the main characters and be creative with their growth, but don't mess with events that already took place in the movies, or clearly established aspects of STAR WARS lore, like the Force. I just want to say to these writers, "No, no, no! THIS one goes here, THAT one goes there!"
Wasted Potential
The writers of the novels also have a problem with exploring ideas that the films never got a chance to, that would further the adventures of these characters and provide the perfect opportunity to go into more depth about them.
Take Luke's Jedi mentors for example. One of the ideas that was clearly established in the films, that I personally loved, was that through the Force, Luke could see and communicate with his dead mentors, like Obi-Wan or Yoda. When Luke says in RETURN OF THE JEDI, "I can't do it, R2. I can't go on alone," and Ben shows up as a ghost to assure him that Yoda will always be with him, I thought that was great. In a way, Yoda and Obi-Wan are not really dead at all. "Luminous beings are we . . . not this crude matter." And when Anakin joins Yoda and Obi-Wan in that Force afterlife, even better! Now Luke can be with and get to know his father. That's what makes the ending of that movie so touching.
But the novels never chose to go into this concept. Timothy Zahn even established that Luke could no longer communicate with Ben or the others through the Force ever again. How dare he!!!! And of course, that became an established aspect of the new STAR WARS lore that all other writers had to be consistent with. This would have been such an awesome area to go into. But no!!!
But probably the worst oversight I've seen is regarding Leia. For all I know, this may have already been rectified in some newer novel I'm not aware of, but from what I've read, what's never been properly explored is Leia's potential to become a Jedi like Luke. They've gone into her marriage with Han pretty well . . ..even so far as to writing books about their children. And even her children seem to be students of the Force. But what about Leia?!! They always say she's too busy with politics to study the ways of the Force beyond a rudimentary level. But that just comes across as a lame cop-out to avoid developing an aspect of her character that would be really great to get into.
And as I mentioned before, Luke's character and powers have never been explored to my satisfaction either. The Dark Horse comic book limited series, DARK EMPIRE, was the only thing I've read which actually took Luke in an interesting, darker direction (and explored Leia's potential as a Jedi.) The first Jedi Academy book even referred to this comic series, but it just didn't follow through very well in my opinion with what the comic had established (probably because they were worried about alienating those who read the books, but don't read comics, or at least that particular series).
Overall Story Problems
The stories are probably the biggest problem with these novels. Like the characters, the events are shallow imitations of the epic, moving nature of the films. In every novel, they have to visit at least three different planets (maybe more). Han, Leia, Chewie and 3PO get separated from Luke and R2 somehow so that the two groups have to go off on separate adventures. (ala THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK). Leia and Han have twins . . . like Luke and Leia were. Now they have a new child, Anakin, who like his namesake, has this dark potential to be the next Darth Vader. A new Death Star is being built by the remnants of the Empire, or they have some sort of other new weapon that's just as bad. The heroes have to visit some cantina-like bar for information. And the last of the Timothy Zahn novels even had an ending that was an almost exact rip-off of the ending of RETURN OF THE JEDI.
What I'm getting at here is that the STAR WARS novels tend to have a very generic, formulaic quality to them that gets old real fast for me. Including familiar elements which are characteristic of the STAR WARS Universe . . . space battles, alien crime organizations, bounty hunters, The Force . . . that's fine. But when you take identical plot elements and events that resemble those from the movies so closely, and keep re-hashing those same ideas over and over again, that's when I feel things start to really fall apart. Basically, these books become nothing more than popcorn--and not even popcorn with butter on it---just very plain, slightly burnt, popcorn, just like the kind I've eaten a million times before (OK, enough with the popcorn analogy already!).
Suggestions Anyone?
So that's why I feel the STAR WARS novels don't work. . . . no real character growth or development of the characters we actually care about, bogus characters and details which mess with the continuity of the films or STAR WARS lore in general, unexplored potential, and formulaic plots.
Now as I said at the beginning of this article, I'm basing these opinions on the STAR WARS novels I've read so far (which I also listed at the beginning of this article). From what I've seen, these seem to be a pretty good representation of most of the STAR WARS books in general. I've also read many of those excerpts from other STAR WARS novels that are often included at the end of a book.
Nonetheless, I fully accept that there may be other novels out there that have been written that are much better than the ones I have read that I just haven't given a chance because of a few bad apples.
So after reading this critique, I would like to hear from you readers and tell me if there is actually a STAR WARS novel out there that is not guilty of any of the shortcomings I've mentioned in this article. Is there one that's just better than most, one that doesn't suffer from any of the same shortcomings of its peers? I've heard from many that they consider SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE or Timothy Zahn's trilogy to be the best STAR WARS novels that have been written so far. If that's the case, then I guess there may just be no hope after all.
Still, let me know where I can find a REALLY good STAR WARS novel. As you can tell, I haven't had much luck so far.
Michael O'Brien ([email protected]) has a degree from Cal State Long Beach in film and has worked for a number of years in film production as a sound mixer. He now works in the field of motion picture editing.