Okay, so, I need to compose fanmail to Stover like, now.

[amanuensis1]

Holy cripes, I just finished reading a book I could not put down.

Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, by Matthew Stover.

I AM NOT S**TTING YOU AT ALL.

Remember when I said I'd do it? That I'd read it and see if the essential story could work as a story and if it was just the execution of the movie that was s**t? Remember?

Holy cripes. I was breathless through it.

This is one of those moments where I'm so caught up and twitchy about the goodness of something that I'm helpless to make anyone understand; I can't find the words that'll make you all drop everything and go running off to give this a shot, and that kills me, that I can't. Oh.

I shall try.

The style...it's exactly the sort of thing I like to read and it's the sort of thing I try to emulate when I write. Calling it a novelization is impossible, ridiculous. Stover uses a narrative voice that works like a storyteller come to tell you a ballad of legends and heroes; he uses the trick of slipping into present tense at pivotal moments, to tell you who these characters are at this moment and what they are and why they'll fall or why they'll win. It WORKS. He took scenes that were drivel on-screen and saves them by either fleshing them out or altering them or telling them from an alternate POV or even, in a case or two, slipping by their badness altogether. He makes you ache for the partnership that is/was Anakin and Obi-Wan. (Oh, I'm still on the verge of tears over it, I am.) He lets you understand what the hell Count Dooku was up to at last. General Grievous is no longer stoopid. Palpatine concealing his plans from all the Jedi becomes plausible.

Stover dares to include lines that poke fun at and at the same time make you nod somberly at elements where Lucas's story faltered: Order Sixty-Six is the climax of the Clone Wars...It's not a thrilling climax; it's not the culmination of an epic struggle. Just the opposite, in fact. The Clone Wars were never an epic struggle. They were never intended to be. Yes, that's in there. This is clearly someone who loves Star Wars and wanted to pay tribute to what RotS could have been, and tell it in a form that would do it honor at last.

It reads like fanfiction.

I was wide-eyed, I was holding my breath, I was unable to put it down.

He took Anakin's conversion to the dark side and it was as if he said, "Okay, even I'm not sure I can sell everyone on the moment of his complete conversion--" and he used that, he showed us--in a way that a skilled writer can do in text but might not be able to accomplish in another medium--how even Anakin could not believe it was happening to himself. Stover did that deftly, brilliantly, in order to help the reader past it, even if he could not rewrite that weakness entirely. This is an author who can make you punch the air with your fist just reading the phrase Obi-Wan said mildly. Who did not let the phrase "Evil is everywhere" get anywhere NEAR his book. Who took this yawner of an exchange from the film:

GENERAL GRIEVOUS: You fool. I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku himself. Attack, Kenobi.
OBI-WAN: You forget I trained the Jedi that defeated Count Dooku!

and instead turned it into:

"Come on, then, Kenobi! Come for me!" he said. "I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Lord Tyranus himself!"
"Do you mean Count Dooku? What a curious coincidence," Obi-Wan said with a deceptively pleasant smile. "I trained the man who killed him."

Who titled one of the chapters Chiaroscuro. Who saved Padme from being a mere womb on legs, who made Threepio seem effing witty. How the f**k did he do that??

Jesus. I have just become a freaking Star Wars fangirl all over again.

Comments

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

Isn't it the best book (well not the best, but pretty good!). I coulnd't put it down either. I read it prior to the movie coming out and spent the whole moving Holy hell, where did all the Padme stuff go! Do you know how much more sense this story makes if you don't get out all the character development!

I was so dissapointed too. Readin ghte book gave me high hopes for Revenge of the Sith on screen

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

Also, the scene where Obi-An decides not to save Anakin. That just *wow* I think I posted quotes from this book why back when just to prove that story was good but, like you said, the execution in teh movie was god awful.

I wish Lucas could get a re-do . . . and have other people re-work is screenplay -_-

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Wow! You know, I bought the book with the intention of reading it after seeing the film, and then was underwhelmed by the film and didn't ever open it. Based on this review, I think I should go snatch it off the shelf!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

AHHH your icon! *averts eyes* Yes! Go take a look, I swear, it's such a page-turner of storytelling! Go right now and just read the introduction, the six pages that are "The Age of Heroes" and tell me that that does not make you go, "Wow! Cool!"

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I don't see how you resisted saying:

I AM NOT SITHING YOU AT ALL!

:-)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I did not need to because I knew YOU WOULD. Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha. ^_^

*has one SW icon, uses it over and over for this post*

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Lord love a duck. That actually sounds like it's worth reading.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It is such a page-turner. Seriously, I will not try to sell it as Great Literature or anythin' but, oh, it's exactly the sort of thing I do love to read.

[andreanna.livejournal.com]

What a ringing rec. Now I wanna read it :O

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

The paperback's out! Online sellers have used copies for less than 3 bucks plus shipping!

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

Aaaah, I have to read this book! I only watched the three latest movies on DVD last month (yes, yes, way too late after they were released), expecting I'd be disappointed by Anakin's sudden conversion to the dark side (I had read your review of RotS at the time you posted it) and indeed I was. Sorely disappointed. But still, I loved the story, or rather the potential of how good this story could be if handled right, to the point I went looking for SW slash fics and I read a couple before the HP fandom distracted me once more. *g* God yes, I definitely have to read this book! Thanks for recommending it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I genuinely liked the potential of the second movie, I did. I thought one could make a good story out of that one. But of RotS, I was so angered, I didn't believe anything could be done to sell me on it. I was wrong and I'm so glad to have been wrong.

[twigged.livejournal.com]

Fabulous. I have added to my wish list. :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope you like it! &hearts

[fitchersvogel.livejournal.com]

I read the book right after the movie came out - I loved the movie but there where so many things I wanted explained more closely, especially Anakin's turn which was a bit rushed in the movie (in my opinion).
So I loved the book, because there was so much background (I liked Anakin giving his Padawan braid to Padme, for example. That was sweet...), and I agree on Padme's character being much more understandable and interesting.

The only thing that really bugged me was the writing style. I know, English is not my first language, so it's more difficult to critisize. But I read a lot of English books and to me it seemed very simplistic, too short sentences, maybe a bit like a newspaper article or something. I just wasn't, well, poetic, or charming.
It could have been so much better!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

See, the short sentences worked for me! The pacing of short sentences in little breathless puffs, breaking up the longer sentences kept me engaged the entire way. It's the way I like to read!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

why did you post this on the very day I received a Barnes and Noble gift card? There were *other* things I was going to get with that card!

::sighs::

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*loves icon* You could get it for cheap used! That woudn't be so bad, would it?

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I, too, enjoyed that book muchly. :) There were some lines in there... yeah.

Have you read Republic Commando? I was skeptical at first, because it's based on a video game and I just don't do games, but it was one of the best SW books that I've read (and I've read them all, so that's saying something).

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't read that one! But I'd be willing to give Stover's other ones a try, I will say!

*strokes battered old copy of Splinter of the Mind's Eye fondly*

[sorion.livejournal.com]

"Do you mean Count Dooku? What a curious coincidence," Obi-Wan said with a deceptively pleasant smile. "I trained the man who killed him."

*heh* Nice one, I might just have to read it ^-^'''

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Even the "hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo" dialogue comes off ever so much better in the book, I swear!

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

YES!! OMG, so much yes!!! That is exactly what I thought when I read it!

For the first chapter or so, I was unimpressed by the writing style itself; as you said, it reads like fanfic. But I was hooked nonetheless, so I kept going and it just made so much more sense! And it's redeemed the movie for me, because now I can watch it with Matthew Stover-flavoured backstory to it. So much better!

♥

And I love your icon! :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Your icon FELLED me the first time I saw it and never fails to do the same to me each time, I swear!

There is this little teensy part of me that wants to get the movie and see if watching it this time is bearable. But I don't know; that might be pushing it. ^_^

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I so love you for sending me back to SW, my first love!!!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Go check it out! It redeems so much, I swear. &hearts

[veroism.livejournal.com]

oh god i can't get into that fandom again.... but that may have just bought me
ack

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hee. Star Wars is always gonna be a part of me. No matter what the prequels did to my brain, they can't take away from the originals!

[calyxess.livejournal.com]

Argh. I've been walking past this book in my local library for ages now, but I never did borrow it.

I'll definitely do it now though. :D

*hee*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Go for it! If it's at the library you've got nothing to lose!

[aiji-yuywell.livejournal.com]

... *pat pat* it'll be ok

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's better 'n okay, it's terrific! ^_^

[rowanrhys.livejournal.com]

Hee! I totally agree with you...

I was hooked on Stover's style when I read the bit in the prologue about parents looking at their troublemaking younglings and asking "Which were you this time? Skywalker or Kenobi?" And it only got better from there.

I read the novel before I saw the film. I don't hate the film but--disappointed doesn't quite cover it either. It was eye candy, while the novel was a wonderful filling meal after a famine.

It happened like the book said--not like what we saw on celluloid.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That bit with the "Skywalker or Kenobi?" was SO SWEET. I finished the book and called the S.O. and said, "I have to read you this intro! It's just six pages, let me let me!" And he cracked up over that too!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_riz/]

YES YES YES.

Oh man, I'm so glad you read it and loved it, and I'm extra glad to see the people in these comments whose interest you've raised. :D It's insane how much that book does that the movie utterly failed it. And it's important to note that it doesn't just "read like fanfic," it reads like GOOD FANFIC. Because so many people say "reads like fanfic" to sound derogatory, but this... no. It's totally awesome. There's style. Characters have charisma. Just too cool. I wish Stover would write more SW books, the bastard.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_riz/]

P.S. Now go read everything by cupiscent if you haven't already. EVERYTHING. Heh.

[rectpropagation.livejournal.com]

I can't find the words that'll make you all drop everything and go running off to give this a shot, and that kills me, that I can't.

I shall get myself a copy as soon as I am able.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Squeeeeeble! XD

[adjectivegirl.livejournal.com]

*meep* Now I want to...read it...and that frightens me.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*grins* Doooo it!

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I'll send the hubby off to get a used copy at a local bookstore. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yayyy!! *dies laughing again over icon*

[dreamred.livejournal.com]

It sounds pretty impossible, but I suppose a good author can turn even the worst plots into good novels. I'm almost tempted to buy it and see :P

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Go git a cheap copy and try it! XD

[jamoche]

Went out and got it on your rec. Halfway through, it made me want to see the movie again - and I thought nothing could do that. It really is such a shame - there are parts of the movie that are sheer brilliance (the first time the Darth Vader helmet comes down and we hear that distinctive breath - something that can't be captured in mere text) and parts of it so clunky you can't imagine the same person is behind it (Darth's first zombie-shuffle step, and thank god Stover didn't transcribe that as filmed).

I wonder how much of it would have been better if, say, scenes like the one you refer to with Obi-Wan and Grevious hadn't been CGI - if Ewan had had a live actor to play off, they might've adjusted the dialog as Harrison Ford so famously did.

Have you read Stover's Shatterpoint? I'm reading that one, based off recs from imadra_blue - it's Mace Windu, and very good.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Aiie, I'm so happy you went and looked!

Halfway through, it made me want to see the movie again - and I thought nothing could do that.

EX. ACT. LY. That was one hell of a compliment to that book. I might go pick up Shatterpoint! Depends on how quickly I get through other books on m'shelf.

[cometjantshira.livejournal.com]

Sold! I wasn't going to buy this one either...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hee, glad you're giving it a try!

Sorry I didn't happen by until just now . . .

[maureenlycaon.livejournal.com]

You are SO F**KIN' RIGHT. I'm glad someone else got as excited over this book as I did. When I began reading it, it threw me up against the wall with the very first page with its sheer power and literary goodness. And you're dead on about Stover's skill at turning crap scenes into gold.

I particularly liked his clever tack for making Anakin's "instant" conversation and his slaughter at the Temple become believable -- the hint of multiple personality disorder. (The only thing that keeps it from being MPD is that Anakin remembers what he's done afterward.)

Incredible, isn't it? If only Stover had written the movie script . . .

Re: Sorry I didn't happen by until just now . . .

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I don't know if even that could have saved it. Lucas just has no idea anymore how to get a good shot of his actors (or a good performance from them). But, yyyyyeah, awesome book!