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Rogue One Book Post
Dec. 1st, 2017 12:48 amHave you any of you read the novelizations for Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
The adult novelization was written by Alan Dean Foster. He goes all the way back to Splinter of the Mind's Eye and being the ghostwriter for the Star Wars novelization back in 1976 that claimed to be written by George Lucas himself.
It feels rushed like he was given two weeks to do it. Then, there's the JUNIOR novelization by Michael Kogge. Now, the junior part does suggest that it's for a younger audience.
And by younger, I mean that they aimed it towards the typical WB watcher in the mid to late '90s. It's one of the most melodramatic books I've read period and to be a Star Wars novelization...wow. To illustrate my point, I'm going to tell you about Leia and the destruction of Starkiller Base with everything that happened there. It describes her as waiting until she was done with her duty and going to her room where she throws herself on the bed and cries. It might even be crying herself to sleep but it's been almost two years now. I was just...damn, that was brutal. I can't imagine reading it now, I'd probably have to put it in the freezer...I wonder if the same author will do The Last Jedi...
Okay, no crying herself to sleep but...
TRIUMPHANT cheers echoed far and wide across the base on D’Qar. The battle was over. Starkiller Base was destroyed. The Resistance had won.
General Leia Organa retired to her quarters and wept.
Moments before the command center holoscreens had relayed the detonations, she had felt the sharpest and deepest of pains. As if her heart had ruptured.
Her husband. Han. He was gone.
Those who knew Leia considered her to be someone who had suffered much yet had always emerged from that suffering stronger and wiser. But immersed in her present grief, Leia found no strength. She found no wisdom. She found only anguish and emptiness. She’d failed to prevent her son from succumbing to the darkness of Darth Vader. Now her husband was dead. Her brother lost.
Would it ever end?
She doubted it would. But if she surrendered, who else would disappear? How many more homes and husbands and sons and brothers would vanish like hers?
Leia did not view herself as strong or wise. She was, if anything, persistent.
Steeled by that persistence, she strode out of her quarters and onto the tarmac to greet those who had returned from enemy territory.
C-3PO and BB-8 joined Leia as the Millennium Falcon landed. A crowd formed behind her. The freighter’s hatch opened, but all cheering was respectfully muted when Chewbacca ran down the ramp carrying a severely wounded Finn. A medical team assisted him immediately.
The applause came back loud and triumphant for the girl who emerged next. She descended the ramp and walked over to Leia.
Leia held Rey’s face in her hands, then embraced her, sharing the girl’s tears. ”
But it's like the Rogue One novelization listened to everything that novelization had to say and went, "Here, hold my beer!"
Then, it jumped headfirst into a chasm of angst.
Now, it is the adult novelization so it is expected to be more adult but the angst! THE ANGST!!!
This book makes it clear that basically everyone, except Krennic, HATES their life. They've all done terrible things.
It also has extremely detailed deaths for EVERYONE! And you think, of course, the film had everyone's death but no, I mean several pages on original characters on Jedha and their final moments. It even has the girl that Jyn saved earlier in the film and she's being held lovingly as everyone is incinerated. There is also a troop transport that the Empire decides isn't worth delaying for.
Now, in the film, you might think Jyn and Cassian are strictly platonic but the book makes it clear that if things had been different, they would have gone on dates and been a real couple but now they'll never know, they'll NEVER know because they'll be dead.
I must tell you how rapidashpatronus described it on Tumblr:
Think we can all agree that nobody ships rebelcaptain quite as much as Alexander M Freed. Every moment of Jyn/Cassian interaction is just “They looked at each other and felt things. Plot was occurring too I guess but I have to let you know that at this moment they were having feelings.”
Plus a hefty dose of “She’s not in this scene but I do need to remind you that right now Cassian was thinking about Jyn, again.”
or this gem from michellemjjoneses:
Cassian: I'm not in love with her!
Narrator (probably Alexander Freed): He was madly in love with her.
Behind the man in white, stepping out of the smoke, came a bloody and limping Cassian Andor. He looked like a man who’d fallen twelve stories and clawed his way back to the top. He looked as beautiful as anyone Jyn had ever known, but she couldn’t spare a moment to even shout his name.
The rumbling overwhelmed all other sound. Jyn tightened her grip on Cassian, and he found the strength to hold her. And the world grew brighter, emerald at first and then a clean, purifying white.
Everyone gets a death scene that's at least a page, even KayTwo calculates the odds of Cassian surviving and decides to believes he does as he loses power. MAXIMUM ANGST
With approximately three seconds until total shutdown, K-2SO listened to Cassian’s voice cry his name one last time. Then, without regret, the droid turned his weapon on the console. The comm cut out. With the controls now reduced to a melted plastoid-metal compound, the stormtroopers would have considerable difficulty entering the vault.
With one second left until total shutdown, K-2SO chose to mentally simulate an impossible scenario in which Cassian Andor escaped alive.
The simulation pleased him.
Even freaking Krennic gets a detailed death scene, including at least a paragraph about how his pride and joy will ultimately be what destroys him and he can't look away as the tractor beam hits.
The book also establishes actual Rebellion files and messages which is nice fodder for fanfiction. I'd like to see that brought out more. Did Luke stumble onto this stuff and that was why they were Rogue Squadron in Episode 5? Or did someone else like Wedge or Hera explain how they wanted the new Squadron to be Rogue and why?
Or perhaps Mon Mothma herself who writes in the book, "In a kinder universe, she would have walked away from Scarif. I cannot imagine who she would have become, but I think she would have been extraordinary. I am grateful I knew her, no matter how short the time."
I definitely recommend reading it for yourself. It's now in paperback but a lot of moments can also be found on Tumblr.
The adult novelization was written by Alan Dean Foster. He goes all the way back to Splinter of the Mind's Eye and being the ghostwriter for the Star Wars novelization back in 1976 that claimed to be written by George Lucas himself.
It feels rushed like he was given two weeks to do it. Then, there's the JUNIOR novelization by Michael Kogge. Now, the junior part does suggest that it's for a younger audience.
And by younger, I mean that they aimed it towards the typical WB watcher in the mid to late '90s. It's one of the most melodramatic books I've read period and to be a Star Wars novelization...wow. To illustrate my point, I'm going to tell you about Leia and the destruction of Starkiller Base with everything that happened there. It describes her as waiting until she was done with her duty and going to her room where she throws herself on the bed and cries. It might even be crying herself to sleep but it's been almost two years now. I was just...damn, that was brutal. I can't imagine reading it now, I'd probably have to put it in the freezer...I wonder if the same author will do The Last Jedi...
Okay, no crying herself to sleep but...
TRIUMPHANT cheers echoed far and wide across the base on D’Qar. The battle was over. Starkiller Base was destroyed. The Resistance had won.
General Leia Organa retired to her quarters and wept.
Moments before the command center holoscreens had relayed the detonations, she had felt the sharpest and deepest of pains. As if her heart had ruptured.
Her husband. Han. He was gone.
Those who knew Leia considered her to be someone who had suffered much yet had always emerged from that suffering stronger and wiser. But immersed in her present grief, Leia found no strength. She found no wisdom. She found only anguish and emptiness. She’d failed to prevent her son from succumbing to the darkness of Darth Vader. Now her husband was dead. Her brother lost.
Would it ever end?
She doubted it would. But if she surrendered, who else would disappear? How many more homes and husbands and sons and brothers would vanish like hers?
Leia did not view herself as strong or wise. She was, if anything, persistent.
Steeled by that persistence, she strode out of her quarters and onto the tarmac to greet those who had returned from enemy territory.
C-3PO and BB-8 joined Leia as the Millennium Falcon landed. A crowd formed behind her. The freighter’s hatch opened, but all cheering was respectfully muted when Chewbacca ran down the ramp carrying a severely wounded Finn. A medical team assisted him immediately.
The applause came back loud and triumphant for the girl who emerged next. She descended the ramp and walked over to Leia.
Leia held Rey’s face in her hands, then embraced her, sharing the girl’s tears. ”
But it's like the Rogue One novelization listened to everything that novelization had to say and went, "Here, hold my beer!"
Then, it jumped headfirst into a chasm of angst.
Now, it is the adult novelization so it is expected to be more adult but the angst! THE ANGST!!!
This book makes it clear that basically everyone, except Krennic, HATES their life. They've all done terrible things.
It also has extremely detailed deaths for EVERYONE! And you think, of course, the film had everyone's death but no, I mean several pages on original characters on Jedha and their final moments. It even has the girl that Jyn saved earlier in the film and she's being held lovingly as everyone is incinerated. There is also a troop transport that the Empire decides isn't worth delaying for.
Now, in the film, you might think Jyn and Cassian are strictly platonic but the book makes it clear that if things had been different, they would have gone on dates and been a real couple but now they'll never know, they'll NEVER know because they'll be dead.
I must tell you how rapidashpatronus described it on Tumblr:
Think we can all agree that nobody ships rebelcaptain quite as much as Alexander M Freed. Every moment of Jyn/Cassian interaction is just “They looked at each other and felt things. Plot was occurring too I guess but I have to let you know that at this moment they were having feelings.”
Plus a hefty dose of “She’s not in this scene but I do need to remind you that right now Cassian was thinking about Jyn, again.”
or this gem from michellemjjoneses:
Cassian: I'm not in love with her!
Narrator (probably Alexander Freed): He was madly in love with her.
Behind the man in white, stepping out of the smoke, came a bloody and limping Cassian Andor. He looked like a man who’d fallen twelve stories and clawed his way back to the top. He looked as beautiful as anyone Jyn had ever known, but she couldn’t spare a moment to even shout his name.
The rumbling overwhelmed all other sound. Jyn tightened her grip on Cassian, and he found the strength to hold her. And the world grew brighter, emerald at first and then a clean, purifying white.
Everyone gets a death scene that's at least a page, even KayTwo calculates the odds of Cassian surviving and decides to believes he does as he loses power. MAXIMUM ANGST
With approximately three seconds until total shutdown, K-2SO listened to Cassian’s voice cry his name one last time. Then, without regret, the droid turned his weapon on the console. The comm cut out. With the controls now reduced to a melted plastoid-metal compound, the stormtroopers would have considerable difficulty entering the vault.
With one second left until total shutdown, K-2SO chose to mentally simulate an impossible scenario in which Cassian Andor escaped alive.
The simulation pleased him.
Even freaking Krennic gets a detailed death scene, including at least a paragraph about how his pride and joy will ultimately be what destroys him and he can't look away as the tractor beam hits.
The book also establishes actual Rebellion files and messages which is nice fodder for fanfiction. I'd like to see that brought out more. Did Luke stumble onto this stuff and that was why they were Rogue Squadron in Episode 5? Or did someone else like Wedge or Hera explain how they wanted the new Squadron to be Rogue and why?
Or perhaps Mon Mothma herself who writes in the book, "In a kinder universe, she would have walked away from Scarif. I cannot imagine who she would have become, but I think she would have been extraordinary. I am grateful I knew her, no matter how short the time."
I definitely recommend reading it for yourself. It's now in paperback but a lot of moments can also be found on Tumblr.
