Magnet #1047 - Read, You Will.Confession: I wasn't a Star Wars girl. Sure, I saw all the movies, but when I was little, I never hearted Han Solo or wanted to be Princess Leia, or played with lightsabers (real or pretend).
In the late 90s, I ended up working a very short stint on the production side of the Ace imprint at Berkley Publishing Group. I was surprised there was a healthy list of books that continued the Star Wars saga, and ended up with a whole set of them. Which remained unread on my shelves for several years until I finally gave them away.
Cut to early November last year, when Harrison Ford was doing his Morning Glory press rounds and said that Han Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi. And early December, when the giant Millennium Falcon was like the coolest toy in the Salvation Army Toy Shop.
Both got me trying to remember Solo's storyline in the Original!Recipe!Star Wars. And of course, I couldn't rewatch O!R!Star Wars, without watching the prequels. And thus began my own saga...of going to sleep while watching every single one. Bad move to watch them late at night. Nevertheless, I made it through each one in chronological order, finishing Return of the Jedi this morning.
The original movies stand on their own - to this day, they're still pretty good. Simple stories, simple aliens, simple effects and all. And, though it may be an unpopular opinion, I do think the prequels, even with their overexposition, and zillion stories, civilizations and wannabe memorable characters thrown in, made a decent backstory for the original.
Second confession: Even if I spent New Year's with my hair in not-quite-Princess Leia braids, I'm still not a Star Wars girl. But, as someone once told me, you don't have to be a fan. But you have to respect the fans. And I do. You have to. They're the ones who have been keeping the saga alive for the last 34 years.
Oh! And hell no, Harrison! No way should Solo have died in Return of the Jedi! He and Princess Leia should live happily ever after!
Of course, now, I'm totally sad I gave away all those books I had, because now that I know who he is, I totally want to go back and read the Wedge Antilles series right now...
Yoda says I should.
3 comments:
The best book series is the one that takes place right after Return of the Jedi... Timothy Zahn was the author I think.
Also the book "Tales from Jabba's Palace" is wonderful.
As for the prequels, they are utter trash... and as soon as I get the links for these AWESOME yet HILARIOUS and completely honest and true reviews I will list them below and you should definitely watch them too.
Ah, here we go:
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
Despite the random and kind of creepy asides during the reviews, the guy is pretty much spot-on in all of his critique.
The Admiral Thrawn Trilogy. Still considered to be one of the best extended universe book sets written.
Thanks for the book recos, Psyrixx. I actually think I kept one of the books - not surprisingly, The Courtship of Princess Leia - because I wanted to see why she didn't end up with Han.
I did just watch the Ep 3 review, pretty funny stuff, and pretty spot on. I really didn't delve too deeply into any of the movies for character motivation and plotlines, but can see where a comparison between the original and prequels would make people nuts and mad at Lucas.
He was definitely spot on with his dialogue complaints, because for those pivotal Anakin/Padme scenes, I distinctly remember laughing in the theatre, reminding myself that a boy wrote that dialogue, for sure.
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