Read RotS, the novel? Discuss it here!

[Leda EmBorr]

I just finished reading Return of the Sith... and I'm dying to talk about it! But PLEASE don't read any of this if you are trying to stay spoiler free!

So, if you read the book... what's your reaction?

[Leda EmBorr]

I know I said I wanted to talk about it... but now I find that I can only say "wow", and shake my head.

If the movie is even halfway as good as the book...


But no Wookies... I wonder why the author chose to leave them out?

And I thought there needed to be a connection between Leia and Padme, to tie in with Leia remembering her mother, but there wasn't, unless Stover wrote the scene different. Maybe Leia sees her mother in the Force, or it's a memory left over from the womb. They say that happens...

[Whinter Fenlynn]

I was thinking the same thing about the Wookies. Where were they?

Actually, I'm kind of glad that Stover left some stuff out. It leads me to believe that there will still be several more things in the film that we don't know about yet. I can't wait to see what else Stover left out!!

At first I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to read the book before seeing the movie, but I just couldn't resist! I'm just happy I can honestly say that after reading the book I'm even more excited about seeing the film!! Can't wait!

[Celicio]

I also really enjoyed this book, I liked it alot better than attack of the clones.

I think he was more focused on the Anakin, Obi-Wan relationship than to put in the wookies...To make it more emotional for the reader when the final fight happens. Thats why i think he left out the wookies.

But all in all it was a really good book.

[Leda EmBorr]

Yeah I'm glad that he left out some scenes. Makes you wonder what else he left out. In a way it filled in some gaps, but wasn't 100 per cent spoiler... I love the way he writes about Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship, and points out the flaws in the Jedi order... and in the Sith. And I'm looking forward to all that heart wrenching emotion... hopefully the movie will be as intense!

[lazlototh]

Still waiting for my copy from SFBC... AARGGHHH!!!!

[Celicio]

i coundt put it down after chapter 3

[lazlototh]

I sat down with my traditional reading accessories - Pepsi, Lays Potato Chips and plenty of light. I spent six hours and now I am finished. I have several impressions. But to let me say first and foremost I love the book. I won't go deeply into plot details since all of you read it if you're in this thread (I hope). And this is the only book I've ever took notes from while reading it...

I cried several times throughout and I am still crying now. It is very powerful and emotional. This book has touched me greatly. Not many books have (Dragon Riders of Pern by McAffrey and the Darkover Novel Exile's Song by Bradley), and I am grateful.

I learned a little about SW and myself by reading this. It is the pinnacle of almost 28 years of fandom and my path of learning. I hope I don't sound too much like a sycophant or madman, but much like May 25th, 1977, this book has touched me personally and deeply. The big difference is a bit of understanding.

The feeling I have is 28 years of my life blasted through me in but a moment. Or possibly the halflife of a high-mass element stretched to 28 years. I feel a strong connection to Now, what is going on in the moment (much like Qui-gon's admonition to Obi-wan at the beginning of Episode I). The Past, which has brought me a lot of pain, I don't need to worry about. The Future, which is uncertain regarding my fate, I am loosening its grip upon me. I am in the here and now, focusing on what I am doing (like writing this post). (Thanks to those who have helped me realize this - you know who you are... ^_^). I was just a little boy when I saw EpIV the first time (same age as young Anakin), and I have been able to continue to see the saga from the eyes of the younger me... The best part of that is no matter how much I may hurt at the moment or no matter how sad I become, there is always hope. I bounce back even if I don't want to (again some of you may have noticed this).

If I truly believe in the Force (I don't know and I could be wrong), then I have learned that I can defeat the darkness within me. Some of you already know what that is. Some of you have helped me a great deal. I am inconsequential for the most part - not particularly special nor important. I don't mind. I have learned my place in this world and I am comfortable with that. I don't want to be a great person; just a good one. Two lines from this book moved me greatly:

1)We don't have to win, all we have to do is fight. This line reminds me of something my karate teacher once told me. I guess basically it means never give up. Even if the odds are bleak and you might be losing, do not give up. Despite myself and my own mind being out to get me at times, this seems to have happened in my life. I like this line also because it comes from Mace Windu...

2)Love is the answer to Darkness. In my mind I have always had a strong love for others and (ironically) myself. Perhaps it has helped me survive this long. Self-respect? I may not have that for myself. But I do love myself. And I love everybody around me. No matter how upset, angry or sad I get, my love has gotten me through. I am a corny romantic person too, and it kinda shows through the way I speak and the way I behave with others.

I see myself as a servant of others, be they friends, loved-ones, employers or whoever. I derive great happiness from helping others and seeing their happiness. It helps me forget the illness and darkness inside of me, even helps me fight it off. I am still learning specifics, but I am learning to let go of myself and focus on what needs to be done. I am getting better, I hope. Pride is a strong emotion and pride used in the wrong way can be even evil... I hope to lose that pride and do the right thing, for everyone's good as well as to make me feel good.

The tears I shed right now may be joyful, since I feel released, if but for a moment, from the sadness that always lurks around me. I feel love right now, for all of my friends, family, and you guys, my Jedi friends. Yeah it sounds corny but please don't take it wrong. I am glad I discovered this site awhile back. I have learned much from some of you and I hope I can learn more and share a little of myself, perhaps helping one of you someday.

May 19th will bring closure to the Saga and provide visual aids to the book we just read. Though it is an end, in a way, Star Wars will never end, I think, and in one way or another live on, be it film, TV, print or merely in our hearts as Jedi. I believe no matter how many days I have left, SW will be the strongest influence I have had in my life and a very positive one.

Good Novel Point - Stover's use of the phrase centripetal force - proper application of kinematics!

Bad Novel Point - the phrase 'Shock and Awe' - too Bushy

Interesting Novel Point - Laying out each major character with a couple of paragraphs...

[Mon-Jas Charan]

Wow ... It was better the second time ... You are right, Lazlo, about taking notes. There are several good points on the Jedi order and philosophy. Several lines will make very good tag lines … Wanted to talk about the book at CIII but was respectful of the ones who want to be spoiler free.

[Leda EmBorr]

Yeah there were quite a few things that I should have written down... I'll have to read it again to find them!

[Bel-Den Shaw]

there are many things in the book i had hoped to see in the film but such is life... i enjoyed both very much. the book gave time to live the scene. while the movie swas very fast paced and gave little time to get a good feeling for what was going on most of the time. but such is theactrics.

[Rünya I’shiego]

There were several very homurous moments in the book that I was disapointed to not see on the screen. The bit with Obi-wan and Yoda on Bail's ship looking at Obi-wan's starfighter and trying to work out how they'll leave, and Obi-wan comments, "Well, I suppose if you don't mind riding in my lap..."

I laughed so hard at that in the book, I really wanted to see it in the movie.

Also, my guess why the Wookies were left out of the book is because, as awesome as it was to see them in the movie, they didn't actually do much.

[Vek Eldar]

Yeah, taking notes would definitely be a good idea if I decide to read this again (I read so slowly that it's a real chore to read a book twice!) I was very proud of myself that I got all my Clone Wars reading and Labyrinth of Evil done before seeing the movie and reading this! Anyway, on to my review:

Let me first say that I love Matthew Stover. I thought that Shatterpoint was the best of the Clone Wars books that I read, and I was glad to see that the same style (albeit far less graphic than in Shatterpoint) was present in Revenge of the Sith. The prose is very well constructed, and while the overall content is very dark, he does a good job of interjecting a fair amount of humor, as noted by the "Well, if you don't mind sitting in my lap..." comment from Obi-Wan to Yoda. Some things that did bother me (and something that was not at all present in Shatterpoint) was the way that the "domestic" scenes were written. I really got sick of Padme-Anakin exchanges of "Oh, my Anakin," "Oh, my Padme," "my love," etc. after the second exchange of this nonsense. Really, I thought that these scenes failed to even achieve the quality of their much-maligned cinematic equivalents. That got really old really fast.

As to the story itself, it was much as I expected. I had already read that some of the scenes from the film had been cut, particularly the scenes on Kashyyyk. Honestly, I'm glad that they were. If Stover had included all that had gone on at Kashyyyk or gone into any greater detail on the deaths of Ki-Adi-Mundi and Plo Koon and the various other Jedi, the book would have been 600 pages long. Yes, they were important events in the film, but this book was supposed to focus on the relationships between Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan, and it does that very well. Stover even throws out Palpatine's hinting of an "unseemly" relationship between Padme and Obi-Wan that helps to further shake the confidence of the young Skywalker. Palpatine is much more threatening and just plain evil in the book once he becomes Emperor than in the film. Yes, McDiarmid did a terrific job, but the image of the Emperor that Stover presents is really chilling.

The book also did a lot to answer various questions I had, as well as providing additional information to events in the film:

What did Dooku believe his fate would ultimately be once the Republic "won" the Clone Wars?

Was there some other reason for the deaths of the heads of the various leaders of the CIS, other than what we get in the film?

Why was Palpatine able to so easily (particularly in the book) defeat Yoda?

My favorite two moments in the book, however, came in the closing pages. The first was the "This is what it is like to be Anakin Skywalker...forever..." passage. This was tremendous. It allowed the reader to see what it was like to actually be Darth Vader--not just the man in the suit, but the pain, the agony of being put into the suit, of breathing forever with lungs that weren't lungs at all. This was a very moving and very effective passage.

The other was the deliberation between Obi-Wan and Yoda as to what to do with the twins. Obi-Wan says that Leia should stay with Yoda and that both twins should be under their tutelage, trained from infancy in the Jedi arts to create the "new Jedi Order." Yoda, however, firmly rejects this. During his fight with Palpatine, Yoda realizes that the Order has become stagnant, that the reason the Sith were so easily able to defeat the Jedi was because the Sith had changed, had evolved, had grown in their knowledge; strong as the light of Yoda was, Sidious, the final product of this new Order of the Sith, the brighter Yoda's light shone, the shadow of Sidious became stronger still. Yoda understood that if the progeny of Skywalker was to ever hope to destroy the Emperor, they would need to seek out the last of the Old Order when they themselves were ready, when it was time for them to do so. It helped give an explanation for why Luke became the Jedi that we see in Episode VI, as well as Leia's own power in the Expanded Universe.

I could go on and on, but, needless to say, I liked the book a lot. There were various nods to the EU that caught my attention, and Stover even included Master Cin Drallig (yes, that's saber/stunt coordinator "Nic Gillard" backward) in the book, as well. I can't wait to go see the film again, knowing what I know now!